Veggie Fest!

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As a vegetarian (well, pescatarian) I find eating in Bangkok to be wonderfully easy. Lots to choose from, few hidden surprises in my food, and everything tastes delicious. Imagine my delight when I learned that every year there's a two week vegetarian festival all over the country! Phukett has the largest festival of all, but special events can be found all over. All over Bangkok are signs of the festival: food courts have special sections, grocery stores stock and display special foods, even 7-11 carries some vegetarian goodies. Chinatown has a festival for a week.

All of the food is Kin Jay (Gin-Jai), meaning it's vegan without strong flavors, like garlic and onion. Being a huge garlic and onion fan, I wasn't sure how good the food could possibly be. I shouldn't have worried. The festival is of Chinese origin (many Chinese have emigrated from China to Thailand) and it originally was meant as a time of cleansing, merit-making, and atoning. I think the meaning has been lost a bit over time, though I'm sure some still practice it fully.

Sadly, I found out about the festival two days after it had already started. And then I learned about the festivities in Chinatown a day later. And then I found out it would last nine days--not two weeks--and decided I'd go check out Chinatown the next Monday, my day off. Only to learn later on that the festival ended in Chinatown on Saturday. So much for that.

There's always next year, right?

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Photos

This flag means the food is Kin Jay
Kin Jay is similar to vegan, but without strong flavors like onion or garlic.

MMMMM
Lunch buffet. 2 dishes and rice for 60 B.

What I got.
The one on the left was crunchy and sweet. On the right, a bit spicy.

Roadside sellers
Now I know where I can eat throughout the year.

At Immigration
The line for the veggie restaurant was 3x longer than any other line

And I stocked up more
7-11 has a good range of products... most of which were constantly sold out.