HI! I am a vegetarian tv chef in London, UK. I am thinking about making a tv programme on vegetarian food in Malaysia. I am really excited about finding this site...can ANYONE tell me about good vegetarian restaurants, interesting vegetarian chefs and home cooks (your mother?), or anything to do with being vegetarian in Malaysia, and eating the gorgeous food! I wait eagerly! Thank you!!! [Posted By Celia]

Vegetarian food in Malaysia is basically vegetarian chinese and indian food. For chinese food it is mostly tofu base while pulses for Indian food. There are a few good restaurants around town ( I can't recall them now through). A note, vegetarians in Malaysia has not managed to gather a following as that in the UK. [Posted By Furball]

Vegetarian in Malaysia? You got to be joking! [Posted By Raichu]

I understand that there may not be as many vegetarians there as in UK...however there must be tradition of vegetarianism stemming from Hinduism and Buddhism.
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Surely not everyone eats meat at EVERY meal... [Posted By Celia]

You will find a lot of vegetarian recipes from the Indian and Chinese communities and even some from the Malay community. However, many of these are not not strictly vegetarian dishes and many have been modified with "meat" substitutes such as tofu or beans taking the place of meat. Malay "ulam" (fresh vegetables eaten with a chilli dip) or "rojak" (a fruit salad with a sweetish black sauce or peanut sauce) are examples of local "vegetarian" dishes. Can't really suggest any Chefs of note other than Chef Wan (thats his name!).There are some local recipe books on the market here. [Posted By Jon]

Dear Celia, there are many restaurants in Malaysia serving vegetarian. Some are half vegetarian(serving vegetarian dishes but also have meat dishes in their menu) and some are full vegetarian restaurants. Some of these places such as Yin Futt Kuok has perfected their vege dishes in such as way that you think it's meat. Some others like Annalakshmi serves typical vege dishes (http://www.friedchillies.com/review.php?id=40). If you look around Malaysia, you'll find a variety of malaysian vegetarian restaurants mostly indian or chinese based. Hope this helps! [Posted By The Foodster]

Don't worry Celia. There ARE plenty of vegetarian restaurants and vegans in Malaysia. Mostly Indian or Chinese style of cooking.
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A restaurant in Legend Hotel Kuala Lumpur has recently converted into meat free dining.
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Should you need more details, pls let us know in FriedChillies cos most are willing to help you. Well, except for some but you can just ignore them.
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[Posted By BaBe_KL]

Hi Celia, You can find vegetarian rst. ( restaurant ) almost anywhere in the main eating areas of KL. Chinese Vegetarian rst. is exclusively vegetarian where else the Indian rst some are exclusive but some cater for certain days where the Hindus have to be vegetarian.
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I have my favorite but its kind of off the beat. I would need to show you around . Maybe you should contact the people from this site ask for their help maybe to arrange on how to try all these places when u make your trip down here. They can also a feature on all the vegetarina places in Kl and u also get to sample all the veg food.
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[Posted By Pikachu]

Bravo Pika! You're so right!
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Celia, there are a lot of places that are hard to describe their whereabouts unless someone familiar takes you there. Maybe you could strike up a deal or something with The Foodster or other FriedChillians to take you around. [Posted By BaBe_KL]

THANKS EVERYONE! Those restaurants all sound fascinating. I can't wait to come and eat my way through KL.
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I'm also curious about what people in Malaysia cook at home...is it common to entertain at home with food? Especially young people...over here in London, we say cooking is "the new rock 'n' roll"! [Posted By Celia]

It is strange but true that certain ingredients eg. garlic, onions, shallots, chives etc are forbidden in chinese vegetarian food.So far nobody I know can provide a satisfactory reason. Any ideas ? [Posted By jc]

What I do know is that the Jains in India, like Buddhists, are strict vegetarians for the protection and respect of living things. The Jains take this to an extreme--for example, sleeping with gauze over their face so they don't inhale insects at night. They also avoid fruits with many seeds, all roots and all members of the onion family, presumably because you rip the roots out of the earth when you harvest these veg! (They substitute asafoetida, a strong spice which smells strongly of onions, extracted from a living plant.)Perhaps there are some Buddhist extremists in China who have the same belief. [Posted By Celia]

I personally think that being vegetarian is unhealthy and against nature. Human beings are omnivores and we miss out on certain nutrients without meat in our diet e.g. men have lower testosterone levels, women have thinner bones.
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However, I respect it as a personal or religious decision or statement, as long as they make sure they take supplements...
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I haven't heard of vegetarians who cannot eat onions... must be an extreme sect...
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[Posted By John]

Not too sure about this but I've heard that garlic is forbidden bcos it's a natural germs killer. So it's forbidden in Buddhism to kill.
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About chives, I've only heard that it's only forbidden to eat by monks as it's an aphrodisiac.
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Onions??? Gee I didn't know about this... Anybody else can enlighten?
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[Posted By BaBe_KL]

Perhaps it is becuase garlic smells bad, onions even worse, which may distrupt concentration. Chives are like mini onions and even mini disruptions not allowed. I don't think garlic is a germ killer. Anyway, we are killing millions of germs every second in our body. [Posted By Monk]