Vegetarian Việt Nam
There’s more to Vietnamese food than pho, as anyone who ever dined at a Vietnamese restaurant already knows. Still, the extent of the country’s cuisines may surprise many readers of Vegetarian Việt Nam. Author Cameron Stauch discovered that breadth on a visit to Saigon where he encountered banh mi chay, a baguette covered in mushroom pâté and topped with tofu balls in tomato sauce, cucumbers, pickled vegetables, toasted sesame seeds and noodles dusted with rice powder. He was surprised by the array of vegetarian and even vegan dishes in the meat-eating country and traces it to the influence of Buddhist monks who fashioned mock meat and seafood dishes from tofu. Vegetarian Việt Nam includes savory-looking recipes for pho and other soups along with fruit salads, bean dumplings, spring rolls and, yes, banh mi chay.
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