Vegetarian in Vietnam: Vocabulary and Notes

Cha Gio Chay - Vegan spring rolls

Strap in - I'm about to start a series of my favorite veg restaurants in Saigon, according to area!

But first, a little background information...

It's absurdly easy to be a vegetarian here in Vietnam, and I've been upping my vegan intake in 2020 - a lot. At this point I'm probably about 60-70% vegetarian, and I feel great. I've also noticed that, even though I still sweat like a waterfall, I've got less BO! It's the little things, people.

Buddhists in Vietnam traditionally eat vegan two to four times a month, the day before and after the full moon, and before and after the new moon. For this reason, there's almost always a few veg places around, and even meat-centric places will often offer a vegan version of their most popular dishes on those days. It's very popular to gather in groups on these days and go out to restaurants, but many people also choose to cook at home.

So without further ado, here are some things to look out for, to understand, and some words that will help you navigate menus and street food signs across the city and through Vietnam. They'll also help you understand what you're drooling over when I post lists of my favorite locations.

Onward, to learning!

The Musicality of Vietnamese Tones

Daily conversation in Vietnam "resembles the singing of birds", wrote Alexandre de Rhodes.

Vietnamese tones are one of the most complicated aspects of Vietnamese language to understand, hear, and speak for foreigners, especially those not used to singing.

Take it from me! I've actually quit Vietnamese lessons twice before I got to this current point - tones and weird vowels plus a very relaxed dialect in the South have made it exasperating at times to speak and, especially, hear. Fortunately, I've been able to grasp a little more this time around, which I attribute entirely to simply living around and among Vietnamese for almost 4 years.

One of the keys to my (limited) success in the language is that I've changed how I think about tones.

In my mind, there are two components to nailing tones: mental and physical. You need to think in them and feel them (hey, here are my acting class lessons coming back again!).