So tonight I ate at a Gold In Tex fast food restaurant and noticed that my packet of ketchup was labeled “Vegetarian Tomato Ketchup”. Do normal ketchups have meat in them and I just didn’t know? What about steak sauce?
(I wouldn’t recommend Gold In Tex. Small portions, not that good. And the ketchup was missing a certain something.)
many buddhist vegetarians in Taiwan will not eat garlic due to their beliefs, i’m sure it meant it was garlic free.
if you ever get a vegetable pizza at domino’s you have to make sure you say “buyong chuansu” (not “full” vegetarian) or you will get one without tomato sauce, it is contaminated with the stuff 
anyone have an explanation of this? what’s wrong with garlic? personally i could accept not eating meat but i need my garlic
Garlic is considered to perk up one’s libido and thus a no-no for monks trying to stay away from temptations of the flesh; the same is said of onions and pepper. Whilst I have not conducted scientific trials my own experiences suggest that the Chinese might be on to something.[/quote]
Not quite. Buddhist vegetarians can’t eat garlic, green onion or onion. (And ‘jiu3cai4’ - anyone know what this is?). Pepper’s fine though. Usually eggs are out too, but dairy products are fine.
It’s not just libido or desire, it’s about balance - they upset the unbalanced ‘no-desire’ state (or something).
I’ve also heard a scientific reason that these foods can give vegetarians heartburn, not being neutralised by something or other present in meat. Actually, I’ve noticed that myself with onions.
A lot of food in Taiwan, has a little ‘ke su chi’ vegetarian label even if it’s obviously veggie - like my breakfast cereal (why would it not be vegetarian?).
Brian
A lot of Chinese food that looks like vegetarian often has lard or other animal fat in it. That’s why they have to make a distinction for “real” vegetarian food. The Muslims even have a Halal-food label certification, and of course there is the question of stimulating vegetables such as onions and garlic.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]Buddhist vegetarians can’t eat garlic, green onion or onion. (And ‘jiu3cai4’ - anyone know what this is?). [/quote]chives
What’s a chive?
i would say chives were the regular “cong.” jiucai are similar but not quite the same?
what do you call those brian? i would have figured that was a proper english word for sure
[quote]I would say chives were the regular “cong.” jiucai are similar but not quite the same?
what do you call those brian? I would have figured that was a proper English word for sure[/quote]
It was a serious question. I don’t know what a chive is. My wife showed me some yestreday “these are jiucai”, but I couldn’t taste them because they were in non-veggo noodles. I always thought a chive was a n American name for what people in NZ usually call spring opnion or maybe green onion, which I think is also called scallions. I’ve never been good with the (English) names of foods. I’ll try and search this.
Brian
Alright:
This is spring onion (cong):
nre.vic.gov.au/trade/asiaveg/thes-58.htm
This is chives (jiucai):
nre.vic.gov.au/trade/asiaveg/thes-29.htm
But I still don’t really know what chive is - looks just like spring onion to me.
Brian
Brian.
They’re all members of the wild onion family, genus - allium.
If you tasted it you’d find the answer immediately.
Indian Jains don’t eat garlic and onions because it inevitably involves the death of an insect to dig 'em up. Well that’s what they say. Extremists of this belief, sky blue jains, paint themselves blue and walk around sweeping bugs out of their path so they won’t kill anything. Digambar - sky clothed Jains.
Some Indian Buddhists don’t eat anythging from the allium family because it arouses the senses, like all the senses.
But as to true veggo stuff. Some of the crap that actually has bits of animals is truly astounding. Perhaps the most common is the good old biscuits and jam.
HG
[quote]But I still don’t really know what chive is - looks just like spring onion to me.
[/quote]
They’re pretty similar, but chives are much smaller. Imagine a scallion is as thick as a pencil, then a chive is only as thick as a pencil-lead. Usually they’re snipped up into little pieces and spinkled over food as a last-minute garnish. Quite a nice addition to a bland soup, for example. Also pretty nice in a herb garden, as they have very pretty blue flowers.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote]I would say chives were the regular “cong.” jiucai are similar but not quite the same?
what do you call those brian? I would have figured that was a proper English word for sure[/quote]
It was a serious question. I don’t know what a chive is. My wife showed me some yestreday “these are jiucai”, but I couldn’t taste them because they were in non-veggo noodles. I always thought a chive was a n American name for what people in NZ usually call spring opnion or maybe green onion, which I think is also called scallions. I’ve never been good with the (English) names of foods. I’ll try and search this.
Brian[/quote]
yep, i was asking you seriously, always interested about differing vocabulary in the english-speaking world.
hmm scallions, ok. you may be right there that we would call those chives in the us, that was my first reaction.
wonder if Taiwan ever going to start using the Greenish color ketchup, that would be very interesting… (or even purple!!) :shock: