Entries tagged as suprememaster
asia almaty amusementpark asia2013 aviation azerbaijan baikal beijing belarus berlin border bus capsulehotel caspian ccp censorship childrensday china chinghai cinderella climatechange coach copyright dam disney disneyland dunhuang ecology erenhot erlian fake ferry flying freesoftware greatfirewall guangzhou haikou hainan hohhot hongkong hostel hotel irkutsk journey kazakhstan khorgas kualalumpur language laos lenin listwjanka malaysia metro miradormansion mongolia moscow petropavl poland portbaikal publictransport pyramid qwerty rain rainforest russia sanya seat61 shijingshan stepmania terracottawarriors thailand tiananmen ticket train tram transport transsib transsiberian travel travelling trip2011 typhoon ulaanbaatar ulan-ude ulanude urumqi vegan vegetarian visa warsaw waterpower weather windenergy xian xinjiang yanoda yekaterinburg yining zamyn-uud zensur babelfish boluo boten casino chinese coffee copycat english freizeitpark ghosttown googletranslate hallstatt huizhou journalismus luoyang mandarin northwestchina presse pressefreiheit russian tagesschau translation universaltranslator arcade computerhistory magistral migrationcard museum retro retrogames tankodrom architecture astana baiterek crookedforest forest gryfino khanshatyry migrationpolice nature places
Tuesday, July 5. 2011
Vegetarian food in asia
Being a vegetarian was a special challenge on our trip. It was difficult in Russia, where the food plan often enough was reduced to pizza margherita and pancakes. It was even more difficult in China, where the idea of having any food without meat seems to be widely unknown and the choice was often enough reduced to french fries from american fast food companies.But there was also a surprise: It was absolutely no problem in Mongolia - in sharp contrast to everything I've read before. Traditional mongolian food is very meat-oriented. But Ulaanbaatar has a density of vegetarian and vegan restaurants definitely higher than in Berlin. And even the little border town Zaamin-Üüd has a vegetarian café. Unlike one may expect, I never had the impression that they were primarily focussed to tourists. We even once were in a vegetarian restaurant in Ulaanbaatar that had only a mongolian menu without any english translation.
Most of those restaurants seem to be somewhat related to the "spiritual leader" Supreme Master Ching Hai. I don't know that much about her and her group, so I can't judge how problematic I find that (though I'm always sceptical both about leaders and about esoteric groups). Their arguments for veganism are mainly about the greenhouse gas emissions and climate change effects from meat productions, which is absolutely correct, but sadly their stated numbers are just wrong.