VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL

Andrea would be in heaven if she were here as Bangkok is in the middle of a 'Veggie Movement' which I am told is an annual event. What amazes me is the number of local Thai eateries which support the festival, hanging up banners such as this one to identify themselves. Obviously prepared, their menus are completely switched to vegetarian, no meats, but the queues are just as long as when they served meat.

I was trying out the different stalls and found their veggie version ie make-belief meat a bit bland to taste. My stamina to stay veggie lost to a bowl of all-pig, flat noodles in soup. The topping was a concoction of paper thin slices of lean pork, crispy fatty skin, braised tongue, sliced ears, grilled cheek, stomach cut in triangles, intestines (which I passed) served with lots of pea sprouts & Thai watercress, in a heavily white-pepper based broth, sprinkled with finely chopped scallions & sawtooth coriander. It was an irreverent way to end my veggie crusade, but it was a memorable bowl .....