Eating Vegetarian in Bangkok

The first thing a Tamil vegetarian must understand about Bangkok is that the word for vegetarian — jay — does not mean what you think it means.

It means monk-food. No meat, no fish sauce, no egg, no alliums. That is stricter than most of us eat at home. The trick is finding it.

Look for the yellow flag with red Thai script. It is the jay flag, and in September, during the Vegetarian Festival, it blooms over half the food carts in Chinatown. The rest of the year it is rarer, but it exists — you just have to learn the neighbourhoods.

Chatuchak on a Sunday morning has three jay stalls I keep returning to. One sells khao soi without the egg noodles, swapped for rice sticks, and the coconut curry is if anything better. Another does a mango sticky rice that makes the one in your hotel look like an apology.

I have a whole notebook of these. I will type them out slowly.