Vegan Asian-style food in Edinburgh: review of Wee Buddha

As a Chinese living abroad, finding genuine Asian food that I remember from growing up in Hong Kong isn’t all that easy. The reason being no matter what country you live in, when you want to try and eat food from other countries, the restaurants and takeaway shops usually tailor recipes and only offer dishes that the population in that specific country prefer. For example, in Edinburgh I’ve noticed sweet and sour dishes I used to order sometimes were bright fluorescent orange and smell of vinegar with battered pieces of meat and a lot of dishes contain really strong flavours of fruit, so much so you can’t really taste what it is you’ve ordered. This isn’t really something you see often in Hong Kong.

One place that has been a real hidden gem is wee buddha on Jamaica Street. With a separate vegan menu offering Asian food, I was excited to see what they had to offer.

Vegan Vietnamese food: review of Vietnam House, Edinburgh

Knowing what ingredients to avoid in each cuisine can make eating out as a vegan (or cooking at home) so much easier. It’s good to know what ingredients (like egg or meat) can be swapped for something else (usually tofu). Tofu is the protein substitute for meat in a lot of Asian dishes and is used in many dishes already for its nutritional value. In all Asian food, the main suspects to avoid are usually meat and eggs (one Chinese dish Ma Po Tofu even adds minced pork to the top of their tofu!), but the less obvious suspects are in the sauce. Oyster sauce is used a lot in Chinese vegetable dishes whereas Thai food uses fish sauce as a main flavouring. Dairy isn’t used much in Asian cultures, so milk and cheese aren’t so much concerns, but having staff who are experienced and knowledgeable in what they cook goes a long way.

Vietnam House Restaurant on Grove Street is a favourite restaurant for the OH and I. We even went there for dinner to celebrate our first anniversary last year! So having been going there many times since they first opened in 2011 before I became vegan, how do you know what to eat when you’re now vegan?

A restaurant that caters for dietary requirements: The Ninja Kitchen – NOW CLOSED

When I first started eating vegan for Veganuary on the first day of the new year (see here), I hadn’t given much thought to what it would mean for eating out and meeting with friends. There is a social movement towards becoming vegan, I pay more attention to restaurants and pubs that offer a vegan menu, but when I’ve asked at some of my favourite haunts for vegan options, the choices are quite limited.

Imagine my excitement when I came across The Ninja Kitchen at Bourbon where this is a non-issue! The concept started off when Head Chef Markus travelled to Seoul, South Korea, after a trip to San Francisco in 2013, resulting in The Ninja Bun being born.