Cuisine: Thai
Thai cuisine is one of the most frustrating for me, as so many dishes seem like they really could or should be vegan, but they aren’t on account of the fish sauce. So it’s always a relief to find a completely meat-free restaurant that serves Thai food. Satsang is a vegetarian restaurant with some solid brunch options and a Thai-heavy evening menu, with a vegan pad thai plus three different kinds of curry, all vegan.
I spent a while agonising over what to choose, but Dr HH did not. As soon as he read that the green curry was the spiciest, his mind was made up! He declared it a very good curry – not mind blowingly spicy, but spicy enough, and full of good stuff like tofu, aubergine, and mushrooms. He’d be happy to have this again.
I was also very satisfied with my pad thai. I love the fact that pad thai often comes with the various toppings all separate and off to the side so that I can incorporate them as and when I like. Why aren’t more dishes served like that?! Again, the tofu was great and it was a really flavoursome, filling dish.
So, hurrah for fish-free Thai food! As our old spot in Prague (Thai Box Food) has closed down, I can see Satsang becoming a regular haunt.
Have you ever been caught out by fish sauce in “vegan” Thai food? What’s your favourite Thai dish?
Herbivores' Heaven 
Wow – looks delicious! I love Thai, but have the same issue when eating out. I do make it at home, but rarely, It sure would be nice to have more vegan versions of the vegetable dishes (especially those amazing salads!) at restaurants. There are very few which have them, which is surprising in India. (Perhaps because not many realise that there’s fish sauce in there.) š But I’ve seen organic vegan thai curry pastes in some stores, so there’s hope yet. š
I’m always on the lookout for a vegan Thai curry paste in Prague, but it’s tricky to get hold of!
The pad thai looks amazing, and that’s neat how they arranged the toppings around it!
Yes, especially the chilli in a whole separate pot!
Yeah, not many restaurant in the states take in consideration of fish sauce not being vegetarian on menus. So that can be frustrating that you have no clue if it is in a dish or not. But one Thai restaurant I think had vegan fish sauce! You just have to say you wanted the dish vegan, and they took care of it. So that was nice. Otherwise I have to say I make more Thai dishes at home, mostly because of money.
I find Thai cooking at home quite pricey too – things like lemongrass, lime leaves, Thai basil, and vegan curry paste are tricky to find here, so they’re naturally more expensive. I think it always works out cheaper (and less time consuming) to eat out!
Oh yeah, I am guilty of totally skipping lemongrass because of the price. I have found that if you buy kefir leaves powder online (I think it was like $5 for me) a little goes a long way. And I have been guilty of just subbing thai basil for regular basil.