Post #396229 by tiki mick on Thu, Jul 24, 2008 10:10 AM

On 2008-07-23 22:25, Chinarose wrote:
thanks for all the suggestions.

I have one comment about authenticity in Chinese restaurants. Buddhist vegetarian cuisine has a long history of using faux meats. So many Asian cultures include these faux meats as part of their traditional cuisine and they can be just as "authentic" as dishes made with real meat.

Well, I live near little Saigon, so I have had access to both kinds of restaraunts. For example, if you go to Au Lac, on Brookhurst, it caters mostly to american vegan gothic types (Lot's of piercings and mop top haircuts) and it is entirely meat simulation. The sweet and sour "Pork" looks like the real thing. It is my understanding that they use a pre-packaged meat subtitute.
Now if you go to Van Than, on Bolsa, it is mostly Buddhist cusotmers, and the dishes do not look like meat very much. They are strange, exotic, flavored with lemon grass. You do come across those fake shrimp and fake ham if you order the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe). Van Than is very authentic. Very few Americans go in there, as they don't speak English at all.
A lot of what I eat though, is in little india (Pioneer blvd) and they are mostly vegetarian restaraunts. Nothing is meant to resemble meat, and the dishes stand on thier own. Samosas, chick peas, green peas, paneer cheese, all of these things are basically meat free (except the paneer).