My husband and I were walking along the river in downtown Kyoto, a bustling area lined with restaurants, on the eve of my birthday. Not the romantic kind of walk. It was an urgent, fast paced, mission driven walk. It was only 9pm but most dinner places were turning into bars already or closing up for the day. It had been an hour since we arrived, starving after a long day of hiking up the Fushimi Inari Shrime. An hour of hopping from one restaurant to another after skimming through their menus in desperation - lots of sushi, lots of yakitori, lots of skillets; all with lots of fish, lots of beef and lots of chicken. Basically lots of tempting options for my husband, but none for me - the plight of a vegetarian. When it was close to 10pm, we finally settled for a place that offered me rice with boiled veggies. Not exactly the feast for a birthday girl, but it was either that or sleeping on an empty stomach. As I took the first bite of my food, tears started to roll down my cheeks. I don’t know whether it was the frustration from all the hopping around and snapping at my dear husband in the process, or if it was the comfort of food. Perhaps a mix of both. Food, to me, is an important part of experiencing a new city, but I miss out on this experience each time.
I have since decided to rate and review every restaurant I find decent vegetarian options at in any city I visit. I explicitly list the vegetarian dishes I like in the review. So instead of reading (sometimes copious) menus, my fellow veggie friends can find veggie dishes in places nearby through a quick search on the map.
Checkout my list for Hong Kong here:
https://www.google.com/maps/placelists/list/UIMxIJyrKqepMi83zd4lFUSejeMBhQ
If you have such lists for other cities, please share so I don’t end up in tears on my next holiday!