The Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Apparently the Chinese population on Phuket runs some annual vegetarian festival for ten days for purification purposes, and by sheer coincidence, we were here at the same time. With only one day remaining though, we figured that we'd try some of the fare, even if some of the street stalls selling such stuff didn't really look very appetizing.

We grabbed a simple bowl of noodles, which featured some forms of clear fungus, some faux-char siew, and even vegetarian meatballs that looked very similar to the real thing. The char siew impressively had a bit of a smoky flavor to it, but the meatballs were just tasteless. The broth was also a bit sweet (probably from all the vegetables), so a dose of fish sauce and chili powder were needed here to change the taste. We also got some vegetarian egg rolls, but these were a bit hard and nothing that impressive. We eventually left a bit unsatisfied, but at least we tried this vegetarian thing out.

And here is final entry for this trip on local drinks, this one being Schwepps Sparkling Manao Soda, which is basically lime soda. It was a bit sweeter and concentrated than I was expecting, but still fine.