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Yes they like tofu, they also love meat.

Try to not eat meat in Asian countries. My wife gave up being vegetarian while we were over there.

Whether it's Japan, Korea, Philippines, or otherwise, they love meat, in many forms. Especially chicken.

As do I.



Japan is still very late when it is about animal considerations and welfare.

When you see their very tiny cages in animal shops, or eating octopus alive (“but they don’t feel anything”).

It is a bit like if they still live in the 90s (though it’s an amazing place! Like the 90s were).


I feel like they take fine care of animals, I'll aside that point though for the sake of continuing the discussion.

But my point was that pretty much all asian countries love meat.

I mean, food in South Korea and the Philippines is 90% chicken.

Meat consumption is everywhere, because it provides the calories people need, easily, and tastes delicious.

People don't want to (and sometimes can't!) eat the stuff we feed to cows and chicken, anywhere.


I would say they eat a smaller proportion of meat. Many Asian dishes do have meat but it's just one out of many ingredients, including rice/noodles, vegs, spices, etc. While in the West sometimes we just eat meat with a side of potatoes or whatever, maybe some spices but the majority of the dish by mass is meat.

I agree that it's not necessarily easy to find dishes with no meat at all in Asian countries, though.

It's probably a better strategy to try to convince people to eat less meat per dish (as in many Asian preparations) than to go vegetarian, anyway. At least it would be easier to convince me, that's for sure... if my country had the hawker stalls that they have in Singapore, I would already be eating less meat.


It depends on the country.

In Japan many dishes are what you describe.

In Korea and the Philippines, many dishes are pure meat.

I have no strategy or intent to control peoples diet though.


Beef and tofu go very well together. As an ex-vegetarian (from my childhood) it took me a while to get used to seeing tofu (successfully) mixed with meat.


Just as a note (and as someone born in Asia): Asia spans the range from Iran to Japan. East Asia is not Asia. It's the Eastern bit.


the worst meat dishes I'd ever had were in the Philippines. ymmv


what?! their chicken is amazing.

you can even go to any mcdonalds there and get the most delicious, juicy white meat chicken you've ever had. not nuggets, full fried breasts.

literally every place serves fried chicken and it's amazing, every place also has spaghetti which I found... odd.


> Try to not eat meat in Asian countries.

Eh, some Asian countries are easier than others.

I've had no issues avoiding meat/dairy in when living in Japan[1]/Taiwan/Singapore, and these are all cases where you can find a vegetarian or vegan version of a local dish so you're not missing out on the culture. I know many over there who make it work without issue too.

Korea and the Philippines though... for sure an example of higher difficulty.

[1] Okinawa is slightly harder than mainline Japan due to regional cuisine differences, but even then it's not the end of the world.


Yeah we eat less meat solely because of economical reasons. If we have the means we absolutely add lots of meat on top of those delicious vegetable dishes. We even cook some animal organs because it's cheap and delicious.




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