Vegetarian Cuisine · FFET10463
Temple vegetarian meals
Temple vegetarian meals avoid meat and the five pungent plants, with gluten and soy also used to imitate meat dishes.
Meatless cooking, from monastery vegetarian meals to dishes made to imitate meat and fish.
Suzhai is vegetarian food associated with Chinese Buddhist temples, avoiding meat and the five pungent plants. Cooks prepare dishes from gluten, soy, vegetables, and mushrooms, sometimes imitating the appearance of meat dishes. Song-period accounts of eating houses in Kaifeng and Hangzhou describe vegetarian food compared with temple meals, as well as vegetarian noodles and imitation meat dishes.
What
Suzhai is meatless food associated with Buddhist temples. It also avoids pungent plants grouped under the name “five pungent plants.” Dishes can use vegetables, mushrooms, soy, and gluten, including preparations that imitate meat dishes.3,4,5,6
When
A Song-period account of Kaifeng eating houses compares vegetarian food called su fen cha with temple meals. An account of Hangzhou eating houses lists vegetarian noodles and imitation roast duck. These passages establish that such foods were known then, but the supplied excerpts give no specific year and do not establish when suzhai began.1,2
Where
This entry concerns vegetarian food associated with Chinese Buddhist temples. Related foods also appear in accounts of urban eating houses in Song-period Kaifeng and Hangzhou, beyond temple settings.1,2
How
Cooks avoid meat and the five pungent plants, preparing dishes from ingredients such as gluten, soy, vegetables, and mushrooms, sometimes imitating the appearance of meat dishes. The Song-period Hangzhou account includes vegetarian noodles with gluten and bamboo shoots, and imitation roast duck. Lists of the five pungent plants differ between religious texts.2,4,5
Why
Within this Buddhist food tradition, avoiding meat and the five pungent plants is a way of observing religious precepts. The Song-period account of Hangzhou eating houses likewise connects vegetarian meals with keeping dietary observances.2,3
Impact and influence
Vegetarian noodles, snacks, and imitation meat dishes in urban eating houses show that food connected with religious dietary observance also appeared in everyday meals beyond temples. Making plant-based versions of meat dishes is one cooking practice within Chinese suzhai.2,5