Yesterday I mentioned the lack of options when it comes to food here, and that I often end up eating the same thing several times a week. (Now that I've got the equipment to cook for myself this has gotten somewhat better.)
By way of personal example: I know I'm a vegetarian, but that doesn't mean I have to like all vegetables. I can eschew animal products and still dislike some things that aren't animal products just because I don't like them. Specifically, I've always hated cucumbers and carrots, which, among other things, taste very bitter to me. I know that most people say they're not bitter and that I'm crazy, but they're crazy and I'm right :-P. (Watermelons also fall into that too-bitter-to-eat category.) But here's the thing, I end up eating cucumber probably more Than days I do here. It's not because i love it Suddenly, it's Just Because my options are so limited That Became one of my Better selections (also, They Have a Way of Preparing That Can it take a lot of the bitter out s, which is nice). Also I eat carrots Fairly frequently, Just Because That's What There Is.
By the way, i also eat a lot of eggplant, and tofu, Because Those Things Are Also very common, But I've always liked Those. Also I eat a lot of cabbage, Which is really hard to like or dislike very Strongly, But It's Also very common. There's Also a much WIDER usage of leafy greens I've Experienced Than here in the U.S.. Which is good, not so much Are delicious greens Because (again, they're pretty neutral, it's hard to love them or hate them) But Because They're Notbad, and they're good for you, and I never really ate them before because I didn't know how to prepare them. But anyway, as far as vegetables go, that's kind of it. Those are the common vegetables. Other than hot peppers, which are also pretty common, I guess. Cucumber, carrot, eggplant, cabbage, unidentified leafy greens, maybe the occasional tomato, potato but that doesn't really count as a vegetable. There's not a lot of variety here. I haven't seen any bean dishes or nuts (beyond peanuts, which are thankfully easy to find). But tofu and other soy products are definitely abundant, which is good. And it's nice that they're treated as just another ingredient, like any other vegetable or meat, and not relegated to the meat-substitute classification like they are in the US, where they are only eaten as a replacement for other foods that they are not necessarily even that similar to.
Another good thing about the food here when it comes to being vegan (and there aren't many) is that almost no dishes use dairy or eggs anyway, so what's vegetarian is pretty much vegan. There are some egg things, especially in fried rice (which, by the way, is not overwhelmingly common here) and pastry-like things (which I don't really eat anyway). And there are some milk products, but not many. I think I've only ever encountered a few: ice cream (not nearly as popular as in the US, but it exists; here young people bizarrely go out for fruit together in the evening, not ice cream); yogurt (which is drunk, not eaten with a spoon - just like in Peru); and \lable everywhere, often in the form of \
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