Polydish city guide
Best Buddha's delight in Sydney
“A vegetarian dish traditionally enjoyed by Buddhist monks, now common in Chinese restaurants worldwide.”
What the real thing tastes like
Buddha's delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi (simplified Chinese: 罗汉斋; traditional Chinese: 羅漢齋, Japanese: rakansai (羅漢斎, 羅漢菜, 羅漢齋, らかんさい)), lo han jai, or lo hon jai, is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine. It is sometimes also called Luóhàn cài (simplified Chinese: 罗汉菜; traditional Chinese: 羅漢菜). The dish is traditionally enjoyed by Buddhist monks who are vegetarians, but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available as a vegetarian option in Chinese restaurants. The dish consists of various vegetables and other vegetarian ingredients (sometimes with the addition of seafood or eggs), which are cooked in soy sauce-based liquid with other seasonings until tender. The specific ingredients used vary greatly both inside and outside Asia.
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Buddha's delight is a vegetarian dish that moves between the monastery and the dinner table—traditionally the sustenance of Buddhist monks who kept vegetarian practice, now a familiar refuge on Chinese restaurant menus worldwide. Various vegetables and ingredients simmer together in a soy-based broth, their specific identities shifting with region and kitchen, until they turn tender and yielding. The dish carries multiple names across languages and scripts, each one a thread connecting Buddhist tradition to contemporary vegetarian eating.
Order it here when it has
- accessible vegetarian option
- ingredient flexibility
- historical depth in Buddhist cuisine
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