Alternative names | Luóhàn zhāi, lo han jai, lo hon jai, Luóhàn cài |
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Course | Main dishes |
Place of origin | China |
Main ingredients | various edible plants and fungi, soy sauce |
Buddha's delight | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 羅漢齋 or 齋 | ||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 罗汉斋 or 斋 | ||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Luohan vegetarian food | ||||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | luóhàn zhāi |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Jyutping | lo4 hon3 jaai1 |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | lô-hàn-tsai |
Buddha's delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi, 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.
In the name luóhàn zhāi, luóhàn – short for Ā luóhàn (simplified Chinese: 阿罗汉; traditional Chinese: 阿羅漢; pinyin: Ā LuóHàn) – is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit arhat, meaning an enlightened, ascetic individual or the Buddha himself. Zhāi (simplified Chinese: 斋; traditional Chinese: 齋; pinyin: zhāi) means "vegetarian food" or "vegetarian diet."