There r lots of veg based dashi too u know? For example kombu dashi, mushroom dashi,mix veg dashi. In short dashi is veg stock actually. (=・ω・=)
Yep, I know. I generally make my own dashi actually. But presuming that most restaurants in Japan are going to use vegetarian dashi is in my own experience very optimistic, since fish based dashi is faster to make and there is instant fish dashi powder sold in the market. Especially because this is a country were vegetarianism is not that common and is generally not understood by a LOT of people. I had a part time job in a school where they asked me if I had any diet restriction and I replied I was a vegetarian and did not eat animal meat. Next day a bento full of fish was waiting for me during lunch time. See what I mean?
That must have been hard.
Well, at least I discovered MosBurger while I was there. The soy burgers that they make are super awesome.
Well... as a vegetarian who lived in Japan for one year I kinda feel bad for Thomas. He is chomping it up and has no idea that the dashi used in those eggplants is most probably fish based. Oh well, ignorance is bliss, I guess