How to use this

Three rules, said out loud.

EGO Free Life is the Satvik field journal for eating out around Houston on a Hindu vegetarian diet that also drops eggs, onion, and garlic. The letters are the rules: E for eggs, G for garlic, O for onion. Milk, yogurt, paneer, and cheese stay on the plate unless a note says the day is vegan.

It is not a Jain list. Many Jain kitchens also skip root vegetables, and some skip mushrooms. Those extra lines are not enforced here. If you need them, add them when you order, and write the answer onto the place.

A vegetarian sign, a vegan sign, and a pure-veg Indian kitchen are three different things, and none of them automatically means no onion and no garlic. Govinda's and the Chinatown buffet are the exceptions. Everywhere else, you say it.

No egg, no onion, and no garlic. That includes the sauce, the tadka, the dough, the oil, and the powder.

What the labels mean

Cooks this way
Onion, garlic, and egg are already out of the way this kitchen works.
Say it when you order
They can do it. They will not do it unless you are explicit.
Only some dishes
Most of the menu is off the list. Order the things named in the note.

Writing in the journal

The places already here came from one running Houston list. You can add a restaurant, fix your own posts, and leave a margin note on any of them. Those additions stay in this browser. Export them from the write page if you want a copy.

Menus move. If a kitchen gets a dish wrong, treat the note as stale and say the three rules again.