 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many restaurants now have a vegetable/vegetarian section on their menu. Thai, Chinese and Indian restaurants often have many vegetarian meals. If looking for a good Thai, you may like to ring ahead to see if they have tofu, some Thai restaurants do and this can give you more meal choices.
Here are some suggestions for vegetarian meals you may be able to enjoy when dining out....
It isn't as easy to get vegetarian food in China as most westerners may think. A lot of Chinese people enjoy tofu, so it is readily available in most restaurants there, just be careful because many of the tofu dishes have meat added to them.
Unless you have a good grasp of the language, it is quite difficult to ask for special requirements. I was often accompanied by westerners, who could speak mandarin (a Chinese language), but didn't know what a lot of food was called in mandarin. I would often eat an egg and tomato dish or corn and pine nuts and peas, when we ate in traditional chinese restaurants, as this is what my friends could ask for.
There are some vegetarians in China. Most of the vegetarian restaurants I have visited have been in China and Hong Kong and some of these are a special experience.
Beijing is easier for foreigners to get around in than other parts of China as a lot more people speak English and many of the signs also have English on them (particularly at the train stations and airport). Some restaurants have English menus (usually the more expensive ones), and there are some vegetarian restaurants there.
The
Lotus in Moonlight Restaurant is run by Buddhist monks and is quite a unique dining
experience. They have a menu in English with around 100 different menu items.
Some meals can include a huge variety of mushrooms and funghi, that we don't usually
see in the Australian Chinese restaurants, as well as many other vegetables and
tofu options. The dishes are quite expensive by Chinese standards, but it is definitely
worth a visit, if you are in Beijing. The names of the meals are just as interesting
as the name of the restaurant and many of my non-vegetarian friends enjoyed going
there with me for the experience. As you know it is a vegetarian restaurant, you
can safely order any item off the menu and know there won't be any meat in it.
Before you leave, they serve a complimentary fruit platter on a large dried mushroom,
surrounded by dried ice - so your table is surrounded by fog (an extremely interesting
experience).
Shanghai has a reasonable Buddhist population and a few years ago we found a vegetarian restaurant near the street markets in Shanghai, above a noodle restaurant. You have to walk up the stairs from the noodle restaurant to get to it.
They didn't have an English menu, but the lady working there took me round to show me what other people were eating, to help me decide what I would like. I have to recommend the experience of trying a mock fish dish which is served on a platter, shaped like a fish with a skin that really tasted like chicken skin (but of course it wasn't). I had this dish and a couple of other vegetable dishes served to the table to be shared among my friends and me, as you do in China. The whole meal only cost around $20 AUD, which was quite an expensive Chinese meal, but well worth it as it was a true vegetarian gourmet experience.