In the mood for food? This post focuses on that burning question that all you foodies out there have been wondering: How does a vegetarian fare in China?
You may or may not know this, but the Chinese are very fond of their meat, and pretty much any meat will do, depending on which part of China you're eating in. Pork is one of their favorites, showing up just about anywhere. But seafood is popular, too--shrimp, oysters, fish. I haven't seen much beef, but lamb and chicken would be considered tasty morsels.
Having been brought up vegetarian in Malaysia, with a number of Chinese people living in our town, I knew that vegetarian food might be a challenge in China.
Not so. There was certainly plenty of meat to be had, but if you looked closely or asked for a dish to be prepared differently, eating in China was a delightful gastronomic experience for a vegetarian. For example, the above meal, one of my first, came from a buffet line--the longest buffet with the most options I've ever seen--at the World Expo in Shanghai. Clockwise from the top left is a salty broccoli-stem type of vegetable, then rice noodles fried with vegetables (I asked them to leave off the meat), then bean curd wrapped around some kind of mushroom filling, and finally soybeans fried with onions and vegetables. A tasty treat!
At a Taiwanese restaurant in Shanghai pedestrian district, there was also a delicious spread to be ordered: sweet potato balls fried with sesame seeds, a multi-mushroom hot pot, onion pancakes, rice, and bubble tea. I was full and ready to walk the Bund after that meal!
On Sunday, in the Old Shanghai district after our visit to the Yuyuan gardens, I spotted a dumpling shop off the busy inner square. I asked Cherry, my guide, if vegetarian steamed dumplings might be available. She asked the worker, who said yes and pointed out these delectable spinach and onion dumplings. It was like a Chinese version of spanikopita...without the feta cheese! Yum. To accompany that, we got black rice balls, which were slightly sweet.
At the dumpling shop there was another delicacy with which I'm familiar: bau. Bau (or pau) are a Chinese steamed bread around a filling of meat and vegetables, somewhat congruent with the idea of a pot pie. I've had bau with vegetables, gluten bits and eggs inside, or with a sweet bean paste inside (which is a flavor I don't much enjoy). Sadly there were no vegetarian options available at the dumpling shop in Old Shanghai.
I did have a question for Cherry, though: why are the straws stuck into the bau? I had never seen that before. She explained that as the mixture heats up, a broth forms from the liquids in the vegetables and meats. They put a straw in so that you can sip the broth out before breaking open the bau and eating the rest of the treat.
There are a number (maybe 5-10) of vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai, and we sought one out in Pudong after a day of walking. I didn't get a photo of all the delicacies there, but this one shows you the "Golden Pockets" made out of bean curd. You would bite through the little bag into a filling of vegetables and nuts and mushrooms. Yum!
Finally, we had a lovely meal by a canal at Zhouzuang waterside village, which was built along canals 900 years ago. Having passed many stalls with the most revolting-smelling pig knees along the walkways, I wondered if good food was possible in Zhouzuang. We settled in at a table on one side of the canal, and the restaurant and kitchen on the other side. We ordered our food and the waiter pulled it across the canal to us on a little boat!
Here it is, nice and hot from its ride across the canal: soft bean curd, and a nicely seasoned egg-and-tomato dish that was hard to stop eating!
So can a vegetarian get food to eat in China? Certainly! And it's mighty tasty.
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