Tibetan Food

I had no idea what Tibetan food would be like, but I figured it might not be very vegetarian friendly - not much grows at 12,000 feet. I imagined that yak meat & yak butter tea & potatoes might be the only things to eat there. Just in case, I brought a stash of granola bars with me from Shanghai so that I'd be able to suppliment whatever we found in the restaurants.

There were indeed lots of yak-based dishes on the Tibetan menu, but I was delighted to find a long list of Indian-style vegetable offerings as well. There were curries & naan & samosas a-plenty, all of which I happily gobbled up & washed down with a nice cold Lhasa beer.

Vegetarian Murder Mystery Dinner

The Shanghai Vegetarians Club held a fun murder mystery dinner last weekend. We downloaded a game online with a list of characters & instructions for each phase of the game.

We were all assigned a character to play - I was the librarian, Rita Bookaday (hee, hee!) - & we were each given an envelope that contained clues that we could choose to reveal to the other players if we wanted to.

After the first round of clue swapping, one of us had to die - it *was* a murder mystery after all. Everyone suspected the butcher, Sam Chawpalot, but he vehemently denied it.


An excellent makeup job by the murder victim, actress London Wilton



In the last round we were each given a slip of paper with our "confessions", which we were to read out to the group. Each of us had a deep dark secret to reveal, but only one of us was the killer. I won't tell you who it was - you'll have to play the game yourself to find out.

The Freshary

Wow! Things are starting to happen here in Shanghai. Healthy, organic, vegetarian-friendly organizations are popping up all over the place. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered an organic grocery store that delivers, & last week I visited an organic farm on the outskirts of Shanghai where I frolicked among the peach blossoms.

This past weekend, I found The Freshary, a vegan organic bakery with two locations in town. Everything I've tasted there is beyond delicious. The ingredients are fresh & locally sourced when possible, & they make everything from scratch on-site - they mill their own flour & make their own soy milk. & of course everything is vegan & organic.

Talk about yum!

Organic Produce in Shanghai!

My lifestyle has changed quite a bit since I left the US almost two years ago. When I lived in Arizona, I was pretty active. I used to go hiking, camping & rock climbing on a regular basis. I went to yoga classes three times a week & stopped at Whole Foods for my daily dose of organic goodness. I grew my own vegetables in my backyard & I rode my bicycle everywhere. I even recycled.

But my life here in China looks nothing like that. I do walk around the city a lot, but I don't get nearly as much exercise as I used to. Rock climbing & yoga are figments of a distant memory. & I have dramatically lowered my standards for what I will eat - these days I'm just happy if I can get something that resembles a vegetarian meal. I just don't know how to be healthy in Shanghai.

But I'm making headway. One of my little successes came last week when I discovered an organic grocery delivery service here in Shanghai. I was so excited! I clicked through the offerings on their website, trying to choose what to order - I wanted one of everything. I finally decided to order their Seasonal Veggie Pack, which included 2.5 kilograms of mixed organic produce for 150 RMB (about US $23).

The delivery came this evening after work. I rushed home to see what the Organics Fairy had brought me.

The box was huge - 2.5 kilograms is a lot of veggies. I got a massive daikon radish, the biggest bunch of celery I've ever seen, a buldging bag of string beans, a head of cauliflower, a head of cabbage, & five or six bags of various other leafy greens - all organic! All for me to eat!

Shanghai Vegetarian Club Dinner

Last week I met the Shanghai Vegetarians Club for dinner at a great organic cafe tucked into the back reaches of a Shanghai alleyway called Melange Oasis. It was in a cute little shopping area with twinkly lights & lilty music, but you'd never know it was there from the street.

For 100 RMB (about US $15) we got a three-course organic vegan meal including a scrumptious choco-delight, & a thought-provoking movie, both stimulating a lot of chatter.

It's nice hanging out with the vegetarians. They're a friendly bunch & there's always really good food. Now that I have a job with normal hours I'll be able to attend a lot more of their events. Looks like I won't be eating quite so much street food any more.

Mini Menu

Being a vegetarian, it's sometimes difficult to find things to eat here in Shanghai. It's not the lack of vegetable dishes that makes it difficult, but rather my lack of Chinese words to describe what I eat.

There are a couple of noodle shops by my apartment that I frequent, & the staff there are familiar with my crazy vegetarian ways. They laugh when I enter, asking what I'm going to eat this time, often offering various options to me. But when I go to another part of the city, I wind up eating the same things again & again because there are only a few dishes that I know how to order.

I have recently noticed that, just as most casual restaurants in the US will serve some form of sandwich & french fries, & probably spaghetti or chicken fingers, most Chinese restaurants serve basically the same dishes.

So I decided to start keeping a notebook in my purse. Every time I discover a vegetarian dish, I take out the notebook & write down the Chinese characters as well as the pinyin (Chinese pronunciation), along with the English translation.

Now, when I go to a new restaurant, I just pull out my mini menu & flip through to the dish that I want. I ask the server if they have it - most often they do - & I soon have a tasty vegetarian meal.

Loving Hut

I found a vegan restaurant near my apartment called Loving Hut. Aparently it's an international chain. There's even one in my hometown, but the menu is different. At the branch here in Shanghai the food is more, shall we say, Chinese-y.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, I was the only customer there, but Mr. Xu, who speaks very good English, was friendly & chatted with me as I ate my bao zi 包子 (a steamed bread ball filled with shredded cabbage & carrots). It only cost me 1.5 RMB (about 20 cents). I didn't try any of the main dishes (10-20 RMB each), but judging from the photos on the menu, they look delicious. I'm definitely going back!

Dec 14-16: Nha Trang

I had been hearing about Nha Trang ever since I arrived in Vietnam in June. All of my students kept saying it was the best beach in Vietnam. Now I finally had the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about.

I took an overnight sleeper bus from Hoi An, arriving in Nha Trang at 6:00am. I quickly found a hotel room for $5 a night - the cheapest one yet! I left my backpack in the room & headed for the beach.

There was no one there. Of course, it was a Monday & it was early in the morning, so maybe all the beach goers were still snug in their beds. I looked in the guidebook & found out that there were some Cham ruins not far from the center of town. These were the same people who built My Son in Hoi An, where I had just been. I decided to rent a bicycle & check them out.

Po Nagar was an interesting site, well worth the 11,000 dong entrance fee (about 60 cents). The ruins have obviously been well-taken care of - rebuilt & cleaned up. It was like being in an outdoor museum. The temples are still used today as worship sites. When I ducked inside, people were crowded around altars to Shiva, a hindu god, burning incense & muttering prayers.

On my way back to town, I stopped at the Long Son Pagoda, which was at the top of a long stone staircase. At the top, I found the pagoda & several large statues of Buddha, as well as a cemetery full of stacked crypts. Very cool. Back at the bottom of the hill, I had lunch at the vegetarian cafe there, which served your standard Buddhist grub: fake meats & rice dishes for a few pennies.

The next day, I took a boat tour of the islands off the coastline. At our first stop, several of us dove into the water while others went for parasail rides. I was just putting on my mask & snorkle when I felt a slight sting - & then another. I looked down into the water: jellyfish. I wound up with a rash of little red bumps all over my body that itched like the worst mosquito bites for days & days.

After that, I was ready to spend an entire day lazing on the beach, doing nothing but reading & listening to the waves roll over the sand.

Another Great Sunday

On Sunday morning, I went with some students from my class at the bank to eat breakfast at a vegetarian restaurant. Vegetarian restaurants in Vietnam offer a variety of dishes made from soy or wheat that are made to look & taste like meat. They offer plain old vegetables & tofu as well, which I enjoy much more.

After breakfast, we went for coffee & then saw The Rebound at the movie theater, in English with Vietnamese subtitles.

In the afternoon, I went with Jimmy & Katie to watch them eat crazy Vietnamese food. Here's Katie trying frog legs. She also ate a very slimy eel.

In the evening, Katie & I went with some students to a coffee shop on the river & watched a beautiful sunset while helping them with English pronunciation.

Another great Sunday with friends.

Cooking Lessons

Last week I asked my friends at the coffee shop to show me how to make some vegetarian Vietnamese dishes. This morning, I went to their house to watch the cook prepare lunch. I helped her peel & cut the vegetables, but she did the rest. I took lots of notes in hopes that I will be able to duplicate what she made later.

Here is the cook showing me how to prepare an eggplant dish.

& here is the finished eggplant dish. It was tasty!

This is a yummy hot & sour soup made with pineapple, okra, & tomato.

Bean sprouts & tofu. Delightful!

When it was finished, we all sat down to enjoy this delicious meal.

My New Friends

Yesterday, the owner of the coffee shop that I have been going to practically every morning for the last several weeks took me with her family to eat lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. The dishes were vegetarian, but were made to look like meat (a "chicken leg" was made by wrapping tofu around a stick of lemongrass). It was certainly an interesting lunch.

Afterwards we went to a Buddhist temple just outside of Bien Hoa City. It was such a beautiful place. I would never have known about it had they not taken me. I have been unable to find any information on interesting sites in & around Bien Hoa, though I'm sure there are plenty. In so many ways I am totally dependent on the people around me.

The family also wanted to take me to a park with a lake & a mountain, but it started to rain, so we put it off for another day.

Today, I went back to the coffee shop for my usual morning email/Skype session. Around 11:30am, the owner, Ms. Hang (that's her on the right in the photo above), came to my table & invited me to have lunch at their house at the back of the coffee shop.

After lunch, we had a language lession: they taught me some Vietnamese words by pointing at objects around the room, & I taught them the counterparts in English. Finally someone to teach me Vietnamese!

The next time I go back to the coffee shop I will be sure to bring along some fruit for my new friends.