So long and thanks for all the vegetables!

When I knew I was coming to China, I was mentally prepared about food, which by the way is one of the most important things in my life! i wondered how I could adjust for 4 months but after coming here it actually isn’t bad. Considering the fact that I used to crib about vegetables at home, I am sure my mom should be the happiest person reading this blog!

Chinese restaurants predominantly have non-vegetarian food and a small part; maybe 3 or 4 dishes are unheard roots and shoots. Some places dun even have the veggies on their menu and you need to specifically tell them what you want.

The past one month has been what I call “Treat-full”, the clients have been very big-hearted taking us to restaurants every week though they have been full-fledged Chinese restaurants (if you have not been following, read the prev para).And the best part was they used to order the veggie food for us, and this was our invariable dishes

Tofu – They say it’s their version of our Paneer but tastes nothing like it. Marinated in some Chinese brown sauce, they are not very inviting to see but don’t taste all that bad.

Tu Dou Da Dou – Nothing but potato and Green beans. One of those dishes which prove the saying “Appearances are often deceptive” and one of my favourites.

Yu Xiang Qie Zi – Eggplant stew in some kinda Chinese sauce. Yes I did manage to eat them, after all it’s an eat or die situation!

Kong Xin Cai – These are underwater plants, typically you could imagine the ones you see in your aquarium or maybe on discovery channel when Ian Wright goes underwater diving. Edible though.

Xiang cai xiao la jiao – That’s parsley and broccoli and other leaves. Oh yeah obviously in sauce.


Bamboo – All we have seen of bamboo is furniture or that stick you principal used to threaten you in school, but here it’s the most delicious dish of all. There are a million varieties of bamboo…spicy, sweet, sour, add all those adjectives you want. By far there’s this dish not sure about the name where the bamboo shoot is sliced into perfect cuboids and marinated in a sweet yellow sauce, mouth-watering isn’t it!

Lotus roots - Their favorite Vegetarian dish.Actually isn't very bad considering the plethora of items we get to eat in a Chinese restaruant.

Salad – I dun even bother to know how it’s called in Chinese, the moment it’s ordered I pounce on it and by the time people get to count the vegetables in it, it’s over….burp!

All through out India, I was envied by my non-vegetarian friends for getting my order first. By the time they get their dishes, I am half way through mine but over here it’s completely ulta pulta. The veggies come at the end after all the other land, sea and air living beings are served.

The Chinese are crazy (I might be drawing criticism and swearing if a Chinese reads this but then this is my view). They literally eat everything except humans though (I have no awareness on Chinese cannibalism), there are provinces where dogs and cats are delicacies let alone snakes and frogs. And they believe animal parts are good for their body just like we say carrots are good for the eyes and lady’s finger(the vegetable) is good for the brain (I never did well in math despite eating lots of them). Yeah they would think we too are crazy fantasizing vegetables will give us good health and brains.

I was talking to one of our Clients about this and some of them were shocking to hear.

• Good for skin - Pigskin, Duck legs & Chicken legs
• Good for liver - goose liver
• Good for eyes - snake blood
• Winter delicacy - hairy crabs

This is where I stopped him, this conversation was brought about at the dinner table and I didn’t want to mess it up.

This is one place where Paul McCartney’s quote doesn’t work – “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”