Another vegan encounter: Greenology

On another quest for meatless-ness in Shanghai, we found ourselves in Greenology, a multi-story vegetarian restaurant with a gourmet edge; a perfect first date spot for all the foodie Buddhists of Shanghai. They prepare a different menu for each floor, we ate on the Forest floor. We were put in a private room and supplied with endless amounts of tea, both the classic green as well as a more adventurous saffron and cinnamon blend. Click on the images below to view a slideshow of the intricate (and surprisingly meaty) dishes we had the pleasure of eating:

The set menu for the ‘Forest’ level of the restaurant

The first course: It was recommended to eat from right to left

First fresh fruit jelly, to cleanse the palate

Then braised stuffed lotus root with sweet and sour sauce, which tasted like a rib

And finally, aniseed silverweed tubers and zucchini, the strongest flavour on the plate. It’s amazing how something so abstract could taste so meaty, a second helping definitely wouldn’t have gone amiss!

The next course was burdock barley quinoa soup, which had a very deep flavour (surprising for broth) as well as a few surprise berries at the bottom

Another trio of goodness: Stir-fried Chinese kale and lilium bulb, homemade organic non-GMO tofu stuffed with golden oyster mushrooms and an oatmeal crusted orange carrot patty

The oatmeal crusted orange carrot patty was light and, dare I say it, moist

The homemade organic non-GMO tofu stuffed with golden oyster mushrooms had an unexpected spicy kick to it, but there was no sign of any mushroom stuffing!

I had never had lilium bulb before this and it was a nice crisp sweet accompaniment to the course

Though the name ‘Brown Rice and Plum Vinegar’ is slightly offputting, this looked like champagne and tasted even better. Imagine Werther’s Original melted down into liquid, heaven.

The lion’s mane mushroom with black pepper sauce was the best part of the meal. Again, I was amazed there could be such a meaty taste and texture from something so un-meaty!

It was so filling as well, not at all like just eating some mushrooms

Also, I had no idea what ocra was, but I am a fan. Cold kidney beans on the other hand, were not so breathtaking

It wouldn’t be a meal in China without a bit of fried rice, but this had truffles in it, which gave it an extra tasty edge

If it hadn’t said this sorbet was made of organic tofu and brown rice on the menu I wouldn’t have believed it!

The organic tofu brown rice sorbet was incredibly sweet (especially considering the ingredients) and much creamier than the regular fruit sorbets I am used to

And if all that food just wasn’t enough, they let you keep your chopsticks as a souvenir!

Meat-free New Year’s resolution

With every New Year comes a resolution, and despite all our good intentions, the diets and other healthy lifestyle promises are often crushed under the weight of the New Year’s Day hangover.

We’ve broken ours already.

For those of you who are more strongly willed (read: less pathetic) than us, we congratulate you, for the rest of you we have come up with a solution: A meat-free month.

Today is the first ‘Meatless Monday’ of the 2014, and thus the perfect starting point to a 30-day meatless commitment; PETA has created an online pledge, you can find it here.

But how far will you choose to go?

Vegan or Vegetarian?

Choose vegan and you’re up there with the big guns. It’s tough, Beyoncé could only hack it for twenty-two days, but even then the results were obvious.

It’s a big commitment, but it is easier now than it has ever been before, with plenty of meat substitutes to minimise the shock. Bill Gates has even invested in manufacturing egg substitutes so he can have convincing vegan mayonnaise.

It would be a quick way to shed those holiday pounds.

Lots of celebrities are vegan for non-weight loss reasons (as we looked into last year) but it’s impossible to overlook the blatant impact on their physique. Natalie Portman is a vegan all year round, her motivation may be the animals not the body benefits, but she never seems to have a problem with love handles, post-holiday or not! 

Choosing vegetarian isn’t a cop out though, it would be a lot easier, but you would still get a healthy detox out of it as long as you don’t coat everything in cheese!

Any dietary choice that involves boosting your intake of fruit and veg is going to boost your appearance, and who wouldn’t want better skin and shinier hair? 

Either way you’d be doing the environment a favour by cutting your meat consumption. Who knows, maybe if enough people stop eating steak it will stop snowing in Egypt.