Taste of enlightenment

A vegetarian restaurant in Beijing celebrates the food and traditions of Chinese Buddhism, Mike Peters reports.

"We are still enjoying the cool winter," says our waiter at Pure Lotus. I had been less than pleased at the chill March winds that bit through our jackets on our way to dinner, but the words I'm hearing are more metaphor than meteorology.

The plate set before me is a pile of snow: More literally, it's a mound of shredded daikon, a white nest of mildly sweet radish in which are tucked five nibbles with five different tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and spicy. They represent the five elements of Chinese divination: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. From one side of the plate, a handful of branches with plum blossoms rises from the shining slivers of "snow", a promise of the spring to come.