Diet without the pain
(Shanghai Star)
Updated: 2005-01-17 08:54

It's easy to gain some holiday weight within a week but hard to get rid of it in the same short period, especially when another week-long Spring Festival holiday is just around the corner.

The most straightforward but painful way to lose weight is to "eat less and work out more." Few people have as much perseverance as movie stars, so there should be an alternative way to achieve the same goal.

I thought one efficient method might be to reduce meat in my diet. Therefore, I have been a daily visitor to the JuJube Tree vegetarian restaurant and was getting a little tired of the repetitious menu. Then I found the Vegeatery with its slogan: "Trendy, healthy cuisine."

I was not sure whether a fancy atmosphere in a Chinese restaurant with a Western-style table arrangement really fitted the description of "trendy," though most local restaurants do take the combination of Chinese and Western as a new trend. It also makes them more expensive.

The inside of the restaurant is splendid and elegant, decorated with green crystal glass screens dividing it into different dining areas with dazzling dragon wall sculptures.

On one of the walls there was a huge Chinese calligraphy character san (spread) carved in a piece of black glass. Nobody in the restaurant could tell me why that character had been put on the wall. My guess was that the owner wanted to spread the concept of the diet promoted by the restaurant more widely.

A strong Spring Festival tone could already be detected from the hanging red lanterns and Chinese character chun (spring). Some green plants contained in tiny glass bottles on each table were appealing.

Unlike the Jujube Tree, which focuses on middle-level customers and also attracts many Buddhist monks and nuns, the Vegeatery claimed that it was simply advocating a healthy eating style.

It seemed that each course was a classy work by the chef, nicely presented and beautifully named. The waitresses here are the most informative ones I've ever met. They told us every detail of the ingredients of each dish and how they would benefit our health. Our questions were quickly answered.

The deep-fried vegetable rolls filled with taro and sesame seeds are similar to sushi. Diced celery and carrot were mixed with creamy taro and the rolls were savory, especially with the sesame.

Most of the vegetarian food was made of tofu, many of the dishes being deep-fried to recreate the textures of the fish or meat they were imitating. However, deep-fried foods are not considered healthy, which rather contradicts the restaurant's "healthy cuisine" appeal.

The nut-flavoured pudding, made of almond, with vegetarian crab roe sauce, made of carrot paste, was as tasty as real crab dishes. The restaurant has banned MSG and instead uses a seasoning made from mushrooms.

The best among all was the dessert with the beautiful name xue hua xiang jiao (snow-topped fried banana). The snow was white powdered sugar that quickly melted on the hot banana, just like real snow does when falling onto the ground. The banana, wrapped with a crisp flour crust, tasted like cream.

The Vegeatery

3F, Central Plaza,

381 Huaihai Zhonglu

Tel: 6391-5589

Average cost: 150 yuan (US$18) for two people. Every diner who spends more than 70 yuan (US$8.40) is entitled to free appetizers from the buffet table

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