Element fresh – Shanghai

Element fresh (http://www.elementfresh.com) is an expat friendly place in multiple locations in the major centres of Shanghai (Super Brand Mall, Jinqiao, Xujiahui, Nanjing Road etc) which features a set of continental cuisine and also some “asian sets” for the weary traveler. The food quality is great with very friendly service in English and Chines. Their fresh juices and smoothies are fantastic.

They do have a few vegetarian options – my favorite are the “egg plant sandwich” featured below as well as their vietnamese shrimp noodles (without the shrimp & replaced with tofu) with extra crispy fried onions and peanuts – ask for their spicy chinese sauce on the side as well. The eggplant sandwich has melted cheese, which tastes excellent in the fresh tasting bread – only downside is that they don’t offer fries (element fresh, right?)

The pumpkin soup there is vegetarian – you can ask for that in the asian set as well; their side salads are sumptuous and not just filled with the random lettuce leaves (I ask for their blue ginger vinaigrette as the dressing). Their pasta is reasonably tasty – nothing to write home about.

All in all, Element fresh is an excellent western comfort food alternative with some veggie options.

Slice Deli – Shanghai

Slice Deli is an upscale expat focused place, one of the two locations of which is near the Biyun road Carrefour store and right next to the expat school playground in Pudong Shanghai. Location & menus are at: http://www.slice-deli.com/locations_en.htm

The sterile ambience is sort of inviting – the food is reasonably tasty and of shanghai price – meaning, this will likely be equivalent to what you’d pay in a nice restaurant in the states or the UK –

While vegetarian fare is limited, the options presented are indeed decent – the 12″ pizzas are sumptuous (recommend not trying the pumpkin pizza, despite how exotic as it sounds).

The vegetarian panini sandwich featured below, tastes exactly like it looks – excellent. So, all in all, it works out – they have a little store that sells stuff there as well that you can take back with you.

Shanghai Xintiandi + Xin Ji Shi + Vegetarian authentic chinese food

After staying in Shanghai with Charan for a week & complaining to Jack daily about how we didn’t get any authentic Chinese food as we were vegetarians, Jack & Lulu took pity on us and took us out to Xintiandi and gave us a tour of the place, the french architecture.

If you don’t have the luxury of a chinese speaking friend, don’t despair. Xintiandi (pronounced Shin-tendi) is well-known with the cab drivers & the hotel concierge can easily send you off there. It is on the Puxi side of the river. However, this area is designed for the tourists & especially packed with american/ european fare. There are steakhouses, breweries, cafes and a few authentic chinese restaurants as well. I have heard good things about another Chinese restaurant in Xintiandi called “Southern Beauty” which I haven’t been to yet.

Jack & Lulu said this was one of the good places to go to & so we did. They made us believe that Chinese food is truly vegetarian, at its heart. Historically, meat was only sparsely available and was consumed only by the rich. Hence, the average daily fare consisted of rice and vegetables – it isn’t true anymore.

One of the things I find immensely useful in Chinese restaurants is the picture menu. Xin Ji Shi does have a few pictures in their menu .. but, unfortunately, not all of the above are well represented in the menu. From left to right, we had a tofu dish with mushrooms in a sweet sauce and garnished with salty peanuts, a tofu dish with coriander leaves & spices (not my favorite), lotus root stuffed with sticky rice, steamed and sliced – this was just wonderful and then, a stir fry of a combination of different vegetables including bamboo shoots that was mildly spicy and very tasty. Not represented in the photographs, Xin Ji Shi serve an “onion bread” that is oozing with oil (as most shanghainese foods are), but is just simply fabulous.

Chinese foods are served family style, as in the bowl is set in the center of the table and each person starts poking at it with their chopsticks – the ability to use chopsticks helps. If not, good luck asking for forks. A good idea would be to ask your concierge to write down the above menu in chinese and also to write down how to ask for forks in chinese.

would certainly recommend Xin Ji Shi for a taste of authentic Chinese food, yet very vegetarian. Let me know if you find it.

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shanghai + the blue frog + veggie burger

Continuing the section on “being vegetarian in shanghai”, here is the second post – we had dinner at The Blue Frog, which I guess serves as a pub in the evenings for the “american fare”starved. The menu resembles what you’d find in a reasonable american grille – burgers & the kind. The atmosphere resembles the same. There is one Blue Frog near the Super Brand Mall and another in the vicinity of Carrefour in Biyun Road near the Jinqiao commercial center.

We found two vegetarian dishes at the Blue Frog – a veggie burger that claims there is a falafel in between two buns and a pasta. The pasta is something you’d order only if you are forced to – of course, the table has some ketchup & the Mexican Maggi. You can get some Tabasco as well, on request. The garlic bread that accompanied the pasta made it taste a lot better.

The veggie burger does not have a falafel inside, by any means. It does a vegetarian patty between two buns and comes with all the fixings a burger should. The patty has moderate flavor, or lack thereof. A genorous portion of ketchup & Tabasco adds some taste to it. The fries were reasonably good though

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If you crave a vegetarian burger and wish to take a break from the chinese food, the Blue frog is a good choice.

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Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple – Vegetarian Restaurant

The Jade Buddha temple is quite popular and is on the Puxi side and most hotels should be able to help you get there. Once you get there, if you walk around inside, it is easy to find the vegetarian restaurant.

We tried several things there (things were much cheaper here at the temple). The place appears a bit dingy and being comfortable with using chop sticks is a definite plus. In trying things, we loved the veggie dumplings soup style – most people at the temple don’t speak English and chances are you have to look for this picture in a menu with pictures & point. Rest assured that it is well worth the finding & pointing – one advantage you have in the Buddha temple is that everything there is vegetarian & so, even if you point at something that looks a bit silly, chances are you may not like the taste, but your vegetarian vows are still intact!

Again, if I haven’t said it enough, the “veggie dumplings soup style” is served piping hot – so, watch out for the tongue burn, but tastes best and I haven’t found a comparable veggie dumpling elsewhere in Shanghai so far. Enjoy & let us know what you think.

 

 

 

 

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Being a vegetarian in Shanghai

I am going to write a series of blog posts on being a vegetarian in Shanghai – I have had the good fortune to be in Shanghai for over 45 days this year and I have found Chinese, Indian, Nepalese & western vegetarian foods in Shanghai. I will review them each here, post photos & recommend how to order. But, for starters, here are some of the restaurants where I ate in Shanghai:
1. Xintiandi has a chinese restaurant called Xin Ji Shi
2. Most shanghaiites would recommend “Gong-De-Lin” – this is a buddhist place & by definition everything they serve is vegetarian. They have “mock meats” that are made of tofu with the texture of meat – not sure which vegetarian would want to eat that
3. Nizang – A nepalese restaurant in Pudong
4. Punjabi Restuarant – Indian restaurant in “Thumb Plaza” in Pudong, by the Carrefour store
5. Element Fresh – in a few places, but by the Super Brand Mall and Jinqiao commerical centre
6. New York City Pizza – has a cheese pizza that is ok
7. The flying fox – an irish pub that serves a decent lunch
8. Din-Tai-Fung – a dimsum place in super brand mall, with a vegetarian dimsum as well as a “taiwanese noodles” with a spicy peanut sauce that is absolutely delicious
9. Hongkongese restaurant on top of Ba-Bai-Ban (Next Age) department store in Pudong
10. Vedas – an upscale Indian restaurant in Puxi
11. The Pudong Intercontinental – has a few items on the menu; wouldn’t recommend going there unless you actuall stay there
12. Face – an exceptional thai restaurant with some veggie items on its menu
13. the vegetarian restaurant in the “Jade Buddha temple” – I am not sure if it was our hunger, but, man, the soup style veggie dumplings is something Charan & I are still talking about!!! – be comfortable with chop sticks though!
14. The Blue Frog – an American burger joint that has a veggie burger that is palatable

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