City becoming fit locale for vegetarian dining

Temple vegetarian cuisine is extremely strict regarding ingredients, banning the five pungent flavors used in cooking — onion, chives, cloves, parsley and coriander. Top vegetarian chefs place more emphasis on unique raw materials and cooking methods. Precious mushrooms and petals are often found in the recipes.

Now diners have no shortage of options. Type "vegetarian" on the popular restaurant review website Dianping.com, and you will find more than 100 results. These cover traditional Chinese cuisine, Western food and fusion dishes.

The competition is getting fierce as customer's increasingly high demands make it essential for restaurants to provide quality ingredients. Instead of simple bean products, more restaurants are paying attention to fresh vegetables and mushrooms.

"Though a healthy diet has become a major concern for people in choosing a restaurant, delicious food will always get their vote. Nobody is going to go to a restaurant selling healthy food that tastes bad," says Y.B. Sung, a Taiwan businessman who founded Zao Zi Shu (Jujube Tree) more than 10 years ago.

More and more vegetarian restaurants like Zao Zi Shu are targeting fashionable young diners rather than traditional Chinese Buddhists. Some offer "high-end" vegetarian cuisine, like Fu He Hui (Fortune and Intelligence), where average costs soar to more than 500 yuan (US$81) per person, and Da Shu Wu Jie, (Vegetarian With No Boundary), where it costs no less than 200 yuan per person.

"To be honest, I don't like vegetarian restaurants like this, though the food there is generally delicious," Wang says. "It now more looks like a high-end trend rather than a healthy lifestyle."

For Chinese vegetarians, there are differences between vegetarian eateries in China and in the West.

"Vegetarian food in Chinese restaurants is generally much greasier than that in Western style," says Gu Yiqiao, a 30-year-old Shanghainese.

Out of health concerns, more customers today opt for light vegetable dishes, cooked delicately with little oil and heat with the aim of retaining the original flavor of the fresh, raw ingredients.

Yams, mushrooms and various green vegetables are among the most popular ingredients, according to Pim Li, catering development manager at Sun Island Resorts in Shanghai, which provides vegetarian menus.

"Most earlier Chinese vegetarian cuisine focused on cooking soybean products so that they resembled meat dishes," Li says. "This involved deep-frying and heavy seasoning, both of which are considered far from healthy today."

Gu, a vegetarian since 2010, says the reasons are for health and her wish for "peace in the world."

Fresh salads, vegetarian soups, pizzas or pastas in Western-style restaurants are her first choice for lunch. She cites restaurants like Element Fresh, Wagas and Green Safe. She usually prepares dinner at home, which she considers more reliable than dining out.

"You have a lot of choices of green vegetables at food market," says Gu, "However, at many Chinese restaurants, if it's not a pure vegetarian one, the kitchen usually doesn't change the wok before preparing a vegetable dish for vegetarians."