A month in Beijing

Running behind on the blog as usual... so as a quick wrap-up, there was a month in Beijing, and the company arranged me this huge luxury apartment to live in. Never lived in such a thing before and it doesn't feel comfortable, especially not in a country with as much poverty as China. Plus it does get lonely in a huge place, listening to the echo of your own footsteps. So I filled up the place with couchsurfers. And cats, four of them at best, former stray cats for temporary housing. And weekly milongas. Here's some pics.



Then a few restaurants that need mention:
1) The Vegan Hut -- a great vegan restaurant in Jianwai SOHO, right off the Guomao metro station. Probably the only place in China with vegan ice-cream. Excellent stuff. They're open also for breakfasts during the week. And have wireless internet. There's a take-away stand downstairs, the restaurant itself is on the 2nd floor (or 1st floor counting the British way). The Vietnamese dishes are particularly good. They also don't add MSG, although it might exist in premade sauces.
2) The other side of love, another vegan place with a more extensive menu, and less fake meats than most Chinese vegetarian restaurants. It's north from Xizhimen, at Mingguangcun west stop of bus line 16 from Xizhimen. In Chinese: 彼岸爱心素，艺海大厦，明光村西站。

And to the end, the first cake I've ever baked, at least if I'm not forgetting anything... it was pretty tasty, just should've had something nice for a topping.

Top 50 Restauraunts

Travelhacker has collected a list of the Top 50 Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurants, certainly worth checking out. The familiar ones on the list certainly are excellent, like Millenium in San Francisco, Susie's in Edinburgh and Sanchon in Seoul to pick a trio. Most of the other places I haven't been to, must keep them in mind when going to those areas. But I want to point out a few that in my mind definitely should've made it to the list though. Btw, they have a list of places for Green Travellers as well!

North America:
Possibly the best restaurant I've ever been to, the completely vegan Caravan of Dreams in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC, definitely shouldn't be missed on a trip to the Big Apple. The atmosphere is like one of a cosy café, and the menu, also containing enough for an amazing feast for the raw vegans, is sure to delight. The excellent service tops it off as a place almost worth a trip to New York for!

On the north side of the border, Le Commensal, a chain of vegetarian buffet restaurants in Canada are definitely winners. Their ginger tofu is among the best I've tried. Vegan dishes at Commensal are clearly marked, and you pay by the weight of the plate you collect. They're around the eastern parts of Canada, I've tried a few in Montréal, Quebec.

Back to the south, Herbivore in San Francisco left an undying memory with their amazing creations for breakfast. Also completely vegan, there are several Herbivore restaurants in this city spoiled with vegetarian fares.

Asia:
There's a bunch of awesome vegetarian restaurants right here in Beijing, but as I've written about them before, I'll just leave it at that.

In Indonesia you shouldn't miss Milas in Yogyakarta, it's simply so gorgeous that you want to dine in a place like that every day! The food is good enough to justify that, even though I think it would get boring for a vegan in the long run, the vegan options aren't that many. It's also a non-profit, which just makes you feel that much nicer about frequenting the place.

And I must once again point out to Jeombongsan Mountain Vegetable Village in Sokcho, South Korea. They create amazing dishes flavoured with the local herbs creating a truly unique experience. And the service is second to none.

Europe:
Nothing is mentioned from Finland, and there is a newly opened fully vegan restaurant that just opened in my hometown of Tampere. The place is Veganissimo, and the foods are totally amazing and absolutely world class. I have some pictures linked from when I mention my visit there.

Dancing to a new vegetarian restaurant

Last night I visited a rather new vegetarian restaurant that wasn't in the list when I wrote my review of vegetarian Beijing earlier. It's another one of the Lily vegetarian restaurant (百合素餐厅) chain, this one located in a traditional hutong house near the crossroads of Dongzhimenneidajie (东直门内大街) and Dongzhimenneibeixiaojie (东直门内北小街), south from Xiaojie bridge (小街桥) or west from Dongzhimen metro station. The fact that it is built in a hutong and retains the traditional hutong feel about it makes this place more interesting especially to travellers, and indeed it seemed many foreigners had found their way there. The menus were bilingual in Chinese and English and included some pictures of the foods. The menu seemed largely the same as the other Lily restaurants, which means a lot of mock meat and especially mock fish dishes. I tried the "lychee flavoured vegetarian fish", "curry vegetarian chicken with potato" and "mushroom hotpot with vegetarian satay", and some dumplings to go with it. The portions were quite large, and the food wasn't bad, but I wasn't really impressed with them either. Therefore I give the restaurants three smiley faces in my very own restaurant criteria as seen in the earlier review. Prices were similar to the other places in relatively central Beijing.

Otherwise, I've been biding my time dancing tango as we have a teacher visiting from Germany, the dance is great, much recommended to everyone. It's very creative, communicative, beautiful, and most of all, fun! I'm also just starting up salsa now, must keep dancing as the temperatures go low!

Contact details for the above mentioned Lily vegetarian / 百合素餐厅(香草园店):
东城区东直门内北小街香草园胡同23号(四合院内), 64052082.
From Dongzhimen metro station, take exit A to Dongshimennei and turn around as the exit faces north and you should head to the road going west. Then head straight on along Dongzhimenneidajie until you reach Dongzhimenneibeixiaojie. Cross that street and walk north, the Xiangcaoyuan hutong is the first or second little street on the left. The road sign is quite small so be on the lookout.

Vegetarian Beijing

As I recently toured the vegetarian restaurants of Beijing with my dad and sisters, I decided share with you what sort of culinary delights this city has to offer, especially since it seems there is no comprehensive listing of vegetarian restaurants in the web in English, or at least I haven't found one. There is one in Chinese at IVU.org. Let's go with this by the district.

东城区 (Dongcheng district -- the eastern parts of central Beijing, with the limit being around the 2nd ring road)

First, there's my local one, the vegetarian buffet at 雍和宫 (Yonghegong) lama temple, opposite the temple of Confucius. I read an interview of the chef long ago claiming all dishes would be vegan, and verified some dairy-looking things to really be vegan, but at the very least their ice-cream does have dairy and the desserts probably do also. I tend to skip things that look like they might have dairy or eggs, but if you feel more interested in them, do ask the staff, they might just be vegan. Lunch buffet costs 48 CNY, dinner buffet 58 CNY. Also serves individual dishes by order, and has bigger private rooms for larger groups.
Address: 北京市东城区国子监大街甲26号 登品素食(原叙香斋) -- Opposite the temple of Confucius, walk south from Yonghegong station exit C and you'll see a sign that says "vegetarian restaurant" even in English on your right hand side, around 100m from the station. There you turn right and it'll be the first restaurant on your left hand side quite soon.
Tel: 64046568
My rating: 4 stars

Next metro station, Andingmen (安定门) would host 莲花海素食 -- well, it's not actually at the station but not awfully far from there. In fact the restaurant is in a hutong. It's a cosy little place, and sometimes serves good food, but the quality seems rather random. Some of their stuff is just... plain at most.
Address: 安定门内大街车辇店胡同河北饭店对面. So it's opposite Hebei Hotel (河北饭馆), that's an easier thing to spot, in Cheniandian hutong, off (towards west) Andingmen neidajie. If going by bus, take 104 or 108 to 安定门内 (Andingmen nei).
Tel: 64036169
Opening hours: 10 AM to 10 PM daily.
My rating: 2 stars

Away from metro lines but certainly worth a visit is Wo xing wo su (我行我素茶食坊), which you can find at the north end of the city wall ruins park (皇城根遗址公园). This is also a tea house, and has nice and simple wooden decor. There's no smoking, no alcohol served, and no eggs in the food. Really good things here include the special tofu of the chef, Xihu (West Lake) vinegar "fish", black pepper steak, and the "meat pie", although many others are well worth trying also.
Address: 东城区地安门东大街61号，在平安大道霞光街口，皇城根遗址公园对面 (61 Di'anmen dongdajie)
Tel: 84011287
My rating: 4 stars

Closer to the city centre there would be 马娘娘斋饭 on Chaoyangmen neixiaojie. It's a nicely decorated (apart from the terrible toilets!) restaurant with usually good quality food, but can be a little random at times. Lower than average prices though. There's no egg in the foods.
Address: 北京东城区朝内南小街221号 (221 Chaoyangmennei nanxiaojie)
Tel: 65594161
My rating: 3 stars

Then there's Still Thoughts (静思素食坊), the place where the Vegan Social Club of Beijing has the Vegan Thursday dinners, but the restaurant is obviously open at other times too. The prices are fair, lower than most vegetarian restaurants in Beijing, the service and atmosphere good.
Address: 美术馆北大佛寺东街甲18号 (18 Dafosi dongjie). Refer to the map at the Vegan Social Club site.
Tel: 64008941
My rating: 3 stars

Name: 功德林素饭庄 (Gongdelin -- the oldest veg. restaurant in Beijing)
Address: Seems to have moved to the proximity of Chongwenmen metro station. From the line 2 station head west for half a block on the south side of the street, it's the big restaurant at the corner, seems to have no English signage. Should be Chongwenmen Xidajie, not sure of the house number, about 10.
Tel: 67020867/65112542 -- not sure if these are valid for the new location!
My rating: 2.5 stars -- based on visits to the old location, they may have changed

(Name: 绿色天食 (Green Angel)
Address: 东城区灯市口大街57号 (157 Dengshikou dajie). A bit off Wangfujing. Take bus lines 108, 111, 103, 104 or 803 to 灯市西口 (Dengshixikou).
Tel: 65242349/65242476
Closed since the summer of 2006. The food was nice and didn't have egg, and the location was a selling point to this rather expensive restaurant, but I don't know if it'll reopen or not.
My rating: 3.5 stars)


西城区 (Xicheng district -- the western parts of central Beijing, roughly within the 2nd ring road)

First this area has my favourite restaurant that I introduced earlier, 嘉禾园素食. Since it has been introduced, I'll simply mention the details now. And that it does serve beer, as I didn't mention last time. Average prices, prepare for up to 100 yuan per person.
Address: 德胜门西大街甲5号（积水潭桥西360米路北地铁集团院内）. Close to Jishuitan metro station, head west past the petrol station and turn to a courtyard that says 北京地铁, then it'll be on your right hand side quite soon.
Tel: 62261846
My rating: 5 stars

Next, 慈海素心. This nice restaurant stands in the basement of a hotel called 齐鲁饭店. It's rather friendly and some of the staff speak English... enough to bother me actually, when I speak Chinese to them and they reply in English. But the food is pretty good, they also have a mock Peking duck which isn't bad, although I didn't try it the last time as we had the mock duck in Bodhi-Sake. The fruit juice is quite expensive and so are some of the dishes, depends much on what you order. The menus are in Chinese and English but without pictures. The restaurant is quite close to Lotus Lane and the Qianhai and Houhai lake areas that have lots of bars and lights at night, it can be a lovely place for a stroll, especially a romantic one. Pricing a little above average, prepare for 100 yuan per person.
Address: 西城区地安门西大街103号，齐鲁饭店后院内. (103 Di'anmen xidajie.) Bus lines 107,118,810,850,204 and 13 take you there, get off at 东官房站 (dong guan fang zhan).
Tel: 66571898, 13301259664
My rating: 3.5 stars

妙膳素食 was the very first vegetarian restaurant I found in Beijing, and it's in the same area near the lakes. However, when I last went there (2006), the place had changed and was no longer completely vegetarian. They had a very extensive range of vegetarian options though, including a lot of mock meat things.
Address: 北京西城区鼓楼西大街76号. (176 Gulou xidajie.) Either take the metro to Gulou exit B and walk south all the way to the Drum tower, turn west and continue a bit -- overall a 15-20 min walk. Or take bus 5, 815, 819 or 839 to 甘水桥站 (Ganshuiqiao). Or walk from Qianhai.
Tel: 84045899
My rating: 2 stars -- the food is good and place nice, but the presence of meat lowers the score

There's also one near Xizhimen station, I'm not sure if this is still in Xicheng district or not, but let's assume so. 静思素食坊（分店） is a nice and clean place, but modern and lacks personality. The food is good and tasty but nothing really fancy about it.
Address: 北京市梅苑饭店高粱桥斜街甲30号（交通大学南门梅园饭店1-2层）. Around the south gate of the Jiaotong university.
Tel: 62255792
My rating: 3 stars

And then there's Shifangzhai (十方斋素食宫), haven't tried them yet:
Address: 平安里西大街甲6号 (平安大街赵登禹路路口往东100米路南) (Location on map.)
Tel: 66166691/66166692
Info: No eggs, no five roots, no alcohol. Seats 300, tables for 8 but can be joined to seat over 30 people together.

宣武区 (Xuanwu district -- south of the city centre)

This has Bodhi-Sake restaurant, of which I wrote earlier. It's not terribly far from the Temple of Heaven, although it can be a bit of a walk for those not used to walking at all.
Address: 10-16 Heiyaochang jie. 200 metres to the north of north gate of Taoranting Park.
Tel: 010-63557348
Opening hours: 10am-10pm
My rating: 4 stars

朝阳区 (Chaoyang district -- north-eastern parts of the city, outside 2nd ring road east and north)

Close to home in Hepingli 和平里 area but a little hard to find is 荷塘月色 or Lotus in Moonlight, and it's worth a visit even though I got a bad impression the first time I went there as they gave us a complimentary dish containing dairy and the waiter denied it -- it's the lie that makes it worse than the dairy, it doesn't claim to be dairy free. However, it is a Chinese restaurant like all of these and the dishes with dairy are few and far between. Average prices, for 1-2 people prepare for 100 yuan per person, for more people it'll be less.
Address: 朝阳区柳芳南里12号楼（104路柳芳东口下/18路左家庄下） -- the bus instructions there tell you to get off from 104 at 柳芳东口 (liu fang dong kou) or from 18 at 左家庄 (zuo jia zhuang). If you're walking along Hepinglibeijie (和平里北街), turn south to Zuojiazhuangdajie (左家庄大街) and walk for a few blocks and pay attention to your right hand side, there will be a sign for the restaurant telling you to turn right, walk for 100m or so and find it on your right. I don't remember if there was any English in the sign.
Tel: 64653299/64663114
My rating: 3.5 stars

Next up, 草木间, although it's quite far from me but it is worth a visit. They have the greatest fake fish, albeit the last time they had changed their menus and I didn't see it and tried other things. Those weren't quite as special, but the atmosphere in the restaurant is nice as it hosts a little stream and a bridge over it. The menus are in Chinese and English and have pictures too. Prices slightly above average.
Address: 朝阳区劲松三区甲302号华腾达厦二层. So it's on the 3rd ring road east, not terribly far from the Temple of Heaven if you're into walking a lot, but most people wouldn't go for it (like I would, haha :-P). By public transport you might take the metro to Guomao (国贸) and either walk south for 20 minutes or jump into any bus going to Jingsong bridge (劲松桥), it's very near. The restaurant is on the second floor like it says there in Chinese, enter through the main entrance of the building. There are signs for vegetarian restaurant even in English on the side of the building.
Tel: 87730135, 87730136
My rating: 4 stars

For upper class dining, try 净心莲素食餐厅. It's rather popular so it would be recommendable to reserve a table in advance. The dishes are set up in quite fancy ways and this shows in the prices too, but on the international level it's still rather cheap, perhaps 100 yuan per person will do if you don't go for the really fancy things. There are no eggs in the dishes and the place doesn't serve alcohol. The menus are huge, in Chinese and English, but without pictures of the foods. Try the mock shark at least, it's yummy.
Address: 农展南里10号中国文联院内. (10 Nongzhannanli, inside the courtyard of Chinese cultural federation.) It's very near north-east from 长虹桥 (Chang bridge of the 3rd ring road east. That means if you head east from Dongsishitiao you will eventually get there, but it is a relatively long walk. Bus lines 350, 707 and 特3 get there.
Tel: 87036669/65923627
My rating: 4.5 stars

And again one I haven't been to yet:

颐养斋

亚运村北苑路阳光广场北侧，公交:358、803、417支、758、858大屯站或秀园站下 / 64976535

海淀区 (Haidian district, north-west of the city outside 2nd ring road)

香阳小筑 is a nice restaurant that unlike many of the other vegetarian restaurants in Beijing seems to be practically only for locals. Also the Chinese-only menus without pictures don't attract foreigners. The price level is more suitable for local budgets than the other vegetarian places mentioned. The food has no eggs, no MSG, and no alcohol is served. There's also a small shop for mock meat stuff in the front.
Address: 海淀区北三环路大钟寺古钟博物馆大门西侧20米. On 3rd ring road north, 20m west from the entrance of the clock museum of Dazhong temple.
Tel: 82112104
My rating: 3 stars with a little extra from the no MSG part

Near the east gate of Tsinghua university you can find Heaven's Kitchen (天厨妙香(清华店)), which is another busy restaurant, book or be prepared to have to wait for a table. The food is really good though, there's no eggs, no smoking, no alcohol served, and it doesn't use the root vegetables the Buddhists don't eat. The prices are rather reasonable.
Address: 清 华正门外，清华科技园，创业大厦一层西侧。A little hard to find perhaps, head west from the Tsinghua east gate (outside campus) within the courtyards where you can walk and it should be one of the first restaurants that come your way. There's a coffee shop with bigger signs at the same entrance. Bus lines 110, 307, 320支, 331, 355, 355支, 375, 375支, 628, 726, 731, 732支, 743, 749, 825, 913 and 951 go to Tsinghua east gate.
Tel: 62797078 / 62780859 / 89833390
My rating: 4.5 stars

Then there should be two restaurants I haven't visited, so I'm just posting the information from the Chinese website here:
Name: 百合素餐厅(稊园店)
Address: 海淀区昆明湖路50号，颐和园新宫门东南50米（乘坐374,374支,704,905,992等公交车在颐和园南门下车即到）. 50 Kunminghulu, 50 m southeast of the new gate of the Summer Palace. Bus lines 374, 374支, 704, 905, 992 and others serve the south gate of the Summer Palace.
Tel: 62878726
Special information: No eggs, no alcohol, no five roots

Name: 六和斋
Address: 海淀区西三旗立交桥东南角
Tel: 86490060/86394733

昌平区 Changping district

Here's another one I haven't tried yet:
Name: 般若素食
Address: 昌平区鼓楼东街33号. (33 Gulou dongjie.) Take bus 21 to Changping 2nd highschool and head north for five minutes. Here's the original instruction too: (乘轻轨到龙泽，换乘21路公共汽车，到昌平二中下车，向北5分钟即是)
Tel: 86694425,13141386173
Special information: no smoking, no alcohol, no meat, no eggs, no five roots

嘉禾园素食 -- my favourite restaurant in BJ

I decided it was time to introduce my favourite restaurant in Beijing. 嘉禾园素食 (Jia he yuan su shi) or the "excellent grain garden vegetarian restaurant" (my translation, not sure if they have an English name) is located near Jishuitan metro station along the 2nd ring road north. But the place is quite hidden, in fact the first time I went there we had to call the place three times just to find it! It's hidden in a courtyard of houses, the sign at the gate of the courtyard says 北京地铁 (Beijing metro), which doesn't help matters. Even inside the right area it's easy to walk past the place. Basically from Jishuitan station you take exit A and walk west past the petrol station, and the first courtyard to the right after a short bit of green following the petrol station should have that sign. Within the area the restaurant will soon be on your right hand side.

Now assuming you find it, what you'll find inside is a quiet and comfortable environment and friendly staff. Perhaps due to being hard to find, this place is never crowded. The owners are Buddhists and that explains the decor as well as the music playing on the background. But of course it's a restaurant, so the best part would have to be the food. Everything in the menu is vegetarian, but not necessarily vegan. However, the dishes themselves don't tend to contain eggs or dairy (but do verify!). Among my friends this place is commonly known as "the potato fish restaurant". This is because the very first time I went there, I ordered a dish that was one of these mock fish things in sweet and sour sauce. To my surprise, this "fish" that looked realistic enough tasted like potatoes! For the simple reason that that's what it is. There's also pineapple at the bottom. It's pretty good, do have a try.

While the potato fish is a distinguishing feature, it's not my favourite dish in this great place. That would be their roasted mushrooms in a spicy sauce. I discovered by accident that if you have the mushrooms together with their shredded pancake, it's not too spicy at all, but still enough to wake up the taste buds. It's beautifully set too. A total delight.

Also noteworthy is their sweet taro, of which I have no photos at the moment, and this sweet potato dish featured on the left. A lot of other foods are tasty also, do go crazy experimenting! The only thing I don't like is the fake pork meat which they make too realistically, even adding in a layer of fake fat! What's the point? Nobody wants the fat anyway.

To complete a meal there's a complimentary fruit plate as is rather common in restaurants in China, well, the decent ones. What's more, this place also has vegetarian books on offer, many for free, and sometimes Buddhist music also.

Here's the address so you can find them, first in Chinese:
德胜门西大街甲5号（积水潭桥西360米路北地铁集团院内）
Or if you don't read Chinese but want to say it to a taxi driver:
Deshengmen Xidajie jia 5 hao.
Tel: 010 - 62261846

Indonesia, days 8-10: The beach! And leaving...

Anyone who knows me at all knows that when the weather gets hot, there's one thing I long for: to get in the water! Throughout the time in Indonesia I was asking for places to swim, but apparently there aren't decent ones except for Bali which was far away. There was one beach that I had been told to be possibly the most gorgeous one there is, and a place where no foreigner had set foot before. But there were also supposed to be huge tidal waves and it may be too dangerous to swim. Well, by day 8 it was time to find out for myself. We dropped into a temple in Yogyakarta first and from there found a car and driver and two ladies who came along. To this day I remain unclear as to why they came along as they didn't even come to the beach, but... not my problem. On the way we dropped by a fruit market and bought three big boxes of oranges and plenty of water bottles to give away at the village. Or well, to reduce the price, I hid away and the locals did the shopping. It took 2-3 hours to get to the village on small mountain roads with beautiful scenery, passing rice fields and fruit trees all the way.


There are no phones in the village and mobile phone networks don't cover it either, so there was no way to check if the local kids would be around then. It also happened to be a day for weddings, we passed several wedding receptions on the way, and as the first houses in the village were empty it seemed as though everyone might be at one of those. However, eventually we found a kid and he helped gather around the rest of them, and some parents too, to the temple. At the temple we served fruits and nuts and crisps to everybody and sat around and sang songs... I was put to sing a couple of Indonesian songs and the kids sang English songs to me. Some of them were excellent singers! Actually their artistic talent wasn't limited to singing put some had made gorgeous oil paintings also. I was given one as a gift, a beautiful scenery and a waterfall, complete with a cute little duck.


After the singing session, it was time to hit the beach! It's a bit away from the village, we gathered up as many kids as could fit in the car and drove a tiny little road, the rocks sounding like doing dangerous damage to the bottom of the car. Eventually we hit a point where you couldn't drive any further and hiked for the last half an hour through some gorgeous scenes... although the best were only seen when we finally saw the sea!





The beach was gorgeous, but the tidal waves really were huge and it was rocky, so it soon became clear that to swim there that day would be practically a suicide. We walked in the water and I got myself completely wet, so it felt a little better. The kids collected sea shells. I hear during high tide this beach would be absolutely perfect as then the water reaches the sand, making it easier to swim without such fear of hitting the rocks. Either way, it was a gorgeous location, and it was quite special to be the first foreigner out there.


The way back wasn't clear and we had a bunch of kids along so it was time to head back before it got dark. The kids were dropped back into the village and then we headed back to Yogyakarta and to the great vegetarian restaurant Milas, described in more detail for the previous day. The food was as good as ever.




All good things must come to an end, and so it went also for the Indonesia trip. Day 9 was just a day for preparing to leave: took a bus back to Semarang, bought a plane ticket to Jakarta, waited for my friend to negotiate with her aunt about how to do this and eventually doing it a little differently anyway... We took the car the aunt insisted on back to Ampel but stayed there overnight rather than returning immediately to Semarang. This time was needed to pack and get the pictures on a CD and so on. Then it was an early morning drive to Semarang, flight over to Jakarta (where the damn bastards stole my sunscreen as it was in the hand package and that's not allowed!) and then back over to the northern hemisphere again... not very far though, just to Singapore. The pics below are still in Yogyakarta, and another vegetarian restaurant there, Lusidus. We persuaded the staff there to mark vegan dishes in their menu with my green marker, so if you go there and see the markings, you know who to blame. :-)