Common Ground: A Vegetarian’s Paradise for Lovers of Chinese Food

June 2007 | Healthy Living :: Tastebuds

A Vegetarian’s Paradise for Lovers of Chinese Food

Traditional Chinese medicine, and good fake meat

By Boni Uzilesvski

The name Shangri-La evokes an earthly paradise and the mystery of the Orient. The Chinese restaurant of the same name is located in the Sunset, on Irving near 21st. While it’s neither a paradise nor mysterious inside, the food is quite delicious, and all of it is vegetarian. The restaurant, a neighborhood treasure since 1978, is decorated like a rural farmhouse: flowered vinyl tablecloths, fake wood paneling, hanging lamps with basket-type shades and small painted Chinese landscapes in plastic gilded frames. Though I did get the impression that the furnishings were a facile take on Midwestern décor circa 1970, the ambiance was comfortable, inviting and unassuming.

Immediately after we sat down, the waiter brought tea and pickled vegetables. The pickled veggies were very good. The tea they serve is Melaleuca, made from the alternifolia bush in Australia. It was used (perhaps still is) by the Aborigines, and is a very tasty herbal-style tea.

The first page of the menu lists several items, along with the therapeutic benefit of that particular dish according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, under the heading “Extra Beneficial Herbal Dishes.” For example, one dish claims, “strengthening spleen, blood nourishing, energizing, increasing internal energy.” In Chinese tradition, health and cooking are intertwined but I had never seen medicinal explanations on a menu before. The menu also says that all of the restaurant’s food is kosher; there was certification for this in a document under the glass at my table.

Shangri-La’s menu is quite extensive. We started with “Vegetarian soup with vegetarian chicken, panax ginseng and wolfberry,” which was just as interesting as it sounds. I had never had a wolfberry before, and I think that’s why I ordered it. They were large, reddish berries resembling an elongated raspberry, but the flavor and texture was more like a date, and not very sweet. There seemed to be goji berries in the soup as well, which made the broth slightly sweet as well as salty. The soup felt very healthy — and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. It tasted good, too. We sampled the Tofu Balls in Schezuan Sauce, a light, fluffy, fried tofu with minced vegetables and a slightly spicy, dark sauce. You could taste individual spices with every bite. We identified clove, ginger and coriander. The Broccoli with Hot Sauce was flavorful, and the broccoli was crisp and tender. The Dry Cooked String Bean was intense with mounds of roasted garlic; make sure your date eats some with you.

We didn’t try too many of the fake meat dishes; there are so many, and every typical Chinese meat dish seems to be on the menu with fake meat substituted. We did try the Smoked Veggie Duck, which was very similar to a roulade — a roll with layers of thin dough and a savory vegetable filling inside, which was served sliced and cold on a bed of lettuce. It was really unusual and had a pretty intense smoky flavor. It was not reminiscent of real duck in any way, as opposed to the way other fake meat can be very close to the real thing (be forewarned, duck aficionados). It was rather like an hors d’oeuvre, and we should have had it first.

We were asked if we wanted white or brown rice, and we ordered brown. We were served two types of rice; one was a red rice, and the other a short-grain brown. They were nutty and perfectly cooked, not a sticky morsel in the bowl.

Being a mostly vegetarian eater myself, I enjoyed Shangri La. It’s nice to have an entire, four-page Chinese vegetarian menu at your disposal instead of hunting for the vegetable options somewhere near the back. The prices are reasonable and comparable to any number of Chinese places in the City. It’s unfortunate that this restaurant flew under my radar for all these years, but I’ll definitely be back soon.

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