I Can't Believe It's Vegetarian!

If you're unfamiliar with Chinese-style vegetarian food, then you may be in for quite a shock when you see the menu at Xu Xiang Zhai Restaurant and even more of a shock when the food is finally brought to the table. It's a pleasant, flowers-from-a-stranger kind of shock, and once you're used to the concept, you'll wonder why you haven't been exposed to this fascinating culinary niche before.

First, the menu looks exactly as it would in any Chinese restaurant. You won't find any of the plain ingredient-list type dish titles that you may find at home. No "Gluten pan fried with brown sauce" here. Instead, you'll see Peking Duck, Pork ribs with sweet and sour sauce, "Squirrel-shaped" Mandarin Fish. And when it comes to the table, it looks, tastes, and smells exactly like the original regional Chinese dish! When you overcome your disbelief enough to take a bite, the exceptionally clear flavours and masterful palette of tastes will, as it does every night to dozens of customers, convert you from sceptic to believer in a few mouthfuls.

It's quite a trick the chef manages, to not only fill a menu with dozens of "standard" dishes but also not use animal products, and so we asked him sharpish questions about possible shortcuts.

BTM: Your oils are totally vegetarian, too?

Chef: Of course. The whole kitchen has never seen, and will never see, any meat products. From the time it was built this building was entirely vegetarian.

BTM: What about eggs and milk? Surely this thick, thick sauce requires eggwhites?

Chef: No no! When I say "no animal products" I really mean it! There are no eggs or milk in any of my dishes.

BTM: That's going further than many people who would call themselves vegetarian, or ovo-lacto vegetarian in any case.

Chef: Yes, there are many different feelings about what constitutes a vegetarian diet and what does not. But if I don't use any animal products then I can please everyone, right?

And please everyone is what this pleasant little restaurant -- three minutes walk into a pleasant tree-lined hutong from the Lama Temple subway station -- tries very hard to do. The décor is fresh and clean, the service excellent, the non-smoking section (in a move we'd like to see emulated widely in Beijing if not in the whole of China) is clearly delineated and enforced. But it's the great food at excellent prices you'll come back for, amazing dishes that disprove the old saw about things that look like ducks and quack like ducks …you never know, at Xu Xiang Zhai, its not duck at all, but rather exquisitely prepared shavings of two types of tofu that melts in the mouth just like duck!

Call ahead on +86 10 6406 6566 and the English-speaking staff will be happy to take