Vegetarian in Shanghai

Being vegetarian in Shanghai is both easy and hard. It is easy because of the amazing varieties of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains along with many forms of soy and wheat. Walk in any good size supermarket and the produce section makes Whole Foods seem ordinary. In addition there are "wet markets" - a lot like "farmer's markets" in the US - on every block. Finally there are mega markets, much like Super Walmarts, that have "imported foods" sections and even "bulk" sections. For posterity, the current megamarts are:

-Carrefour (French)
-Metro (the German company Metro AG is the world's 3rd biggest commercial company)
-LianHua (Shanghaiese)

However, since I don't have an oven, my repertoire becomes limited. In addition to the usual Chinese stir fry and soy sauce bruise, I made spaghetti regularly. A coworker's recent trip to Thailand added red and green curries. When I find tortilla chips in the stores - usually imported from Mexico - I make salsa for microwave nachos. [John's comment: Sun-Ling is quite modest. Her "usual Chinese stir fry" is usually astoundingly delicious and while the variety doesn't change much day-to-day, the change from season to season is significant.]

Eating out is an entirely a different matter. There are half a dozen "pure" vegetarian (no eggs, no dairy) restaurants in Shanghai. We used to frequent them until we (mostly me) got tired of Chinese food and Chinese restaurants. The other problem (mostly John) is that they are so pure that they don't serve beer. Now we seem to eat out only at overpriced restaurants that serve Western food. For posterity I list them here.

-"Element Fresh" - Western breakfast
-"Zentral" - Cold sandwiches
-"Blue Moon Dinner" - great fries, tofu burger, and Soda Fountain Coke
-"Blue Frog" - veggie burger
-"Kraze Burger" - OK fries and tomato/mozzarella sandwich from this Korean chain
-"Gino's" - Great veggie pesto pizza with olives and pineapple - our fav
-"Travel Coffee" - Mushrooms and gluten with rice
-"Henry's Microbrewery and Grill" - Great beer! - ho hum food - good fries
-"The Commune" - Sandwiches & coffee on Taikang Rd
-"Demarco's" - Wood oven pizza
-"New Heights" - great view
-"M on the Bund" - not if I'm paying!

Also we eat at various ethnic restaurants; some foreign and some Chinese.
-Thai - Several - only OK.
-Vietnamese - So-so.
-Xinjiang - Several good Xinjiang style restaurants near our apartment - one with singing and dancing - Xinjiang dark beer is tasty
-Turkish - "Thousand and One Nights" - great spicy salads
-Japanese - "Ichiban" - Just around the corner and very vegetarian friendly
-Italian - "That's Amore" - authentic

And street food.......too many to name.

When we eat out with family and coworkers, it's usually at huge and loud Chinese restaurants. Chinese people enjoy a lively and bright environment for eating, as supposed to the subdued and dimmed places in the west. It goes without saying that we always eat family style although recently "personal" hot pot restaurants are in. This means that we sometimes must eat around the meat and not worry about what's in the liquid, that is if we choose to not go hungry or appear extremely unsociable.

Conclusion: Being vegetarian in Shanghai is both easy and hard, loud and quiet, family and personal, eat in and eat out, local and foreign, cheap and expensive, and usually pretty darn tasty. [can you tell that John wrote this last sentence? ;-)]