Among the places proffering vegetarian victuals in Beijing,
Baihe Vegetarian Restaurant (百合素食) seems keen to dish up culture
with its cuisine.
And there's good reason for that: The place, which is so crowded
of fully stocked bookshelves that its dining areas resemble
studies, has partnered up with a cultural company to promote
traditional Chinese culture with their publications. Some books
representative of those found on the shelves here include Book of
Changes and a pinyin edition of Lao Zi's Dao De Jing.
The building is a typical courtyard home, with a small yard and
two big rooms renovated into dining areas. But, generally speaking,
the eatery is decorated according to a pleasant and fashionable
traditional Chinese style.
One of the rooms was created by covering an outdoors area with a
glass ceiling. It's brighter but chillier than the darker and
warmer room adjacent to it.
But the courtyard environment and bookshelves work together to
create a space where it's easy to take your mind off the rat race
and relax.
Baihe's menu is particularly beautiful in appearance. It
features colored illustrations of the dishes with descriptions in
both Chinese and English. It lists plenty of veggie dishes as well
as a slew of imitation meat meals, which are made with bean protein
and konjak - a gelatinous foodstuff derived from a root.
The restaurant offers some standard imitation meat fare -boiled
fish chips in spicy soup, dry braised sea cucumber and fried dice
chicken with sauce - in addition to some house specialties, such as
mutton shashlik, smoked bamboo shoots, braised mushrooms with
cayenne pepper in a pot, placket bean curd and Buddha jumping off
the wall soup.
The restaurant also offers a variety of curries and teas, and
doubles as a grocer of organic foodstuffs.
Those looking to play it safe can order mashed pumpkin soup
(一品南瓜盅), fried preserved sausage with sweet beans (臘腸炒荷蘭豆), spicy
braised short ribs with black bean sauce (豉椒排骨) and vegetal chicken
leg (素雞腿).
Their mashed Chinese yam soup and assorted garden delicacies
wrapped in lotus leaf are both well presented but bland
tasting.
Diners should take note: Plates here are a bit pricey but the
servings are bountiful.
Average spending is 50 yuan per person. Parking is a bit tricky,
as one side of the already-narrow hutong is usually lined with
parked cars.
Story and photos by Ye Jun
A23 Caoyuan Hutong, Dongzhimennei Beixiaojie, Dongcheng
District. 6405-2082. 東城區北小街草園胡同甲23號
(China Daily January 21, 2008)
