Food

Some people mentioned that I made it sound like I can't find anything to eat here. I have to admit, as a vegetarian who doesn't always like Chinese food, the first few weeks here were pretty difficult. Once we figured out our way around the city and found a few restaurants I felt comfortable with, it got better.

Shanghai is a big city and it has pretty much anything you want, if you know where to look. There is City Shop and Ole and the avocado lady to get western groceries when we feel like cooking. You can also order just about anything, including food, on taobao.com (the Chinese equivalent of amazon.com) and it usually arrives the next day. There are two websites (http://www.sherpa.com.cn and http://www.mealbay.net) that do food delivery. They mostly cater to foreigners and have every type of cuisine I want. The shopping malls, especially Grand Gateway, are about a 15 minute walk from our place and have plenty of good places to eat. There are a few areas in the French Concession like Tian Zi Fang with plenty western restaurants.

The main problem with finding food here comes from going out with a group when I don't get to pick the restaurant. In Chinese restaurants typically everything is family style. They give one person the menu to decide what to order for the table. I always feel bad because as a vegetarian, I make things difficult and people have to go out of their way to order special foods for me. The problem is most of the vegetarian dishes are really bland. I may have mentioned before that a lot of vegetarians in Asia are Buddhists. Buddhists aren't supposed to partake in worldly pleasures so the food is very bland. Buddhist vegetarians don't eat garlic, onions and a few other of my favorite seasonings.

Recently, for the sake of trying to meet new people and find new foods, I found a vegetarian dining club. I went to brunch with them at a restaurant called Da Shu Wu Jie. It was pretty yummy and the people were very friendly.