Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Chinese Heaven

Shangri-la

I returned after a someone long absence to visit Shangri-la Vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, with friend and fellow Marin food blogger, Catherine of Albion Cooks. Shangri-la is not only a mostly vegan restaurant, it is also certified kosher.

Mongolian "Beef"

Catherine and I immersed ourselves in the extensive menu, and looked up to decide that we'd just have to order a feast there were so many things we'd like to try, and take home leftovers. The first dish to come out was Mongolian "Beef", with a taste and texture startlingly close to the real thing. It was one of our favorites of the evening.

B4

I pointed out the rather medicinal sounding group on the first page, which had letter/number combination rather than dish names. B4 is supposed to provide 'mental clarity' among other things. I liked it better than Catherine who thought it tasted rather floral.

Brown/Red Rice

We had some brown/red rice to accompany the dishes.

Lemon "Chicken"

The Lemon "Chicken" came out next. The 'chicken' meat was softer that the others in this dish.

Lotus Fruit, carrots, snow peas

Although the menu said Lotus "Fruit", I belive the main ingredient in this dish is Lotus Root. The lotus root was mixed with carrots and snow peas and tasted delightful.

Vegetable Chow Mein

The Vegetable Chow Mein was the other standout dish of the evening. The savory noodles were mixed with a variety of vegetables in a nice proportion. Catherine and I enjoyed ourselves throughly and I'm not going to wait so long until the next visit.

2 comments:

Zoomie said...

There is a new vegan restaurant just open in Point Richmond, if you'd like to try another one some time. Not sure of the name but the town is so small that you can't miss it. It's where the Point Orient/SzuJhou used to be.

Catherine said...

That chow mein was just amazing and not at all greasy like so many are. It was lots of fun! Cha-Ya next!