GREEN REBOOT
From Warsaw to St Petersburg, and Tokyo to Beijing, savour the finest in gourmet vegetarianism that has carnivorous capitals salivating for more.
Gourmet vegetarian gets a sexy new avatar
IT’S EXCITING. IT’S pleasurable. Move over, flag waving conversion, the hottest new “ism” is here. And it’s seducing the foodie world; and here’s the jawdropping surprise, it’s doing so in the most unlikely of countries. Vegetarianism and veganism have wooed the carnivorous capitals of the world. They are sashaying in on their toned long legs to the applause of Gen X and the millennials. Vegetarianism is no longer only about finger-wagging “eat it, it’s good for you” or “save our planet”, “avoid cruelty to animals”; it’s about voluptuous vegetables, cooked with pizzaz, served with oomph and bursting with nutrients. Award-winning Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron in his sizzling new, pathbreaking Game Changers establishes how life-changing veganism can be the connection between meat, protein and strength. Many an A-lister
has turned vegan or vegetarian too. Our cover boy, “worlds sexiest chef”, poet, filmmaker and author Vikas Khanna, awarded a Michelin star for his New York restaurant, is not only abreast of this world trend but ensures that all 30 of his cookbooks and his brand new restaurant Kinara in Dubai serve up almost 65 per cent vegetarian. As I dine on the vegetarian masterpieces in his glittering Dubai outpost, he points out “the vast varieties of unexplored vegetarian really inspire me. It surely is the future”.
MY CUTTING VEDGE QUEST
Researching (read “eating”) for almost 15 years, has established not only how it is not just the most important ‘Ism’ of the present but the very future of planet earth too. Space constrains me to serve you only a few highlights of vegetarian restaurants in countries where you least expect them.
WARSAW—EUROPE’S VEGAN RESTAURANT CAPITAL
Vegan gourmet sushi? A whole restaurant dedicated to it? Big plump juicy vegan burger restaurant? Yes yes and yes! Youmiko’s intricately composed vegan sushi, Krowarzywa vegan burger mecca dazzle. Bite into some vegan salami, vegan prosciutto and some more for your vegan pizza. I loved them all in Leonardo Verde. Vegan queen Malka Kafka’s Tel Aviv Urban food reigns supreme with her Lebanese delights. It’s not just standalone restaurants, even the super stylish Europejski Raffles hotel (Chef Benat Alonso’s gourmet vegetarian compositions) seduce and the elegant cutting edge Hotel Warszawa delight. I taste my first ever intensely flavoured vegetarian udon in the dedicated vegan restaurant, Ka Udon, in the thousand-year-old city of Krakow. It is in the beautiful magic garden of the Balthazar design hotel’s Fiorentina that gems of vegetarian wizardry of cucumber, grapefruit flag off my tasting menu. The veggie wows continue to dazzle at the iconic Copernicusa magnificent 500-year-old palace, where I taste the most amazing Vegan scallop.
BUSTING THROUGH THE GREAT WALL
Wonder of wonders…a pure vegetarian Michelin starred restaurant in China. A vegan Sichuan restaurant too; all this in a country known for its
mind boggling scale and diversity of cuisine that includes snakes, sparrow gizzard, duck tongues and such like. In Beijing, I stroll into Kings joy’s beautiful bungalow, luxuriate to live harp and cello strains and revel in a gastronomic feast (with wines to match) from plump pumpkin iceweed in wasabi flower fungus, gorgon fruit and more. It’s in Shanghai, the high octane Paris of the east, in the Michelin-starred Fu He Hui’s stylish, antique studded three-floored restaurant that the multicourse tasting menu extravaganza dazzles with pure vegetarian, of course. Be it truffles, onsen egg poached low and slow to the dry cabbage leaf in erotic union with gorgon fruit. Innovative and inspired “Wu Jei”s dishes marry myriad flavours. We start with the crunchy Chilean arctic seaweed and end with the chilled and spongy rainbow vegetarian cake. In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, authentic Sichuan flavours are distilled in vegan dishes. I’m over the moon, in Mixun, the tranquil vegan haven of The Temple House, the local crisp sweet potato tangos with sea-buckthorn sauce and millet congee is studded with Goji berry. At the Museum of Sichuan cuisine, not only do I attend a cooking session, walk through the museum documenting the evolution of the 4000-year-old Sichuan cuisine, but also taste delicious vegetarian Sichuan starters; all for the price of an entry ticket. In Hangzhou, in the largest Buddhist temple Lingyin’s functional, clean eatery, I wallop the slippery moist “prosperity noodles”, “longevity noodles” and feel prosperous for sure!
TASTING TOKYO
Wearing a kimono to experience the world’s most sophisticated cuisine was exciting enough, but Japan’s sophisticated vegetarian food is equally, if not spectacularly gratifying. It’s artistic sensibility nuanced with precision combining the freshest and finest of produce, that’s seasonal too. But it’s
the “Shojin” temple cuisine at Daigo restaurant that sings on the tongue. Here, three kaiseki style menus pamper tastebuds, umeshu plum wine lubricates the meal and tofu made from sesame combined with seaweed create magic. Finally, I bow in reverence at the two Michelin-starred maestro Narisawa’s restaurant. His dish “vegetarian essence of the forest” distils his Satoyama philosophy. The wooden platter is exuberant with soy bean pulp and powders, with spinach and matcha green tea leaf that sparkles with many a herb to make the meal memorable, if not mesmerising.
RUSSIA SURPRISES
And how. Firstly, it is glamorous and rocking and young. The biggest surprise? Manifold vegetarian options in Moscow, St Petersburg and the Caucasian Riviera. Would you believe there is a sattvik, no-onion, no-garlic restaurant (Café Botanika) in St Petersburg? It’s 12 years old and run by a Russian woman. But most of all, it’s Russia’s dashing, brilliant young chef Vladimir Mukhin of the award winning White Rabbit, who symbolises the sign of the times. The dynamo multi-talented 5th generation chef ’s dishes look like food from the future, but have traditional tastes of the past and are made from local products. The White Rabbit’s vegetarian and vegan menus bristle with tantalising smokey green peas, chanterelles, almond foam and oh that fermented black garlic sprinkled on malt mousse and sour cream ice cream! The next discovery is Georgian cuisine, a boon for vegetarians. The meal at Kazbek by chef Mamiya Jojua offers deliciously plump vegetarian spinach khinkhali; the cheesy Mingrelian khachapuri are still lodged in my tastebud memory.
BRIGITTE BARDOT WOWS
Last month, I chased yesteryear’s glam actress Brigitte Bardot to the breathtakingly beautiful St Tropez. Simply because this gorgeous flag waving vegetarian has gotten all the restaurants in her home town to introduce vegetarian/vegan menus. I fell in love with La tarte Tropezienne, a delicious creamy oozing tarte created in 1955 in her honour. Yes, it’s the vegetarian tarte of St Tropez and it’s crazily addictive. Many a vegan menus enticed, be it in Hotel de Paris’ rooftop restaurant or the sunshine drenched alfresco lily of the valley where chef Vincent Maillard’s vegan creations were
flavour bombs. I trawled the sunny South of France for vegetarian and voila! Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV’s shimmering palace restaurant delighted as did the world’s best restaurant Mirazur. The three-starred maestro Mauro Colagreco’s vegetarian tasting menus pirouette with finesse and delicacy. The biggest challenge of all? Paris. She has reigned supreme as the carnivorous queen of world gastronomy for centuries. After a serious, systematic two-year eating research for my book, the world’s very first vegetarian guide in Paris, I sniff out pure vegan/vegetarian restaurants, cooking classes and also a vegan bed and breakfast. Even the Michelin-starred temples pay homage to the vegetarian Gods. The good looking, cigar toting Alain Passard of the three starred Arpege serves vegetarian masterpeices that are world famous. There’s nothing ascetic about vegetarianism; superstar Alain Ducasse’s (Plaza Athenee) star spangled glamorous restaurant’s menu even has the name of the head gardener. Ducasse points out “to eat more healthily and naturally is today both an expectation and a necessity that must be translated into the field of haute cuisine”. Amen!