Homely Vegetarian

Today's walk started out with a 10 yuan ($1.20) taxi ride to Vegetarian Life Cafe. I had tried to find it before but without luck. The available maps are pretty poor so I let the taxi driver find it for me. It was around a mile away but near the big French megamart (Carrefour) that is so popular.

They seated me at a big round table with two other parties - which is common in China - and I ordered Sichuan "chicken" and jiaozi (dumplings). The vegie chicken dish had equal parts fake chicken bits, peanuts and chili peppers. I should have eaten the jiaozi first because my tongue had no feeling by the time I got to them. But I had a good cry.

Downstairs, I found a vegie grocery where I loaded up on vegie ham, chicken, curry, bacon, etc for evaluation. I also got a package of something called "Homely Vegetarian Meat Balls" (see picture). Strange marketing strategy I must say. Despite the insults I also picked up some dried gingko seeds to try - I think I'm aleady addicted to them.