Today is Chung Yeung Festival. Follow us on our adventure today, which includes a Hong Kong vegetarian meal at a Taoist temple.
As with our family tradition, my parents and I, together with a gang of relatives (aunts, uncles and cousins galore) hiked up hills to pay respect to our ancestors. Back when I was a kid, we used to carry a whole suckling pig, chicken, our ancestors’ favorite drinks, together with many other offerings to be burnt, up the hill with us. A few things have have changed since then. We no longer carry a whole roast suckling pig with us but only a small takeaway box of roast meat. We still bring paper offerings to be burnt but they now include paper replica of our favorite electronic goods such as iPhones.
Offerings to Ancestors
After paying respects to our ancestors, this year, we opted for a vegetarian lunch. Many of our participants, especially our vegetarian Foodies, ask us about what is a typical meatless meal is like. We wanted to take this opportunity to share a mini guide to Hong Kong vegetarian dishes.
Instead of heading to a restaurant, we visited Wun Chuen Sin Kwoon (雲泉仙館), a Taoist temple in Fanling in the northern part of the New Territories. I was surprised as I walked into the grounds of the temple with pagodas, beautiful gardens, and even a lotus pond. Sadly, the lotus pond had dried out but I could envision resting on one the benches, sipping a cup of tea and enjoying the scenery.
Meals were served in several halls within the compound. The eleven of us seated ourselves in a big round table and quickly ordered a variety of dishes as we were ravenously hungry. In Hong Kong vegetarian restaurants, dishes often try to mimic meat. Some of you might have tried vegetarian goose or vegetarian chicken. Many vegetarians not from Hong Kong find it disturbing to have the meaty taste in their food. The meal we chose for ourselves at this Taoist temple were true vegetarian dishes without any resemblance of meat tastes.
First to come was a soup made with a giant melon. It was simple yet tasty. The white ingredients floating in the soup was bamboo fungus (竹笙), something that were used in other plates as well.
Melon Soup
Other dishes quickly followed. One of my favorites was this stir fry with a variety of veggies. Some of you might have tried Buddha’s Delight, or Luo Han Zhai (羅漢齋), a typical vegetarian dish at Chinese restaurants worldwide. This is a version of it, featuring ingredients such as broccoli, different types of mushrooms, baby corn, carrots and bamboo fungus. There is no set ingredients to this dish although it often includes snow peas, tofu, wood ear and sometimes it includes bamboo shoots or water chestnuts. As you can deduce from the name, it originated as a staple dish for Buddhist monks. Today, it is a common dish chosen not just by vegetarians but also other meat-loving individuals who wish to cleanse their system.
Buddha’s Delight
The dish below is a Chinese New Year’s favorite — lettuce with abalone mushroom and black moss. Its popularity is due to its auspicious-sound ingredients. In Chinese, lettuce sounds like “generating wealth”. The dry moss, or “fat choy” in Chinese, sounds like “getting rich”. The word “fat” is the same character as “hair”. As a kid, I used to think it looked like hair! In one of the Mystery Box Challenges in MasterChef 4, competitors struggled to make sense out of it while the three judges played with it as pretend beard! Sometimes, chefs also include dried oysters which has a Chinese name that sounds like “good things”. Another ingredient here was the abalone mushroom with an interesting texture but had little flavor on its own. It, however, absorbed the sauce from the rest of the dish, creating a very rich taste.
Lettuce with Dried Moss & Abalone Mushroom
Many vegetarians love tofu which is rich in protein. Here’s a delicious plate of fried tofu with mushroom, carrots and bak choy.
Fried Tofu
Although there were no dishes that had meaty flavors, one plate resembled a fish. This was baked yam shaped as a fish in a sweet and sour sauce. The flaky texture of the baked yam combined with the tangy sauce really complemented well with the rest of the veggie dishes.
Baked Yam Fish with Sweet & Sour Sauce
Here was our big table. There are many other vegetarian dishes in Chinese cuisine. We only sampled a few here. Many others for us to explore and try.
Chinese Vegetarian Meal
If you are a vegetarian visiting Hong Kong and wonder whether our food tours are suitable for you, Hong Kong Foodie can help prepare substitutes for you at most of our tasting locations. Let us know about your dietary preferences when you book your tickets, our Foodie Guides would be more than happy to work with our eateries to accommodate you. If you have any other questions, please email or call us.
Happy Eating!
Cecilia
