Pass the veggies, please

There has never been a better time to be vegetarian than now – and don’t let any meat eater tell you otherwise.Matter of fact, more and more restaurants have either added a vegetarian selection to their menu or are at least willing to prepare a vegetarian dish to your liking, minus any of the meat ingredients the dish might have – if you ask.

"We want to give our diners meals that are lighter and healthier, after all it is so hot outside," says Mandarin Oriental Hotel food and beverage director David Thomas of the "Vegetarian Pleasures" food promotion ongoing until May 5 at the hotel’s Tin Hau restaurant.

"We hope that in the future we can add some of the best sellers into our regular menu," he adds. Tin Hau’s executive chef Andy Chan created 21 dishes for the sumptuous festival.

"More and more people are conscious about their health and opting for vegetarian meals has become one way by which they can not only watch their weight, but keep their cholesterol down," says Mandarin Oriental director of communications Charisse Chuidian during our vegetarian lunch.

I particularly enjoyed the soup, which was light and refreshing, because it did not have any of those strong flavors, like garlic or onions. It had black mushrooms, yellow fungus and bamboo pith in a clear soup.

Next came the stir-fried vegetarian shark’s fin with Japanese mushrooms, white fungus and carrots.

"The dishes on the menu have been prepared with meat eaters in mind, who may want to sample vegetarian cuisine, yet might not be ready for pure vegetarian dishes," says Charisse, when asked about the "shark’s fin" on the vegetarian dishes.

But she assures us that all the dishes are vegetarian and no meat – seafood, chicken, beef or pork – were used to prepare any of them.

The ingredients used in vegetarian meals, served at Tin Hau, are tofu, bean curd sheets, seaweed, all sorts of mushrooms, walnuts, gluten, hair moss (fat choy), fungus, water chestnuts and bean sprouts. There is also no MSG in the food, take note.

The crispy duck with vegetables, seaweeds and Japanese mushrooms and taro, served with what I call a mini-lumpia wrapper, was an interesting dish.

Our waiter showed us how to eat the dish. He first got a wrapper and then used it to cover the "crispy duck," put a few slices of cucumber and then added some sauce.

The dish was crispy and crunchy to the bite. I made another serving for myself, using the chili sauce on the table. Yummy.

The vegetarian fried rice with vegetarian ham came last, as is the practice in Chinese meals – and well, it was a fitting end to this meal.

Of course there’s dessert and not to be missed is the chilled coconut with corn. This dish is very similar in taste to maja blanca. Perfect.

It felt good leaving the Tin Hau after all that variety of flavourful Chinese food and their rich flavors – but not feeling like I was going to burst at the seams from eating too much oily food, pigging on a cream-filled pastry or a sugar-filled chocolate cake.

So, go ahead and veg out at the Tin Hau. You’ll be glad you did. Burp.