The Problem
Before I get onto lunch and dinner, here is a quick illustration of the problem for vegetarians in China.
Celery, cashew nut and carrot - perfect. No. Not quite.Let's add some shrimp to perk it up.
What does a fruit salad need to beef it up? Yes! Beef!
Some simple vegetables to munch on aren't quite good enough. Lets add some chicken's feet!
Some beautiful stir fried oyster mushrooms. They are vegetarian. Nope. They were fried in lard (pig fat) to improve the taste.
A recent blog article on one of the travel sites (I forget which) listed "China's five top vegetarian dishes". Three contained meat. The article was withdrawn after scorn and derision was poured on the writer.
The Solution?
Vegetarian "Beef" from one of the many Chinese Buddhist Vegetarian restaurants which specialises in dishes which look and taste like non-vegetarian dishes. Why?
Fake chicken from the same restaurant. See menu in post 2 above.