ditamoon

I'm leaving for China today, and just wanted to send along best wishes.

All my friends here know I've been vegetarian for a long time, so they actually watch out for me everywhere we go. They quickly taste dishes that look like they might have meat or fish when they're put on the serving glass, then pronounce if I can eat it. Sometimes they apologize to me when a whole fish is brought to the table (usually still moving). Even when I eat with strangers who order meat / fish dishes first, as soon as they are told (by my friends, not me) that I'm veg, the good dishes start flying out of the kitchen. It is soooo good to eat here. Restaurants generally have 10-15 vegetable dishes and 3 or 4 types of dofu, so I always have a much better selection, all fresh, than at any US place. There are usually some 100% vegetarian restaurants in each city, and their specialty is soy based "meats" that are really good. The old ways have not been lost here, and I'm always comfortable and never hungry.

It's a beautiful cloudless day here in Beijing, temperature perfect, so I'm going for a long walk through the back streets of the city before dinner.