We went out of our way to visit the fascinating Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre and this placed us close to vegan restaurant Gongdelin. It's a compact and peaceful restaurant with heavy, comfortable furniture and, bizarrely, a novelty VB clock on the wall. The menu includes English translations, and after days of picking through pictures at omni restaurants, it was a treat to know we could order anything. There's plenty of mock meat on offer, including 'crab', 'eel' and 'scallops' but also abundant tofu and vegetables for those who aren't into it.
We, of course, were into it! We swooped on the thickly sauced sweet and sour vegetarian 'pork' ribs (48 yuan ~ AU$9.50) the moment they arrived.
The crispy vegetarian 'duck' (45 yuan ~ AU$8.90) was even more to my liking, made with coiled up layers of tofu skin, fried to create a crispy shell, with dipping sauce on the side.
Our other vege dishes ably backed them up: stir-fried shredded potato, green bell pepper and eggplant (40 yuan ~ AU$7.90, pictured top left), stir fried broccoli (35 yuan ~ AU$6.90, pictured bottom left), and noodles with shredded 'pork' in Sichuan garlic sauce (38 yuan ~AU$7.50, pictured right).
Troy and I had room for dessert, so we shared an order of pumpkin and rice balls in sweet rice wine (32CNY ~ AU$6.30). It's served very hot, quite sweet and is thick with pureed pumpkin, rice fragments and soft gloopy rice balls. Starchy and filling, it was plenty to split.
This isn't a restaurant that anyone must cross the city (or the world!) for, but it's a lovely vegan escape that fit well with a visit to the Propaganda Poster Art Centre.
____________
Gongdelin
303 Wuyuan Rd, Xuhui Qu, Shanghai
menu pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
No comments:
Post a Comment