Vegan Daze

Nicholas Quirke was pleased to see that yet another traditional Chinese restaurant Jing Ding Xiang in Ditan was embracing the vegan culture and serving meals which were using meat substitute options on 10 January 2021. It seemed that new establishments prompting healthy vegetarian, vegan eating were appearing everywhere and Peng was excited by the prospect of being able to eat a once favoured restaurant and it was planned that they would lunch there after Nicholas had finished work. As he was still on his raw food diet it would prove to be another occasion of mournfully watching Peng eat while he made do with something less savoury and enticing. Firstly he had to get through his Sunday morning lesson which after the bracing minus four degree ride to the station and school was lovely and entertaining. It seemed to him though that asking 8 year olds to focus for 2 hours was actually a pretty tall order and therefore, the five minutes when the class seemed to descend into chaos seemed that morning to be a completely ok event. Feeling positive he decided that he would ride the 3 and half Km to the restaurant but he had not been on three bike 5 minutes before he regretted the choice he had made. The temperature had dropped a little and once again he felt his hands freezing to the handle bars. He disembarked at the canal and despite the icy conditions, he managed to take some photos of the frozen water and the skaters. The restaurant was exotic, on 4 levels and oozing with oriental character and atmosphere in the Cantonese style. The vegan dishes looked very appetising, but he had to make do with a mushroom soup and a plate of Choy Sum. The rest of the day followed a relatively uneventful course, though he did find himself repeatedly leaving the warmth of the apartment to pick up parcels from the gate. He was relieved once the toing and froing was over to relax in front of the ridiculous but charming Disney offering ‘God Mothered’. Sleep couldn’t come quickly enough.


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