Dorothy So discovers vegetarian versions of luxury treats.

With the countless number of upscale, fine dining restaurants at our fingertips, it’s more than easy for Hong Kong diners to spoil themselves with the most indulgent of food choices. Wagyu, caviar, lobster... these are all familiar words on many menus around town. But as great as all that indulgent eating is, you really can get too much of a good thing­—going overboard on rich and heavy foods can’t be healthy for you, or your wallet.

If you’re not quite prepared to go cold turkey on the luxury foods front yet, you might be interested to know that there are plenty of healthy, vegetarian alternatives to even the most lavish of dishes. A perfect case in point is Japan’s umi-budo, or sea grapes. Served at most Okinawan restaurants in Hong Kong, such as Chura and Naha, this seaweed is often referred to as “green caviar,” and for good reason. Not only does its bubble-like appearance resemble caviar, but umi-budo’s crisp texture and briny flavor mimics the taste of the prized fish roe as well. Being only seaweed though, umi-budo doesn’t have that intense savory taste that is natural to caviar, which is why the accompanying soy, sake and vinegar dipping sauce comes in handy. The best thing about umi-budo is that it’s rich in fiber and minerals and extremely good for you.



The reasonable price tag should keep your wallet fat and happy too.
When it comes to imitating other foods—whether it be in the looks or flavor department—few ingredients can do it better than the humble but super-flexible mushroom. Take the abalone mushroom (a variety of oyster mushroom) for example, which lends its name from the luxury mollusk it is thought to resemble. The shroom is a popular ingredient in many Cantonese restaurants due to its wonderfully fleshy yet tender texture, as well as its adaptability as a fantastic flavor absorber. To use the mushroom to its full potential, many Chinese restaurants, like the much-praised Lung Moon, braise the abalone mushroom along with other green veggies in a thick, oyster sauce, making a vegetarian dish which passes off quite well as the abalone course at a Chinese banquet .



Hotel Panorama’s Santa Lucia restaurant has obviously latched onto the versatility of this ingredient, incorporating the modest mushroom into a number of their creative dishes in place of higher-end foodstuffs. Executive sous chef Mike Boyle demonstrated the ingredient’s potential recently when cooking for a table of carnivores with one vegetarian in tow. As the fourth course from his new “Spontaneous Menu,” Boyle served to each guest what appeared to be plates of perfectly seared foie gras. Only, of course, one of the plates turned out to be a completely vegetarian-friendly thick piece of Portobello mushroom. It had a beautifully earthy and almost meaty taste, reminiscent of goose liver. More importantly, it also looked like foie gras, specially designed by Boyle to look like the luxurious liver so that non-foie-gras-enjoying guests wouldn’t feel left out. “The point is to make it so that a vegetarian doesn’t have to feel like an outsider,” explains Boyle, whose first experimentations with veggie-friendly alternatives included a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal made from roasted tofu, a mushroom gravy with liquid smoke (for a roasted, meaty flavor), stuffing soufflé and green bean casserole with almonds. “It can actually be more challenging to do a full vegetarian menu,” Boyle adds. The team at Santa Lucia are obviously ready to take on the challenge with their creative vegetarian menu, which includes dishes such as a “sashimi” of compressed watermelon paired with wasabi honeydew melon and soba noodles. The restaurant’s also working on a new vegetarian menu now and are aiming to create an even larger repertoire of delicious dishes as opulent as even the meatiest of menus. The dishes are still works-in-progress, but who knows? Maybe before too long, we’ll all be tucking into a decadent vegetarian lobster, Western-style.


Eat Your Veg

Naha, 1015, Yiu Sing Mansion, Stage 10,
Taikoo Sing, 2186-6969.
Chura, Unit A, B/F, Toy House, 100 Canton Rd.,
Tsim Sha Tsui, 3105-8950.
Lung Moon Restaurant, 130-136 Johnston Rd.,
Wan Chai, 2573-9761.
Santa Lucia Restaurant and Sky Bar, 38/F, Hotel Panorama, 8A Hart Ave., Tsim Sha Tsui, 3550-0262.