[Hong Kong 香港] Grassroots Pantry 豆苗居

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Grassroots Pantry

Add: 108 Hollywood Road, Shengwan, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2873 3353
Hours: 9am-10:30pm
Website: www.grassrootspantry.com
Price: 150~250 HKD/person
Visited: Aug 2016

My first meal in Hong Kong this time was at Grassroots Pantry, a vegetarian restaurant with one core philosophy: “to create food that heals with the highest culinary standards and using the freshest, most nutrient-dense of sustainable, plant-based ingredients.” That reads like a mouthful, but what it’s basically saying, is that they make healthy food that tastes amazing. And it’s true.

到香港的第一餐,和一位注重養生的朋友相約在上環荷李活道上的 Grassroots Pantry 吃午餐。餐廳的創始人 Peggy Chan 本身是素食者,堅持用 raw food 的烹調方式將營養豐富的食材做成美味料理,不論吃素還是不吃素的朋友都很推薦。

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First, the design. Grassroots Pantry’s interior is bright and airy thanks to the large windows and a lofted ceiling. The combination of light grey cement wall and warm orange couches is lovely, and the plants adorning the space is more than welcome. Above the bar suspends a selection of gorgeous decanter lights from Lee Broom – a personal favorite.

店裏設計清新明亮,淺灰色的水泥牆搭配溫暖的橘紅色沙發,吧台上方吊著好多我喜愛的 Lee Broom 玻璃燈飾,室內養了不少綠色植物,感覺非常好。Grassroots Pantry 似乎是個很受外國人歡迎的地方,餐廳裏過半的客人都不是本地人。

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Word has it that Grassroots Pantry was the first shop in Hong Kong to use acai berry, and their recipes are laden with nutrition-packed ingredients like flaxseed, buckwheat, kohlrabi, cashews, chickpeas, and the likes. They promote “raw foodism”, which is about eating unprocessed and uncooked foods. The cooking process involves sprouting, soaking, fermentation, pickling, dehydration, etc., which is a time-consuming process, all aiming to preserve the maximum amount of nutrients in the food.

據說 Grassroots Pantry 是香港首家引進巴西莓 (Acai Berry) 的店家,也經常使用亞麻籽、荞麥、苤藍、腰果、鷹嘴豆等健康食材。這裡采用 raw food 技巧來處理食材,包括發芽 (sprouting)、浸泡 (soaking)、發酵 (fermentation)、 醃製 (pickling)、風乾 (dehydration) 等。比如,要入菜的種籽必須浸泡于自家榨制的堅果奶中至少8小時使之發芽,讓種籽的營養容易被人體吸收,是費時費力的烹調方法。

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[Taipei 台北] Plants

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Plants

Add: 1F, No 10, Ln 253, Sec 1, Fuxing S. Rd., Da-an Dist., Taipei
Tel: (02) 2784-5677
Hours: [Tue-Fri] 11:30am-9:30pm [Sat-Sun] 10am-9:30pm
Price: 500-800 TWD/person
Visited: Jun 2016

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m far from being a vegetarian – as a food blogger, I pretty much eat everything and anything the restaurants serve. When on my own, however, I rare order or cook any meat, preferring light meals filled with lots of veggies. So when my friends in Taipei took me to Plants, a recently opened vegan/gluten-free/whole foods cafe, I was immediately charmed by it.

我本身並不是素食主義者,不過最近的確是吃的越來越輕盈了。這次在台北被朋友帶去了才剛開幕的 Plants,馬上喜歡上這家由兩個女孩子 Square 和 Lily 經營的 “植物性、無麸質、全食物小食堂”。

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Plants prepares their food based on three principles: “plants-based” – their food is free from eggs, dairy, honey and all other animal products; “gluten-free” – they do not use any wheat, barley, rye nor any grains with gluten, and instead use certified gluten-free oats, carefully choosing their sources to avoid cross-contaminated with gluten; “whole foods” – they use whole ingredients, unrefined sugars, and no overly processed food nor funny additives.

“植物性” (plant-based),以不傷害動物爲原則,完全采用全植物食材,也沒有蛋、奶、或蜂蜜;“無麸質” (gluten-free),不使用引起麸質過敏的食材;“全食物” (whole foods),指的是未精致過、可看到天然樣貌的食材。光聽就知道是家用心的好店。

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“Count nutrients, not calories”. Word.

小小的食堂清新明亮,牆上寫著 “Count nutrients, not calories”,透過櫃台能隱約看到後面的廚房。

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[Shanghai 上海] Fu He Hui 福和慧

Fu He Hui 福和慧

Add: 1037 Yuyuan Lu, near Jiangsu Lu
Tel: 3980 9188
Hours: 11am-2pm, 5:30-11pm
Price: 380-880 RMB/person
Visited: Apr 2016

福和慧 – Fu (fortune), He (harmony), Hui (wisdom) – is the fine dining vegetarian restaurant by Fang Yuan and Tony Lu, who have established a solid reputation through their Fu series (Fu 1039, Fu 1088, and Fu 1055), all sharing a penchant of refined Shanghainese dishes in nostalgic old villas. Fu He Hui has also been attracting its fair share of attention since opening in 2015, and is ranked #19 on the latest Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

美國來玩的朋友說想去吃一頓精致的中國菜,最近正好看到福和慧在今年 “亞洲50佳餐廳” 排名第19,又有不少朋友推薦,于是就把晚餐訂在這裏了。說福和慧是家素菜館,可不是一般的素菜館。這裏的老板早在幾年前就打造了一系列非常出名的 “福” 餐廳,旗下有福1039,1088,和1015。這幾家我先後都去過,雖然是好幾年前的事了,不過對這些洋房裏的精致上海菜印象一直不錯,有朋友來上海玩,不要求環境的我會帶去老吉士,要求環境的話就去福。

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The vegetarian restaurant offers a few prix fixe menus at three different price points: 380, 680 and 880 RMB per person, all coming with 8 courses. We decided to try one of the two 880 RMB sets to see what the chef has got in his repertoire.

第一次來到福和慧,發現這裏的風格和其他福餐廳很不一樣,沒有繁複雕琢的裝飾,整個空間和內裝都線條簡潔,頗有禅意。菜單上簡單的列了幾種套膳選擇,價位380、680、和880,其中880的有兩套。我們選了880元的其中一個,就坐著等吃了。

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First, a pot of 奇丹 Qi Dan (188 RMB), a famous varietal of Oolong tea from Wuyi.

服務員推薦下了一壺奇丹,聽說這是來自武夷的上等岩茶。順帶一提,服務員飄逸感十足的白色制服好好看啊,可惜忘了拍給你們看。

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Dinner started with two amuse bouche. The first: roast potato with pumpkin and micro coriander.

開胃小點,第一個是烤土豆和南瓜泥。

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