Veggie delight Veggie delight (April 09, 2004)

Even the meats are vegetarian at Garden Fresh

By Mandy Erickson

I never understood why Chinese vegetarian restaurants serve mock meat, that "beef," "pork" and "chicken" made from tofu, wheat gluten and mushrooms. If you're vegetarian, why pretend to eat meat?

A little research provided the answer. Mock meats, it turns out, have been a tradition in China for more than 1,000 years. They were created because Buddhist monks, like the rest of us, had to make a living.

The monks, who used to feed townspeople during religious festivals, parlayed that experience into the restaurant business. They were vegetarian -- their beliefs dictated nonviolence and respect for all living creatures --but their customers often were not. So they developed a line of mock meats out of vegetables to satisfy their meat-eating clientele.

Garden Fresh carries on that culinary tradition in Mountain View, where it serves vegetarian squid made from agar (the gelling agent in seaweed), vegetarian ham crafted from tofu and vegetarian steak formed from shiitake mushrooms. The results are convincingly real in appearance and texture, though not in flavor.

Instead, the appeal of Garden Fresh is in its vegetables. The restaurant receives a daily delivery of produce, and it shows on the plate; the carrots, broccoli, peppers and mushrooms are bright and crisp and full of flavor. The sauces for the stir-fry dishes are fairly standard for a Chinese restaurant, though improved with fresh ginger, garlic and herbs.

Owner Wilson Lin, a Buddhist and a vegetarian, opened the restaurant 10 years ago partly because of his own beliefs about vegetarianism and partly because he felt customers were seeking lighter fare. "Nothing against meat eaters," he said, "but the world is better when it's more vegetarian. And people are looking for better health."

Besides the mock meat, Lin offers traditional Chinese vegetarian dishes such as tofu delight ($5.95 lunch, $7.95 dinner) and stir-fried brown rice with vegetables ($4.95 lunch, $6.50 dinner), plus a few dishes that are borrowed from other cuisines such as veggie burgers ($3.50) and veggie hot dogs ($2.75). Portions at dinnertime are larger, but otherwise the meals are the same.

Garden Fresh is a simple, hole-in-the-wall place with some off-beat decorations: plastic veggies lining the window, faded prints of vegetables on the wall, fake ivy leaves woven into a wood lattice. But the service is friendly, efficient and attentive, and the wait staff chat easily with regulars.

The portions, even at lunch, are hearty, and appetizers are nearly meal-sized. An order of the steamed vegetable dumplings ($3.95) included a plate of six very large potsticker-style dumplings. These were disappointing -- the dough was chewy, and inside were minced vegetables, which could have used more seasonings such as ginger or garlic.

The spinach linguine salad with sesame dressing ($3.95), however, was a pleasant balance of textures and flavors. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the peanut sesame dressing slightly sweet and acidic. The carrots and bean sprouts rounded out the dish with their crunch.

A large bowl of the hot and sour soup ($1.95) wasn't as spicy or sour as I would have liked, but it included well-cooked, fresh cabbage and cauliflower, welcome additions to the usual tofu and bamboo shoots.

The lunch and dinner plates and chef's specials are mostly stir-fry dishes, and all come with brown rice. Only a few of them are listed as spicy, but the cooks will let you fire up any dish.

The vegetarian squid ($5.95 lunch, $7.75 dinner) is a stir-fry of agar rectangles cut with the traditional cross-hatches, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms and baby corn. The "squid" is tasteless, but the sauce is fiery and flavorful, with hoisin, ginger, garlic and dried red peppers.

Vegetarian duck ($9.95) looks startlingly similar to a full duck breast, with its oblong, two-part shape and its golden brown skin. The shiitake mushrooms, which stand in for the meat, are sweet and almost meaty tasting, and the layers of fried tofu skin atop the mushrooms crunch the way well-roasted poultry skin should. (Tofu skin is made from skimming the top from a block of tofu and drying it.)

I couldn't mistake the dish for real duck, but I found myself craving its nutty flavor and crispy texture days later. A clear, thick garlic sauce tops the "duck," which sits on a layer of water chestnuts, broccoli, mushrooms and zucchini.

Sweet and sour vegetarian pork ($5.50 lunch, $7.25 dinner), served with the classic, bright red sauce, is tofu coated with flour and fried. Carrots, pineapple chunks and bell peppers are tossed in with the sauce, and a row of plain steamed broccoli lines the plate. The texture of the "pork" is right on, and it has a subtle tofu flavor, with a sauce that isn't overly sweet.

The "kidneys" in basil with vegetarian kidney ($9.95) are made from wheat gluten, the protein in wheat flour that gives it stickiness. They're entirely tasteless, save for the sauce, but they have an otherworldly crunchy texture -- not quite vegetable, not quite meat -- that I liked. The dish includes zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, baby corn and basil in a clear sauce lightly flavored with herbs and fresh ginger.

Garden Fresh offers a number of unusual beverages, including fresh orange and carrot juice ($2.50), soy bean milk ($1.50), exotic bubble ice tea ($2) and non-alcoholic beer ($2.25), which the waitress called "veggie beer."

The carrot juice is fresh and clean, and the soy milk is the unadulterated, squeezed-from-the-bean kind that tastes of fresh soy. Lin makes both drinks at the restaurant.

I thought the exotic bubble ice tea would be one of those trendy tapioca drinks, but it was fruit juice mixed with lychee tea. The waitress shakes the bottle before pouring it to create froth, or the bubbles. The juice -- apple, pineapple or cranberry -- gives the tea a nice sweetness and the tea, in turn, provides a kick.

It's all very fresh, healthful food that filled me up and left me feeling good about myself. For a moment, I thought I'd be rewarded with a fortune cookie, but of course I was wrong. A bowl of juicy orange slices finished the meal.

Dining Notes

Garden Fresh
1245 W. El Camino Real
961-7795
Sunday-Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Reservations accepted/not required
Credit Cards Yes
Valet No
Alcohol No
Takeout Yes
High Chairs Yes
Catering Yes
Outdoor Seating Yes
Noise Level medium
Bathroom Cleanliness good

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