filed under Daily Dose
Veggie Vigilante: Shanghai Foon (and Lettuce Wraps, Too)
7:49AM ON
10/15/2008
BY
Daily Dose
I was shopping on Thayer Street last Friday night, trying to invoke some retail therapy to assuage the pangs of a long work week, when my favorite dining companion and I were struck by a blinding urge for lettuce wraps and veggie chow foon. So, we ended up at Shanghai, 272 Thayer Street, Providence, a place that I had only experienced via takeout. Shanghai turned out to be a very veggie friendly establishment, with an overwhelming number of tasty vegetarian and vegan options speedily served up in a surprisingly cool, sleek atmosphere.
I love the vegetarian lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang’s in Boston, so I was stoked that Shanghai had them, too. However, the mix of finely diced water chestnuts, tofu, scallions, celery, and red onions was too heavy on the celery and too skimpy on the tofu, with a flavor that was a bit blander and ingredients a bit less fresh than I had hoped. Still, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I think when I have that rare craving for lettuce wraps again, I’ll return to these, if a bit begrudgingly.
The other app I had was the vegetarian spring roll, which was delish. Freshly fried and chock full of cabbage and carrots, dip it in their duck sauce and enjoy. These spring rolls were not only extremely tasty, but I was happy to see an explicitly vegetarian spring roll on the menu, period.
For dinner, I ordered three of the many (at least 15) vegetarian/vegan dishes on the menu. I mostly enjoyed them all. Ma Pa tofu, a silken tofu and broccoli dish in a spicy vegetarian sauce, was a bit too watery, thereby diluting its sauce to a less pleasant consistency and blander taste. I mixed it with their delicious veggie fried rice (ask for no egg) to sop up some of that sauce, and the end result was, overall, not bad, but not too good either.
My third dish, the veggie chow foon, was off the charts. It consists of soft, wide rice (not egg!) noodles stir fried with veggies in an awesome sauce. The best aspect of this dish is that the bite-sized, inch-wide noodles tend to clump together in the best possible way, making for hearty, chewy mouthfuls. And, for an extra buck, you can add tofu to this dish too.
Ultimately, I enjoyed Shanghai, and I commend them too for making it a little easier for us veggies to order by noting most of the items that are vegetarian on the menu. I’ll definitely go back to try some of the other things on the menu, like the classic veggie delight. And while I didn’t have to ask about the ingredients in most of the dishes I ordered (which obviously is a good thing), they were not at all surprised or shocked when I asked for no eggs in my rice (which is a good thing too!).
You can email VV at hollaback@veggievigilante.com
October 15th, 2008 at 11:26AM
Vegan Says:
Chow foon, lettuce wraps, and scorpion bowls? Sign me up!
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October 15th, 2008 at 2:55PM
Alex Says:
I like Shanghai, enough, but it just seems a little pricey for Chinese food that is no better than average around Providence. I mean, every Asian restaurant has vegetarian selections! Gourmet House on Hope St is just as good, if not better, and half the price!
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November 15th, 2008 at 10:37AM
Mandy Says:
A waitress at Gourmet House once confessed, after we questioned her closely, that most of the sauces on the “vegetarian” menu were made with chicken or beef stock. So we don’t eat there anymore.
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