Success on the Menu in Search for Vegetarian Restaurant
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CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Tuesday, October 13, 2020 | 17 LIFE Success on the menu in search for vegetarian restaurant With a large population that pre- restaurants because I was unable to music to the ears. When she sug- While I kept walking in search of by a table than I received a message cheesecake and a passion fruit fers vegetarian food, it’s no surprise get vegetarian food. Not even in gested that we have lunch at the it, I made another discovery: two from my friend, who announced mousse for desserts. one gets to see a lot of “pure vege- fast-food joints. restaurant in a hutong close to the more pure vegetarian restaurants. her arrival. She said she would wait I need to specially mention the tarian” restaurants I’ve been trying out Indian, Mid- Yonghegong Lama Temple, I That’s for another day. for me outside so I won’t have diffi- assorted seasonal vegetarian sushi. in India. dle Eastern (I never tried it during couldn’t resist. I still kept walking. I realized I culty in locating the place. I always thought sushi was a non- Some restaurants my long stint in the Gulf) and even As agreed, I set out on a “great had walked away from the restau- But then, I was already inside, vegetarian dish consisting of cold even advertise in Italian cuisine. I have been prefer- vegetarian adventure” on a Friday. rant I was looking for when an eld- and she was surprised to find I had cooked rice garnished with raw or big, bold letters at ring lasagna and pasta, falafel (Mid- After she shared the name of the erly man I enquired with for arrived before her. cooked fish. I tried the vegetarian the entrance that dle Eastern fritter made from restaurant, typed in Chinese, on directions said I had to walk back We both were famished. I, after alternative, and loved it. So did my they serve only vege- ground chickpeas) or the much WeChat, I copied the same onto the to where I started. the long walk, and she, after a friend, who has turned vegetarian Manjunath tarian food, leaving familiar chole bhature (deep-fried Didi app, booked a cab and reached I retraced my steps. On enquiring strenuous yoga session. now. R. Setty no doubt in the Indian bread served with chole, the place (not the restaurant) 20 further, I found the entrance to the We immediately asked for the I did feel like trying out some Second minds of vegetari- which are chickpeas cooked in a minutes earlier than the scheduled restaurant remained “hidden” since menu. I was impressed. There was more dishes, but then I had exceed- Thoughts ans, some of whom spicy masala). time of 11.30 am. it was through a hair salon. not one non-vegetarian dish on it. I ed my limit. wouldn’t even step It’s wishful thinking to expect a The restaurant, however, was I was there finally. It was a simple had a hard time deciding what to Well, the gastronomic adventure into a non-vegetarian restaurant. pure vegetarian restaurant in Chi- not traceable. I asked some pas- restaurant with modest furniture. It eat. We zeroed in on mushroom was worth all the effort. As a vegetarian, life hasn’t been na. Or so I had thought. sersby for directions, but in the wasn’t crowded, and it wasn’t noisy. risotto with bechamel sauce, fried easy in Beijing. There have been When a Chinese friend told me absence of a name board, it was I loved it. potato wedges in truffle soy milk Contact the writer at times when I have walked out of about such a restaurant, it was like hard to locate. No sooner did I occupy the seat cream sauce, along with a tremella [email protected] Candid camera: Sunny prospects Translating French classics over decades By FANG AIQING spent more than a year reciting [email protected] the French-Chinese dictionary, because it was the only learning Zheng Kelu, the Chinese trans- material available. lator of French masterpieces by He was then able to read origi- Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, nal French works. He annotated Stendhal (the pen name for Marie- more than 80 novels of Honore de Henri Beyle) and Simone Beau- Balzac’s The Human Comedy. His voir, died aged 81 on Sept 20. debut translation work was Bal- As a professor at Shanghai Nor- zac’s The Elixir of Life, published mal University’s school of humani- in 1979. ties, Zheng was widely recognized Zheng went to SNU in 1987. for his translations, teaching and That year he was rewarded Ordre research. des Palmes Academiques (an aca- In his six-decade career, Zheng demic Golden Palm medal) from translated around 60 French liter- the French Ministry of Culture. ature and social science works, He said in an interview with and published 11 monographs and Shanghai Observer in November 10 textbooks. that the key to a quality transla- Thanks to his endeavors, Chi- tion lies in how to deal with sen- nese readers were able to appreci- tence patterns, especially relative ate many classic French works of clauses that don’t exist in the Chi- literature including Les Misera- nese language. bles, La Traviata and Le Comte de He emphasized polishing lan- Monte-Cristo. guage use and concluded his Zheng’s translation of Beau- translating style as concise and voir’s representative work The Sec- fluent while being literarily grace- ond Sex won the Fu Lei Award for ful. Translation and Publication in In his translation, he dared to 2012. The prize is sponsored by the use rarely used Chinese characters French embassy in Beijing to in a hope to make his readers turn reward Chinese translation of to the dictionary and therefore French literature, humanities and expand their knowledge and Residents dry bamboo strips in bright sunlight in Hedun village, Huichang county, Ganzhou city, Jiangxi Online social science works. vocabulary. province, on Saturday. With 2,667 hectares of bamboo, the county’s economy is reliant on all aspects of the Scan the QR code for He finished translation of all He chose not to retranslate bamboo trade, from planting to processing, from drying to selling. Trade in the plant has helped boost subscription or to get a Hugo’s novels last year, at the age Romain Rolland’s Jean-Christo- incomes in villages there. ZHU HAIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY copy of today’s paper. of 80, according to Beijing Daily. phe as he thought he would not go Zheng said in a lecture in beyond Fu Lei’s classical version. Shanghai last autumn that the He also turned down the request novelettes and short stories of to translate Marcel Proust’s Hugo he translated at the time Remembrance of Things Past for a had laid the foundation for the similar reason. Honoring TCM’s role in COVID-19 fight great writer to create Notre Dame In Zheng’s view, translating de Paris. practice helped to improve his “Chinese readers often overlook French language capability, while By LI YINGXUE patients’ cases and the treatment the psychological description of doing research inspired him on [email protected] plan. At night, when they went Hugo’s characters, but actually it’s selecting literature works to be back to the hotel, they collected all brilliant and reaches a peak in Les translated. A ceremony was held to celebrate case reports and perfected the Miserables,” he says. Benefitting from his research, the contribution by role models in treatment plan. The textbooks of foreign litera- he attached great importance to the country’s fight against COVID- The doctors treated the patients ture history, French literature and the preface of his translation so as 19 at the Great Hall of the People in and summed up the experience poem histories Zheng wrote are to help the readers learn about Beijing on Sept 8. together, and at the same time they widely used among domestic stu- highlights and historical value of A 35-member traditional Chi- shared the clinical data with spe- dents majoring in literature, and the works, and the authors’ writ- nese medicine team from the Chi- cialists in their own hospitals and he promoted the establishment of ing techniques and motives. na Academy of Chinese Medical conducted research together, find- the major of comparative litera- His student Zhu Zhenwu, pro- Sciences did an excellent job in ing answers from TCM’s thousands ture and world literature at SNU. fessor of SNU, said Zheng still fighting the outbreak. of years’ epidemic prevention treat- Born in Macao in 1939, Zheng spent most of his time in office During their 66-day work in ment theory and clinical practice. was the great-grandson of Zheng these years. He attended an offline Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, Within two weeks, the team Guanying (1842-1922), industrial- academic panel and gave a pas- the hardest-hit Chinese city, they developed an effective prescription ist and advocator of modernized sionate speech on June 5. treated more than 100 severe to treat severe COVID-19 patients reform during the late Qing In his late years, Zheng and his COVID-19 patients, according to a and the treatment efficiency was Dynasty (1644-1911). wife Zhu Biheng, also a translator, report by Xinhua News Agency. Tong Xiaolin (front), head researcher at the China Academy of continuously raised. Zheng Guanying was the first to mainly dined at the school can- TCM has played an important Chinese Medical Sciences, checks a patient’s test results at Wuhan Through taking traditional Chi- use the word “constitution” in Chi- teen.