Monday, April 04, 2011

Loving Hut (Richmond) 04/2011

We are not vegans and have never even toyed with vegetarianism, I think it is a sort of religion. It's fine for those who believe in it but if there is a philosophical argument for it I find it a bit suspect. Having enjoyed several vegan tit bits at the SBS Food Safari a few weeks ago I thought it interesting to visit Loving Hut, where some of them were made.
It's a very nice, very clean looking place at 10/242 Victoria Pde, quite near Church St. I was struck by the large flat screen TV at the far end of the room, no it didn't fall on me, which had a continuous program centered around the Supreme Master Chng Hai. It really should have been Supreme Mistress but that might have been misunderstood.

The program is in English with sub titles in about 10 languages, including English. It is a constant promotion for Ching Hai interspersed with a little news.
Ching Hai is an attractive 62 year old woman, the self titled leader and founder of a trans national cybersect that promotes her philosophy and the Quan Yin method, a form of meditation.
She is extremely wealthy and is a poet, painter, author, musician and entrepreneur, designing dresses and jewelery and is associated with the Loving Hut chain of vegan restaurants. She is known for her self promotion, and philanthropy. Some of her fiscal dealing have come under considerable scrutiny.
So what about the food. Looking around I could see that tit was beautifully presented. I ordered an entree of Crispy Delight made up of taro and enoki mushroom wrapped in sea weed and
bean curd skins, cooked in batter ($8)
It was as it said a crispy delight. A little oily but very moorish.
After that I had a mild version of their Assam Curry. That was a throat tingling, eye watering, nose running face reddening religious experience in itself. It was indeed very good.
A big serve filled with tomato, peppers, beans, taro and tofu in a reasonably mild chili curry sauce it needed a long cool beer but they are alcohol free so I had only Chinese tea and rice to help.
This is a really nice place for vegans, vegetarians and free thinking omnivores to eat.

Score: 13.5/20

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It's fine for those who believe in it but if there is a philosophical argument for it I find it a bit suspect"- Forget the philosophical arguments and look at the facts then. The facts are the reason most vegetarians and vegans do what they do. Easily accessible facts that are widely available that everyone should be aware of.

Elliot and Sandra said...

Hi Anonymous.
I'm not sure what "facts" you actually refer to. There are a lot of things which purport to be facts but are incomplete, inaccurate or even fallacious.

Anonymous said...

Yes and that argument could be used to defend just about anything. To say that some of it is incorrect therefore all of it is incorrect is incomplete, inaccurate and fallacious. To say vegetarianism is like a religion...seriously. Is this a site about food or a place to voice misguided judgements. Many "facts" around the environmental cost, habitat destruction, CO2 emissions, water and resource wastage etc etc I refer to can be found in publications/studies from the world health organization and the united nations. As far as supreme master ching goes, say what you like, the woman is terrifying.

Elliot and Sandra said...

Hi,
I regret that I find the 'readily available' facts are often not facts at all. Even if they are facts they do not tell the whole story as there are many confounding issues that make drawing valid conclusions very difficult. People have hidden agenda's, perhaps even from themselves,and, in the social sciences there are perfectly valid conflicting views.
This is not a cop out it is a warning to be sceptical about 'facts'

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