Chengdu

Chengdu is one of the Chinese cities that best knows how to eat vegetarian — but the skill is hidden inside Sichuan cooking. Vegetarian hotpot, vegetarian skewers, vegetarian bobo chicken; even twice-cooked pork, mapo tofu and boiled fish can all be made fully vegan. The heart of Sichuan seasoning is fermented broad-bean paste and Sichuan pepper, and removing the animal fat leaves the technique more exposed, not less: the numbness has to be clean, the heat has to be thorough, and neither can hide behind grease.

Wenshu Monastery was founded in the Sui dynasty and Zhaojue even earlier. Their refectories are the true root of Sichuan-style vegetarian cooking, and for centuries they have been doing one thing: holding homely dishes to a monastery standard. We take you to Wenshu for a temple meal, to Yulin Road for a vegetarian hotpot, and then to a bamboo chair in People's Park for an afternoon of covered-bowl tea, watching how Chengdu spends its time. March to May is bamboo shoot season, and the spring shoot hills are worth a dedicated trip.

Chengdu works in all four seasons: bamboo shoots in spring, lotus root in July and August, radish in winter — follow the solar terms and you get the best of it. Vegetarian restaurants cluster around Wenshu Monastery, Yulin and Kuixinglou Street, all reachable on foot and by metro. With more time, add a day for Qingcheng Mountain or Dujiangyan; the temple food in the hills is a different style altogether.