... better next year.

I thought that I'd been a pretty good girl during 2006. Yeah, there was the occasional glass of bubbly and the odd gourmet extravaganza blow-out. There was maybe, just maybe, one night when I stayed out past midnight and I guess the um, two helicopter rides were a little indulgent, but overall, I lived a mostly frugal and clean living existence. Hell, I even read some books. So why is it then that, despite me sending my letter to Santa via a very reputable kuai di company, and avoiding China Post, I didn't receive the sable, '54 convertible, yacht, platinum mine, duplex, cheques, Tiffany decorations and diamond ring I'd been expecting in the stocking I pinned to the extractor fan above my stove?

Sitting down this morning to weigh up the year, all things considered and everything taken into account, I realized that Santa might be trying to suggest, in his own jolly, rosy-cheeked, but ultimately present-less way, that I should renounce all worldly ways and pursuit of pleasure, and exchange it all for a simple life living in a hut and subsisting on woodland herbs and berries, in the mountains of far Eastern Tibet. Having attempted, and failed, over the holiday period to book a train ticket to Qinhai, I figured that eating more organic vegetables would be a good compromise.

It was this epiphany that took me to Shui Yuan, the new healthy provincial Chinese cuisine restaurant on the Bund. It offers wholesome country food in a glamorama location on the Bund not at all provincial enough to make you feel like clean-living is a chore.

The concept at Shui Yuan is pretty simple; no MSG, salt-light, lean meats, mineral water, canola and olive oils, and daily fresh seasonal vegetables from predominantly organic suppliers. The dining room is clean and simple, no faux Louis XVI furniture here, only simple chairs which oddly seem to be shaped to make you sit up a little straighter than normal, and clean, wooden, tables. The place is hardly a monastery, but it's still refreshingly clean, and refreshingly fresh, given the no-smoking in the dining space.

The set meals are pretty reasonable, from 88rmb to 168rmb with appetizer, soup, main, and a dim sum dessert (and an extra course for the top price menus) and certainly not lacking in diversity; for the 88kwai deal there are six mains to choose from and a seasonal selection of three appetizers served together before the herbal broth, perfect for this time of year. The highlight, after the light, fluffy, clean organic rice cooked in mineral water (you can choose brown rice, red or black dependent on the supply at the time for a little extra) is the market basket brought to you along with each meal. The variety of vegetables, chosen from the mini-market display at the entrance of the restaurant, is changed daily according to what's good. On my last visit, we had five to choose from, all of which looked supremely fresh and brightly colored, of which you pick one, and then pick the method of cooking. Main's were lovely, not oil free, but full of natural flavor and a bit of a kick, as the chef is from Sichuan, and they ain't half fond of spice there. This isn't gourmet Chinese heaven with the usual sharks-fin-fest, but for someone who's feeling a little like their insides are being picked with oil, sugar, and MSG, it does seem to be something close to nirvana.

All details of Shui Yuan here

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