I moved to Shanghai from kale-less meat-loving Prague. That is my excuse for being in the dark about the super-food that has every hipster vegans panties in a bunch. Turns out that all of those strange cabbage-looking flowers all over the city are actually kale!
Shanghai is surprisingly green with an abundance of large parks, plants in every restaurant and trees or bushes along virtually every single sidewalk. Even highways are lined with flowerbeds so you at least have a nice view while you’re stuck in perpetual Chinese traffic.
Kale can be found all over the city. The French concession and even People’s Square show off potted kale that looks good enough to eat. You know, if it wasn’t for the pesticides, road-side fumes, cigarette butts, unavoidable Chinese spitting and an atrocious Air Quality Index that often goes over 200 (micro-grams of pollutants per cubic meter of air).
So as hard as it might be for vegans and vegetarians to have a hardy meal in China, I advise against nibbling on the kale… no matter how tempting it may be. Anyway, since kale was so last year, you might not even remember why kale is so awesome. You can read all about it here.
Kale photo from: https://pinterest.com/pin/89157267597896765/
