City of 10,000 Buddhas
Talmage, CA
http://www.cttbusa.org/jyunkang/jk.asp
Located in the beautiful hills of Mendocino County, a couple of hours north of San Francisco, “The Sagely City of 10,000 Buddhas” is a large Buddhist monastery, that includes schools, prayer halls, and a vegetarian restaurant. Upon entering the city, visitors are required to register first in the visitor center before wandering the grounds.
Since it was a warm day, V and I registered at the visitor center, and then headed straight to the restaurant via the Buddha Hall. We went into the Buddha hall and sat down for a few minutes of quiet meditation. Outside, we were amazed to see peacocks and peahens wandering the grounds freely, and making quite a bit of noise disrupting the silence in the sleepy afternoon. Some of them decided to show off their plumage for us. (We were later looking up peafowl factoids, and one of the interesting things is that they need a rather stress-free environment to survive. They are certainly in the right place!).
The restaurant is in a separate nondescript building, and is open from 12 noon to 3 PM every day. Jyun Kang, apparently means “to your health” and this health-restaurant does not use any garlic, onions, eggs or dairy in their preparations. We got there a little before closing time, and were seated immediately. The inside is quite pleasant with about 10 tables. Service was friendly and the food arrived very quickly.
The cuisine is mainly Chinese-inspired. We ordered steamed dumplings as an appetizer and one entree each. V ordered one of the house specialities - the “Seaweed rolls”, and I decided to try something new and got the “Veggies with Gingko nuts”. The dumplings had mushroom filling and were truly out of the world. We gobbled up the 6 pieces very quickly. As for the entrees, V’s choice was definitely better than mine. The seaweed roll in spicy sauce (which tasted closer to Thai curry) topped with shredded mango and carrots was very flavorful and in contrast, my dish was rather bland. Not that I hated it. The Gingko nuts (yellowish in the picture below) had a slightly bitter taste.
Since it was a warm day, V and I registered at the visitor center, and then headed straight to the restaurant via the Buddha Hall. We went into the Buddha hall and sat down for a few minutes of quiet meditation. Outside, we were amazed to see peacocks and peahens wandering the grounds freely, and making quite a bit of noise disrupting the silence in the sleepy afternoon. Some of them decided to show off their plumage for us. (We were later looking up peafowl factoids, and one of the interesting things is that they need a rather stress-free environment to survive. They are certainly in the right place!).
The restaurant is in a separate nondescript building, and is open from 12 noon to 3 PM every day. Jyun Kang, apparently means “to your health” and this health-restaurant does not use any garlic, onions, eggs or dairy in their preparations. We got there a little before closing time, and were seated immediately. The inside is quite pleasant with about 10 tables. Service was friendly and the food arrived very quickly.
The cuisine is mainly Chinese-inspired. We ordered steamed dumplings as an appetizer and one entree each. V ordered one of the house specialities - the “Seaweed rolls”, and I decided to try something new and got the “Veggies with Gingko nuts”. The dumplings had mushroom filling and were truly out of the world. We gobbled up the 6 pieces very quickly. As for the entrees, V’s choice was definitely better than mine. The seaweed roll in spicy sauce (which tasted closer to Thai curry) topped with shredded mango and carrots was very flavorful and in contrast, my dish was rather bland. Not that I hated it. The Gingko nuts (yellowish in the picture below) had a slightly bitter taste.
It was a very filling meal and we cleaned it up quickly. The bill came to $25 with tax and tip. It would be nice to go back on a cool day and take a nice walk in the grounds before lunch.
1 comment:
Jyun Kang is close on Tuesdays.
Post a Comment