Ask anyone who’s ever dined with me: I will eat anything. I’ve long been proud to sport an iron-clad stomach, and was always committed to regularly exercising its limits. And though my last post on CW Beijing (take a quick look here) only joked about going Vegan in response to inflated meat and dairy prices in China, I’m now seriously considering taking that final, fearful leap to a life beyond eating meat.

It’d be easy enough to blame a recent trip to Vietnam, which reminded me that vegetables can be eaten fresh and don’t need to come to the table drowning in oil; or to point fingers at an upcoming trip to Jiangsu Province whose Taihu Lake and its famed algal blossoms will no doubt encourage me to avoid (my beloved!) seafood in China, if not all of Asia or the entire world. But when even the city’s chefs--from JAAN’s Chef de Cuisine Guillaume Galliot to Max Levy of the upcoming Sanlitun boutique hotel--won’t serve local meats despite culinary training that motivates them to utilize products loyal to the locale, I’m coming to accept that it’s come time to be more considerate to m’belly.

Seems I’m not the only one contemplating the move toward herbivorousness. I woke up this morning, and found that The New York Time’s Mark Bittman, who writes the paper’s Dining In and Dining Out sections, is also reviewing his commitment to all foods which once lived on land, in “Rethinking the meat guzzler”.

The trend isn’t gripping only the USA: last Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Health released its 2007 Chinese Diet Guide, encouraging a “cereal-based diet with dark-colored vegetables” as obesity, hypertension and diabetes kill increasing numbers of Chinese (“Porridge good start to eating healthy”).

Good thing that it really is becoming possible to eat veggie-style in Beijing--and not just because the Yonghegong Lama Temple provides babao porridge on occasion. Last night I devoured a satisfying, flavorful and imaginative meal at Baihe Vegetarian Restaurant (formal review forthcoming; use this until it comes out in February’s City Weekend editions), one of several such tasty spots to ignore or substitute meats in its menus. Another worth visiting, especially for its all-you-can-eat weekend buffet, is Xu Xiang Zhai, right by Yonghegong (the jiaozi are awesome).

In addition to restaurants, one has ever-more offerings for purchasing organic produce and, in some cases, meats and specialty items such as oils and sweets. These include several organic-certified vendors in the greater Beijing area such as DeRunWu Organic Farm and Grocery Store, The Farm House, The Green Cow Farm and Mrs. Shanen’s are among them; Beijing Bolongbao Winery sells the obvious. Just last month, Lohao’s (Lifestyle Of Health And Organic) opened an outlet in WTC-Central Park, so you don’t even have to get in a car to buy organic goodies. God forbid you'd waste gasoline!

If I’ve missed any other spots for organic home-shopping, please add below. Maybe we can’t clean up Taihu or de-oil Chinese cuisine, but at least our iron-clad bellies can take a break from battling toxins.