Taste of enlightenment

An earthy soup is served in a hollowed-out purple radish.[Photo by Mike Peters/China Daily]

Some dish names are prosaic (Meatlike Brisket) while other are promissory (Universal Salvation - it's fried tofu), but whatever you order, you can expect it to arrive at your table like a work of art, presented with a formal deep bow by your server, a young man who will be traditionally robed but may sport unexpectedly hip white-blond hair.

We got a bit lost in the menu - even the Chinese at our table couldn't decode some of the menu descriptions - so we trusted our luck with the set menu. This 11-course sampling of the menu runs 1,000 yuan ($153) per person, the price range of dinner sets at Beijing's celebrated French restaurant TRB. That will startle some who aren't used to paying much for "just vegetables" and no alcohol served. (A la carte, Mt Wutai Wisdom Mushroom Soup will run you 799 yuan per person, though there are mains that start at 99 yuan for more earthbound wallets.)

But the carefully chosen seasonal ingredients, the rich culture behind the dishes and the exquisite presentation combine to make Pure Lotus a worthy destination for a special-occasion meal.

Early in the elegant parade of dishes comes one of the simplest: an immense purple radish, its perfect roundness evocative of the Earth, hollowed out as a soup bowl. Its natural beauty is set off by a gleaming copper soup spoon. Inside the bowl, the broth of daikon and black fungus is studded with sweet gingko nuts. Each flavor lingers on the palate, and the dish is wedded to the promise of health: The radish is very good for your spleen, we are assured by our waiters, who offer nuggets of information about the Chinese medicine traditions made manifest in other dishes too. In fact, each course is meticulously described as it's presented, in Mandarin and in English.

Seasonal transition is a repeating theme as well. Another dish with a "snowy" base, steamed minced radish and lily buds, features asparagus tips eagerly pushing through to spring's first warmth. There is added sweetness from fresh peas and a substrata of wild mushrooms as one digs in.

The most intriguing and elemental dish on the set may be sea grape, served on a bridge-shaped ice carving. The tiny salty clusters, harvested from deep in the ocean and flown in fresh, are pleasantly crunchy after dipping in a mild vinegar sauce.

Our dessert, meanwhile, boasts some of the year's first strawberries, mixed with other fruits and drizzled with a sauce infused with medicinal herbs from the foothills of the Himalayas. As we enjoy a final tea, we relax with background music that has evolved from a mellow instrumental version of How Great Thou Art to the sonorous bell tones and tinkling chimes that signal the advent of earthy Tibetan chant.

It was enough to make us want to chant ourselves.