Anatolia Turkish Restaurant

My friend first introduced me to Anatolia a few years ago. I have been returning to this restaurant many times since, and again this evening. The restaurant is a small and cozy place, in a quiet corner of Far East Plaza.

They are quite vegetarian-friendly, and what I really love is their lentil soup, salad bar, sutlac (rice pudding dessert) and of course turkish tea! In terms of main courses, they have vegetarian lamacun, pide and omelettes. There is, of course, also the turkish ice cream booth, complete with all the tricks that are really amusing to watch!

Anatolia Turkish Restaurant
14 Scotts Road #02-58/29 Far East Plaza
Tel: 6836 3352

The peril of eating alone in a foodcourt in Singapore

Imagine this: you are alone, trying to grab a quick bite at the foodcourt before heading off to your next appointment (whatever that may be). In the middle of your meal, you get up to get a drink (or a fruit or whatever). That takes no more than 1 minute, but the next thing you know, your food is no longer there!

This is no joke, and has happened to me before, and almost happened to me again this morning. Luckily I was quick enough to yell at the "uncle" to inform him that I wasn't yet done!

Somehow the foodcourts in Singapore seem to have a super-efficient system of clearing tables - when you don't want it cleared! As opposed to when you're waiting for someone to clear vacated table still full of empty dishes...

Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant

A Chinese-vegetarian restaurant, tucked away on the 3rd floor of Coronation Plaza. It may not be very prominent, but always seems to be very well-patronized every time we are there. As with all other Chinese-vegetarian restaurants, it serves the usual concoction of mock meat, but also has a great selection of tofu dishes.

When we were there last weekend, we tried a "soft tofu fantasy", which was tofu fried with a crisp brown skin but still white and soft inside. It was topped with crunchy bell pepper and TVP bits. Another dish that was a "first" for us was a sweet-and-sour mock duck (or some mock meat). The mock meat was crispy, and the sweet and sour sauce was just nice - not too sweet and not too sour!

This is one of vegetarian restaurants we have returned to frequently, as we enjoy the selection of dishes they offer.

Miao Yi Vegetarian Rstnt Pte Ltd
#03-01/02 Coronation Shopping Plaza Singapore 269707
Tel : 6467-1331

The NUS "Arts Canteen"

The canteen in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore has recently undergone renovation and will begin operations again on 13 August 2007. Oh, yes and it is now called "The Deck".

Here's the layout of the new canteen.

Anyway, there will be a vegetarian stall there... I wonder if it will be the same stall holder as before, as I really liked how they always had a clear soup on the menu every day.

Imperial Herbal Sin Chi Cafe and Restaurant

Two weeks ago, I met up with a few high-school classmates for dinner. Being the only vegetarian, I was again compelled to be the one to suggest where to go.

Just for kicks, I called up Imperial Herbal Sin Chi Cafe and Restaurant at Vivo City, to ask if they cater for vegetarians. Yes, of course they do, you can ask the captain on duty for vegetarian recommendations!

Well, I certainly didn't forsee the difficulty finding parking on a Saturday evening, which made me half an hour late! By the time I arrived, my friends had already finished a (non-veg) starter, which was fine by me. Apparently, the starter was good enough to prompt one of them to make a reservation for her family lunch the next day!

As I wasn't up to eating too much, I ordered a soup for myself. We also got a dish of greens, a tofu dish, and a noodle dish which we shared. Overall, it was pretty good, and my friends also enjoyed the non-veg dishes they got.

My Special Salad

Last night I made a special salad for my DH:

Korean food

I was in Korea for two weeks in February. During those two weeks, I sort of got hooked on Korean food... not that it is all that vegetarian-friendly, but what there is is pretty good.

First off, I love kimchi. Most places make it vegetarian. I also like the spicy ramen noodle soup. I suppose, anything spicy is yummy! ;-) The little sides of vegetables were also pretty good.

I also like the soybean soup, but since most places use meat stock for the soup, I did not manage to have too much of that. Bibimbap can be made vegetarian very easily, and I like the sunny-side-up egg on top of the rice.

And of course - lots of seaweed and rice (with kimchi)!

Secret Recipe

On Friday, my colleagues and I went for lunch at Secret Recipe (at Anchorage). This restaurant has exactly two (2) vegetarian dishes on the menu - a vegetarian spaghetti, and some Japanese noodle dish. HOWEVER when I tried to order, the waiter could only tell me, sorry, the vegetarian dishes are not available!
What absurdity!

I asked what I could eat then, since we came in because there are some vegetarian options. Trying to be helpful, he suggested the prawn arrabiata spaghetti, without the prawns. Normally I would have just nodded and said ok, but that day, I just thought I'd ask, how much it would cost me to have the prawn arrabiata without the prawns.

To my disbelief, he said, we'll charge the same... the same as what? the same as the prawn arrabiata even without the prawns! Erm, the vegetarian spaghetti cost about $2 less than the prawn arriabiata, and I'm going to get charged for the prawns, when I don't want the prawns?

Finally I asked for his manager, who came out to explain, very politely, that they don't have vegetarian dishes because the factory did not send the material. Well, I don't really need to know that, nor do I care - I just want to know that I won't be getting charged for prawns that aren't going to be there! Eventually, he agreed to make a vegetarian spaghetti, but not before repeated warnings that the dish won't be the same as described in the menu!!

Min Jiang Restaurant

Last Friday, we attended a small dinner function at Min Jiang Restaurant in Goodwood Park Hotel, at 22 Scotts Road. Like many Chinese restaurants, they offer the regular full-course dinners, while serving the vegetarian meal as individual portions.

The restaurant's interior design was very interesting - there was a main corridor, with wooden floor & walls, a mirror on one end, wooden sliding doors leading to private rooms. The room we were in had just 4 tables, and a private "attached bathroom"! The food was pretty decent.

Just for interest's sake, in May 2006, Goodwood Park Hotel opened its second Min Jiang restaurant at One-North, no. 5 Rochester Park.

Annalakshmi Restaurant

Annalakshmi is an Indian vegetarian restaurant with a noble concept:

Eat what you like, Pay as you wish
We belive in you and trust you

The main restaurant and the arts center is located in Chinatown Point. The basement location is cool - we descended on the escalator, and were deposited right at the door of the restaurant!

Here, lunch is buffet-style, and dinner is a la carte. The food is excellent. Staff are volunteers, and are quite friendly. Reservations are recommended.

Annalakshmi also runs another branch at Amoy Street, as well as two Dosa Deli corners, one in the Biopolis food court, and the other at Lau Pa Sat. They also have a presence in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Coimbatore, Perth and Chennai.

Website: http://www.annalakshmi.com.sg/

Dining in Los Angeles

Marina Del Rey, LA.

Last night's dinner was at Baja Cantina, on Washington Boulevard. It was recommended by the hotel staff. The restaurant has a nice ambience, and the food is good.

Cantina the Food & Wine Stop

This Italian restaurant is located on Greenleaf Road, off Sixth Avenue, nestled in the midst of a quiet residential neighbourhood. It seemed the most unlikely location for a restaurant, but also provided a peaceful and homely setting for dinner.

We were there for dinner this evening. I had mushroom soup and spinach fettucine vegetarian. And we ordered garlic bread for everyone. The mushroom soup was tasty. The garlic bread just nicely done. The main courses came out nice and hot, and in generous portions!

There is also a wine cellar - with tables inside! A waiter told us that those tables can be reserved, with the criteria that the customers buy one bottle of wine for their meal.

Overall, it was an extremely pleasant experience.

PS: The restaurant also has a website!

Mustard

For lunch today, we drove to Race Course Road. There have been numerous new restaurants opened up there in the last couple of months.

We decided on Mustard (32 Race Course Road). Turns out, it was a good choice. They have a vegetarian selection. The food was tasty, and not overly oily. The roomali roti and the naan were lovely.

Review on STOMP's ST Foodies Club "Mustard has some lovely flavours"
(Note: the review is not specifically on vegetarian dishes)

Kinara (at Holland Village)

Last night, my DH and I invited another couple for dinner. We decided on Kinara at Holland Village, and found that it was this couple's introduction to Indian food... Especially Indian vegetarian food.

It was a DISASTER!!

We ordered pakora as starters... when the food came, there was no sign of the pakora! We cancelled it, as it was just something to eat before we got our dinner.

As we started digging into the food, I realised, to my horror, that the dishes were full of onion. Yes, there were more onions than anything else. For example, the okra dish was so full of onions we probably got something like 3 little pieces of okra each.

What's more, all the dishes looked absolutely soaked in oil!

Later, I got the chance to try the yellow dhal we ordered... eew! it tasted like eating melted butter with some dhal flavor!

In the end, there was food leftover, and though we were not exactly full, none of us wanted to eat any more.

And it is not like this is a cheap place! We could have gone to the other restaurant across the road for better food at slightly lower price. Please remind me not to go back there.

Munchie Monkey Café

A student-run café at the National University of Singapore, Munchie Monkey serves decent food at reasonable prices. The café is on the third floor of Yusoff Ishak House.

Its menu includes various soups, salads, pastas, pizzas, sandwiches, as well as starters like wedges and onion rings. I recently tried its cakes, and the chocolate truffle is wonderfully chocolatey!

Yunnan Garden Restaurant

Today, I went with my colleagues to Yunnan Garden Restaurant for lunch. This restaurant is located on the 5th floor of the IMM building.

As usual, whenever we go out for lunch, my colleagues have to make sure there is vegetarian food. They have been really good at that. This time, there were 21 of us, so we had 2 tables and the omnivores had the set lunch -> an 8-course meal that looked pretty good!

Me? Ah, I wasn't forgotten. The restaurant also catered a 6-course vegetarian menu for me. It was quite good! I had

• soup with bamboo pith
  
• tofu on a bed of greens
  
• (goodness, I can't remember what I ate now!)
  
• wrap of po-piah vegetables in lor-bak skin
  
• ee-fu noodles
  
• mango pudding

What is nice is that there wasn't too much of the mock-stuff!

Rangooli

Rangooli is an Indian restaurant at Pasir Panjang Village. Though the place is small, the food is good and reasonably priced.

Earlier this year, it also started operating a stall at "Best Bites", a food center in Science Park I. That totally makes up for the crappy choices at lunch in Science Park I. Recently I noticed that Rangooli has also taken over operation of the "Western Food" stall next to it. It must be doing well - good for them! :-)

Sakae Sushi

We met our cousin at the airport last weekend when she was on a 4-hour stop-over. We had lunch at Sakae Sushi...

Sakae Sushi now has a vegetarian menu! Generally, I would not be so inclined to go to Japanese food, as the vegetarian choices are not exactly so exciting. However, we thought we'd give it a try this time.

It was actually much more pleasant than I'd expected. The sushi belt had the same boring stuff, but the set meal was actually not too bad. There was also several other items on the menu which looked good but we did not try. The meal, though had lots of mushrooms - which my DH avoids, so I got to have most of the fungus.

Overall, I wouldn't mind going there again!

Vari Nice: coffee-shop in Clementi

We were in Clementi last night, as I had to pick up a parcel from the post office. Before, the only vegetarian stall we could find open at 8pm is the one in the coffee shop beside NTUC. It always took an awfully long time for us to get our food, and, we felt, was overpriced!

Last night, we found that the coffee shop has been refurbished, and is now called Vari-Nice. How corny! It is now brighter and cleaner, and there is a new vegetarian stall. It was ok, not spectacular, but at least we know there is somewhere reasonable we can go when we're in that area at night!

Kopitiam Food Courts

Kopitiam means, quite literally, "coffee shop". In Singapore, the Kopitiam Group is running a rapidly expanding chain of food courts. In the Kopitiam food courts I have been to, there is never a vegetarian stall where I can get something to eat. There is only one exception - the one at NUH.

I have sent an email enquiring why. Hopefully they will respond soon!