佛妙缘素食阁

This restaurant is at Blk 11 Jalan Bukit Merah (the corner restaurant). We recently visited it again, and here's a couple of dishes we got:

Satay

 

Chilli Mock Fish

Yuan Xiang Vegetarian Food

We have recently found a vegetarian food 煮炒 ("zi char") stall in Ang Mo Kio. When we first went there, it was in Blk 223F Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, but they have just moved to Blk 232 ~ not too far...

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This is one of the few places we can find vegetarian satay

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Dumpling soup

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My DD simply loves hor fun

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Mock fish with ginger and bean sauce. Really, the ginger made this dish - it was crispy fried and I loved it.

Zhen Ji Vegetarian

One of my favorite quick lunches is at the market food centre at Holland Drive (near the junction of Buona Vista Road and Commonwealth Ave). This is a stall that is famous for its vegetarian bee hoon. Recently, I also tried the vegetarian chicken rice, and it was also very good!

Vegetarian Bee Hoon

Vegetarian Chicken Rice

Where to find it:
 Blk 44 Holland Drive
 Holland Drive Market & Food Centre
 #02-26 Singapore 270044

What the stall looks like:

Valentine's Day Dinner at Annalakshmi

Vegetarian Hor Fun

Hor fun is a flat rice noodle, looks sort of like linguine. The noodles can be bought fresh from the grocery stores here. I made hor fun for dinner last night, upon request of my DD.

Ingredients
1 packet of fresh hor fun (500g)
2 cloves garlic, minced
some chopped ginger
1 tablespoon oil (for frying)
1 cup of vegetable stock (or clear soup)
1 tablespoon of corn starch
1 piece of tau kwa (or tofu)*
1 can of braised gluten*
2 stalks of green vegetables*

Procedure:
1. heat the oil and fry the garlic and ginger until garlic browns.
2. add tau kwa, gluten and vegetables, fry until cooked
3. pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil
4. mix in the hor fun and add the corn starch to thicken the stock

* you can put any other ingredients you like in this, I used tau kwa, gluten and green veges here

Daawat Tandoori

Having passed by the restaurant every day, it was only yesterday that we finally decided ot go in and give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised by the great food :-)

We had the vegetarian set meal, which has briyani rice and a naan (choice of plain, garlic or butter), 3 side dishes (of which one is a dal) and a raita. The dishes were really good! Finally, there is dessert and coffee/tea ~ you can change the beverage to a soft drink, but I got the tea, and enjoyed it.

Open Daily, 11am - 11pm
Restaurant Website
Email: daawat_tandoori@yahoo.com.sg

Soy Pancakes ~ no eggs!

I started making soy pancakes because of a desire to reduce carbohydrate intake. They turn out really fluffy and tasty. I initially tried to make these using solely soy flour, but that didn't work at all ~ try it and you will see! I do not use eggs, and have also liked it with bananas and cinnamon.

Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 tsp sugar (to taste)
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon (to taste, optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Wet ingredients:
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp oil
1 banana

Directions:
a) mix together the dry ingredients.
b) mix in the wet ingredients and stir/whisk.
c) heat pan on the stove.
d) use a ladle to spoon batter onto the pan, spreading it out to desired thickness.
e) cook for 1 minute (may vary depending on your flame)
f) flip over and cook for another minute (may vary depending on your flame)

New vegetarian restaurant at Jalan Bukit Merah

We visited this restaurant for dinner last week, it is nice and simple.

SanSkruti

A couple of days ago, we chanced upon SanSkruti while looking for a place for lunch. It is an Indian vegetarian restaurant on Race Course Lane, and what caught my eye was that it served Gujurati cuisine. After looking through the menu, we decied to have the buffet, as it would allow us to taste a variety of dishes.

The dishes were pretty good, and prepared Gujurati style. There was kachori for starter, and the papad was nicely roasted. There was cabbage sag, palak paneer, channa, (one more dish I can't remember now) and, of course, dal and rice. They brought out the chappati as we ordered, so it was fresh and hot, with a generous dash of ghee. Dessert was gulab jamun was soft and well-soaked - delightful!

Forest Dew Vegetarian Restaurant

DH and I were on the way home one evening last week when 7-month old DD decided she was going to cry and cry and cry... We pulled into the next parking lot so we can get her out of her car seat & soothe her.

Turns out, we were right in front of a vegetarian restaurant!! We decided to get dinner there. Ordered two soups and two other dishes...

Since the lady said each soup was one portion, we ordered two - a Watercress Soup and a Salted Vegetable Soup. Turns out the portion was pretty large... Had I known, I would have ordered just one. The Salted Vegetable Soup had a nice herbal taste to it, and DH seemed to like the Salted Vegetable Soup.



We also got a Sambal Chicken and a Fish in Black Bean Paste. We were too eager to dig in that we forgot to take photos first! The sambal was fiery hot... I don't think I really tasted the "chicken". The "fish" was good.



Overall, it was a pleasant experience. The menu was extensive, I would definitely go back and try other items!

Forest Dew Vegetarian Restaurant
Blk 23, #01-523 Bendemeer Road

Century Egg and Spinach

Last weekend, my mom gave me a couple of century eggs, so I used one of them in my spinach dish. Here's how...

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup stock
1 century egg, diced
1 egg, beaten
some garlic, chopped
a bundle of spinach, washed
a handful of wolfberries (I forgot these in dish pictured)
some oil for frying

1. Heat oil, and fry the garlic.
2. Add stock and wolfberries. Bring to a boil.
3. Add century egg and spinach. Boil until spinach is soft.
4. Stir in beaten egg.

Easy and yummy! :-)

(Green+on+earth)

Last week, my DH and I was at Beauty World Centre, and trying to find a place for dinner. I knew, from times past, that there was the food court on the 4th floor...

So, up we went, and we found, to our delight, a new vegetarian cafe - ok, it is not so new anymore, as it is a year old, but given that the last time I have been to this building was almost 12 years ago, it is new.

Green on earth cafe looked inviting (especially compared to the foodcourt outside) with a simple decoration and menu that looked yummy.

We went in, got seated, and then baby started to cry, so, the first dish at this cafe was milk for baby!! The owner was realy nice lady, and got us some hot water to heat up the milk.


I tried the beetroot & orange soup, and it was good, although I thought it would have been better as a cold drink than a hot soup.


As a starter, we tried the "Vietnamese Roulade", essentially vietnamese style spring roll. Nice healthy alternative to the deep-fried version.


For main dishes, we got the Mapo tofu pot, which came in a hot claypot and was served with brown rice. We also got a specialty (I have forgotten the name) which was fried mock fish that comes with a lovely sauce and lettuce which is used to wrap the 'fish' to eat.


Overall we found the meal extremely satisfying, and will certainly come back!

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Green on earth cafe
144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #04-03
Beauty World Centre, Singapore 588177
Tel: 64684748
Email: info@greenonearth.sg
Website: http://www.greenonearth.sg/

Vegetarian Villas

We came across a relatively new restaurant at Bukit Merah - Vegetarian Villas. The restaurant has an interesting concept of serving vegetarian Yong Tau Foo. Customers select items they want in their dish, and whether they want it in a soup or "dry". They may also add noodles or rice, or select a regular soup or laksa soup.

The restaurant also serve a few other dishes like claypot rice/noodles, satay beehoon and specials on certain days.


Our first time there, we also found out that some items go into the soup, while others are fried and served with sesame seeds in a separate bowl.

Overall, we quite enjoyed our meal, and have been back quite a few times since!

Vegetarian Villas
11 Jalan Bukit Merah #03-4458
(it is at a corner at Blk 11, which is beside the "ABC market")
Email: vegvillas@gmail.com
Tel: 6273 2337

[UPDATE: This branch has closed as of 2010]

Eight Immortals Vegetarian

My DH and I first went to this restaurant last week. We had heard about it from a friend, although I have also seen it while passing by on previous occasions, but never thought about giving it a try. The restaurant is not at all fancy, but is clean and brightly lit, with simple decoration.

We ordered a vegetarian fish soup, Peking duck (mock duck, of course) and a sambal kangkong. The soup is a milky soup with crispy fried "fish", tofu, preserved veg and some mushrooms. The Peking duck was served with cucumber and lettuce - which you are supposed to use to wrap the slices of "duck" in. Sambal kangkong is a local vegetable cooked in chilli paste.



We took a picture after all the food arrived (and we had already started on some of it!). We really enjoyed the soup, and DH liked the "fish" inside. The kangkong was good and spicy! I thought the Peking duck was a little dry, but still quite ok. Overall, it was a satisfactory meal :-)

Today, we decided to go again, and since we liked the soup so much, we got it again. We decided to try the gong bao "chicken" (gong bao ji ding) and the kai lan in "oyster sauce". The gong bao chicken is mock chicken cooked with cashew nuts and red chilli peppers. It turned out to be really good - better than most gong bao chicken we have had at other places. The kai lan was... well, kai lan! Perhaps we should go for more interesting veges next time!

Tonight's dinner came up to about $20 for the two of us.

Eight Immortals Vegetarian Pte Ltd
Blk 721 Clementi West St 2
#01-126, Singapore 120721
(beside West Coast Road Chinese Temple & CC)
(opposite Ginza Plaza)
Tel: 6774 6102

Note: They also operate outlets in various food courts around the island.

Home-made Fried Rice

My home-made fried rice:

Well, it isn't really all that fancy, and I suppose pretty much anything can be fried with the rice. Here's how I did this particular one:

Ingredients:
1/2 a red onion
1 chilli
1pc Tau Kwa (the firm kind of tofu)
1/2 a yellow bell pepper
a handful of bean sprouts
1 stalk of xiao bai cai (sometims called chinese mustard)
1 bowl cooked rice
1 egg
2 tsp oil (or enough for frying)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp soy sauce (or to taste)

Preparation:
- Chop the onion and chilli. Cut the tau kwa and yellow bell pepper into strips.
- Wash the bean sprouts and xiao bai cai. Cut the xiao bai cai into small pieces.
- Heat oil and fry the tau kwa until it is golden-brown (yeah I love doing that).
- Push the tau kwa to the side of the wok, add onion, chilli and salt in the center. Fry and mix in the tau kwa.
- Throw in bell pepper, bean sprouts and stalk of xiao bai cai. Fry 'til "al dente". Then add the leaves of xiao bai cai.
- Make a space in the center of the wok and add the rice. Add a more oil if necessary to prevent the rice sticking to the wok. Add soy sauce and fry, mixing in all the other ingredients.
- Make a space in the center of the wok, break the an egg in the center, mix in all the rice and ingredients and fry.

TIP: For best results, use cold rice (e.g. refrigerated overnight).

Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant

Last weekend, my DH and I went to Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant for dinner. There are two branches, one at Far East Square, the other at Liat Towers. We went to the Liat Towers branch, and above is the entrance to the restaurant.

    We had the "special tea" - it was a water chestnut drink that day. (picture above left). To start, we ordered spinach soup (picture above right). The soup is served in a bamboo cup - really cute! It is a simple and refreshing concoction, and is not overly spiced or savoury, which brings out the flavor of the ingredients. We enjoyed the simplicity of it all.

We ordered three main dishes. I really can't remember what the names are in the menu, so I will just describe them, and hope the pictures do them justice.

The mock fish consists of layers of beancurd wrapped in crispy seaweed-type "skin", with shreds of caramelised ginger on top, and chili sauce on the side. DH and I absolutely loved this dish.

The stuffed eggplant (picture above center) came in a claypot, and was served with four fried buns. I wasn't expecting the fried buns and had also ordered white rice! I ended not eating any of the rice. The eggplant was stuffed with tofu, and served in claypot with mushrooms and potato slices. The sauce was good (and went well with the fried buns). This is a tasty dish!

The only dish for which I remember the name on the menu is the "Bag of Treasures". This consists of veggies wrapped in beancurd skin, and served with broccoli, with a drizzle of a light sauce. Nice simple addition to the meal.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed dinner. It is known that this restaurant isn't exactly cheap - we spent over $60 on dinner for 2 - but it was definitely worth it!

LingZhi Vegetarian Restaurant - Liat Towers
541 Orchard Road,
#05-01 Liat Towers,
Singapore 238881
Tel: 6734 3788
Print-friendly website
Tung Lok Group website

Porta-Porta Italian Restaurant

Last night, my DH and I went out for dinner with a friend. Our friend had suggested an Italian place in Changi, and made a reservation for 7:30pm. Driving all the way to the other end of the island wasn't exactly pleasant. We set out - from the West side! - at 7pm, and traffic was stop-and-go most of the way. We had to call our friend to change the reservation to 8pm instead!

The restaurant is one of a row of old shophouses. It is a small place, with barely eight tables, but extremely cosy. We were brought bread (picture right) and olive oil with small pieces of vinegared eggplant which was really good. For starter, we also ordered smoked mozzarella - which we devoured before I remembered to take a picture of it!

My DH got a penne arrabiata in black olive sauce (picture left). It was excellent! The black olive sauce had crushed black olives in it, and the dish was nicely spicy. The penne was al dente, and nicely so (unlike some other places where it tastes hard).

I got the parpadelle in cream sauce with mushrooms. The parpadelle was excellent - it was extremely fresh tasted lovely. I have never tasted such great pasta in Singapore before! The cream sauce was light and the dish was served with a ton of mushrooms. The portions were hearty, and I was getting rather full towards the end.

After the main course, we decided to share dessert - a tiramisu, which was highly recommended (picture left). For good reason too, as it was one of the best I had tasted - the mascarpone was fantastic, and the biscuit layer at the bottom was soft and yummy "rummy".

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed dinner, and the atmosphere - definitely worth the 1-hour drive through traffic. It may be on the expensive side, with each pasta dish costing $24 or more, but certainly worth it. It also has an interesting selection of pasta, with different sauce options other than the common boring red tomato sauce. Indeed this must be one of the best Italian restaurants I have been to in Singapore!

Porta-Porta Italian Restaurant
971 Upper Changi North Road
Changi Garden
Singapore 507668
Tel: 6545 3108

Food Tasting at Silk Road Restaurant (Amara Hotel)

A couple of days ago, we were at Silk Road at the Amara Hotel for a "food tasting". The 9-course vegetarian menu is as follows:
Vegetarian Cold Cut Combination
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Vegetarian Hot & Sour Szechuan Soup
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Braised Vegetarian Chicken with Broccoli
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Steamed Tofu with Mushroom
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Steamed Winter Melon with Vegetarian Goose
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Yam Ring with Seasonal Vegetables
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Braised Mushrooms with Spinach
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Braised Ee Fu Noodles
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Mango Pudding

The first dish was nicely decorated, and very interesting but the portion was disappointingly small. The soup was pretty good - nicely hot & sour - very appetising.

The third dish had more broccoli than "vegetarian chicken", but since I love broccoli, that was just great. However, the next dish seemed to have exactly the same gravy, but more of it! While the gravy was fine with the broccoli and "vegetarian chicken", it didn't go that well with steamed tofu and mushrooms. Or perhaps I wasn't expecting to have more of the similar-tasting stuff...

By now, I was already starting to get kinda full, but the winter melon in the next dish was a nice touch, with a cool and light taste. The yam ring was not exactly what I expected - I didn't see a ring, just two strips of what seems to be fried yam... Looks more like "yam fries"! Hmm... was it too much to expect them to make a ring for individual servings?

After this was a dish of mushrooms and spinach. The spinach was ok, BUT they dumped a ton of button mushrooms on top of the spinach - uh, I could have gotten that out of a can. In fact, I probably could have made this dish myself! DH hardly touched it...

The noodle dish was rather disappointing, as it was utterly dry, and lacked... everything - it was literally just fried ee fu noodles! Ok, with a sprinkle of mushrooms. What did I expect? Well, perhaps some veggies, say strips of carrot and a few strands of greens, and a little bit of gravy would be nice.
However, the mango pudding was a nice sweet ending, with real mango chunks at the bottom.

SIX of the courses had mushrooms, and given the my DH is not a great fan of mushrooms, I ate his as well. I had totally "overdosed" on mushrooms by the end of the evening!

Overall, while many of the dishes were quite tasty, a few were rather disappointing. Also, the presentation was not at all appealing, except for the first dish, which we didn't take a picture of. Practically all the were dishes served in just a plain white bowl. It almost seems like they put in the minimum thought necessary so that they can justify getting away with it on the actual day, if we didn't say anything! I felt kinda bad that my sis and her fiancé had to pay $90 per person for this.

Silk Road Restaurant
Amara Singapore, Level 2
165 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088539
Tel: 62273848
http://www.silkroadrestaurants.com/rest.html

Vegetarian Festival in Thailand

Thailand observes the Vegetarian Festival, starting on the first day of the 9th month of the Lunar calendar, and lasting for 10 days. This year, that would be 10-19 Oct. The Bangkok Post reports the Vegetarian festival in full swing, ahead of the actual date!

Here's an article about the festival: Festivals Southern Thailand

How interesting, it would be fun to go if I can go. Perhaps all countries should observe something like this every year!

Lemongrass Thai Restaurant

This evening we had a dinner date with another couple and their baby. We went to Lemongrass at Pasir Panjang, and it was pleasantly good.

The baby got her own chair and utensils, and she immediately busied herself playing with them. Overall the service was great. I also noticed that they now have a vegetarian section in the menu!

We got the mango salad and spring rolls for starters. The mango salad was really good - tangy and spicy! The spring rolls were tasty, but nothing too phenomenal. For mains, we got the tofu with basil, kailan with mushrooms and the green curry. We also got the thai style noodles (pad thai). I really liked the green curry. The tofu must have been made with tamarind, which gives it a slightly sourish-tangy taste!

Lemongrass Thai Restaurant
http://www.lemongrass.com.sg/