Monday, December 31, 2007

Nature Vegetarian (Sin Ming Ave)

Ngian Toufu- Variety is wide, even got the sliced abalone & handmade dumpling. Must try its hand-made dumpling!!! Its filling is "solid" like the pork dumpling version.



Ban Mian - Nice, can try :-)


They also sell a variety of snacks near the drink stall. Guess what I find! The "Pillow Biscuit" which we usually find at "Kachiaputeh" store. The non-vegetarian version usually has prawn ingredients for its flavouring & this vegetarian version tasted just as nice without :-)






Located at 409 Sin Ming Ave, #02-01 (Opp Bright Hill temple)



Opening hrs: 7am to 9.30pm

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Nature Vegetarian (Sin Ming Ave)

Located just opposite Bright Hill Temple, sharing same building with a Childcare centre, Childland PL, Nature Vegetarian is a coffee shop selling only "vegetarian" food (however, not "pure vegetarian" as some food they sell may contain eggs so you have to notify them to be pure vegetarian or eggless when you order your food)


We ordered ala-carte dishes that day.
(Sambal Kang Kong)- Nice (Claypot Vinegar Pork, great for After-birth ladies)
(MaPo Toufu)

The vinegar pork tastes average but worth mentioning are the gingers in it. If you dare to eat ginger, you must try it. It absorbed the vinegar well & is really appetising & warms your stomach.

Was surprised that the MaPo Toufu that we ordered was not the dark-sauced version with mock minced meat. It looks & tastes more like sweet & sour toufu but never mind the name, it tastes great. Its very appetising sauce goes well with rice.:-)

Located at 409 Sin Ming Ave, #02-01 (Opp Bright Hill temple)
Opening hrs: 7am to 9.30pm

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Pine Tree Cafe (Fortune Centre)

There are many shops selling vegetarian food at Fortune centre (Near the Simaru Guan Yin temple). We decided to try something new so we venture to its 2nd floor. At a corner, we saw this coffee shop that sells Ngian Tou Fu and went to take a look. We decided to try its Hotpot Sambal Fish Brown Rice & Tom Yam Dry Thick Mee Hoon.



We were disappointed when the rice came without the hotpot as named in menu. The vegn fish is abit dry and sambal chilli not spicy.
However, thumbs up for the Tom Yam Mee Hoon. It is sour & spicy enough with generous portion of gravy that we can use for the rice.
Yummy, could recommend to my friend who likes Tom Yam to try it next time.
Those who like Tom Yam must try!!!
It is located at 190 Middle Rd, #02-13 (Fortune centre)
Opening hours: 10am-9pm

欢心素 (Huan Xin Su) at Rocher Centre Coffee Shop

Yes, I was there again after visiting the Vegetarian cake house introduced earlier, & I couldn't resist ordering the Ba Chor mee again. I ask for take-away & It definitely taste good after all the simmering it could have with the travelling time home.

Looks good, isn't it? Remember to ask the chef to add more vinegar when you order the mee & when you pack back & open up, the nice smell of vinegar mixed with noodles. Even my sis, a non-vegetarian (who always say no to vegetarian:P) but noodles-lover admit that the standard is pretty good.

Of course, the stall does sell other dishes for eg. as per picture below: Fish Head steamboat & Tom Yam steamboat and other Stir-fry dishes like HoFun, Mee Goreng etcThe picture looks yummy, right? The chef told me the Fish head steamboat costs $5 which I think is pretty reasonable for mini-steamboat (Non-vegetarian could cost more?). I must make an effort to try other dishes next round I patron it again. Maybe you can try too & write me your comments :P

Address: 欢心素 (Huan Xin Su)
Blk 1, Rocher Rd, #01-506
(Rocher centre corner coffeeshop, 2 doors away from the vegetarian cake house, opp Bugis OG, near the famous Simaru Guan Yin Temple)

Eastern Highland Healthy Cake House (Rocher Centre)

Moved!
Cakes & Bread: Fully Vegetarian; No Eggs !!!

Do you believe it, they are actually vegetarian cakes!!!

For vegetarians who miss cakes, especially Birthday cakes, you can visit this shop at Rocher centre (its exterior is look of a very traditional cake house).

For years ever since I decided to be vegetarian on my birthday, I missed the good cakes. Until recent years, I was introduced to this shop & have been able to enjoy Vegetarian (No Eggs) Birthday cakes since :-)

I had tried other shops' vegetarian cakes but maybe bec the cakes did not contain eggs, the cakes are not as smooth & nice as normal cakes. This is the 2nd cake shop (the 1st had closed down:-() that I have tried so far that makes cakes just like standard of normal cake shops. I won't say that it is fantastic but good enough for me. :-) At least my non-vegetarian nephews can't taste the difference and still enjoy the cakes :-)(If anyone else do know of other nice vegetarian cake house, do share with us)

In my recent visit, I noticed that it sells Christmas log cakes as well. I have not tried it but it does look tasty as you can see from the pictures :P

(Blueberry cake)

Looks delicious right? It is nice but tasted abit too sweet during last try.:P Blueberry cake is so far my favourite from the shop.:-) However, in comparison to normal cake house, the price is abit steep for its special ingredient to replace eggs & it now costs about $40 for a kg (depending on type of cake ordered) due to rise of its ingredient costs.

Besides cakes, it also sells daily bread, miss your pizza bread or sambal prawn bread? You may find them there :P. There are also many other creative bread sold.
(Pizza Bread)
It is located at 1 Rocher Rd, #01-510 Rocher Centre (Opposite Bugis OG) Tel: 6294 6932
It has moved to be neighbors with Kwan Inn Vegetarian Food, at Blk 134, Geylang East Ave1, #01-227, S'pore 381034.
Tel: 67475580

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Just Green Vegetarian Food (Takashimaya Food Court)

Located at Takashimaya's basement foodcourt, one of my favourite orders is its abalone noodles. Using BaiLing mushroom, it is a good replica of abalone with well-marinated oyster sauce as its noodle gravy. My friend's nephew who is not a vegetarian supporter actually enjoyed the "abalone" & agreed that vegetarian food can be as tasty.:-)
Personally, I feel that the noodles can be even tastier if more gravy can be provided.:P
(Abalone Noodles)
(Zha Jiang Mee 炸酱面)
We also ordered 炸酱面 that day but I would think it tasted more like satay-sauce noodles and was too saltish for my taste. :-( So. ignoring the name & if the gravy is not as saltish, it is still worth a try.
If I recall correctly, I think Ci Yan Xuan at Chinatown has a better version of 炸酱面 in its other menu of the day. Lets see what will be its menu of the day at my next visit. :-)

Friday, December 21, 2007

佳明素食 (Le Meridien Hotel Food Court)

If I am not wrong, there are only 2 Foodcourts serving vegetarian food in Orchard area. One is the Foodcourt at Takashimaya & the other is this stall at Basement 1 of Le Meridien Hotel. (Building before the Istana)

Hm, really miss the Punggol Mee Goreng so I ordered Mee Goreng that day.

(Mee Goreng)
Well, it will taste better if it could be abit more spicy (I am a chilli-lover:P) & noodles could be simmered a while longer to absorb the taste. But it is hard to master the timing to cook this yellow noodles as if cook for too long will cause it to be soggy. (Do let me know if anyone knows where to get nice vegetarian Punggol mee goreng:P)
However, I do like like the stall's Mock Mutton Noodles as its gravy is something like the satay sauce. Reminds me of the satay meehoon:-P

Yuan Wei Quan Vegetarian (YWQ)

Where can you find vegetarian food below $2.50?
You can try this vegetarian stall at a corner of HDB Hub foodcourt.
Besides serving Mixed Rice dishes, it will usually include another dish as menu of the day: Kway Chap, Sliced Fish Meehoon or Lor Mee. Generally this other menu of the day costs $2.20.
(Kway Chap)
It comes with a generous portion of Tou Pok & mock duck. Taste is ok lah but I like its Sliced Fish Meehoon, with milky soup style better. Will introduce it next round when I visit the stall again.
ps. pls take note that this stall serves eggs too under the mixed rice dishes

KouFu at Pioneer Mall (Jurong West)

Another stall with hugh serving:P. I tried their "Lor Mee" & the portion is really big.
Instead of mee, I replaced it with the slim Meehoon. The sauce is quite thick & you can actually see a layer of oil on top of it :P.


For some stalls serving meehoon, if rushing for time, they will skip the process of soaking meehoon in hot & cold water, & then it will not taste smooth. The meehoon from this stall is smooth & soft, partly bec they also use the extra slim type of meehoon? However, as you can see from picture, the meehoon is overflowing & not all has absorbed the sauce well. Can try but maybe ask them to serve a smaller portion of mee or meehoon when you next order :-)

Bras Basah Complex Food Court

Located at the Food court of Bras Basah Complex and beside the Chicken Rice stall, you could have easily missed it. I could not find its name except the Chinese character <斋> which means vegetarian.


(Tom Yam Fried Rice)
The rice portion served is enough for 2 with small stomach, I really struggled to finish even though I was real hungry that day. The brown shreds below the vege are actually mock pork floss but as with all mock pork floss tasted so far, they tasted very fake & dry. (Can someone recommend a good brand of mock pork floss they tasted so far?)
However, the Tom Yam taste is quite strong & the sour taste of it makes it appetising for you to want to finish the rice. (partly bec I am hungry?:P)
(Fried Kway Teow)
This is actually more like Dry Hor Fun style as they use the fatter version of Kway Teow. However, I request the lady to fry it sweeter & with more dark sauce so it is a replica of the cockles Kway Teow style. Nice & smooth!!! Must try:-)

Another stall that I think does the Fried Kway Teow well is the Vegetarian stall at Suntec Foodcourt. ;-)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Chinese Wedding Banquet (Hotel)

10 Dec was the Big Day for my cousin & also a pure-vegetarian day for me since it falls on 1st of lunar Nov month. In order for her vegetarian friends & relatives to celebrate the big occasion & yet maintain our diet, she & her hubby very kindly arranged vegetarian meals for us and we all get to enjoy a sumptuous chinese dinner as well:-)

The 1st dish was Vegetarian Cold & Hot Combination which is mini replica of the normal combination. There is sushi, spring roll & vegetarian abalone. The sushi was well-done, spring roll still warm & crispy when served & the cube abalone (I believe is using the BaiLing Gu (a type of mushroom)) was well-marinated & its texture tasted as good if not better than the real abalone. Yummy :-)



Next, in place of shark's fin, we have Double boiled Vegetable Soup. There is white cabbage, vegetarian ham & Mushroom. Taste sweet & good too :-)





The 3rd dish is Stir-fried Prawn with Water Chestnuts & Sugar Beans. This is quite nice with the prawn well marinated & cooked too.




Next, is Braised Sliced Abalone with Green Seasonal Vegetables. The abalone is using the mock whole abalone sliced. Not sure what is it made of but it is abit chewy & rubbery like the real one. I still prefer the abalone using BaiLing Gu.:P





Next, my favourite noodles: Stewed "Ee-Fu" Noodles. The noodles is well-cooked with sesame oil & portion is just nice.






Last of all, to end the banquet with a nice dessert, Double-boiled White Fungus & Lotus Seed Tea.
The sweetness is just nice to my taste buds though it will be better if the white fungus & lotus seed were cooked longer & softer.:P
On the whole, I enjoyed my meal :-)



Congratulations, B&P, may you have a blessed blissful marriage :-)

Sunday, December 9, 2007

慈缘轩 (Ci Yan Xuan) Chinatown

Another of my favourite is this Ci Yan Organic Vegetarian Health Food shop located at end of the Chinatown Food street (8, Smith street). They serve organic brown rice set meal which is available everyday but their other menu changes everyday depending on the ingredients & mood of the chef, Mdm Wong.


(Standard Brown Rice Set)


(Fruit Rojak)


Their main course portion is usually quite big, so I would recommend that best to go there with friends & you can share & try different variety at same time. I have been there many times & I love their Ipoh Hor Fun ,Eight Treasure Porridge, & BiBimbup (Korean Rice). I tried asking Mdm Wong when are the days they are likely to serve BiBimbup but she told me I must be very lucky that I managed to try that dish as she does not do it often & she suggested that I call everyday after 11.30am to enquire about the menu for the day. (There is automated answering machine that would record menu of the day before the shop opens)
Well, I shall leave it to fate that I could sample her BiBimbup again & take a picture of her many other signature dishes.
:-)

Address: 8 Smith Street (shophouse near end of Food Street)
Tel: 6225 9026 (If you want to confirm menu of the day:P)
Opening Hours: 12pm-9pm?

欢心素 (Huan Xin Su) at Rocher Centre Coffee Shop


There was this fine day I was visiting my friend living near the waterloo street and originally I wanted to popby the Eastern Vegetarian cake house when I saw that just 2 units away, the old coffeeshop was being newly renovated.

I went to take a look & saw that there is a new vegetarian stall (not the old stall selling vegetarian wantoon noodles etc). I was surprised that besides offering Mixed Rice dishes, it has many varieties including Vegetarian Fish steamboat & Dry Mushroom Minced Meat Noodles etc.

Its been ages since I last enjoyed the Dry Mushroom Minced Meat style of noodles ever since I quited pork so I decided to try. When I packed back, the noodles being simmered over the distance was still Q & nice with good portion of vinegar & the standard was pretty good. I enjoyed it so much that the next time when I was near the area, I ordered it again. This time, maybe without the simmering over the distance, the noodles are not as soft, nevertheless is still of reasonable standard. Next time, I will try other dishes at the stall .:-)
Address: 欢心素 (Huan Xin Su)
Blk 1, Rocher Rd, #01-506
(Rocher centre corner coffeeshop opp Bugis OG, near the famous Simaru Guan Yin Temple)