Miao Yi Vegetarian Restaurant (Coronation Shopping Plaza)

Starting New Year Day with a good vegetarian feast at Miao Yi Vegetarian!!!
Some repeats from prior visits but as nice!

 Their 5 Delights Assortment~Fried Prawn ball, Marinated Mushroom, Beancurd with vege, Sweet & Sour Chicken pieces, Cereal prawns ~ Good Delights, Yummy, Must try! :-) 

Sharks Fin Soup with Crab Slices ~ Tasty like real, with No Sin feel :P

 Crispy Salad Prawn  - loved by T

Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs - Wok feel :-)

Hot Plate Beancurd Assortment - Smooth & Well Fried :-)

Lastly new try of their Dessert ~Redbean Pan Cake  - Crispy & Sweet :-)

 

Located at 587 Bukit Timah Rd Coronation Shopping Plaza #03-01/02 Spore 269707
Tel: 6467 1331, 6467 1511 (It's best to call for booking 1st as it is usually packed)



Loving Heart Cafe

The specialty of Loving Heart Cafe ~ Hainanese Noodles
Using thick meehoon well immersed in the thick Stewed carrot Lor Mee type of gravy. Very flavourful, very nice...

Located at Blk134, Geylang East Ave1, #01-219, same HDB block as Kwan inn Vegetarian Food.

Yes Natural F&B (Bakery)

 

Trying a new flavour ~ Peppermint Chocolate

from Yes Natural Bakery





Soft texture and mild taste of peppermint won M's heart though I would prefer its flavour, especially the chocolate to be richer and more sinful :P...

It is located at No. 53/55, Geylang Lorong 27, Singapore 388183. Tel: 65478438

The 2nd Stretch of Shop Houses when you step out of Aljunied MRT from left.

www.yesnatural.biz 

Greenland Vegetarian Restaurant

Our caterer for the Mani Recitation Retreat 2012 for Full-timers' meal~ Greenland Vegetarian Restaurant.
We had Mixed Vege rice for lunch & Stir-fry dishes such as Fried MiTaiMak &  Fried Noodles for dinner.
Good thought and variety not to have Mixed vege rice for 2 meals and I would think this year's caterer is the best in comparison to past years and hence would like to compliment them to keep up the good work.
The portion is good and the food still warm when we have them. The dinner, especially the noodles is flavourful and oh chilli-lovers like myself have sparkling eyes when we saw the sliced chilli.:-)
Keep it up, 2 more days, pls continue to cook with love and perk up our energy!!!
Thank you to organisers, sponsors, volunteers and caterer!

According to the label on the box, Greenland is located at 789&791 Upper Serangoon Road Spore 534659.
Tel: 62828022

Yes Natural F&B (悦意坊)

Revisited Yes Natural and C recommended their Tom Yam Bee Hoon which she tried the week before. Indeed good recommendation! Sour & Spicy with authentic Tom Yam taste and the mee hoon is smooth! Makes me wonder which brand they use.
Heartening to be steaming hot from a claypot. Love it!

It is located at No. 57, Geylang Lorong 27, Singapore 388184. Tel: 67411580
Opening Hours : 11:30am to 9pm

The 2nd Stretch of Shop Houses when you step out of Aljunied MRT from left.

Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant

Another good Ngian Toufu stall discovered and superb with its Laksa Gravy.
Now, my favourite Laksa Ngian Toufu stall when I have craving for spicy food.
Their sprinkle of the brown pieces on top enhanced the resemblence of the non-vegetarian version.
Love their big beancurd pieces, smooth and soft, & the dumplings...
Oh, I like their Hor Fun too.:-)

Located at level 1 corner of Fortune Centre, just opposite Herbivores .

Vegetarian Stall at Singtel Comcentre Cafeteria

On a cold rainy day, a bowl of hot, spicy Laksa is what I need and lucky day to have it on Daily Special menu. The gravy is fantastic, I almost drank the whole bowl...
Ingredients of reasonable portion for a $2.50 meal in Orchard, where to find even in neighborhood market nowadays? Pls continue to keep the food tasty at affordable price!!!! ;-)

This stall is located at Basement 1 of cafeteria of Singtel Comcentre at Sommerset.
No name ( just known as stall m ) but easily located when you visit the cafeteria, entering from door leading to car-park. 

Real Food Cafe

Back to Real Food for more non onion/garlic dishes ~
Fried Mee Hoon (left top ) & Fried Brown Rice (right top) ~ Surprisingly simple yet nice
and
Must Try: Fried Spring Rolls ~ Won unanimous praise from all, satisfying bites

 

Located at 110 Killiney Road, beside Singtel facing the Killiney Road shop-houses.

Tel: 67379516. Opens daily.
http://www.realfoodgrocer.com/cafe.html

Teochew (ChaoZhou) & Hakka (KeJia) Vegetarian in China

This is not a vegetarian tour and we dine in non-vegetarian restaurants which the concept of vegetarian is not that well-understood with some of the dishes cooked with onion or garlic which we generally avoid (there are only 5 vegetarians out of a group of about 60 tourmates which we are fortunately given seats at a separate table for our meals).
From my observation and I was told when I understand from the tour guide, the local regard vegetarian as vegetables and will just be different single type of vegetables simply stir-fried or boiled without mixing with other vegetables per the other 2 vegetables shown in top pictures.
 
Generally in tour packages, the first and last meal and accomodation would be more sumptuous and comfortable to leave one a good First & Last impression.
The above pictures are our first meal at the restaurant of JingMing Spa Resort at ChaoZhou.
Celery & Black Fungus are quite common dishes that we had in almost every meal at ChaoZhou.
So, this 2 dishes (dish of celery & black fungus and the dish of Luohanzhai alike of mushroom with vegetables and white fungus ) are considered creativity which we did not treasure as much from our first meal which is common sight in Singapore until we had a couple more other local tradition of plain vegetable dishes...

Our Buffet breakfast next morning, fried noodles, some local flour pastries (the white one tasted like those trapeziums white sweet pastry that one may still find in S'pore's coffeeshop breakfast stall). Oh, the green-tea flavoured round pastry with white sesame seeds at the side and with winter melon filling like the popular HK wife pastry was one of the better pastries tasted throughout the trip, and I would consider that as my best breakfast during the tour that I still missed.

Despite complaining the plainness (because no spiciness throughout the trip), the freshness of the ingredients made up for the taste and the oiliness and saltishness was already much cut down compared to prior China food experience.
There was only once that we found a dish with mock product, the cuttlefish with celery, which we found that we don't miss mock products at all. Love the pumpkin slices, and the abundance of Baihe (the white onion-alike peels), a beauty food:-)

In another occasion, there was the dish of fried seaweed with cashew nuts, and taupok which plain on their own, we utilised our own creativity to add them to the simple bowl of plain straw-mushroom soup, and a delicious and appetising bowl of nutritious soup appeared before us. :-)
Oh, the delicious fried beancurd slices also started to appear frequently in our later dishes.




What is shown shows later was a vegetarian feast specially prepared by the temple that we visit, and can be considered finally tasted something more local, Teochew style.

Wow, this plate of starter pastries is really delicious! From left: the water-chestnut flavour, the centre: the yam, and the right: the ngian gao alike pastries. Never tasted in Singapore! Sweet and flavourful and yet not over-whelming taste. I wish someone could advise me where to get in Singapore.

Oh, the yam pieces in Teochew are simply delicious and fresh? For someone who is not a yam lover, I could not stop at a few spoonful.

The "LingJiao" that tasted something like yam and chestnut which was not found as readily in Singapore was a dish that the elderly adored.

What's this dish? Caipo (local preserved vege) that the local likes to go with porridge was surprisely a feast dish, and well, there must be a reason, really nice, which taste different from S'pore's.

Soup of Bamboo shoot slices with ZhuSheng, just average....

Straw and Abalone Mushroom soup, average, generally their vegetarian soup are mild in taste.

Our first colorful tomato-sauced fried taupok pieces! Though the taupok did not taste as nice as expected, but the deviation from days of plain stir-fry dishes was a welcomed change to our "plainized" taste-buds.

Lastly the vegetarian feast ended with their local delights of celery and fried beancurd slices.:-)
No mock products but nice vegetarian feast that we enjoyed.
Wish we could had more such local vegetarian feasts.

Next, been in Teochew, of course we should try the famous Teochew noodles that I love in S'pore from the originating place.
However, to my surprise , the famous Teochew noodles that we know in Spore is much customised.
The local Teochew noodles does not have choice of meepok or other types of noodles. For soup version,  they only serve Kway Teow; for dry-version, just handmade noodles (la-mian) type.
It also does not have chilli paste to go with, instead satay sauce was used instead.
It does not come with bean-sprouts or any vegetables found in S'pore version but Purely meaty and it comes with a big bowl of soup with fish/pork paste products just like ngian toufu-alike.
Poor me just have a plain bowl of noodles with nothing to go with and perhaps because of restriction of cooking freely, mine was considered over-cooked in my standard though my other tour-mates who tasted the normal version praised the Q-ness of the noodles.  I wished I could have time to visit vegetarian outlets nearby which I only managed to sneak out to get some vegetarian pastries.
I still prefered the customised version in S'pore.:P but I do appreciate the kind arrangement by the kind and attentive tour-guide to assist us to try the local delicacies. 

Bamboo shoots, the local specialty was simply cooked but tasted good and crunchy. However, it is really as per the old sayings: avoid eating too much as it is a special dish that will bring out old or hidden sickness of one and glutton me should had heeded the advice...:-(

Another must try is the Teochew Fried Kway Teow on my list and again it is discovered to be much customised.
The Teochew version is per above picture much towards fried HK mee style, the main ingredients is the brown mee alike bamboo shoots and not the Kway Teow above which is the white thicher Ipoh type of Kway Teow. I again voted for the S'porean style of sweet sauced Kway Teow.
Customisation is good, but I wonder how the 2 delicious Teochew dishes get customised into the S'pore style which is already quite different in taste and ingredients except with the name: "Teochew" in it. :-0

Next we move on to a taste of some Hakka version of vegetarian dishes.
We were looking forward to try the famous Hakka Preserved vegetables (Meicai) but they only have the concept of Meicai with Fatty meat so we were not served just the vegetable version.
Instead we had the local wild vegetables served to us, really unique that even someone like me who love to try weird dishes or my Hakka clan tour-mate who also first encountered the vegetables could not appreciate it as well as the locals.  :P

The white ball of slices of bamboo shoot or winter melon alike taste dish with spring onions sprinkled on it was presentable but plain in taste .

Something nicer & more local, the Hakka beancurd cooked in fresh tomato sauce, Nicest beancurd tasted so far fron the trip...a welcomed change in the style of cooking and the smoothness of the beancurd.

Ok, lets move back to last few memorable dishes at Teochew,

Huai Shan with black fungus, Crunchy, love the way it was done, Stir-fry in China :-)

Unique soup of seaweed with white fungus

 

Love this, Fried corn flour sugar bites, sweet!

Greatly appreciate the kind arrangement of vegetarian meals in the less vegetarian-friendly environment by our tour guides, always concerning that the vegetarians get our fair share of enjoyment as best as they could.

Thank you !!!

Xiang Ji Chu Pastry in China 香積廚

 

Travelled to China Swatow (Shantou 汕头) just before the Mid Autumn Festival, unike the Singapore commercialised mooncakes with brown pastry skin and just lotus paste ingredients, their mooncakes (which I bought from a vegetarian pastry shop which is just below their local Shantou Buddhist Association at Guo Ping Road) uses the traditional Teochew pastry skin with unique ingredients such as the nuts (cashew, melon, walnut), beans (red, yellow, green), maltose, and melon sweet slices according to the label. It even have strange flavours such as Seaweed & Mushroom. I bought 4 flavours for trial: the Mushroom, Seaweed, Green bean paste & Five nuts. I had only tried the Mushroom flavour, which I find it unique with the chewy melon sweet slices and nut pastes which is more like eating the local Five nuts flavour but more refreshing though I hardly find any traces of mushroom. The other 3 flavours were given away with no comments received yet but I certainly like the Mushroom flavour that I tried, and it costs cheap, less than RMB10 per piece which is about S$2 only. (Cant recall the exact price I think it costed only abt RMB5). Comparing the unique taste & price, certainly value for money.

The top picture  is their Black sesame paste pastry which is nice too. (The traditional found in S'pore is yellow in color and green bean paste flavoured.)

This is not a Buddhist pilgrim package tour so my past 1 week of tour gave me the impression that Buddhism & Vegetarian was not flourishing in this part of China. So accidentally chancing upon this Guo Ping Road (国平路) that houses 汕头佛教协会 (Shantou Buddhist Association) and 2 or 3 vegetarian restaurants and bakeries there is comforting.

All my meals were from non vegetarian restaurants and vegetarian culture was not that developed yet for non vegetarian eateries there. However, according to a few tourmates who managed to visit the local vegetarian restaurants, gave praise to the dishes, too bad they don't have the habit of take pictures of food to share...

Brownice

Glutton me who had just recovered from flu could not resist from trying Brownice from last visit to Thomson area after the activities there ended. The first flavour that I set sight on is my favourite : Dark Chocolate and I couldn't resist ordering another scoop of their Strawberry after trying.
My friends ordered the Apple Cinnamon and yes, the Mudpie.
The ice cream being vegan, without dairy tasted more to the Sorbet/Granita version.
Being taken alone, the Dark chocolate was fine but when taken together with the Strawberry flavour, the strawberry flavour overwhelmed the Dark chocolate taste.
The Dark Chocolate would had complemented better by the Apple Cinnamon which is lighter but nice as well.
The Mudpie (sorry no photo as not well taken) was better than what I remembered taken at Real Food years before and the contrast of the lighter Hazelnut chocolate verus the Dark chocolate was good. Worth trying.
It's also a good place to meet friends for a gathering so would definitely return to try more flavours.
Originally I thought my gluttoness would cause a relapse of my just recovered stomach flu but their ice-cream being vegan without dairy, did not cause a stir and I managed to survive and back to work the following day. :P

Brownice is located at Sin Ming Centre at 8 Sin Ming Road, #01-03 
http://www.brownice.com/contact-brownice/
and it has good opening hours to 11pm Mon-Thurs & to 12am Fri-Sun!

Tian Yuan Vegetarian

Lei Cha noodles was on Tian Yuan's menu and the served version to a patron looked enticing.
Had long heard Lei Cha is nutritious but as it is usually accompanied with rice and peanuts, I wasn't that keen so when I was told Tian Yuan has it with noodles and no peanuts, I did not hestitate to try.
Good choice, as it comes with a mild peppermint which the unique taste may not be acceptable to some was a good remedy soup to aid my recovery from  stomach flu and beginning symptoms of running nose. The noodles, the Lamian this round was well-cooked and smooth that after finishing the bowl of Leicha soup noodles, I found my stomach warmed, my blood circulation improved that after a short rest, I recovered from both flu.
Their Leicha consists of chopped bean cubes, bean curb cubes , preserved carrot bits (Caipu), some unknown vege leaves and black and white sesame seeds. Not elaborate but nice and the derivation to include noodles is a welcome creation for noodles-lover like myself.:-)

This Vegetarian Supply Shop - Tian Yuan is hidden at level 2 (#02-23) of Fortune centre, right on 2nd stretch of shops up from the escalator. It takes abit of effort to look for it but luckily it has a bright sign.

Kiat Lim Vegetarian Food 吉林素食

Sadly, ceased operations... 

Kiat Lim Vegetarian Food is the latest Vegetarian restaurant added in the East, maybe the nearest Vegetarian outlet if one is looking for Vegetarian food nearest from Taipei Buddhist Centre, 1 MRT station away from Lavender. It is located at the stretch of shop-houses diagonally opposite Kallang MRT and opposite the Bus Interchange.

It serves traditional Chinese food menu and common Stir-fry dishes such as Horfun, Fried Hokkien mee etc which are flavourful in taste.

We ordered their Claypot Beancurd and Fried Mee Sua, which were quite flavourful and were complimented by my non-vegetarian friends. Generally, I think the dishes belong to the class of strong taste, good for those non-vegetarians or new vegetarians.

We also tried their recommended specialty dessert, the Teochew Yam and Pumpkin Paste (Ouni), which unknowingly to us, came in 1 hugh bowl that could serve at least 5 pax.

The non vegetarian version usually was added with pork lard, so I was glad to try it the vegetarian version. Generally, I think it tasted good though my non-vegetarian friends still voted for their non-vegetarian version.  

Glimpsing at neighboring tables that ordered their Hor-fun or mee, etc., I think they looked yummy, and the prices are in general quite reasonable, hence likely to return to try. :-P

Kiat Lim Vegetarian is located at 4 Jalan Ayer Singapore 389142.
Tel: 83331955.

Real Food Cafe

Good news to veggie lovers at Orchard!
Long wait for new Organic Veggie outlet...
A new branch of Real Food opened near Somerset Mrt, at the old building beside Singtel along Killiney Road. It is extremely spacious with even a spacious grocery area, very unusual at this prime area.
It is fast becoming a popular lunch area for Organic veggie lovers.

 

 

Love their Soup ! The Kombu Soup, very sweet and fresh with "Kunbu" taste; and their Dumpling is a must try!  The Dumpling soup tasted lighter than the Kombu soup but was added with sesame oil to enhance its fragrance. The Dumpling's skin was well done and the ingredients inside with chopped water-chestnut (a must have ingredient to qualify as good dumpling in my opinion) and various ingredients was excellent, one of the better boiled Dumpling tried in Singapore. 

I shall make an attempt to try its fried Dumpling version next time.:-)

 

We also ordered their Organic pizza, which used mozzarella cheese and homemade tomato paste. Light and crispy thin crust, Nice! and their Mushroom Bruschette excellently toasted to crispiness that even a non-bread lover like me put both my thumbs up. It would be better if they had been served into smaller pieces like their Central outlet instead of 2 big pieces. One big piece is good as a side dish but 2 may be overwhelming.

Generally, an enjoyful meal with relaxing environment and their menu have general good indications if the dishes are vegan, wheat/gluten-free, with onion/garlic and where possible they can remove the onion/garlic and made it vegan upon request.

However, it was discovered on another visit that some of their cakes/pastries on sale and their crispy Pizza crust has egg ingredients in it so to be safe, for Vegetarians and Vegans, please always reconfirm with the staff serving you of the ingredients you avoid especially if there is no "vegan" indicated on the menu.

 

Definitely will visit it again and hopefully, there will be more dishes that can be made vegan and without onion and garlic.:-)

 

 

Located at 110 Killiney Road, beside Singtel facing the Killiney Road shop-houses.

Tel: 67379516. Opens daily.

http://www.realfoodgrocer.com/cafe.html