Ananda Bhavan Vegetarian

 Gobi Manjurian (must try!)

 

Finally, back to Home Sweet Home, Singapore. :-) 
What should we try, Spicy delights that we missed for weeks...
Ananda Bhavan at Terminal 2, Changi Airport is our choice.

Unfamilar with Indian cuisine and upon recommendation by the friendly cashier & waiter, we ordered Gobi Manjurian, Fried Mee Hoon & Rava Thosai. And as we requested for non onion & garlic version they were freshly cooked and served hot.

Their Fried meehoon is similar to Chinese Style XinZhou Meefen and quite tasty and it went well with the Gobi Manjurian (Sweet & Sour Sauce Coated Fried Cauliflower).
Their Gobi is really fantastic (thumbs up up), the external coat of flour and the wok-feel resembled the Very spicy version of Sweet & Sour Pork. Must try for spicy lovers.
Next, the Rava Thosai, is a thin layer of flour, pan-fried with curry leaves (just like crepe) , and the curry sauce is just nice, not too spicy & A enjoyed it.
Quite an enjoyable meal , especially their Gobi Manjurian is a surprise that is worth trying again.:-)

This Indian vegetarian restaurant is located at level 3 corner of Terminal 2 Viewing Mall, Changi Airport. Tel: 62994466.

Li Pin Vegetarian at Taipei Taoyuan Airport

 

 

 

Wow, so glad to have a final good taste of Taiwan Vegetarian meal before flying home from Taipei. Li Pin Vegetarian is located at Basement 1 foodcourt of Taipei Taoyuan Airport.
The menu looked so attractive and after long decision, we decided to try their Garden Tomato Soup Hotpot & the Monkey-head Mushroom Hotplate Noodles. (If you don't take eggs, you should notify them in advance as some of the dishes such as their Monkey-head Mushroom Hotplate Noodles included eggs.)
Their monkey-head mushroom is in form of burger patty which is quite chewable and tasty in my opinion. I hope the patty could be available in Spore market soon.
Glad that we could have another enjoyable vegetarian lunch before our departure from Taiwan. :-)

Vegetarian Delights at Taiwan Gaoxiong Pindong 台灣高雄屏东县

 

 

 Local vegetarian delights at the rest-station on top of 台灣高雄屏东县 力健山 Li Jian San to reward ourselves and recharge our energy: Stir-fry Green Pepper slices & their local vege: Guo Mao Cai with ginger slices & preserved black bean.
Nice! & reasonable priced at NT60 (ard S$2.50) each. The owner is very considerate to use a different wok from their general wok that cooks meat to separately cook the vegetables for us, knowing we are vegetarians. Must take a break here & recharge!
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To be recommended is XiZhai's Red Yeast Fried Rice, yummy QQ well flavoured fried rice!
Another 2 specialities are their oval-shaped Fried Durian & Yam with crispy skin, while their Fried Beancurd pieces with crispy exterior & soft smooth interior won many patrons' return visits.
喜齋素食館
屏東縣潮州鎮信義路222號之3
Tel: 08-7884812
Opens 10.30am-2pm; 5pm-8.30pm
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It was after 8.30pm that we searched around 屏東縣潮州鎮 for Vegetarian food that we chanced upon this  古淳香素食館 (GuChunXiang Vegetarian restaurant; address unknown) that is also first trial by our Taiwanese friends and it turned out to be a good noodle shop. We had a platter of local delights, & the soup noodle with some chilli oil looked spicy but was small case to Spicy lover me as in generally Taiwanese don't take spicy food so their chilli oil is more of sesame oil flavour only. The soup had a mild herbal taste which is quite tasty and I think my friends would likely return to try again. :-)
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A favourite dessert that my Taiwanese friends strongly recommend: 3Q which is combination of Grass Jelly, Coffee Jelly & Green Tea Jelly plus cubes of yam and mango. Nice, a local dessert one must try in Taiwan :-)
鼎昌3Q凍圓(潮州店)
屏東縣潮州鎮永坤路157號
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Fruits: Pineapple, Mango, Papaya are in abundance in Taiwan & they are sweeter than those in Singapore and fruits are always with every meal.

Oh, I learn a tip in making pineapples even sweeter from Taiwanese friend which is to wash pineapples with cold boiled water (not running tap water). And the pineapples are so naturally sweet & tasty that I had eaten my life supply in the few weeks there.

 

 

The pieces of baked cheese on top of their local "Beauty leg" (also part of bamboo shoot family) were deliciously prepared by our host.

 

Pumpkin is also common & sweeter there & I learnt to cook a few dishes there which Pumpkin porridge is one of them :-) (very simple, because they are naturally sweet so just cut into pieces and cook with porridge using the popular fast cooker :P). They are also proud of their crunchy cabbage and nice beancurd, especially the fried smelly beancurd not in picture.

 

And how could I miss posting the popular Taiwan dish of Cold noodles 凉面!

 

Quick recipe on the sauce of cold noodles:
3 tablespoon of kunbu sauce or vegetarian oyster sauce n 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce plus 6 tablespoon of warm water
Boil n Stir gently

(1 tablespoon of soy sauce to 2 tablespoon of water
1:2 ratio n taste )

Shred carrot n cucumber strips
Or use sea salt to rub the exterior of uncut cucumber then leave it for 10min or more
Cucumber cut into strips of small equal length then put in cold drinking water
Drain dry, put in fridge til cooking time

Use hot water to boil red carrot strips with seasalt
If crunchy just quick boil and if want softer, just boil longer

Use hot water to cook their Guang Miao Mian noodles
Then drain & wash the noodles under running tap water

Put desired portion onto a plate, add shreds of carrot & cucumber then pour sauce over it, a cool QQ noodles is ready...

Oh, I would certainly miss their well-cooked Cold noodles...

 

 Thanks to the hosts for introducing us to local delights :-)

 

淡然养生休闲坊

On the Expressway to Taidong 台东 direction from Gaoxiong's Chaozhou 高雄潮洲市, there is a seaside which along the way has some local resorts (民宿) and one of it is near the Lion Head Mountain Farm (狮头山农场) which we stopped over for lunch at a Vegetarian cafe, 淡然养生休闲坊

(屏东縣獅子鄉（村）獅子一巷70号（屏鹅公路456公里處) )

 

 

One can choose to have an exterior seat to enjoy the seaview or internally at a cosy corner

On chatting, the friendly owner revealed her concept of operating the cafe & accomodation on a "Pay as you deem" basis (except a nominal fee for afternoon tea). She also revealed she is a follower of Ven. Jing Kong and Ven. Hai Tao and kindly switched on the Life TV channel for me and what a Rejoicing! moment to see Mingyur Rinpoche on air  (a repeat serial)! Rejoice!!! :-)

 

A good spread of dishes cooked with their own-grown vegetables (some not in picture)

 

Cold Dessert of Chin Chow & Pearl Sago offered on a hot day, refreshing!

and it is paid as you deem for the meals as well as accomodation
 ... a concept gaining popularity and with a good cause which the lady boss would happily tell you more when you visit them.
A good stop-over for/after a good walk by the sea-side.

You may call her at 08-8761037  or 0935951140 for advance booking, especially for a group and on a week-day so that she can make better preparation.
The cafe & resort is located at 屏东縣獅子鄉（村）獅子一巷70号（屏鹅公路456公里處).

Taiwanese Railway Lunch Box

Long heard about Railway lunch boxes are delicious and we finally get to try it and there are at least 2 vegetarian versions (White & Purple rice version) sold at this stall at the Gao Xiong Railway station! :-)
We tried the "Purple Rice Vegetarian lunch box" (abt NT80-90) which is actually purplish brown rice (Oh so Q, love their Taiwanese brown rice which resembles Japanese rice) with mock pork floss, cooked cauliflower, 2 rolled seaweed and a piece of fried potato.
The lunch box is still warm when we bought it. :-) Nice, try it...

滴水坊 "Waterdrop" Teahouse ~ Taiwan Gaoxiong Fo Guang Shan

After such a good experience at S'pore's 佛光山  Fo Guang Shan's  滴水坊 "Waterdrop" Tea house, how could we miss it at their origin, Taiwan?
And because the premise is so hugh, there are at least 3 滴水坊 "Waterdrop" Tea house outlets at the temple. We were at their new memorial centre during lunch hours so we were recommended to visit their tea house just beside it.
The Daily special of the day were Soy Soup Noodles and Curry Rice which we gladly ordered and an interesting concept that they introduced besides "Pay as you deem" is the accompanying dishes: a bowl of delicious porridge with 3 plates of side dishes that could easily become a set meal by itself! Love their porridge & side dish of beancurd slices! The curry rice is towards the Japanese curry version while the noodles is like handmade noodles in soy soup. Nice ambience, enjoyable food with courteous staff/volunteers. :-)
Strongly recommend!

Taiwan GaoXiong ~ LiuHe Night Market Vegetarian Delights 高雄六合夜市

 

What to try at Taiwan Night Market 台湾夜市?
Smelly Beancurd (臭豆腐) , Fried Mushroom (炸香菇) !
There is this stall at the Liuhe Night market (六合夜市) that specifically labelled itself as Vegetarian but if you do not take onion & garlic, you must still specify you do not want garlic as one of their sauces contained garlic. The stall's version of smelly beancurd takes more in the form of Taupok (豆包) instead of the Dougan (豆干) version. I think I still prefer the Shenkeng Smelly beancurd brand (深坑臭豆腐). I like the crunchy pickled cabbage & carrot slices added to make the dish more healthy.

Next we tried the Fried mushroom but was too anxious to eat it that we forgot to take a picture of it. :P (Taste wise better than those found in Spore's Pasar Malam but I think Taipei night market's tasted better in memory)
Amongst the other meaty stalls, we are glad to find One Vegetarian stall selling Vegetarian food so must support despite being full from eating the snacks.

As the weather in Taiwan is now hot, we decided to try the cooling bitter-gourd double-boiled soup upon the recommendation of the lady boss. It was a small bowl with a few pieces of white bitter-gourd (special & common in Taiwan instead of the green version) and the mushroom stalks. It has slight herbal taste & I find it of reasonable taste. The Dry noodles was mixed using Satay sauce instead of chilli with toppings of bean sprouts & braised mock meat. It's a pity the noodles was not as smooth or Q as expected of Taiwanese noodles.
Generally I find the cost of food at Taiwan was lower priced than S'pore's which is good. Contiinue that way :-)

MOS Burger at Taiwan (Vegetarian)

 

 

Upon Transit to Gaoxiong via their speed train, A recommended taking a quick bite at MOS Burger which has a Vegetarian option ~Mushroom burger at NT75 (abt S$3.20) and a set that includes Hokkaido version of Mashed potato Hashbrown (Cola pastry ~ Kele Bing) & drink will cost NT175 (abt $7.50).

The filling of mushroom with terriyaki type of sauce is quite flavourful but too bad the rice is plain. It would had tasted better if the rice is marinated as well or burger bread is used instead. But their Cola pastry is nice.



Tiger Vegetarian Delights

This is my first solo trip on a Budget Airline and worrying that I may be hungry on the 4.5 hrs flight, I pre-ordered my Vegetarian meal which there is only a Classic Vegetarian sandwich selection on-line then which I paid $9 for it. When on board, I was happy to see 2 vegetarian options on the menu, Mock Chicken rice & Cheesy Mushroom Panini meal which looked good.
 

 

 

I was terribly disappointed when I was served my pre-ordered sandwich which was just cold plain white bread stuffed with chopped vegetables. Excluding the accompanying bottle of Evian Water which was sold on board at $4, the sandwich costed $5 which is certainly over-priced though the taste is still ok.

In future, I would prefer to order on-board to try their Mushroom Panini which looked more palatable.:-(