Yes Natural F&B (悦意坊)

I've long heard about this cafe but didn't had the time to try until a couple of weeks back.. Introduced some nice food to Maboo & Zenzen. It was a normal weekday but the cafe was surprising packed and we had to wait a while! Given the shop space (almost twice the size of Ci Hang), I think business is good for this cafe.

Hand Roll Salad (手卷沙拉) $4.50

It was highly recommended by Chen TZ, she say its a must eat if you visit here. hehe. Much to my surprise, this dish is indeed very special. Wrapped in the fresh popiah skin (Not the frozen type), the filling is FULL of fresh lettuce, carrots and alfafal leaves. Really a healthy and cheap roll to start your day!

Stone Pot Rice (石锅饭) $6.50

Not exactly the bibimbap i adore from New Pature, but this stone pot rice has its own uniqueness. Ingredients comprise of a generous serving of vegetables, mushrooms and pumpkin, topped with mock floss and crunchy radish. The taste is superb and I am still salivating while writing this. It is quite surprising that not much of the mock items are used, but the taste can be very original where the pumpkins and radish brings out the sweetness of the rice. A little pricy though, but it comes with a free soup.

Vege Cake (什锦烧) $7.50

The first look of the picture made me drool right away as I thought this is the vegetarian version of Okonomiyaki! Okonomiyaki is a pan-fried batter cake where many refer to as the japanese pizza or pancake. and i still missed the Okonomiyaki that Evon specially made for me.. it was simply fantastic! Saldly, this vege cake version is not what I had hoped for, but the taste was Unique still. The bottom of the cake is spagetti noodle, topped with layers of veg on top and lastly pan fried with a top flour cheese layer. Taste is good with the mayo sauce.

Baked cheese spagetti $8.00

Again its spagetti, as we did not foresee the vege cake to have any noodle in it! It is unusal to eat baked spagetti as normally we will have baked penne or macaroni. Sauce is tomato based, not much of a special, but the cheese is good.

On the whole, the food is at an affordable range, and the service is good. What I liked about this cafe is the menus are recycable where orders can be erased. At least this helps the environment. This cafe also sells organic set lunches. Do support if you are in the aljunid area!

Location: No. 57, Geylang Lorong 27, Singapore 388184 *The 2nd Stretch of Shop House when you step out of Aljunid MRT
Tel: 67411580

Opening Hours : 11:30am to 9pm Closed on Wednesday

Yu Yuan Vegetarian Stall (裕元素食)

Contributed by Lonnie Zhen. thanks for the picture! She commented that Toa Payoh has the best food ever, but I never get to post any. Anyway, here's a stall that she recommends. And please do not hesistate to contact me if you spot any good places too! Take a picture and comment on it. Thats all it takes! Provide me with the necessary details like, location, opening hours and contacts.

Laksa $2.50

It seems like in Singapore, laksa is almost available everywhere. But well, the soup is still vital. Lonnie commented that the gravy is thick and fragrant, topped with ingredients such as beancurd, tau pok, fish cake and fried goose skin. Additional bee hoon @ 50 cents extra.

Note: The Stall owner tends to put a scoop of chilli in the bowl of laksa. Hence, pls warn her if you can't take too spicy soup.

Other delicacies include: Dry Noodles & Lor Mee

Location: Blk 22 Toa Payoh Lor 7 #01-37

Tel: 98628214

Opening Hours: 7am - 1pm

Closed on every 2nd and 16th of lunar calendar

Yi Xin Vegetarian (一心素食)

Had dinner one of the night before going for KTV in chinatown. Lately there has been a couple more stalls opening in the chinatown area and competition is definitely fierce.

Grand Court has also opened a new outlet in chinatown (above yum cha) and the coffee shop beside is this tze char stall.

Anyway, me and zany ordered 2 dishes to go with rice.

Mushrooms with Brocolli $8

Serving is quite big and tasted ok. The sauce goes well with the rice. I guess nothing really special, as this dish is quite common outside.

Sweet and Sour Fish $9

Having watched the Taiwanese Drama (Bull Fighing), me and zany have been wanting to try this dish as Hebe loves it as well. In chinese, it is 糖醋鱼. Sadly, it does not appear to be the same dish which we have anticipated. The taste is also normal, but the fish was a little over-fried.

Anyway, I found that sunny had posted more on Yi Xin here. All in all, this is not your restaurant kind of food, but it is still above the normal coffee shop standard. The is a cheaper option in the chinatown area I guess.

Location: 39 Temple Street, Inside Coffee Shop.

Opening Hours: 8am - 10pm

Vegetarian Bolognese Pasta

Sometimes when i run of lunch ideas, I like to cook the easiest food - Pasta.

Vegetarian Bolognese Pasta

I like my sauce thick, so you may add more water if you like it more watery.

Ingredients:

Pasta - 100g

Sauce:

1. Button Mushrooms - 5 pieces (Finely chopped)

2. Vegetarian ham - 3 thin slices (Finely chopped)

3. Fresh tomatoes - 2 (Diced)

4. Tomato Puree - 50ml

5. Water - 25ml

Seasoning:

1. Salt 1/2 teaspoon

2. Vegetarian Oyster Sauce 1/2 tablespoon

3. Black pepper 1 teaspoon

Method:

1. Boil the pasta in water for 2 minutes. Switch to small flame for 2 minutes.

2. Off the flame and cover the pot with a lid for another 3 minutes.

3. Once the pasta is cooked, remove the noodle and place them in cold water for a while. This helps to separate the noodle. Put aside for later use.

4. As I am a lazy person, I rather eat the tomatoes together with the skin. Most people will steam it first, peel off the skin before cooking. You may do it too, if you have the time.

5. Heat up the work of medium flame. Add a little olive oil, place the tomatoes in and stir.

6. Add in mushrooms and ham and cook them together.

7. Add in the tomato puree and water.

8. Add in the seasonings to taste.

9. Pour the sauce over the noodle and ready to serve.

*Simple and easy. Of cos' this is not the traditional version - but it can be ready within 15 minutes and quite nice. I will introduce the traditional (but more fattening) version next time.

Malaysia - Veggie House @ Genting

Sunnietart has provided some info earlier, but there was no pictures. Hence, last week I paid my visit to the famous "Monte Carlo" located in Malaysia and found that it has since becomed more vegetarian friendly compared to the time I visited 8 years back.

Veggie House is a stall in the "kopitiam" food court located on the 4th floor at First World Plaza. I guess this is the cheapest option available as the other places are too expensive. I had most of my meals here.

Curry Noodles Soup RM7.80

Serving is big and the soup is not too spicy.

Fish Cutlet Rice Set RM15

The other day I tried the Fish Cutlet Rice Set (inclu. a soup & drink). Initially though it would be all fried, but I was surprised the sauce tasted not bad! It is mixed with the preserved vegetables (Mei Cai) and capsicums.

There are also tze char available at this stall.

*If you stay at First World Hotel, they do have vegetarian buffet for breakfast too. Of course, if you are looking for a restaurant standard, most chinese restaurants offer vegetarian options. I walked past Ah Yi Bao Yu (Abalone) and saw they have loads of vegetarian options available too!

So this is a place you may want to consider for a short and cooling getaway!

Location: Malaysia, Genting, First World Plaza 4th Floor

Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm

The Whole Earth Vegetarian Restaurant (环界素食)

Had dinner with irene and chris on a Monday when she drove. hehe. This restaurant is known for its peranakan dishes hence I'm rather surprised its still around after so many reviews of the hefty prices. We ordered 4 dishes to go with the famous olive rice.

Nonya Curry $15

Looks good on appearance, but the ingredients are downright pathetic. Chris counted and only found 6 small pieces of mutton in the curry. They seemed to have counted the number each person can eat. It used to taste much better, its ok now. A pity that the portion is so small for this price.

Bai Ling Gu Mushroom with Vegetables $16

Justifiable by the number of mushroom slices given. It tasted good with rice.

BBQ Tofu Skin with stuffed mushrooms $16

Missed this dish a lot since kingsland closed down. This used to be the "must-order" dish in the previous jin shan ge. However, they have it at The Whole Earth. It is basically BBQed shredded mushrooms wrapped in Tofu skin. I love it. However, it is kind of sad that the serving is small too.

Battered Oyster Mushroom $15

Hmm, sauce was kind of wierd, its supposed to be thai, but after I came back from thailand, I can hardly taste the thai taste. The mushrooms are well fried though. Irene commented and still love the ones from loke wor yuen.

Olive Fried Rice $6

As mentioned earlier, the olive fried rice is famous. Hence we ordered 1 to share. Serving is not enough for 3, but ample for 2. Hence, if you are cost saving, you may just order 1 dish and 1 rice, that should be less than 30 bucks.

For desserts, we ordered Euryale Seed, which tasted rather blend. It looks like barley, and is said to have very good digestive effect.

All in all, the ambience of the restaurant is quite contemporary and clean. Food wise, good if you feel rich.

Location: 76, Peck Seah Street (Near tanjong pajar MRT)

Opening Hours: 11am - 3pm; 5.30pm - 10pm

website: http://www.wholeearth.com.sg/homepage_files/slide0003.htm

Ikea - Tampines/ Alexandra

Thanks to huimin for providing the information. Im rather amazed that a restaurant famous for its meatballs does offer vegetarian options. This is non other than the furniture guru IKEA.
Hence I went there for lunch with the colls one afternoon to try. Food was not fantastic, but its definitely a great move to care a little for the environment.

Vegetarian Fried Bee Hoon

Your normal fare of beehoon which comprises of veg, mock meats, fried mock goose and mushrooms. The sauce for the bee hoon tasted wierd as it made the whole thing soggy. Hence if you like drier versions, stop the auntie before she pours in the sauce. Tasted normal, a little blend. Serving is big but the same goes to the price too. It costs $5++ per plate. Anyway, if you are with a friend shopping in IKEA and don't want to move elsewhere, there is still this option available.

*One thing good is that they have different food items everyday. See their website for the different dishes everyday!

Website: http://www.ikea.com.sg/store_services/veg_dish.asp

Location:

1. Ikea Alexandra: 317 Alexandra Road, Singapore 159965

2. Ikea Tampines: 60 Tampines North Drive 2, Singapore 528764

Opening Hours: 10am - 10pm Daily

Bangkok - Kuan Imm Jae Restaurant (观音斋)

One of the nights we went to the Kuan Imm Jae Restaurant located near to the Phrom Phong station. In Thailand, "Jae" refers to vegetarian. It sounds like hokkien. Hence it is not difficult to pronounce if you are at a restaurant requesting for vegetarian food.

This restaurant is not the same as the one located in Geylang, just that they have the same name. It looks like a typical chinese restaurant and most people go for the steamboat. We do not know what was nice and just ask for some recommendations. One thing good is the boss is chinese and its easier to ask in this manner.

Most of the dishes are mock meat items, hence if you are a non-fan of such, just order pure veg will do.

Minced duck with dressing

As recommended by the boss, he said all locals adore this dish. Hence we ordered out of curiosity. It turned out to be so spicy that sunnietart and papa did not take it. It is basically shredded mock duck sauteed in special thai spicy sauce. Tasted perfect with rice.

Stir Fry Spinach

I like the spinach as it wasn't too oily and it tastes just right, not overcooked. Portion looks a little small though. Prices wise, per dish startes from 60BHT onwards. For steamboat items, charges at 20BHT onwards per plate.

All in all, its good to see so many vegetarian restaurants opening in bangkok and Im sure to visit again! That's all for the places in Bangkok.

Location: 6/15 Sukhumvit 24/1 Road (at sub-soi 5 meters west of Soi 26)

Tel: 662-2596466

Opening Hours: 11.00-14.00, 17.00-22.00 (BKT)

Directions: Located on a small soi next to Sukhumvit Soi 26, closer to Soi 24. Take BTS to Phrom Phong station (E5). Exit through exit 4. Make a U-turn after descent from the stairs. Soi 24/1 is in the opposite direction. Turn right at Soi 24/1. Soi 24/1 is located between Soi 24 and soi 26.