Singapore before lunar new year

After four years of not being able to, I went to Singapore the week before Lunar New Year. I spent the whole time eating, swimming and arting. Here are the highlights: 

Green BA, Somerset. 

Look, don't be put off by how Green BA is a 'vegetarian dining concept.' It might have a vertical hydroponics wall and some weird aunties and a soundtrack of peking opera, but it is handily located (right next to an MRT entrance) and the food is great. I got a fish curry only because my original choice wasn't available. And this is fish curry was INCREDIBLE. Strong recommend, the curry came out on a bubbling hot flame, it was beautiful. I couldn’t finish it and took the leftovers home for breakfast the next morning. Beans, okra and a lovely mock fish. My only regret is that I didn’t eat it a second time.

Real Food, Orchard Central. 

Real Food used to be located in the basement of Clarke Quay Central, and I revisited an old favourite dish here, the wonton dry noodles. It was nice but honestly it was a bit boring, in the years intervening I'd forgotten that the wontons are weirdly healthy and the noodles are not strong in flavour. It was mostly nostalgia that brought me here (and hunger) and given how close Orchard Central is to Somerset, I'm unlikely to return again. Iced coffee was good.

Nom v Nom, Clarke Quay Central.

Here’s a repeat story: Nom v Nom used to be in the basement at Clarke Quay Central. Now it has a lovely view of Clarke Quay from the third floor. Again I revisited an old favourite, the ‘temptation satay’, which is a hunk of tempe with a very spicy satay sauce in a soft bun. It was greasy and sweet and very very spicy. And another repeat: honestly it was not as good as I remembered. It was nostalgia that brought me back and I could potentially return again, if I wanted a burger in Singapore. Nom v Nom also does a great iced matcha, and a lot of weird vegan merch.

Green Dot, Raffles Place. 

Green Dot is a chain across Singapore. You can do bainmarie or special dish order, and I went the laksa. It was so so good! Lunch queue is excessive but what can you expect in the CBD. I really enjoy Green Dot. The service is fast and all the non-soup meals come with a herbal soup which is such a Singapore mood.

Haidilao, Somerset 313 

Haidilao is an international chain, and is one of my favourite hotpot locations. I’ve never been to the Somerset 313 location before (I usually go to Clarke Quay lol), and it was great! Service was good, ingredients were fresh, and the robots were creepy but cute. Took the 2.5 year old and he was well-catered to (kids that small get a free plate of food to cook) The noodle dancer seemed like he was there only under duress. They have two vegan stocks: the mushroom broth and the tomato broth. Remember to check the ingredients on the condiments, and remember that in Singapore, just because something says tofu doesn't mean it's vegetarian ;P

Taiwanese Thunder Tea Rice, Lau Pa Sat. 

I haven’t had thunder tea rice in years! What a joy! Line was long but the food came out so so fast. I had it with the extra chickpeas and the soup on the side. So brilliant! I have never seen thunder tea rice in Australia so it was good to have this. Thunder tea rice is a Hakka dish, it’s hard to describe but it’s a tea soup on the side (I promise this is good!) serviced with rice and toppings. Just eat it okay. It’s good. Make sure you specify no anchovies or whatever, but the base one is veg.

Places at which I drank an iced coffee.

Long-time non-dairy drink travellers will know that often, when outside Australia, one must go to a Starbucks to get a caffeinated non-dairy beverage. This is particularly true in Asia, where if one asks for soy milk one gets Chinese soy milk. I obviously love fresh Chinese soy milk, but absolutely never in my coffee. For BDS reasons, I’m not currently drinking from Starbucks; fortunately, I was still able to get some iced soy lattes.  

Mavrk, Great World - This is a little hole in the wall at one of the exits. Coffee was good.  

The Social Space, Chinatown - I sat down in this cute cafe after a visit to the tooth relic temple. It was nice to sit inside. It’s a social enterprise so it also has some lovely little things for sale. This coffee was fine. 

Anyway ILU Singapore, see you next time.

[singapore] Gokul [little india]

Gokul is probably my favourite Indian vegetarian restaurant in Singapore. It's got a very handy two locations (one in the Fortune Centre and one in Little India), an excellent menu, and is fast service and I love it.

It's really hard for me to go to Gokul and not order the chicken rice, mostly because it's always been one of my favourite dishes and it's so hard for me to get a good one in Australia. Gokul's chicken rice comes with fried chicken AND pandan chicken (aaah), a lovely ginger soup, ginger rice, some veggies, and some chili. It's so good. Look at that picture. Imagine angels singing as you eat it. Ahhhh.

The menu has a variety of bread sets, curry dishes, and local foods like char kway teow and chicken rice. They also have an excellently spicy murtabak and a good dosa, and they don't mind when one of your group brings in a frozen vegan cheezecake to eat for dessert.

The menu at the Fortune Centre location isn't as extensive as the Little India location, but I go to it more often due to its convenient location, so you can tell that I don't mind.

Gokul Vegetarian Restaurant
19 Upper Dickson Road
and
Fortune Centre
190 Middle Road
#01-07
Singapore

Get there on the MRT, mostly. There's a step to enter the Little India location, and ordering happens at the table; at Fortune Centre, ordering happens at a high counter. Cards are accepted. There's an awkward toilet in the Little India Building; Fortune Centre has a toilet down a twisty hallway.

[singapore] nomVnom [clarke quay]

I took my sister to nomVnom, and she declared it better than Lord of the Fries. I know. I KNOW.

Here's the deal. nomVnom is an all-vegan burger joint in the basement at The Central at Clarke Quay. They have a huge roster of 21 burgers and 20 plus sides, and 2 pastas. They make basically everything in house, including these beautiful soft steamed buns of just amazing deliciousness.

My favourite burger is WITHOUT A DOUBT the Temptation Satay, which is a marinated tempeh patty, housemade satay sauce, lettuce and cucumber. I eat this burger at least once a fortnight, and I honestly don't know what I'm going to do when I return to Melbourne next week. Attempt to replicate the burger, for sure. Beg Wai Lek (the owner) to take pity on me and tell me the sauce recipe, probably.

Others of my favourites are the Dhall Fusion (a crunchy soy-based patty, a thick dhall curry sauce, and sweet corn, to which I like to add cucumber pieces like a monster) and the Nom Nom (soy patty, tartar sauce, tomato, lettuce). The sides are mostly deep fried and delicious, including battered and deep fried mushies and battered and deep fried banana pieces.

They do a cold matcha and a hot matcha, as well as an amazing passionfruit and lemon tea (see: other things I'll be recreating at home) and an amazing cold cinnamon cocoa drink.

Look, I love Lord of the Fries, and I'm definitely going to be eating a parma burger within about 48 hours of touchdown in Melbourne, and I'm defo devo that I missed the HSP that ran for two months exactly when I was out of the country. But nomVnom is so good that one of my meat-eating Perth friends ate there twice during three days, and I can't fault that decision.

nomVnom
The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#B1-44
Singapore

Get there on the MRT (Clarke Quay MRT Station exits directly into the basement) or a zillion buses (there are 3 buses that take me directly from my house to The Central).

nomVnom accepts a variety of credit cards, including my Visa. Ordering happens at a high counter. The tables are crowded together but well lit, and seating is a combination of stools, chairs and couches.

[singapore] well dressed salad bar [chinatown]

I'm in Singapore at the moment, on a three month residency. I've totally been failing at keeping you updated, but I promise I have been eating a lot of amazing vegan food.

Well Dressed Salad Bar is an all vegetarian, mostly vegan cafe on South Bridge Street, down near Kreta Ayer end. It specialises in salads, of which I've had zero. It is, however, about half an hour walk from where I'm based, so I've been going there a bit.

On my first visit, I was all by myself. I chose the curry with rice and 'chips'. The curry was spicy and excellent. The rice was fine (I smushed it all into that bowl of curry). The chips are nori strips coated in what I think is besan, and then fried. I must eat them all, immediately, and plan on making them ASAP (ie, as soon as I get to my kitchen in Australia). I had with this a fresh watermelon juice, and I took home a slice of chocolate brownie cake. They have a window of cakes at the entry, and it's full of terrible temptations that I can never move past.

On my second visit I brought a friend. I was feeling under nourished, mostly due to the large amount of stir fried noodles I tend to eat for breakfast and lunch (more on that in a subsequent post about my love of hawker centres and the fact that Singaporeans don't use their kitchens), so I had the udon noodle bowl. This was a really simple bowl of udon noodles with fresh soy beans, purple cabbage, carrot, lettuce and shredded nori. To go with this I had a juice that contained beetroot. Long time friends (and new friends, in fact), will note that I loathe beetroot, but I talked myself into this juice and it was actually really beautiful, a combination of apple, beetroot, carrot and something else that I can't quite recall at the moment.

I finished the meal off with this AMAZING avocado, brownie and choc chip ice cream cake, which was served with a chocolate sauce and a few small pieces of fruit. When this ice cream was described to me, I was expecting more of a chocolate thing, and so when it came out I was very worried about it. Whenever I hear about ice cream with avocado in it, I think about that time Cindy and Michael made avocado ice cream and I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to . So I was concerned! However it turns out I needn't have worried, as this was delicious and I would DEFINITELY eat it again. My only wish is that there'd been more fruit to go with it.

On this occasion I took home a slice of passionfruit cake, which was light and lovely with a tart passionfruit syrup on the top. A++ would eat again.

On my third visit it was specifically to pick up a box of donuts. Once a month Zenna takes orders (over instagram) for donuts. They're six to a box, minimum six for an order, $2 per donut. The flavours vary every month. I went for 2 x dark chocolate almond, 2 x oreo, 1 x blueberry and 1 x dark chocolate cranberry. Every mouthful was a delight! I hope I'm here still for my final order. Because they're mini donuts, it was no trouble for me to polish them all off, and they made up slightly for missing World Vegan Day in Melbourne over the weekend.

Since I was there anyway, and I'd been tortured by two hours of family time with no actual food I can eat (My Auntie told another vego the popiah were vegetarian; spoilers, he spat it into the bin cos there was prawns IN POPIAH), I paused for dinner. The all day breakfast comes with coconut waffles, housemade sausages (containing rosemary), housemade vegan feta, avocado, tomatoes, AMAZING mushrooms, and totally unnecessary alfalfa. It's accompanied by a juice or soup. Obviously I went with juice, because it's the best, and obviously I chose watermelon, because watermelon juice, freshly squeezed, in Southeast Asia, is one of life's true joys. The waffles were savoury, the feta was pleasantly salty, and the mushrooms were juicy, pan-fried portabellos, and oh how I have missed them. So that was very nice, too.

Well Dressed is a little pricy by Singapore standards, but the service is fast, everyone is friendly, and there's lots of vegetables served in raw and interesting ways, which is not necessarily how you get vegetables in Singapore. I probably shouldn't eat there twice a week, but it is very nice.


Well Dressed Salad Bar
282 South Bridge Road
Chinatown (South of Sri Mariamman Temple)

There are a variety of buses that stop on North Bridge Road and Eu Tong Sen Street, or the Chinatown MRT is about a 7 minute walk. There's a step to enter the shop. The unisex toilet is down the back of the shop but from memory it's accessible. Takes credit card yay.

rolling like a steamed bun: a day of eating in singapore

If you're around this blog for more than five seconds, you'll know how much I love sharing meals I ate at places you can't go because they're not in Melbourne, so here is a recent day of Singapore noms and fun times had by me and my darling friend Em of Sugarspoons, who you may remember from previous adventures on Vegmel when she lived in Melbourne.

We started our day at Jones the Grocer at the Mandarin Gallery. Jones the Grocer is an Australian chain that does groceries and has a few cafes across Australia and into Singapore. The centre was mostly closed but Jones the Grocer was bustling - so bustling it took forever for us to be seated and served! However the service was an aside, because the Very Important reason for our visit was that Jones the Grocer, as an Australian chain, can actually provide us with soy flat whites! (Unlike the Dome at the Singapore Art Museum, which, despite being Western Australian, cannot) We shared a perfectly serviceable tomatoes and avocado and jam on toast (and I had a second soy flattie), before we meandered off to buy presents for babies and also on secret Azn Girls Business. 

After ogling the totally expensive teas at TWC (you know it's expensive because their waitstaff are tall white anglo boys! and also their tea is like $100SGD for 100gm) and visiting the masking tape exhibition at the top of Ion (totally amazing, Em had to be physically restrained from touching and buying things), we were met by G and headed off to the Living Cafe, a rawish cafe that has lots of delicious vegan, raw and gluten-free treats.

At the Living Cafe we were overwhelmed by choices, and went for the time honoured tradition of sharing a whole lot of things. We ordered the raw zucchini lasagna and the veggie bowl with brown rice as our mains to share. The zucchini lasagna was lovely, however it had to deal with the unfortunate competition of yong's in my heart, and it couldn't compare. The lasagna was placed together as we watched (rather than pre-prepared and stored for delicious cashew cheese compression as at yong's), and while the tomato and red capsicum sauce (and the cashew mayonnaise) was extremely tasty, the slightly under-ripe-ness of the tomato was off putting. Fortunately the veggie bowl was a nice thing to alternate with it, and we were able to cap off our savouries by stealing some of G's sweet potato wedges.

Dessert caused us some consternation. There was a whole cabinet full of amazing looking delicious raw cheesecakes - most of them containing honey! We were devastated, but fortunately and to our delights we were informed by the chef (a vegan!) that the recipe on the chocolate cheesecake had recently changed, and so we were able to sample these two raw vegan cheesecake delights. They were amazing, a++ would eat again.

I was so happy with these desserts that I took back to my hotel raw cookies for the fam, and a piece of banana cake for myself for my plane ride back to Australia the next day.

I would sample the delights of the Living Cafe again, but I probably wouldn't try the same savoury dishes.

After some meandering (and purchasing of Crumpler products - by the Singaporeans, not by me, obviously) we headed over to JOY OF JOYS Haidilao, which you may remember from such adventures as that time Stephanie lived in Beijing and ate nothing but hotpot. Haidilao has recently opened up its first Singaporean branch and I loved it so much I took the fam back the next day! Totally worth it. My Chinese tutor (from Beijing) joined us, and it was lots of fun catching up with her, gossiping in Mandarin and stuffing my face with all my favourite things. We ordered the spicy/mushroom double pot, because it is always the perfect choice, and I got to use my old friend the Haidilao ipad and we got dancing noodles and lots of mushrooms and it was just the best.

And then I went back to my hotel, had a cup of tea with the fam and fell into bed, my belly stuffed until I was a steamed bun! Perfect.

Jones the Grocer is located in the maze that is the Mandarin Gallery. There's no steps but the tables are close together. It is cafe and cafe-goods only (though I love the supermarket located in Ion near the H+M). Get to either of these places on the MRT.

The Living Cafe is located at 779 Bukit Timah Rd. I can't remember if there's a step for entry. There is a little bit of free parking (though not much).

Haidilao of joys and delights is located at River Valley Road in Clarke Quay, near the Japanese Centre. Get there on the MRT.

No idea of prices as my noms were sponsored by Em, in exchange for my love and a giant bag of vegan goodies from Melbourne.

a day of singapore makan

Thanks to the joys of Jetstar (don't do it), I spent a Monday in Singapore, and used this opportunity to hang out with the super awesome Ger and Em. We spent the day eating, and they distracted me from my Plane Delay Panic.

We distracted ourselves at Muji, before brunching on chee cheong fun (no picture) at the Jade Garden.



From there we headed on over to Real Food Cafe, which looks like a seriously delicious vegetarian cafe and I'm sorry we didn't get to eat there. I'm not sorry that we got to try the Brownice icecream, though, which was tasty and melted all over my hands. Since there was three of us, we picked three flavours: peppermint chocolate, peanut butter caramel, and the plain chocolate. It was all good. It's ice cream made from brown rice!



Next up was Hainan chicken rice at Pine Tree Cafe in the Fortune Centre. The Fortune Centre is so amazing, I can't believe I've spent so much time in Singapore and never been there. It's a shopping complex almost entirely filled with vegetarian restaurants and shops! So good.

This chicken rice was awesome. I know I spoke highly of the chicken rice I ate at Madame K's only a week later, but this was perfect. Nice little soup, sauce drizzled over the top, Singaporean and just the way I like it.



We followed this up with a visit to the Mustafa Centre (open 24 hours) and then a dosai at the Syed Alwi branch of Ananda Bhavan. This was my first dosai in about six months and I was very happy to be putting this in my mouth. Ananda Bhavan is a fast service place, a little self-service.

There was supposed to be a burger visit, too, but in my paranoia to get on my plan we gave it a miss and went early to the airport.

Go to Singapore! It's pretty great. As are Em and Ger.

Real Food Cafe
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
#B1-52/53, The Central
Singapore 059817

Pine Tree Cafe
#02-09/13
Fortune Centre
190 Middle Road
Singapore

Ananda Bhavan
Syed Alwi Road
opposite Mustafa Centre
Singapore

shopping centre dining in singapore

Most shopping centres were quite good for vegetarian food: in the Bugis Junction level three food court we found the Pine Tree Cafe, an all vegetarian stall. Here we ordered the noodle soup and the laksa, and both were excellent.

At Suntec City we found Indinine and Pangat, both located in the "Sky Garden" on level three. Indinine was a fusion cafe, where the beef on my curried rice looked so real I had to double check that it was actually mock meat. Indinine does not indicate that it is a vegetarian restaurant, hence my confusion. D ordered the mushroom rice, which was rich with that heavy mushroom flavour, and very tasty.

We later tried Pangat, an Indian vegetarian restaurant. The Aloo paratha was excellent, as were the other dishes that we ordered, which alas we neither photographed nor can recall at this time.

xing hua vegetarian restuarant

By accident on our wanderings we discovered Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant, a combination pre-cooked/a la carte restaurant in the Albert Mall, just where it meets Bencoolen Street. They serve fresh juices, and the laksa was fantastic. The prices were very cheap, too, though at this restaurant very few of the staff spoke English, so that is my caution to you if you don't speak Mandarin.



Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant
Albert Mall
Singapore

ling zhi vegetarian restaurant

Confused, we wandered around the base of this smooth office building. Eventually we asked the security guard, and he directed us to the fifth floor, where the lift doors opened to an immaculate restaurant. "Is this it?" D asked. In answer, I pointed to the Buddha by the front door, and we wandered in.

Our waiter didn't speak English, so D was forced to rely upon me for translating, and couldn't resort to his usual trick of asking the waiter for his favourites, to help in deciding. We ordered the olive rice, some satay, something with mushrooms and, based on the advice of the internet, the crispy fried pumpkin roll. The latter was a delightful mixture of textures and flavours, some sort of pumpkin puree wrapped in rice noodles and then fried. The satay was a tasty combination of mock meats and vegetables, and the rice and mushrooms were also quite good.



Overall the experience was very enjoyable, I would certainly return.

Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant
541 Orchard Road
#05-01 Liat Towers
Singapore