Vesak day

Happy Vesak Day! This morning I made a trip down to the Burmese temple at Ah hood road with my mum and her friend. Before I got there, I got owned by a pregnant cat who came and brush her body and face over my legs. After several times of brushing and meowing she just lay down to sleep. I just learnt today this is their way of being friendly - by leaving their scent on you. Last time I thouught they had bugs on their body or something.

The Burmese temple was bustling with people. People were paying respects to the Buddha and receiving blessings from the monks.
There were donation boxes set up for people to donate to the Burmese cyclone victims. Also, there was free vegetarian food again this year, but only the bee hoon, veg, and spring rolls are vegan. The bee hoon even when eaten alone, is very very nice. The bo bo cha cha styled dessert was made with milk this time round so it's not vegan.

Yesterday it was "volunteering" at the Vegetarian Society's exhibition at Kong Meng San for a few hours. I wasn't actually doing anything, just spending time looking at the exhibits and booths. I also got to meet Crystal and her son in person :)

Secret Recipe @ Marina Square

The other day I was at Marina Square and my friends decided to lunch at secret recipe. I went in and saw two vegetarian dishes on the menu. One was spaghetti and the other was soba, and they indicate vegetarian on the menu. So I went for the Oriental soba. I bet no one ever order the soba, or maybe only 1/100 customers chose that, because the waitress was stunned and thought for second before saying "ok" :D.

The soba was served rather unusually. It doesn't come in hot soup, it doesn't come cold and dry. It came hot and dry, and it was a real big bowl of noodles. No wonder they mention "filling" on the menu. Don't worry though, the noodles' not a lot, lift the noodles up with the chopsticks you will go "Ah! So they hid a wad of lettuce underneath the noodles!". Although my friend says it smells nice, taste was rather plain, but was filling as mentioned. Aside from the unusual use of lettuce in the soba dish, they serve you chilli sauce meant for fries along with the soba, not a proper combination unfortunately. Aside from all these, the dish was very healthy.

Mothers' day dinner at 7 sensations

Sorry this is another late post... I celebrated an early mothers' day by bringing mum to 7 Sensations (Formerly Yogi hub) at Madras Street. We had the brown rice set and vegan pizza. Sorry no photos this time my camera batteries went flat :(

The ambience was very relaxing with dim lights. There were quite a number of people inside when we went in. The brown rice set came on a white, long retangular plate with a bowl of soy milk curry on one side the rice in the center and Lotus root slices and veggies on the other side. There was also a bowl of soup accompanying the set. The curry was reasonably done and had a rich coconut milk taste to it. The brown rice was presented very nicely in a pyramid shape and taste nutritious, it makes you feel really happy you are eating something so healthy. The lotus root slices was prepared with some sesame oil I believe, and it taste good! Soup was light and not oily or too salty. The portions were quite small, but too much of something will only get you sick of the taste, so it will leave you wanting to go back and try their food again. $8.80

The "cheese" of the 8-inch vegan pizza was made with tofu and lots of it. I find it a bit too much, so was the (I think) tomato puree. So I made a suggestion to increase the veggies and decrease the tofu cheese. Anyway I didn't quite like the taste of it at the first, but after a few more bites it's quite ok. The crust was nicely done, crunchy, not too hard or soft. This was $14.80

They also have vegan lasagna and vegan cake, I'll be sure to try those the next time I am there.

Volunteering for VSS

It's been more than a week since my last post. So it was sometime after the Lian He Wan Bao Health and Beauty fair at suntec which vegetarian society (Singapore)'s got a booth. I was there helping out for a few hours and people were just attracted to the booth, I don't know if it's for the freebies (even if they were vegetarian freebies!) :D Anyway most people were just taking the leaflets we had and the mini booklets Danny contributed.


Last saturday we had VCD seeds packing at Kheng's house, the volunteer turn out was pretty good and there were a lot of new faces! Kheng made us red bean soup and cheng tng. The red bean soup was exotic and the cheng tng was really refreshing. For lunch I had the Lor Mee at Junction 8 food court. Kheng said their yong tau fu was good but none that day! The lor mee was very different from the usual ones. It does not have a thick and dark gravy and the noodles they use were also of a different variety.


Unfortunately I didn't get to stay for dinner cuz there is a Singapore vegetarian meetup. Meetup was at Nature Vegetarian Delights at Upper Serangoon Road. I ordered the Sum Lou Hor Fan, which turns out to be like this. You will satisfy your craving if you have been dreaming of mock fish for sometime. Not very healthy, very little veggies, but the hor fan's got reasonable taste despite not being charred by fire.


That was Saturday. Friday I was at Boon Keng, so I drop by one of my frequented places - Forest Dew (yes... again!) To my surprised they had a nasi lemak speciality for lunch. They let you pick your own Nasi Lemak side dishes so I went for the veggies and things that look more special. From left to right: Cucumber + chilli paste (usual), fried yong tau fu!, a flat slice of fried "fish", ladies fingers with pineapple chunks and chilli, long beans with chilli. The yong tau fu was good! And very unexpected - smth you won't see in Nasi Lemak. The rest were rather usual tasting but hot.

Deli Vege

Happy Labourless day! I was at Chinatown and lunched at Delivege today - tried their recommended dishes - claypot rice and fish and chips. Also the malay styled kang kong. Fish and chips are not 100% vegan (note the mayonnaise in the salad), so those healthy vegetables entered my mum's stomach while I filled mine with oil. There goes my fruit fast. Sorry about the blurred pictures, I tried my best, but my camera was cheap, can't withstand even a little movement.

The ambience was contemporary, you will see lots of veg slogans on one face of the wall e.g. "Are you meat free?" and "I don't eat animals because they don't eat me" etc. And there is another wall showing what I thought to be names of pro-veg people.

Claypot rice came with lettuce on the top. The waitress mixed the rice with the lettuce shreds and those crispy rice at the bottom and dished it onto our bowls.
The rice was pretty good, on top of the lettuce, it came with small round pieces of mock meat which were very tender as well as thin slices of mushrooms and carrots. Usually you will see burnt rice in the claypot, but it depends on what extend the burnt rice is. Too much is bad, but too little make a less fragrant and less crispy claypot rice. This one is just nice. $7 for a small pot.

Kang kong. This wasn't very good. Too little leaves and it's difficult for me to mix the gravy with the kang kong before eating. $8

Finally fish and chips $7.90. Very good! The mock meat was done with a very crispy outside, a thin layer of nori in the middle, soft and succulent on the inside - it made me wonder if they made their own mock meat instead of purchasing from a mock meat supplier. I find it best to be eaten without tomato, chilli sauce or lemon juice. I can't rate salad as I didn't eat it.

They will also charge you for a starter and service. The place is 200 South Bridge Road Singapore 058749

Fruit fast

During the weekend, I went on a fruit fast to ease the digestive system a little. Didn't do much preparation work like eating smaller meals beforehand, but it was overall ok!

WEAKNESS: My mum was saying it will make me weak or something and I was told by other people it will lead to gastric or something. But during the fast, I volunteered to help out for VSS at the Lian He Wan Bao fair, sweep and mop the floor the following day and went to visit my relatives and am still quite fine. No I didn't get trembling fingers or faint.

HUNGER: I do feel hungry quite a few times, so I tend to eat small amounts and spread it out throughout the day. Usually I will feel more hungry between breakfast and lunch and late at night. But down some fruits and it goes away (at night I just go to bed). No I won't wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry.

HEALTH: I haven't had a runny nose for some time, after I started this fruit fast, it came. Usually people will attribute it to part of the body detoxification process. Perhaps it is because today when I switch back to vegan, it stopped. Unfortunately, if I had fast for a longer period, I probably feel great! I also slimmed down a little at the waist line, but then again I am now going back to a vegan junkie and adding it back :( .

CRAVINGS: I can now understand how some omnivores feel when they are making the switch and what they mean by "Going vegetarian is so difficult!". It would certainly require a certain amount of determination and a strong motivation. I don't have a very strong reason for this short fruit-only diet except that I must do it for the weekend, even if I can't do it three days. I get ocassional "Urgh" from fruits, maybe because I am eating too few a variety of them. My cravings include oily, spicy, carbohydrate, salty foods. When I went to my relatives' place, I passed by two vegetarian stalls, and I was having thoughts of doing my lunch there. My aunt cut watermelons and added salt to them. When I tasted the salt, it was ~heavenly~. I guess this is what people call cheating. :) If you can't imagine how a world without salt is like, trying going on a fruit or water fast.

ADAPTING: Going back to the usual diet is not a one step thing. I tried to increase my proportions slowly, starting with a bowl of green bean soup in the morning and some fruits before lunch. I bought a pack of mix veg rice for lunch (ask for small portions) and ate only slightly more than half of it - and my that was really too filling. The rest I ate slightly before dinner time and had some vegetables and tofu soup for dinner. Followed by fruits a little while later. Tomorrow I will increase a little more of the carbohydrate and protein portions.

In my 2 day fruit fast, I also ate ginger as a means to balance the cooling effect most fruits have. (Ginger is warming in nature). That's the only non-fruit item I had.

Another crazy artist

I got an email petition, maybe you have seen it before.

In the 2007, the "artist" Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery, and let him starve to death as part of an "art" exhibition.

For several days, this "artist" and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful "masterpiece" based on the dog's agony, until eventually he died.

But this is not all ... the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American decided that the "installation" was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.

There are discussions on whether the dog really did died, but whether it died or not or whether or not it's just another stray which will die anyway, the important thing is the animal abuse behind this installation. Sign the petition here to help put an end to this.

Another "Artist"

Peta's Letuce ladies in The Philippines

I saw this in Today newspaper.

Other: Anni and Heikki had so kindly awarded my blog with an E for excellent. I am passing on this award to everyone on my blogroll, stick it on your blog and pass it on to others :)