DeliVege udon noodles

The other day I had the luxury to attend a seminar away from my company. Luxury not because I love attending seminars, but because I do not have to eat from the one and only vegetarian stall near my workplace. I was really near Chinatown, and was spoiled for choices.

Eventually I settled for DeliVege's udon noodles.


Delivege's special is their DFC - Deli Fried Chicken. So naturally the best stuff in the udon noodles is the deep fried mock meat (12 o'clock position in photo).

I also had orange juice (on the house) which was a nice surprise.


Total cost: $8+

This was what I ate on my previous visit to DeliVege.

While scouting the area, I also saw that Maxwell food centre has got at least 2 vegetarian food stalls, and there's one at Amoy food centre.

Just jeans lobster liberation advertisement

VSS vegetarian food guide

Some days back I went for the launch of the singapore vegetarian food guide at botanical gardens. The VSS committee and volunteers did a great job! The guide features vegetarian eat-outs at orchard, city hall/marina, bugis, chinatown, little india, geylang and more. Organic vegetarian food lovers will also be delighted to see which places they can get their meals.


If you are coming to Singapore, get your copy at Singapore Visitors Centres. Alternatively, if the guide is out of stock or you are a local, you can order the guide from Vegetarian Society Singapore here.

Back to the launch... VSS had Desmond Koh and Nadya Hutagalung as the special guests for the launch and I was surprise to know that Desmond is veg.


What's a veg event without veg food? Veg restaurants and eateries catered their food at the launch and everyone rushed to queue and try them out (so typically Singaporean-style) :)

We had food from Saravanaa Bhavan, Original Sin, Seven Sensations, Living Greens, Deli Vege, Nutri-Hub and Taste of Natural. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get pictures from every eatery.

Taste of Natural


Original Sin


Nutri-Hub


Deli Vege


Ok the following two pictures are not meant to show how much a glutton I was, but rather, the food from some of the eateries which I had no chance to take a picture of :)

My loaded plate 1 - Spaghetti and soup from 7 sensations, the white puffs and rice puffs from Saravanaa Bhavan, the rest were from Original Sin.


My loaded plate 2 - bee hoon was from Delivege, savoury cake and rice from taste of natural, and I think it was shepherd's pie and something else from Living Greens. I can't remember where the white veg roll was from.


And I thought I've just got to show you the biodegradable, environmentally friendly plate we used for the food. Can you guess what it is made from?

New Green Pasture Cafe

Ambience: Quiet as there wasn't much human traffic on 4th floor, take the tables right inside the cafe if you want even more privacy. Plenty of organic/vegan/vegetarian stuff being sold in the cafe.

Down to the food... sorry there were so many dishes I could hardly remember their names, so I gave some of them their own names depending on what they most resemble. For the health concious - none of the dishes below contain mock meat :)

Golden pillow (bread wraps)


Salad soba (must try this, they added some molasses, if you don't want it sweet tell them to hold the molasses) contains soba, veggies, seaweed, rice crackers and lots of stuff which I can't figure out what.


Lor Mai Kai (Chicken and glutinuous rice) and salad


Tau pok wraps (Bean curd skin wraps)


Sushi (Riceless)


Rojak, try this. fruits + veggies in special sauce.


Popiah


They also have soup which you could get from the counter. These were for four people, you'll feel full after eating, yet not heavy inside till you feel sleepy. Cost $10+ per pax.

Address: Fortune centre, level 4.

Btw, there are more veg options at fortune centre now - even Xing Hua vegetarian has moved there (on the 1st floor).

Hong Kong and Macau trip part 2

I realised I have forgotten to blog about the second part of the HK and macau trip last year :p!

What I really want to show you in this post was the vegetarian food I bought at Sino vegetarian restaurant, near Jordan MTR. I had their vegetarian "beef" noodles which was really good - this dish was actually ovo-lacto, but they ran out of the noodles to make it and did a substitute, so I had it vegan.

Not pretty when packed, but the taste is really different (and good!) compared to the vegetarian Zhi Chars in Singapore. Its unique flavour is something which I have never tasted in Singapore so far. Even the mock meat used tasted different. The serving was also really large and you will be really full unless you like to have 1.5 to 2 Singapore servings of food in your usual meal.

Address of Sino veg rest. at 131-135 Parkes St, Yau Ma Tei, Jordan MTR exit A. It's right at the end of Parkes street which turns into Saigon street.

(Click here to read about the 1st part on the vegetarian food I had at the Big Buddha temple at Lantau island.

The rest of the trip is mainly to the peak, ocean park and disneyland.

View of HK island and Kowloon from The Peak. On the peak, I had boiled vegetables and rice at a non-veg place. Remember to always tellconfirm with the waiter not to use oyster sauce for your veggies even though they said "boiled". This was the most healthy meal I had :D

Ocean park was basically marine animals themed and you get to see lots of marine animals. They are about (or rather they claim they are about) "conservation, education etc. etc.which I thought was just BS.

It's a place where I can't find a single vegetarian place - meat and seafood is what you find. Talk about conservation.

We also get to watch dolphin and seal shows - to bring out the message of living in harmony with sea creatures. Living in harmony when we are keeping them in an unnatural environment, exploiting them for shows. Talk about education.

Disneyland - very good for kids and will satisfy the kid in you. There are vegetarian options if you are willing to compromise a little, no full fledge vegetarian place.

There wasn't time to hunt for vegetarian food in Macau. We signed up for a day tour when we reach Macau and were basically rushed here and there to the tourist spots. However I was told by the tour guide that there aren't any vegetarian places in Macau (or maybe she doesn't know of them :)). Still, there are the famous Macau almond cookies that come in "suitable for vegetarians" labels. Do take note that some of these vegetarian almond cookies contain milk, so are not vegan. But there are dairy-free ones out there, read the ingredients label.

Crab Freedom

Crab freedom - 3 ladies set 2 crabs free.

I like this because it inspires us to do every little bit we can for the world.

VSS 10th anniversary and promoting vegetarianism in Singapore schools

Yesterday Vegetarian Society Singapore had it's 10th anniversary and Annual general meeting. With the new commitee members, it was really heartening to see the many new ideas and plans being developed and excuted. Among these amazing developments, what stood out to me was the development of the Singapore tourism board brochure for vegetarian food in Singapore (good news for tourists!) as well as the plans to introduce of a vegetarian burger in one of the food stalls in Raffles Institution. We were showed a picture of the burger picture it looks so super delicious that I can't wait to try it, in fact, those who have tried it said it was good. The burger patty is made out of mushrooms and not the usual mock meat and this burger alone fueled the whole room with excitement and ideas on its promotion in schools were injected into the discussion like a flowing stream. With the introduction of familiar food first, progress can be made towards introducing more fruits and vegetables in the diet of students.

The promotion of vegetarianism in Singapore schools is still in its infant stage. VSS held exhibitions and talks in schools and now is moving towards encouraging consumption of healthy vegetarian food in schools. I really hope Singapore principals and teachers will be open to the concept of vegetarianism, and not brush it off with preconceived myths that it is unbalanced and makes you weak. What will really make us weak are our clogged arteries, high blood sugar levels, and the many kinds of illnesses that plague us as we age. This is the reason why the foundation of good health needs to be build in our youth.

Though we may not be opened to very new ideas that are not yet introduced around the world, vegetarian options are not alien to many schools in the west and also in the tertiary institutions in Singapore. It is perfectly fine to introduce this as a healthier choice in Singapore schools, as well as to make lives of vegetarian students easier.

Back to the AGM...The best thing to forward to about these meetings is of course, and ALWAYS the food served :)

This time, we had a vegan cake baked by Halimah which tasted so amazingly non-vegan but yet is cholesterol and dairy free.


Aside from the cake we had brownie catered from wholesome living


And the traditional vegan buns and bee hoon... (sandwiches were not vegan)

Drawing the line when promoting veganism

I came across this article on going vegan instead of just vegetarian.

In the article, the author describes how animal rights have changed from being animal-centered to human-centered. I thought this is pretty true, some animal rights groups are now supporting the meat industries on to employ more "humane" way of slaughter, scientists to come up with humane lab-grown meat, less cruel way of raising animals by free range etc. These are means of convenience for people, not animals actually.

Sometimes I feel this "softer", grey, approach is more realistic because the whole world would not go vegan, so we should be practical and support better welfare for animals. "But animal rights is not animal welfare" say those with the idealist mindset. Forget about "humane killing" and "less cruelty", you are either white or black, vegan or animal-cruelty supporter.

When we promote veganism where do we draw the line? Which approach do we use?

It is most difficult to keep friends and at the same time use the black and white approach. Some friends may eventually turn vegan with this approach, yes. But a large majority will be turned off (though you may gain applause from vegans), so we may end up backfiring our efforts. To use the softer approach however, may result in the person becoming someone who is contented with his or her lifestyle as an "I don't eat meat but only fish" person, or a vegetarian who is close-eared to any suggestions on moving onto a vegan lifestyle.

My suggestion on the solution is, we have to stick firmly to the black and white principle - because the ultimate goal is that animals will not be exploited. But at the start we can use the soft approach, if the person is receptive we can move on slowly to the black and white approach. At times, we have to know when to inject some hard approach while using the soft, and vice versa. This is though, not an easy thing to accomplish and easier said than done. Always keep in mind to go along with the situation and know when to pull and release the string - like flying a kite.