Tropicana City Mall is a good place to do shopping especially now that Carrefour is giving fantastic promotions. However, the only snag is that with so many eateries there is no vegetarian restaurant to be found. We checked with the manager of Penang Village and was happy that the chef was able to cater to our vegetarian diet. Browsing at the menu we found that they have special set menu of 3 dishes at RM 28.80. There was one set which was very appealing to us except for the second item which was a meat dish. We enquired from the manager if they can replace that dish with "Vegetarian mixed curry" which was priced at RM14.90 on the menu with a chicken meat dish which was priced at RM 17.90 also on the menu. We were so disappointed when he told us that they cannot cater to our request as the items are already pre-fixed on their cash register and could not be changed. Fortunately, the chef was willing to fry char koay teow and nyonya bee hun vegetarian style for us. He was also really very generous with so many different types of vegetables and the taste was delicious
Vegetarian Nyonya Bee Hun - RM 9.90
Vegetarian Char Koay Teow - RM 9.90
Name: Penang Village Address: Tropicana City Mall, L1-49, First Fl, Petaling Jaya Tel: 03-7729 3358
FOUND: Best Place for Cendol (in PJ/KL) - Sunway Pyramid
After lunch I was looking for a Malaysian dessert and the thought of a good bowl of cendol came to my mind. My friend suggested Sunway Pyramid - Arena Food Court. According to him, the best cendol is in Melaka but it is too far to go, so he recommended this stall which according to him serves the 'second best' cendol. I have to agree with him. It comes with a good serving of cendol ( unlike those from the Indian stall where you can only find a few strands of cendol ), red bean, cincau and big pearls). I love the pearls, they are so chewy to the bite.
Mixed fruit dessert
Red Bean CendolName : Arena Food Court
Location: Lower Ground Floor of Jaya Jusco, Sunway Pyramid.
It's been ages since I've had anything from Kuan Yin, and I must say that cravings for the following dishes are not easily satisfied elsewhere, hence, I do find myself wanting to go back to Kuan Yin for more. However, recently, Kuan Yin has been jacking up their prices, and I expect an even greater price increment over the Chinese New Year holidays. Lucky for me is that more and more vegetarian restaurants have been popping up all over KL and PJ in recent years, giving the veggie market a very well-needed competition and choice.
Honey Char Siew with steamed buns although unhealthy, but this is a dish that is extremely tasty, even for non-vegetarians.
Asparagus with belacan excellent combination. Vegetable Curry don't really like this dish as I'm getting more and more health conscious and this dish's ingredient most definitely includes the un-recommended coconut milk
Loving how the cakes melt in my mouth at Alexis - Bangsar
My caloric consumption was way over my pre-set quota to make way for a birthday celebration. After having a sumptuous lunch at MG Cafe, we decided to head over to Alexis to indulge in its famous melt-in-the-mouth cakes. Indeed we were not disappointed.
Blueberry Cheesecake - RM15 I'm a big fan of cheesecakes, and this blueberry cheesecake was definitely a very good attempt. One thing I like about this cake is that it isn't very sweet, unlike most cheesecakes in Malaysia's sweet-toothed market, although one of my friends did comment that he preferred the cheesecakes from Secret Recipe better.
Pavlova - RM 15 I personally do not like meringue cakes so I can't comment on this. Nevertheless, the fresh blueberries served on this cake makes me miss Aussie blueberries more than ever.
Tiramisu - RM15 a very good attempt by Alexis but definitely no where near the standard I now have for Tiramisu thanks to my Italian cousin Vivian who makes the BEST tiramisu I've ever tasted. Mostly because I do not like spongy cakes (Alexis' tiramisu is spongy). My cousin's tiramisu is mostly typically dripping wet with upscale quality Italian coffee and liquor which adds a intense kick toward the Tiramisu texture.Lemon Tea (hot)
Cafe Latte - RM10 Very happy with this as it closely matches the standards of most cafes in Australia.
Name: Alexis Bangsar Address: 29 Jalan Telawi 3, Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar 59100 Contact: 03-2284-2880 Website: www.alexis.com.my
Was wondering around 1Utama about lunch time and had wanted to go for 'Lui Cha" at Arena Food Court near Jaya Jusco. Was so disappointed to find out that it has already closed down due to very poor response. So headed to Yishensu instead as they have interesting set lunch menu. I chose the curry rendang rice set today which comes with the soup of the day - Fun Kot boiled with gei ji and vege meat and a glass of soya milk drink. It was very satisfying and I was really full as there was so much to eat and drink. The taste was very good as well and the soup was sweet and tasty. The set came to RM 11.90
Curry rendang rice
Set lunch comes with a soya drink and a soup-RM11.90Fun kot soup - delicious
Name: Yishensu Vegetarian Restaurant Address: Lot G207 One Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Tel: 03 7729 4313
Came back from Melbourne and was craving for assam laksa and immediately the most authentic vegetarian assam laksa at MG Cafe came straight to my mind. Drove there with some friends and without looking at the menu just placed my order for the assam laksa. All other friends also ordered the same except for one who went for curry noodles instead. However, I feel the assam laksa soup is a bit watery, not as thick as it used to be but otherwise the taste is still as good. My friend who ordered the curry noodles was not too happy with his curry noodles as he suspects that they are the dried pre-packed ones but he was nevertheless quite happy with the taste also. We placed side orders for the tuna and sambal sushi and find that the sambal flavor to be more delicious.
Assam Laksa - RM 6.50
Sth E.Asia Curry Noodles - RM 8.50
Onigiri Vege Sushi - tuna - RM3.20
Onigiri Vege Sushi - sambal - RM 3.20
Name: MG Cafe Location: Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 603 -23003118
If you do get a chance to visit Australia, don't forget to find time to sink your teeth into Mackers (Australian slang for McDs)'s Banana Bread. It's thick, moist and most importantly, bursting with banana flavor! Served with butter, your first bite is heavenly. By far, it's the best banana bread I've ever tasted.
It's all too bad that Mackers Malaysia do not have Aussie's McCafe which serves delicious pastries, breakfast goodies the whole day. Oh well, I guess McDs will have to be a "must-revisit" place whenever I do land in Aussieland in the future.
Banana Bread - $3.95 - yes RM12 for just one slice of banana bread.
Anyone here got any good banana bread recipe to share?
Missing the claypot rice from Melbourne, I was immensely happy to see that Chikuyo serves Claypot rice as well. Unfortunately I find that it is not as tasty as that found in the shop in Melbourne though. Nevertheless, when the crave for claypot rice is on do go to Chikuyo, it is quite satisfying. The prawn mee is quite authentic and the serving is quite generous.
It was quite unfortunate that Vegie Hut at Boxhill was closed when we planned to visit that day (they were still on their "xmas holiday break"). Following the trend of Aussie businesses, shops are typically closed from xmas eve onwards until a certain date after new year. Indeed this is a time where most people have to stock up on their things and also try to patronize as many eateries that they favoured before the holiday period, otherwise their craving will have to wait at least one week before their appetite can be satiated. Luckily for us, Pancake Village in Boxhill Centro was open for business. Pancake Village offers crepes with very unique ingredients like eggs, yau char kway (deep fried chinese doughnut) etc.
Crepe with Yau Char Kway, sesame seed and spring onion
Onion Pancake
Mung Bean Pastry - two thumbs up!
$0.50 for a cup of hot soy milk with any crepe purchases.
Passed by this restaurant by chance and as it was already way passed lunch time there was no crowd at all. Glanced through the menu and found the name "Peaceful Plant" on the menu rather appealing. It is actually tender lotus roots braised with peanuts. As I was not so hungry, so I just ordered this dish with a bowl of brown rice which came in a small grinding bowl with some sesame seeds. I was advised that I had to slowly grind them until fine and then to sprinkle onto the brown rice to be taken with the soup of the day. It was indeed very creative and appealing. The food was delicious and healthy. The lotus roots were braised to a perfect softness and the soup was so satisfying. Definitely worth to visit again.
Peaceful interior
Menu
Peaceful Plant - $ 6.80
Brown Rice
Served with sesame seeds which you have to grind yourself
Soup of the day
Name : Naive Vegetarian Restaurant Address: 99 East Coast Road, East Singapore 428795 Tel : 6348-0668
It sure was nice to dine with a table full of vegetarians. The gathering was organized by Eugene Wong of "The Malaysian Vegetarian" group on Facebook. It was their 3rd makan gathering and I was pleased to know that the number of participants is growing (we had 9 diners on Sunday). The Malaysian Vegetarian group also volunteers at Zoo Negara on a monthly basis and some of them are also members of "Eco Warriors" (a group that 'fights' to save the environment). Held at Organic Recipe in Bandar Utama, we laughed and discussed possible ways to expand the group's reach. I look forward to their next gathering at a new veggie place (at least to me) "Chayo" in Kelana Jaya.
Ice Kacang at Terminal 2 - Singapore Changi Airport
It's going to be 41C tomorrow here in Melbourne, it makes me crave Cendol and Ice-Kacang even more. After browsing through some of my food pics from Singapore, I came across an unposted pics, taken in T2 in Changi Airport - ice kacang. Ahhh... how I miss this delightful thirst quencher and "body cooler". For those of you that do not know what's an ice-kacang, it's a bowlful of shaved ice drizzled with a few different colored syrup, with hidden goodies like sweetened red beans, corn, atapchi, peanuts, etc, hiding underneath the huge mountain of shaved ice. Though this may not be the best ice-kacang I've ever tried, but just looking at it makes me salivate and crave for it even more.
Here's to a request by Soofurn as to Vegetarian Restaurants in Penang. I personally have not been to Penang in many years and do not want to recommend any restaurants that I have patronized in the past as I cannot be sure if the standards are still the same or even if the restaurants are still open for business, but from posts by other bloggers, these are a few vegetarian eateries that have gotten a fair few mentions, I welcome feedback from you, my faithful readers, so that other readers may benefit from your reviews.
Since young I've been a big fan of Banana Fritters (more commonly known as Goreng Pisang in Malaysia). The sweetness of the banana is amplified to an enormous extent when deep fried. However, deep fried bananas become very mushy. Its creators were very creative to pre-dip the bananas in a pot of batter before deep-frying, thus adding a crunchy texture to the outside making it a well loved cuisine amongst people of all walks of life.
Lan Kee at Bedok Interchange in Singapore serves awesome banana fritters
It's nice to end a day with a bowlful of home cooked sweet potato soup. This brings me to an interesting point, soup. For westerners, soup is often savory and almost never sweet and most definitely not something that a westerner would relate to a type of dessert. However, for Chinese, soup are widely consumed, sometimes as an appetizer and again also for dessert. I personally love soupy desserts as not only do I get to enjoy a dollop of warmness in my esophagus, but I also get to taste the essence and goodness of the ingredients used to boil the soup that has been put before me.
Yvonne's flawless Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients: 1/2 kilo sweet potatoes, ( I normally buy 2 types, orange and purple types) 1/2 bowlful of sago (washed and keep aside) 3 big pandan leaves 2 pc cane sugar
Method: 1. Skin sweet potatoes and cut into big cubes. 2. Bring half a pot of water to boil and then add in sweet potatoes and pandan leaves. 3. Keep boiling for 20 minutes on very slow flame. 4. Finally add in sago and cane sugar and is ready to be served.
Finally, a truly Malaysian restaurant in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the taste is still so-so despite a crew of Malaysian-looking staff (including their chef, typical mamak "chef" look). Vegetarians can expect a great understanding of their diets here, without them questioning if you can take chicken or fish or squid etc. Mind you, I have had a restaurant asking me if taugeh (beansprouts) are okay after I said I do not want seafood, poultry and red meat. On the menu here, the only vegetarian dish I can see being offered is a vegetarian laksa. However, the waiter advised that they can also prepare a list of other dishes like mee goreng, maggi mee goreng, fried carrot cake and some selections of nasi kandar. Also availabe for vegetarians are butter toast, you tiau(chinese doughnut), potato balls, ham cheem peng (fried buns) and yam balls. As for drinks (this is a recommendation for non-malaysians), do try the Teh Tarik (pulled-tea), Cham (tea+coffee), Kopi 'O', black coffee, and honey lemon.
The "Nasi Kandar" corner
Seating - nice deco with the marble tables and chairs. typical kopitiam feel exactly how you'd expect a Malaysian Kopitiam to be
Minum Corner
Vegetarian Curry Laksa Sorry to say Nasi Lemak House's vegetarian laksa beats this one anytime. To me, this one lacked spiciness and also the creamy laksa feel.
Finally, the time has come for me to stuff my mouth full with sweet and juicy blueberries. As blueberries normally cost a bomb to enjoy fresh (125g for $5), I would chose to go for the frozen ones (1kg at $5.50). However, frozen ones are definitely no match when compared to the fresh ones.
Having heard a lot about blueberry picking from my uncle Silvio for years, I finally got the chance to go for the Blueberry picking this year. Located near Geelong in Melbourne, Australia, Tuckerberry Hill Blueberries offers a nutritious low-calorie snack, suitable for everyone. Having no entrance fee, this is a pick-your-own blueberry farm with a take home price of $16 a kilo. This year, Huckerberry Hill Blueberry had a new addition to their farm, a Blueberry Cafe serving Blueberry themed muffins, yoghurt ($2 a serving), ice-cream ($2 a serving), chutney ($5.50 a jar) etc.
Address: 35 Becks Rd, Drysdale Victoria. Phone: 03 52513468 Open during Blueberry season: from Dec 26th, January (everyday 9-5pm), February (weekends only 9-5pm)
We revisited this restaurant near the Crown Casino recently. Standard was almost the same compared to our previous visits, though still far from the high standards of veggie restaurants in Malaysia. Nevertheless, this is a good pick and is so far the closest to home compared to the other veggie restaurants in Melbourne.
Mixed Claypot tofu, "char siew", veggies Natural dish. I prefer the dish without the "char siew" though.
Fat Put - Yam Basket "Basket" made from yam, cashew nuts, capsicum, mushroom, veggies, water chestnuts My best pick of the night. basket was almost done to perfection, exactly how I would want my 'basket" to taste
Fried Rice quite worth it considering one bowl of white rice is $2.20 a bowl.
Beef in Black Bean Sauce taste was so-so, quite bland, prefer the kung po version.
Two avid vegetarians are here to share some insights to the world of vegetarianism.
Hopefully, through this site, the lives of some animals can be spared. Always remember, animals have feelings too, they are our friends not our meal.
Vegetarian Char Koay Teow - RM 9.90
Name: Penang Village
Red Bean Cendol
Name : Arena Food Court
Lemon Tea (hot)
Name: Alexis Bangsar
Set lunch comes with a soya drink and a soup-RM11.90
Fun kot soup - delicious
Name: Yishensu Vegetarian Restaurant
Sth E.Asia Curry Noodles - RM 8.50
Onigiri Vege Sushi - tuna - RM3.20
Onigiri Vege Sushi - sambal - RM 3.20
Name: MG Cafe
Prawn Mee - RM 7
Crepe with Yau Char Kway, sesame seed and spring onion
Onion Pancake
Mung Bean Pastry - two thumbs up!
$0.50 for a cup of hot soy milk with any crepe purchases.
Peaceful interior
Menu
Peaceful Plant - $ 6.80
Brown Rice
Served with sesame seeds which you have to grind yourself
Soup of the day
Name : Naive Vegetarian Restaurant
Ingredients:
Seating - nice deco with the marble tables and chairs. typical kopitiam feel
Fireworks from Melbourne, Australia, 1st Jan 2010
Vegetarian Party
Pot Luck Party