The Vegetarian diet

WHEN Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com in Feb 2004, even he could not imagine the forces it...

Do you guys still remember how it was like in the past, when social media didn't exist? It's really changed how we live, and facebook was the one that started it all.

Yes, there was friendster and myspace, but it was facebook that really changed the way we interacted online. From facebook stemmed all sorts of other social media that rapidly changed the internet landscape and made connecting easier, faster, and basically, it changed how we lived.

I still miss the old days where you would have to dial your friend, or text message to find out how their lives have been because there was more sincerity there.

My favourite Burger Joint: VEGAN BURG! 

Vegan Burg is my favourite fast food restaurant. I can eat EVERYTHING on the menu, it's absolutely delicious and quite healthy. Did i mention they are organic? And it's a LOCAL BUSINESS. Enjoy your meals AND support a local business. Check out the interior too, isnt the table so pretty and homey?

Since all the outlets are rather far away from me, I usually order. Ordering requires a certain amount to be met, though, so keep that in mind. Go check the website for the full details about ordering.

Lets start with the main character here, the burger. My favourite on the menu is the Satay Burger, and I usually order the set meal, which comes with a side of their thick cut seaweed fries that taste like actual potato and not cardboard soaked in oil, and a drink. The burger alone costs $6.90, while the set meal costs $10.80.

The buns are nice and fluffy, and they contain some nuts and seeds to make this burger like one of the healthiest things you'll ever have. I really love that this caters to the local taste, because I love satay sauce. Love it. Theres a few rings of red onion in this too, and i think this gives the satay sauce an extra kick. The patty is good, no complains there at all, but everything is the supporting character to the satay sauce. That sauce steals the entire show! That said, everything else has to be good enough to make the main character shine. 

The other burger in the picture is my second favourite, the Creamy Shrooms. The burger alone is $7.90, while the set meal is $11.80. It's creamy, alright, the white sauce is not too salty and not too thick, it's right in the middle. The mushrooms aren't over cooked too, they still have their texture. It's yummy, but unless I'm craving for white sauce, I usually opt for the satay burger. I just love it so much.

My ultimate favourite of the entire place though isn't the burgers but the vegan franks. I am so madly in love with these sausages, and you don't get enough for the $3.90 you're paying... but you'll buy it anyway because they are that good. At least to me. I've never had smoked sausages in my life and these just blew me away. The texture is quite spongy though, and it really depends on whether the chef over boils these sausages or not. 95% of the time, the chef does it right but there was this one time I went and the sausages were over-cooked. Only once though! Should've asked for a change but I'd already eaten half when I realised i should have asked for a new one...

Anyway, these Franks sure knocked my socks off and if they sold these in packets I would buy a lot to put in my freezer and eat everyday. I would be subscribed to these Franks for monthly delivery. I love them that much.

Trip with Non-vegetarian friends to Nature Vegetarian Delights at Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre!

I brought five of my close friends over to Nature Vegetarian Delights (Da Zi Ran) to have dinner. We ordered a total of four side dishes along with a huge bowl of soup! All of the "size" of the dishes are the small, and I can't remember the prices but i think they are all $8 per side dish.

We had hot plate tofu, buttered cereal prawn, sweet and sour fish, honey pork ribs and seaweed mixed vegetable soup (I think thats what it's called).

The hot plate tofu had a bean type of sauce. It's a decent dish, but this was the least favourite dish of the dinner.

The buttered cereal prawn was the top dish for two of my friends. I've talked about this before, so lets move on.

The honey pork ribs is my personal favourite "meat" type dish. It's an interesting flavour. It has a sweet glaze, and... it's hard to describe trying to recall from memory. Just know that this is like one of their most popular dish, and it's my personal favourite. Try it! i love the texture to this, although I just eat this by itself instead of going with the rice.

The last meat dish, and the most popular of the night was the sweet and sour fish. The fish was battered and fried, which made it very crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This dish went off the quickest, really, and in hindsight we should order this in medium size next time.

The last thing we ordered was the mixed vegetable with seaweed soup. This was $8 and you get a huge bowl of soup, enough for everyone! The chefs are really generous with the ingredients in the soup, and it was a nice, light soup to finish off the meal.

Fried Rice and Cereal Prawn at Nature Vegetarian Delights (Da Zi Ran), Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre.

This is my second favourite Chinese Restaurant in Singapore. It's tucked at the top floor of a very old, ulu shopping centre, which is quite a sight because there's always a constant stream of people coming and going from this restaurant. It's also an "open air" restaurant, but because it's in a mall, it's totally air conditioned. This open air concept gives the restaurant a very laid back atmosphere, which is nice. No need to pretend to be atas here!

The food pricing is really quite average. The single-serving dishes like the fried rice or the ramen are around $4-$6, and the "tze char" side dishes are usually $8 for the small serving. The cereal prawn pictured above is the small serving, and it's enough for 3 to 4 people! I love the serving portions for the tze char side dishes because I have gone to chinese restaurants where you order a "meat" dish and theres like... 8 pieces of "meat", and the rest is just sauce and mostly lettuce. This place gives you a generous amount of the "meat"!

Just a warning for vegetarians like me out there: this place does use egg in some of the dishes, so make sure you clarify with the waiter or waitress. They are really nice and they'll usually tell you whats in the dishes if you ask!

On the top right is the Curry Fried Rice ($5) and the bottom left is the Sambal Fried Rice ($5). What I adore about their fried rice is the fact that the rice grains are whole, theres no broken rice, and there isnt any clumps of rice either. This chef knows his food, and he's got magic hands and strong arms. The rice is al-dente, meaning that it's not too soft or hard, but still has a bite to it, and the sauce and seasoning is so well incorporated into the rice. It's like every single grain of rice is coated in the sauce/seasoning. Both the Sambal and Curry fried rice are delicious, I particularly love the Sambal one for the very Singaporean flavour.

I'm back to share my Eggplant Aglio Olio Recipe!

I'm a huge fan of Pasta because there's so many variations to such a simple dish, and if there's one dish I can eat for the rest of my life, it's definitely pasta.

I think the great thing about this is you just need to know the basics of making aglio olio (which is very simple, I promise) and then you can add other things in to change up the flavour! I use the same recipe to make my Mushroom Aglio Olio, and all the other kinds of aglio olio.

Here's the Aglio Olio Recipe, and keep in mind that you can change up the amount depending on the flavour you prefer:

About 1 and a half inches of spaghetti; measure by holding the center of the noodles with your index finger and thumb in a circle.

3 cloves of minced garlic 

5 pinches of dried italian herbs (Use fresh if you prefer.)

3 table spoons of olive oil

Salt to taste. You can add this in the boiling water just before you throw in your pasta, but I'm really stingy and I've found that adding it to the garlic and olive oil before you toss in the spaghetti, and then adding some salt+ a bit of hot water into the spaghetti in the pan does the job.

That's the basics!

Dice up about three inches of eggplant to make this an Eggplant Aglio olio.

Boil the water, for your spaghetti! QUICK TIP: boil the water in your electronic kettle first, and then transfer it to your pot. You can put the spaghetti into the bubbling water right away.

Drizzle olive oil to coat the pan and then toss in the eggplant and fry it good over medium heat. Don't add too much because the eggplant really sponges up the oil, and you dont want to bite into an eggplant and have all that oil burst in your mouth... or do you? Anyway, get this nice and brown. Make sure the skin turns into a lavender shade before putting that aside.

Stir your spaghetti to make sure it's not sticking together, and make sure that it's going to be al dente soon. You don't want to fry up your garlic if your spaghetti isnt going to be ready in 1-2 minutes because the garlic burns mighty quick.

So, you've checked that the spaghetti will be ready in no time, right? Now add that three table spoons of olive oil - i usually eyeball this - and toss in the garlic, and the dried herbs. If you like spice, add some chilli padi or chilli flakes. I added chilli flakes in the above pictures. Keep swishing the garlic around so it doesnt burn. Add a pinch of salt, how big or small that pinch is up to your salt-tolerance-level. Now you have to work fast. The moment you see that your garlic is starting to turn golden, you have to quickly drain your spaghetti and get it in the pan before the garlic turns from gold to brown. Brown Garlic = Bitter. Gold garlic = GOLD! (geddit?)

OPTIONAL: Mix a pinch of salt (or more) with some hot water and then add that into the spaghetti when its in the pan and toss that baby. 

Now, add the eggplant inside and toss, toss, toss!

That's it guys. Dig in. Its quick, isn't it? :D I usually drown my spaghetti with tabasco at this point.

Have you ever heard of Cedele? It's a bakery cum cafe, quite an atas place, but the price tag is reasonable. It's usually about $12-$25 for a main dish. That's all you really need, anyway.

They also bake fresh bread/muffins/scones, and make great eggless ice creams. 

The thing about cedele is they believe in using the best ingredients. They have like a really cute paper table mat that tells you all about their ingredients and their beliefs. 

Sadly, my favourite outlet was the Takashimaya one, but it's been replaced by Coffee Bean :( The chef there was the best! I went over to the Wheelock outlet this time round and I ordered the Arrabiata, $13.50.

I love their mushroom. It's very well cooked; it retains the texture but has this yummy sauce bursting from it every time you bite into it. MMMM! The sauce is also very well done, and the herby flavour is not too overpowering.

I even like the weird anorexic beansprouts on top. I've learned that it's wasabi's cousin, and it does have a wasabi taste to it, but milder.

If you like wholesome, good food with healthy and fresh ingredients, Cedele is a good place to start.

Vegetable Lasagna at American Club

One of my very close friends is a member at the American Club so I’ve had the opportunity to dine there a few times. This is the first place I’ve at Lasagna at, and it’s the best I’ve had, after trying out a few others elsewhere.

The dish which I think costs about $13 comes in a nice, but really hot, casserole dish and a side of yummy garlic bread. Where do I begin about this lasagna? The vegetables inside are moist, the lasagna noodles are al-dente, the tomato sauce is flavourful… The only faults with this the lack of tomato sauce and mozzarella, but I’m a sauce kind of gal and I always want more cheese. Writing this is making my stomach growl and crave for this lasagna! Unfortunately for me this friend of mine is enjoying life at Guam, so I can only go when she comes back because you need to be a member at the American Club to even enter the place.

Mee pok from Yio Chu Kang!

I previously did a TOM YAM BAN MIAN review, and this is their famous mee pok. It was even featured in a newspaper, a long time ago. 

This costs only $3. It seems so ridiculous how expensive everything's gotten, and I really appreciate the low price tag.

I'm a regular at this stall, and the aunty always knows that I like mine with more chilli! The chilli is like some special self-made recipe. If they sold this in jars, I would buy it. I would buy lots of it and store it in my house. It's everything a chilli paste should be.

I've tried other Mee Pok dishes, from Loving Hut's Teo Chew Mee Pok to Toa Payoh's vegetarian mee pok but this is the best. The secret is in the chilli, to me.

Actually, the picture above are from two different days, but both times were equally deliciously spicy and water-works inducing. I like my food so spicy that it makes me cry, and I love the slight stinging sensation the chilli gives my lips. Is that weird?