Love No Limits - The Fusion Food

Actually, I spotted The Fusion Food on the day I visited Hokkien Vegetarian. Since it was a newly opened joint, I thought it would be a great addition to my blog. Unfortunately the owner and his staffs were too busy preparing food for a large delivery order, hence they had no time for me.

A week later, I returned with the restaurant in normal operation. Apart from being new, what enticed me to return was the international cuisine menu. Diversity is what I hope to achieve for this blog, hence restaurants like The Fusion Food gets me excited. Vegans might want to take note that dairy used in some of their food.

The Food

Baked rice is a dish I tend to associate with Italian cuisine due to the similarity it shares with pizza and lasagne which spot melted cheese on a starchy staple. Being served in an elliptical plate reminded me of the French gratin. Adding to the confusion is its partial match to the description of casserole and Italian timballo. That is why I have difficulties pinpointing its origin. Now what does the English have to do with it? My only means of finding out was to tuck in to the England Wild Mushroom Baked Rice at Fusion Food.

Contrary to what the name suggested, the wild mushrooms were not baked together with the rice. Instead they were saute with ginger as a separate side dish. Despite their shimmering appearance, the mushrooms were not very oily. The flavor of these succulent mushrooms was just right without being over-seasoned. What took the place of these wild mushrooms to join the rice in the oven were chunks of mock meats. Thanks to them, the rice was infused with their savory sweetness, which was further accentuated by the bits raisins and diced pineapples. Together with the top layer of resolidified melted cheese, they made a decent combination. As someone who was not big on most dairy products, I was glad that the cheese was mild tasting.

Frankly speaking, I had trouble figuring out why the dish was considered English, because the general flavor bent towards Chinese cooking, especially the mushrooms. It might have something to do with the use of cheddar cheese, that is if I was even right in identifying the variety used in the baked rice. Nevertheless, I enjoyed England Wild Mushroom Baked Rice on the whole, except for the greasy aftertaste. At a price of S$10.00, the set includes salad and cooked cabbages. On that day, it was featured on the special menu, hence I paid only S$5.50.

Chinese Cedar, more commonly known as Xiang Chun, is a perennial hardwood native to many parts of Asia, particularly mainland China and Taiwan. Due to its onion like flavor, the young leaves of Xiang Chun find many culinary uses. As an added bonus, Xiang Chun leaves contained high amounts of vitamins and antioxidants.

In Singapore, Xiang Chun based sauces are usually used in stir frys. Hence I was surprised when the waitress told me that Taiwan Cedar Shoots Noodles was a soup dish. Its onion flavor was a little undermined by that of mushrooms in this brothy soup thickened by minced mock beef. Though lacking in any outstanding factors, the soup was still considered pleasant. In my opinion, using spaghetti as the choice of noodles was a mistake as it did not absorb the soup very well, rendering it a bland discrete entity. Neither did I appreciate the “oil slick” on the soup.

Even at a discounted price of S$ 3.00, the small portion size felt unjustifiable. If it remains this way after the promotion is over, then it is a serious ripped off.

Conclusion

To be honest, the dishes featured in this post were not my top choices. On both occasions of my visits, The Fusion Food was plagued with the problem of under-staffing, hence many dishes on their menu were unavailable. Otherwise, I would rather picked the relatively more exotic dishes that represented countries like Mexico, France and Vietnam. I am keen to return to The Fusion Food to try out what I had missed. On the other hand, I did not want my trip specially down to Bugis to end up a wild goose chase.

Anyway if you intend to eat at The Fusion Food, do try their American Spahagetti (S$8.00 or S$10.00). One of the customers who ordered this dish as a takeaway returned for more because he and his colleagues found it delicious.

Address	:	190 Middle Road Fortune Center #01-06 S(419720)
Opening Hours	:	Mon - Sun
Bus Service	:	-
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	-

New Green Pasture Cafe

Unless you are a recent convert of vegetarianism, New Green Pasture Cafe needs no introduction. Sophie Teh, the lady behind the helm of this vegetarian eatery, used to be a fashion designer. After being praised time and again for her healthy and delicious cooking, she decided to open a cafe. Aside from business, New Green Pasture also represents Sophie's childhood dream of owning a place where one gets to experience Mother Nature. An organic cafe certainly fits the bill.

Different individuals have different reasons for dining at an organic cafe, with health being the most common motivation. Then there are others who enjoy its down-to-earth and laid-back ambiance. On top of these reasons, organic cafes typically feature unconventional dishes on their menu to amuse my curiosity.

The Food

Charcoal is not likely to cross the minds of the hungry ones. In fact its mere appearance which spells filth has already made its edibility questionable. Then again, if charcoal noodle dares to show up on the menu of one of the more reputable vegetarian eateries in Singapore, ingesting it shouldn't land me in hospital. Novel dishes like this one deserves a spot on my blog.

Due to its high porosity after “activation”, charcoal finds uses in numerous absorption and adsorption processes. It is believed by some health enthusiasts that this property of carbon extends to detoxification of our colon. Before you decide to take my word for it and start to binge on the charcoal from the barbecue pit, do note that not all charcoal is created equal. The variety that is fit for human consumption comes from bamboo. When combined with noodles, like what I had at New Green Pasture, the end product resembled squid ink pasta. Other than that, charcoal noodles tasted like any regular noodles. This time round, I considered the lack of any “special” taste a blessing in disguise. After all, I had enough of the burnt coal smell from all the burning of joss papers during our lunar seventh month. On the other hand, the common mayonnaise lookalike sauce was what that gave this dish its own character. Reaching the finishing line first at my tongue was the sweet and tart flavor of the plum sauce. This was the flavor that dominated the entire dish. Occasionally the citrus undertone from the pomelo pulps slipped in to add some tang. Once in a while, there was some umami taste due to the Japanese seaweeds garnishing. Towards the bottom of the dish, I detected a strong menthol aroma which contributed yet another level of complexity to the overall flavor.

Priced at S$ 8.50, I initially complained silently to myself about doing another costly review. When it was my turn to collect my order, the large portion size (Especially the raw vegetables) made me eat back my words. The excellent standard of this cold noodle dish was merely a bonus. Selling this dish at any price cheaper would be doing the chef a disservice, not that I mind.

Conclusion

New Green Pasture Cafe is not the first eatery one will spot when he or she enters Fortune Center at Bugis. If I have not read about it from the other vegetarian food bloggers, I would remain clueless about its existence. In spite of not having the best location, the cafe manages to survive for more than a decade, and judging from the crowd, still going strong. That certainly speaks volume about the standard of the food served. I had a pleasant first hand experience myself. Even if it means climbing all the way to the 4th floor on an empty stomach, I definitely do not mind returning.

Address	:	190 Middle Road, #04-22 Fortune Centre, Singapore
Opening Hours	:	11.00 am - 8.00 pm (Closed on Mon)
Bus Service	:	-
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	-

Nature's Harvest Cafe

Quite a while back before I started this blog, I read about Yogi House, a vegetarian organic eatery, in Chic Vegetarian's blog. By the time I had the opportunity to check it out, it was no longer around. Reading about that particular location again in Sunny's blog confirmed my suspicion that Yogi House has closed down. All isn't lost since the new tenant, Nature's Harvest Cafe, deals with the same kind of business.

Like several organic eateries in Singapore, Nature's Harvest Cafe operated under the cafe cum retail shop model. If you are into cooking, you can purchase some of the ingredients they used in their cafes from the retail area. They even conduct classes to teach you how to cook organic dishes, but there is no mention if the recipes of the items in their cafe menu are revealed in the process. I have no doubt that Nature's Harvest is suitable for vegetarians, but vegans might want to take note that dairy is inclusive in their menu in the form of yogurt.

The Food

Brown rice, particularly the one I ate at Harvest, reminded me of a colleague who cringed with disgust whenever she saw me ordering brown rice for lunch. Just like how I never understood what was wrong with brown rice, she failed to comprehend how I could tolerate its awful aftertaste. Healthy Rice of Harvest successfully explained my colleagues' hatred for it though. Despite being a seasoned consumer of brown rice these days, I had to admit the brown rice I had here took quite a while to get used to. For once, I detected the musty aftertaste. I could not say I like it, then again it was not exactly a nightmare either. Besides I managed to mask the taste by drizzling some soup on it.

Unlike most brown rice sets I had taken so far, which was accompanied by clear Chinese soup, minestrone soup was served instead. The lack of variety of ingredients was adequately compensated by the generous quantity of the few available, mainly carrots and black-eyed peas. Its characteristic tangyness was a great way to kickstart the meal. Equally as appetizing was the colorful salad made up of beetroots, carrots, turnips and pea shoots. Again the chef here tried to be different by dressing it up with plum sauce instead of the usual Thousand Island or mayo.

In order to live up to its name of “Healthy Rice Set”, the rest of the sides were either blanched or steamed. At least this was what I speculated since there was no sign of grease at all. These methods of cooking worked well with the fungi and cabbage dishes, which were inherently tasty so little seasoning was required. On the other hand, the bitterness of bok choy was sadly retained, and it seemed like the dark brown sauce did nothing to enhance its taste. Personally I was alright about it but I was certain that the bok choy would disagree with the tastebuds of the greens haters. Overall I was extremely satisfied with this healthy and homely tasting rice set, which was hard to come by when one dined outside.

Cold noodles is largely an Oriental dish, with the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans each concocting a recipe to call their own. Putting aside the differences, it is basically a noodle dish that is served chilled, like it is just taken out of the refrigerator. The version I am most familiar with is Cha Soba, which comprises of green tea flavored buckwheat noodle eaten with a soy sauce like dip. My regular trips to organic eateries these days introduces me to a different kind of cold noodles dish. Instead of soy sauce (with fish sauce added), sesame paste is used.

To be honest, before the food arrived, I was worried about the sauce turning out to be some generic condiment with Chinese sesame oil added to it. I may like Chinese sesame oil, but its price of S$ 6.00 heightened my expectation a little. Upon sampling the dish, the nutty flavor of the paste which coupled well with the bouncy ramen rendered my initial apprehension needless. Although the raw julienne vegetables did offset the richness of the gravy a little, they helped to prevent the noodles from drying up too much. Besides they contributed a good amount of crunchiness to the dish. Then there's more crispiness from the rice puffs bits and the sweetness they exuded was a bonus addition to the overall flavor.

Due to my inability to distinguish between peanut butter and sesame paste, I could not vouch for the integrity of this dish. I was aware of the unscrupulous act by some Chinese vendor to substitute sesame paste with the cheaper peanut butter. Regardless, I had enjoyed sesame paste cold noodles by Harvest, hence I couldn't care less.

Conclusion

Browsing through the posts in my archive, I realize my tendency to conclude the ones about organic eateries with a complaint about the price. My recent experience with Barcelos, a slightly more upmarket kind of restaurant that serve mostly non-vegetarian food, taught me that elsewhere is charging more. After going on a plant-based diet for a period of time, I lose touch with the market price of dining in high end areas. Despite calling myself a flexitarian, I keep forgetting that a little meat is allowed in my diet, leading me to subconsciously excluding them totally from my meals.

Anyway, at a typical organic eateries like Harvest, one can easily have a meal at less than S$10. Apart from being served healthier and chemical free food, you get to enjoy a somewhat restaurant like ambiance. Even the service has a more personal touch. So when I am in a generous mood next time, I would head down to these organic cafes instead of the so-called posh restaurants.

Address	:	149 Rochor Road #02-08/09 Fu Lu Shou Complex S(188425)
Opening Hours	:	Mon - Sun
Bus Service	:	-
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	http://naturesharvestcafe.com.sg

Vege Sense

MacDonalds and its clones have given burgers a bad name. If we analyse a generic burger based on basic nutritional knowledge, it is actually a reasonably balanced food containing carbohydrates (The buns), protein (Typically a meat patty) vitamins, minerals and fibre (raw vegetables). A deeper cross-examination of the burger reveals its uglier side. First of all the buns are usually made of refined flour that has been stripped of nutrients, leaving only the calories behind. Then, the condiments that dresses up the raw vegetables contribute superfluous additives to our body. Finally, the way the meat patties are cooked, deep-frying or grilling, rendered the protein less digestable and in some cases, carcinogenic. And we have not even entered into the animal-based versus plant-based protein argument.

Sandwiches have a relatively more wholesome image than burgers though. In reality, depending on what goes between the two pieces of bread, it can either make a genuinely healthy meal or junk food in health food's clothing. For someone like me who has grown conscious of health these days, it is heartening to see fast food joints like Vege Sense offering healiter versions of burgers and sandwiches. What makes it even better is that Vege Sense is a 100% vegetarian eatery, which helps to trim my list of ommision request of certain ingredients.

Housed inside Fortune Centre of Bugis, Vege Sense specialises in vegetarian breads, particularly its deriavatives such as burgers, sandwiches and toasts. While contributing diversity to the vegetarian food scene of Bugis, which is already flooded with Chinese cuisine, Vege Sense is aware of the older demographic of its location. Thus it offers some Oriental food of Chinese origins like porridges and rice vermicilli soup. At one corner of the eatery, it also retails vegetarian bakery products from Yes Natural. Among the burgers and sandwiches, flavors range from the classic (tuna sandwich, chicken patty burger, etc) to the unusual (burdock patty burger, corn patty burger, mashed sweet potato sandwich, etc).

The Food

My English certainly had room for improvement. When I saw the word "corn patty", I interpreted it as a disc-shaped cake of compacted corn kernels. What I was served eventually was a far cry from my speculation. The patty was made of the less imaginative textured soy protein, with a sparse distribution of corn kernels and peas inside. Cooked with intense dry heat, it bear a morbid resemblance (From a vegetarian's POV) to deep fried meat minus all the greasiness. Still I had to laud the creativeness of this method of "frying" the patty. Besides the patty tasted quite good if one ignored the store bought processed food feeling that came with it.

Compared to the patty, the buns were the relatively more wholesome wholemeal bread. I was assured by the service crew that all the breads used at Veg Sense were "Su" (Vegetarian in Chinese). Since the Chinese language does not have an equivalent for vegan, I'm not sure if dairy is used in baking the burger buns here. Then again such information, though useful for blogging, had little relevance to my diet preference which allowed eggs and dairy. Anyway the buns were pleasantly soft. Due to the presence of the raw greens, tomato and vegetarian mayonnaise, the dryness of the bread hardly mattered.

Despite its imperfection, the corn patty burger at Vege Sense was decent enough, and I was referring to the version without the kechup and chili sauce (I requested for them to be left out). More raw vegetables, ala Subway, would be great for me but that boiled down to personal preference. Since I have not eaten burgers for at least a year, I have lost touch with its market price these days. However I do not consider paying S$3.50 for a meal that didn't quite fill me up as cheap.

Mashed potato is easily available in Singapore. On the other hand, mashed sweet potato is much less common. Hence, even when the service crew persuaded me to try their popular vegetarian tuna sandwich, I remained unbent on my decision to opt for this one.

With a texture almost akin to kaya (egg jam), just slightly less creamy, the sweet potato paste was thankfully not as cloying. With the inclusion of raisins to the sweet potatoes, both being naturally sweet, sugar was unnecessary (I would like to think that's really the case). The hint of nutty flavor attributed to the presence
of black sesame seeds imparted more dimensions to the overall taste, making me feel more grateful about trusting my own gut instinct instead of adhering to the recommendation by the service crew.

It also came to my surprise that flavor wise, the sweet potato paste hardly clashed with the raw cucumbers and lettuce beneath it, separated only by a slice of
wholemeal bread. If the sandwiches were made on the spot, like the burgers did, I would have requested for the omission of mayonnaise. Not that it had ruined the sandwich in any way. In fact, all the ingredients were in harmony. It was just that I preferred the natural taste of food as opposed to that derived from sauces.

At a price of S$2.50 per sandwich, one was apparently paying for the effort that went into making the mashed sweet potato sandwich rather than the portion size. It certainly made a good breakfast or teabreak, but to fulfil your hunger for lunch or dinner, forget about it.

Actually I had a higher expectation for the pumpkin sandwich after listening to the service crew's description of it. According to her, the dressing used on the raw carrots and beetroots was a special blend of in-house made almond sauce. My hopes immediately sank upon tasting it. As if failing to be "special" wasn't bad enough, it tasted just like mayonnaise which I had enough of for the day. Luckily, the steamed pumpkins above managed to salvage the situation. Like the sweet potatoes, pumpkins were blessed with a natural sweetness that was easily brought out by any light cooking methods. Furthermore, steamed pumpkins were hard to find when one dined outside, therefore I would rather focus on relishing the soft chunky bits of it instead of finding fault with the dressing, that was not exactly awful afterall.

Conclusion

To consider the food at Vege Sense to be at the "die-die-must-eat" level of excellence is a little over-rated. Still it is good enough for me to like it. What prevents me from dining there more often is the small portion size. Bugis is approximately a half an hour trip from where I stay, so by the time I reach there, a light meal can hardly satisfy my hunger.

Address	:	190 Middle Road, Fortune Centre, Level 1
Opening Hours	:	-
Bus Service	:	-
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	-

Xiu Yuan Good Food Cafe

At this time of the year, our friends in the northern hemisphere are slowly approaching summer, whereas we, the inhabitants of Singapore, are already experiencing this season in its full glory. When the weather is extremely hot, I prefer simple and light meals so as not to put further burden on my digestive system.

I may have lamented about Bugis in one of my previous posts. Then again, I also have to admit that it is one of the “safer” places in Singapore for vegetarians to go to. When it comes to the amount of vegetarian eateries available, if Bugis declares itself the runner-up, no where else in Singapore dares to claim the top spot. To me, finding vegetarian food that suits my light palate is not easy, because Singaporeans in general likes rich and deep flavor. As a result I usually can't find something I like in vegetarian stalls offering only the standard fare. With numerous choices in Bugis, I should be able to find a place to dine at, such as Xiu Yuan Good Food Cafe, which offers a good mix of light and heavy flavored food.

Xiu Yuan certainly has no qualms showing off its vast menu, as seen on the neatly arranged food gallery on its wall. In fact, they have so much items that the wall runs out of space and they have to display the rest of the pictures on a white board. Thanks to those appetizing looking images, I get to find out what they sell without having to ask. Needless to say, I was delighted to see a variety of clear soup dishes.

The Food

One look at the noodles of spinach noodles soup dish told me that it was store-bought, not homemade. Considering that it cost only four dollars, not that paying this much for a small bowl of noodles was cheap, expecting the cook to make the noodles herself was a still little too much. If I did not find spinach and enoki mushroom as part of the ingredient list, I would have felt totally ripped off. Flavor wise, it was no different from the thin yellow noodles used in wonton mee. Even the act of contributing a lye water taste to the soup was similar. Fortunately, the salt and MSG content was fairly low, thus the entire content was still bearable by my standard.

Although the cook added quite a lot of ingredients, as a whole, the ingredients had an incongruous throw-in-whatever-I-can-find-in-the-fridge feel. They tasted all right though, just short of exceptional. Overall, this noodle soup dish had an almost close to bland taste which was occasionally punctuated by the seasoned mock fish ball and fish cakes. It might have satisfied my requirement on that day, but I could not help having an unjustified feeling at the back of my mind for the four dollars price tag.

Amaranth (Yin choy) mini pot soup came with a solid fuel burner. Despite the massive set-up, the soup only made up about one-third of the entire assembly. Closing one eye to the portion size, I still enjoyed the clear and light soup that generally maintained the natural flavor of amaranth greens, with a subtle enhancement by the Chinese parsley garnishing. This soup dish shared almost the same ingredient list as spinach soup noodles. Personally I would have preferred the proportion of ingredients to skew towards the greens, after all the dish was called amaranth mini pot soup.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the noodles, which was supposed to be a side to accompany the soup, containing more than just noodles. That made me feel better paying S$1.50 for it. The noodles was soft as opposed to the firm elasticity that most people raved about after the Taiwanese started this QQ trend. One had to share my inclination towards foods that were easy on the teeth to accept this. Contrary to what you might see in the picture, there were more mung bean sprouts burying among the noodles. They added some crunchiness when eaten together with the noodles. Since I did not take spicy food, I requested for the chili sauce to be left out, and was left with a watered down version that consisted only of a blend of vegetarian oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and seasonings that I would rather not know about. Nevertheless, the overall taste was satisfactory enough to act as a contrast to balance with the relatively blander soup.

Conclusion

I may complain a lot about their pricing in my reviews. To be fair to them, there are cheaper items on their menu too. Perhaps as a punishment to my fussy taste bud on that day, I somehow chose the more expensive ones. If the weather of Singapore doesn't cool down any time soon, this might just be one of the places I frequent for lunch.

Address	:	190 Middle Rd, Fortune Centre #02-18
Opening Hours	:	Mon - Sun, 8.30 am - 8.30 pm Rest on Wed
Bus Service	:	56, 64, 65, 131, 131A, 139, 147, 147A, 166
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	-

Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant

One of the questions that often pop up among us Chinese is “What is your dialect group?”. The most common answer is Hokkien, followed by a tie between Teochew and Cantonese. Just when I thought Hainanese, my dialect, was rare enough, an ex-school mate of mine changed my mind by revealing that she was a “Xing Hua Ren”. To make things easier for us, she said that we could think them as a subset of the Hokkiens, since their original homeland at Putian, is located on the eastern coastline of Fujian (Chinese translation of Hokkien) province, China.

In recent years, the rise of Putien Restaurant in Singapore has raised the profile of the Xing Hua dialect group, particularly its cuisine. Xing Hua cuisine is characterized by its simple and unadulterated flavor through major use of fresh produce. Due to the coastal location of Putian, seafood is highly utilized in their cooking, either as an ala carte dish or as ingredients in one-dish meals. Speaking of one-dish meals, we have to make a special mention of Xing Hua Bee Hoon (Rice Noodle), a specialty of Putian. It is famous for being extra fine and white, when compared to the local version.

Since Putien Restaurant serves meat, vegetarians are left out of this trend. Fortunately, Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant is set up so that vegetarians get to sample the craze behind Xing Hua cuisine. Located inside Fortune Center, Bugis, it is owned by Lin Mei, a China-born immigrant, and her family. To ensure authenticity in their cooking, the establishment hires mainly PRC people. The use of processed mock meat, especially konjac jelly “seafood”, is inevitable. However the restaurant tries to minimize its usage by introducing mushrooms, soy and nuts for proteins, so as to stay true to the virtue of using fresh produce in Xing Hua cooking. Apart from Xing Hua dishes, they also offer local fares, such as fried mee goreng and standard economic rice.

The Food

Initially, I was quite hesitant to order this dish because I generally did not like the greasiness of fried food. On the other hand this was the signature dish of Xing Hua cuisine, and if I did not feature it, this review would feel like it’s missing something. The relatively light and homely nature of Xing Hua cooking further reassured me to give this dish a shot. Since I preferred dishes with a little twist, I chose the Xing Hua soya bean fried bee hoon over Xing Hua fried bee hoon.

Just as promised by the PRC stall assistant, Xing Hua bee hoon was different from the local ones. I was so intrigued by the fineness of each thread that I devoured a soup spoonful of bee hoon alone, without the rest of the ingredients. The bee hoon was as soft as it looked. Being a fried dish, there was definitely some oiliness but the heavy feeling was thankfully absent. Instead all I tasted was that simple home cooking flavor.

Another plus point of this dish was the wide variety of accompanying ingredients added. Just the greens alone, I could spot about three distinct types, namely bok choy, choy sum and Chinese cabbage. Although I normally preferred softer vegetable, I actually appreciated the crunchiness of the veges in this case. Each crunch of the vegetable stalk provided some moisture that nicely balanced out the dryness of the bee hoon, when eaten together. There were even more types of protein ingredients, ranging from whole food like mushrooms and peanuts, to the processed mock meats and seafood. All of them, including the mock items, were very lightly seasoned so as to maintain their natural flavor. Occasionally, I could detect that refreshing ginger aroma. This was definitely true blue Xing Hua cooking.

I would have considered this dish perfect if I wasn’t distracted by the thought of what value had the soy milk added to it. It felt as if the stall assistant had mistook my order for the normal Xing Hua fried bee hoon. After I finished my food, I verified with him again and he confirmed that this was indeed Xing Hua soya bean fried bee hoon. He even added that the soy milk was made in house, fresh and preservative free. Nonetheless, my thumb went up for this one. I highly recommend this dish to those with a light palate like me.

When I saw the yong tau fu section, the first thing that crossed my mind was if there’s a Xing Hua version of this dish. I examined the selection of items, hoping to find a clue. First of all, I noticed that there were very few stuffed items, and if there were any at all, they were stuffed with fish paste. The signboard above also featured this dish as “yong tau fu”, not “Xing Hua yong tau fu”. Hence I deduced that this was just one of the local dishes they included in their menu.

Despite the lack of stuffed items, the ingredients available was quite diverse. I was pleased to see a good variety of mushrooms, including the less common ones like oyster mushroom and straw mushroom. They also offered more types of greens, apart from the usual bok choy, water spinach and Chinese cabbage. The unfortunate victims that would end up in my stomach later were Chinese spinach, oyster mushroom, shiitake mushroom, baby sweetcorn, eggplant with stuffing and silken tofu. I requested for shredded carrots as my seventh item, and the chef was cool enough to allow that.

The soup was clear with a mild herbal taste that tended towards savory instead of medicinal. It was good that I had chosen a couple of fresh mushrooms as they went very well with this type of soup. The sweetness of the baby sweetcorn provided something different for my taste bud to relish. I deliberately ate the tofu last so as to gave it an opportunity to soak up the flavor of the soup and lets just say it worked really well. As with most things in life, perfection seldom exists. The fish paste stuffing was so tasteless that it had to borrow some from the pre-fried eggplant, that was thankfully delicious. If I had known that the carrots would be served served raw, I would have asked the chef to cook it along with the rest of the ingredients (Okay I admit this was more of my fault).

Although the yong tau fu at Xing Hua was decent enough, I personally still leaned towards the one by Luo Han Group. However, if I was in a mood for fresh mushrooms, I might opt for Xing Hua Vegetarian instead.

This was the first time I saw brown rice porridge being served plain. Normally, it was sold as flavored congee. Anyway the brown rice porridge, a healthier substitute for white rice porridge, was meant to be eaten with the side dishes from the economic rice section. Being someone who loved to play around with different combinations of order, and getting weird looks from the stall assistant in return, I ordered it as an accompaniment to the yong tau fu soup.

Unlike plain white rice porridge, the whole grain version tasted less plain. Its reddish brown color told me that Thai red cargo rice was used, which explained its nutty and subtly sweet taste. The broth was thick and creamy. I certainly did not mind eating this on its own.

Most places usually charged more for ordering brown rice. However I paid the same price of 50 cents regardless of what I chose to go with my yong tau fu soup. Another reason for me to like this side order.

Conclusion

Chinese vegetarian food has a notorious reputation for being unhealthy, due to its excess use of oil, MSG and seasonings. Xing Hua Vegetarian Restaurant has just proved that it is possible to whip up delicious vegetarian dishes without going overboard on the seasonings. Then again it is impossible to please everyone. For those who prefer rich flavor, well, you have plenty of local vegetarian eateries to choose from.

Address	:	190 Middle Rd, Fortune Centre #01-11
Opening Hours	:	Mon - Sun, 7.00 am - 10.00 pm
Bus Service	:	56, 64, 65, 131, 131A, 139, 147, 147A, 166
MRT Station	:	Bugis
Website	:	-