Happy New Year!!

Dear readers,

Happy New Year!! I wish you all the best in year 2012.

Updates: This time's New Year Eve celebration was the best since three years ago. We checked into one of the city's hotel and spent our time relaxing, going for spa and jacuzzi. Dinner at this hotel was awesome too. We went for their special New Year Eve buffet. The buffet spread was by far of the best we've ever had. While it is not a solely vegetarian buffet, there are plenty of vegetarian food to chomp on too. The best of all is the Haagen Daaz ice cream. Yummy.

As it was time to countdown to the new year, we went to the highest floor and was the skylight from the glass panel. There were at least 20 firework displays at different locations. Very amazing! I made my new year wishes after the fireworks stopped and we called it a night.

I hope to be able to celebrate New Year's Eve in another country next year.

So, how did your countdown go? :)

Wedding Bells Are Near

My wedding is just around the corner. One and a half more months to go. Nervous!!!

Preparation has been very tedious. I'm very tired while being happy. I just really hope that the day will pass as soon as possible. But before that, Chinese New Year will be two weeks before my wedding. Time to reunite with my family.

Can't wait!

By the way, hubby has been diagnosed with high levels of uric acid. Doctor said that it's probably due to too much soy and bean consumption. Oh no. I'm finding it more and more challenging to be a vegetarian. If we can't eat soy or bean produced food (and I'm not even talking about mock meat), then what else can we eat? I need to be more creative now. With time not on my side, it's going to very tough. Any suggestions?

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas

I'm taking a long long leave from work for this coming week, starting from this Friday. It's time to rest and reflect on myself for the year.

Merry Christmas to everyone. May you have a jolly good time and go easy on the food. :)

Soo Ser Yen Vegetarian, Kuantan

A couple of weeks ago, hubby and I traveled to Kuantan for a business meeting as well as to enjoy a short vacation in Cherating. In Kuantan, we tried looking for vegetarian restaurants.

We came to this shop and was amazed to find it packed with customers. So we thought this could be a good sign. The food was okay. But I wouldn't say it was exceptionally good, just good enough. I think if you'll let me choose, I still prefer vegetarian restaurants in KL. But things have changed now as I have decided to cut down substantially on mock meat.

Vegetarian Char Siew

Fried Mushroom with ..... (I can't remember the sauce)

Vegetarian Mutton Curry

Salad Bar, Damansara Uptown

I can't express how much I love this place. Whenever hubby and I feel like being healthy, we will drop by this shop for dinner. Just two days ago, we went to the shop for dinner after hiking the Bukit Kiara hill, not far away.

Normally, we always order one salad set and a pasta set to share. I love their soups, especially carrot soup. I loved it so much, I tried to make them myself yesterday. It didn't turn out quite like the one in the restaurant as it was a different recipe. The one I cooked was from an online recipe here. Trust me, it turned out yummy albeit I added too much ginger. Will definitely try it again.

My VG Vegetarian Shop - Setia Alam

Every since I tasted the wonderful curry laksa from this shop, I still can't get over it. It's creamy texture and flavor is very addictive.

Other than the curry laksa, I also like their bah kut teh. Now, I stopped eating the bah kut teh as frequent as I used to because there are many mock meat inside.

Unfortunately, other than the bah kut teh and curry laksa, the other dishes that I've tried have been disappointing. Don't bother ordering the fried mushroom or prawn. Their frying batter is so thick and oily. I've had much much much better fried mushrooms in other vegetarian stores.

I'm Back!

Sorry for not writing in such a long time. I had been busy planning my wedding.

Anyway, I have a few things to share with all vegetarians. About 4 weeks ago, I went for dinner with a good friend of mine. He wasn’t a vegetarian but we haven’t met for a long time and he asked me why I turned into a vegetarian. So I told him all the stories and how it got me to make this big decision. He later shared with me that his uncle was also a vegetarian. His uncle ended up eating a lot of mock meat and now he was diagnosed with excessive uric acid. That was scary! I didn’t become a vegetarian to acquire more health problems.

Since then, hubby and I made a pact to reduce our amount of mock meat intake. We only eat it if we have no other choices. I have resolved to cook more vegetables when at home and ditch the mock meat. Now, I need to find more creative ways to cook. But in the long run, it’ll be worth it.

Garden Recipe, Solaris Mont Kiara

This is actually our second time to this restaurant. It's not a full vegetarian restaurant but it has some vegetarian selections.

Hmmm.... I don't think their vegetarian dishes are that great but it's the only thing I can find in Solaris Mont Kiara so far.

Hubby ordered Steamboat with Miso Soup. Although we enjoyed the miso soup but it's just a normal miso soup. Miso soup is almost the same anyway, isn't it?

Xiang Chun Special Sauce Noodle. I suppose this dish was okay at the beginning.

Loving Hut, Kota Damansara

We bought another Groupon coupon again. This time is with Loving Hut. Kota Damansara is a little far from our house and that's why it took us so long to redeem this coupon.

The items included for Groupon coupon was limited. In the end, Hubby and I both ordered the same thing.

Forgot the name of this. It's Basil Fried something with rice. This is good but nothing special.

Lin Chee Shuet Yee (Lotus Seed + White Fungus) dessert. I enjoyed this. They separated the sweetener (If I guess correctly was brown sugar water) and we can add the sweetener based on our liking.

Overall, we'll be visiting the place to try their other stuff soon.

Delicious Fried Mee

Few weeks ago, I've fried curry mee + kuey teow. Hubby and my in-laws liked it so much. It has been on Hubby's mind for weeks. I finally decided to cook it again.

It tastes a lot better than what it looks, trust me.

It's fried curry mee. Before putting in the mee, I fried garlic, onion, curry powder and curry leaves with oil until fragrant. Then I added tomatoes, carrots, water, soy sauce, sugar, pepper, salt and a little bit of tomato. Haha. This is why I can't come up with the recipe. A lot is based on my instincts. This is really good. I should include some crispies and it'll be just like fried mamak mee.

Yummy!

Moon Garden, USJ Taipan

Whenever Hubby and I had to run errands in USJ Taipan, we'll always take the opportunity to grab a bite at Moon Garden.

Tonight, we ordered...

I really can't remember this dish but it's one of the baked rice. I felt that this dish is so-so only. I didn't like the texture of the rice, it's too hard. I had better baked rice during my non-vegetarian days. This one just doesn't even come close.

Curry Noodle. Hubby ordered this and he finished the soup. Go figure :)

We can't resist ordering Fried G-Ken. Yes, we are aware that it's not that healthy but it's not like we eat it everyday. Hehe.

Happy Happy Vegetarian Bukit Tinggi Klang

I found this restaurant from foursquare app and decided to give it a try.

I ordered their curry laksa. It looked good in the menu and I couldn't resist. I just have this laksa craving ever since I became a vegetarian. I've never had this type of cravings when I was a non-vegetarian. Odd...isn't it? Anyway, this was really good! I still preferred santan over soya milk no matter how healthy soya milk is.

Hubby, on the other hand, always craves for nasi lemak. According to him, this is ok. Just ok.

Amata Restaurant For Anniversary

Two days ago, hubby and I celebrated our anniversary. He wanted to give me a break from cooking and brought me out to one of our favorite restaurant, Amata in Klang Town.

Feeling very hungry, we ordered a lot for two.

Crispy abalone mushroom - delicious!! Best dish of the day

Curry Mutton - This is slightly lower than average. I didn't really like it. I had better.

5 Vege. I kind of enjoy this. It's quite refreshing.

Hubby ordered the rojak we always have. He likes it a lot.

With RM41 for all these dishes, hubby and I left as two happily satisfied people.

Vegan Eggless Non-Dairy Chocolate Cake

Our anniversary was just around the corner. I felt like baking a cake and saw a chocolate cake recipe that was highly recommended by a lot of people on the Internet.

The recipe was really easy. I baked in in less than an hour. I even did the frosting but it was kinda sweet.

It looks kind of ugly because I don't have the proper baking tool. But that doesn't mean it's not delicious :D

Next time I try this recipe, I will go easy on the sugar.

Please leave a comment if you want the recipe.

O Cafe Empire Subang Gallery

The other day there was a coupon deal in groupsmore.com for O Cafe and I immediately bought it without second thoughts. I've been to this cafe many times and I loved their food.

Here's what we redeemed with the coupon...

Curry Laksa - Hubby ordered this. He said it's good. I find it so so. But I guess it's one of the good vegan curry laksa without santan.

Tom Yam Noodle - This is quite good. I enjoyed it since I haven't had tom yam after being a vegetarian.

This is the best. Fried Mushroom. I think it's one of their best seller. It's crispy and very tasty. I chowed down my plate very quickly.

I was handled two RM10 coupons that day. Yippie! I will be back...

Assam Curry Vegetarian Fish

Yesterday, after finishing my work at the shop, I came home feeling super hungry. On my drive home, I remembered that I have a few pieces of vegetarian fish, tomato, carrot, straw mushroom in my fridge. I was trying to think of something to cook so that I don't have to visit the grocery stores.

Here's what I came up with. Tadaaaaa!

It was good!!! Trust me. It really was. I used a lot of garlic, shallots, lemongrass, tamarind, curry powder and some coconut milk for this. It was a little sour, slightly spicy and the sauce was condensed. I've never used coconut milk for assam curry before. I got the idea when eating banana leaf rice in some indian shop few days ago. They had this sour curry which had thick coconut milk. It tasted very good too. Hubby praised that I'm really good in cooking curry. :)

Porto Romano

Last friday, my friends and I met up to celebrate one of our friend's birthday. Sometimes it's really a challenge to find a restaurant where we can accomodate both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. In the end, we chose this place called Porto Romano in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail.

Browsing through the menu leaves, hubby and I were having a hard time finding something to eat. I decided to "zag" a little and take some dairy that night.

I finally ordered their Spaghetti with Mushroom Sauce.

I really like the spaghetti. I've always been a big fan of white sauce pasta. Now that I decided to cut down on dairy, I find myself craving the sauce every now and then. Haven't tried cooking vegan version of such sauce.

Hubby did not want to take any dairy nor eggs. The only thing he could order (other than salad) was this.

This pizza has garlic and olive oil. It was pretty tasty. I forgot what it was called.

It was a fun night and everyone left with happy tummy.

Sun City Vegetarian Restaurant Visit 2

Hubby and I liked the food so much. We went there again. This time round, I wanted to try their noodles.

Hubby ordered fried zi hun gen (fried tapioca noodle)

I chose curry laksa

I have to say that their noodles are nothing that great. I didn't like my curry laksa at all. I was struggling to finish it. The soup was sweet rather than savoury. Hubby's noodles were a bit better but still not that good.

We ordered the sweet and sour fried mushroom also but it wasn't as delicious as our first visit's. I guess maybe the chef was different. Really hope they will be more consistent. No more noodles from this shop for us next time.

Tamarind Tofu

I tried to cook this dish again. Haven't been able to perfect it.

This time, I added orange juice and used less tamarind. I also let the tofu gets sauteed longer. It's delicious even though it doesn't look that good in the picture. :)

Success!!

Sun City Vegetarian Restaurant

Last night, I was too tired to cook. I had a long day so hubby suggested that we go out for dinner. Getting tired of all vegetarian restaurants around our house, we look into foursquare for more options. We drove over 20 kilometres to this restaurant in Port Klang called Sun City Vegetarian Restaurant.

The restaurant had a few tables occupied so this is always a good sign. I asked the waiter to introduced me to some of their special dishes and these are what he recommended.

Grilled Vegetarian Fish

四大天王 (famous chinese dish. direct translation is: Four Big Heavenly Kings). Yummy!

Sweet and Sour Crispy Mushroom. This was the yummiest of all. Hubby and I walloped the whole dish within a few minutes. Very good!

The best part was that all dishes were only about RM8 which is very cheap. I guess it is because of the restaurant's location.

I definitely want to go and try out their other dishes. Just going back for the crispy mushroom would have been worth the trip too.

PappaRich's New Vegetarian Dishes

There is a PappaRich right around the corner from my house which I like to visit. I used to wake up early on Sundays just to spend breakfast with Dad. We like the food (despite it being a chained restaurant) because erm...well, it's just different. I can't explain. You have to try it.

Last week, hubby had to meet some in Subang so we visited the one in SS15 Subang Jaya and was excited to find out that they've changed their menu.

Look!!! More vegetarian dishes now and they all look yummy!

I forgot to take the picture of my fried mee hoon with mutton curry. But here's what hubby ordered. Nasi kunyit with mutton curry... (nasi kunyit means glutinous rice with tumeric)

Will go back to try the other new items. Vegans, remember to tell them not to serve eggs with your dishes. Mine came with it. =.=

Yam Cake

One morning, I woke up and heard a lot of noises in the kitchen. In case I didn't mention in my earlier posts, I am currently living with my in-laws while waiting for our house to be done constructed. Anyway, back to the noises in the kitchen. It turned out to be my mum-in-law cooking yam cake, a wonderful Malaysian delicacy.

She used yam (cut in cubes), rice flour, water to make the cake and added fried onions, chili and scallions for the toppings. Since my mum-in-law isn't a vegetarian, she also used dried prawns for taste. But because hubby and I are vegetarians, she passed all the ingredients to me and taught me how to make the yam cake (minus the dried prawns).

Look how yummy it was!

If you want to know how to make it, please comment and let me know. I will try and get the ingredients measured and come up with the recipe. :)

Vegetable Curry

The other day I was craving for curry. I didn't feel like having mock meat so I cooked curry vegetable instead. This is the first time in my life to cook vegetable curry. All this while, I've learnt how to cook chicken curry only. I've used the same method (minus chicken and plus a lot of veges) and voila...success!

Question: How to know if the curry is good?
Answer: My hubby finished to the last drop and even licked the bowl (no kidding!)

Rice Dumpling (粽子)

Last week was Dragon Boat Festival （端午節）. My mother in law makes rice dumpling every year. This year she made it twice. I told her I would like to learn so this is my first time making them. When I was young, I remembered my grandma who used to make very delicious rice dumpling. All her daughter in laws would gather at her house around this time and they make lots and lots of dumplings together. I was too young then and my hands were too small to wrap the dumplings.

I can't give you the recipe because I think the vegetarian version can be improved. Perhaps next year. Anyway, these are some pictures of the lesson.

Chestnuts

Mushrooms

Glutinous Rice

Wrapping and Tying the Dumpling is the hardest

Done!

Savouring my fruit of labor

Deep-fried Bitter Gourd

Few days ago, hubby and I went to grocery store right before dinner to get something to cook. We've always been a big fan of deep-fried bitter gourd from Indian restaurants and I thought of trying those. I bought a few young bitter gourd and that's all I need.

I have no idea how I was going to cook this but I try to put in as much spices as possible.

Ingredients:
6 young bitter gourds sliced

For batter:
Self-raising flour
Corn flour
Tumeric powder
Coriander powder
Cumin seed
Salt
Sugar
Five Spice Powder
Water

A dish full of spices. It turned out really yummy although not as good as those in Indian restaurant. Next time, I will try to check with my Indian friends how to perfect it.

Moon Garden, USJ Taipan

Last night, hubby and I decided to try out Moon Garden restaurant in USJ 10 (also known as Taipan). I've been there a number of times when I was still a non-vegetarian. I remembered the food was good so I thought of bringing hubby there to try.

Our first dish was... Fried G Ken with Wasabi

It's quite interesting but I don't think it taste like real fried chicken. But still, it's tasty. Next time, I won't bother to get the Wasabi version. It's just an additional pack of Wasabi Pepper, which was terrible. The pepper kept going up my nose and I sneezed uncontrollably.

This Mushroom Donburi was very yummy. It's savoury and has a strong mushroom taste. Mushroom lovers like myself will enjoy it.

The salad was nothing to shout about. Actually, I felt kinda of duped. In the menu, it looked like this....

I thought the salad was going to be as big or green as it was in the picture but no .... and it's RM6.90 for that small miserable salad.

After dinner, we were tempted to try the cakes in their bakery. But we were disappointed to find out that their cakes are eggless but it has dairy. We left the place and drove all the way to Sky Garden for their vegan cake. I forgot to take pictures as I was so into the cake I just had to taste it right away. :P

Next time I'll take pictures for you as I foresee myself going there to fix my cake cravings pretty soon.

Yishenshu Second Round

Just got back from Yishenshu again. Hubby and friends arranged for my birthday gathering there. We had a lot of fun chatting and the dishes we newly ordered are just as delicious. However, I felt that the Yishenshu staff needs to beef up on their customer service. They look so unhappy and unwilling to serve. We were waiting for all our friends to arrive before we ordered and it seems that one particular staff was agitated. Perhaps she thought we're not ordering anything. Or perhaps I just misread her facial expressions and actions. Whatever it is, it sure didn't make me feel comfortable.

Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王) - delicious!

Tofu with Shimeji Mushroom - This is quite good. Could be better.

Vege Mutton Rendang - So so only. I had better mutton rendang.

Such a lovely night. We went for chocolate fondue in Paddington House of Pancake after that. Nice!