Yishenshu

The other day a Yichenshu 50% deal from Groupon came online and I immediately bought it. I've been the the restaurants, both One Utama and Bukit Tinggi, before and thought that the food is okay.

Anyways, last night, hubby and I went to claim our Groupon at the One Utama branch.

First dish ...

House Signature Emperor Tofu - pretty good.

Second dish ...

Braised Mushroom with Broccoli - also quite good... can't get enough of brocolli

Third dish ...

Vege Crispy Goose - This is very good. I think it is honey glazed. Really crispy and fragrant.

While I'm not a big fan of mock meat, I must hand the award to Yishensu for the most amazing mock meat. Look at the details of the mock meat.

Eating mock meat as a vegetarian is a controversial. Some people are against it, some are not. Some people said it's contradicting. Why try to make food to taste like meat when you are against meat? To my hubby, he said it is an art. For me, I don't see any harm in that. No animals died for mock meat to be created. Even for non-vegetarian, there are people shaping their food to look like vegetables or non-edible items. There are toilet themed restaurants around. What's the deal then with mock meat? It's just to have more variety and still be animal friendly.

I would definitely go back to Yishenshu. :)

Fried Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms were on sale in Tesco and I bought a few packs last week. After using a pack for my mamak mee, I decided to try frying the second pack for lunch. I used self-raising flour with corn flour, salt, sugar and a little bit of pepper for the batter.

It was very crispy and delicious. However, I've learnt a lesson this round. I should dry the mushrooms with towel before I mix them in the batter next time. There were water in the mushroom causing the oil to burst.

Oh well, it's still very delicious. Also, next time I'll add some fermented red bean curd (nam yee) to spice it up.

Vegan Eggless Non-Dairy Cake

Yesterday was my birthday. Happy birthday to me! :P

My sister arranged a family dinner at Sky Garden Restaurant. I forgot to take pictures of the food. Sorry. The food was nothing to shout about. In fact, they are quite bland. I really didn't enjoy them so much and my family thought the same too. Seriously, I have had much much better vegetarian food, which I will share with you the next time I go.

At the end of the dinner, they surprised me with an eggless and non-dairy cake. Now this cake was really delicious. It's hazelnut chocolate cake. The texture of the cake was fluffy and the cream was fluffy too. Can't believe a vegan cake can taste so much better than normal cake. Yummy.

Later, my sister shared with me about her horrendous experience with the waitresses/management staffs in the restaurant. Their customer service really sucked. Initially she wanted to give up on the place but someone called to apologize later and she has decided to give them second chance. Last night, we weren't served very nicely. Took them a long time to get the food served most of the time.

I don't think I'll ever go back to the restaurant for food. Maybe only for the cake... Or maybe, I will learn how to bake a vegan cake myself. :) Yeah. That's more like it.

Mamak Mee

For lunch today, I fried some yellow noodles and it turned out tasting like Mamak Mee. It was savory with some hint of spiciness. Absolutely fantastic! Here's how I did it:

Ingredients:
1 cup of garlic and onions chopped finely
a bag of oyster mushroom
1 carrot cut into smaller thin pieces
1 big tomato cut into wedges
some tofu pok
mustard green cut in smaller pieces
bean sprouts
yellow noodle
turmeric powder
chilli flakes
olive oil

(Feel free to measure how much you need above. I didn't keep track of it. Sorry)

1) Fry garlic and onion in a wok of olive oil. Add in turmeric powder and chili flakes and fry until fragrant.
2) Add in carrots, tomato and oyster mushroom. Also, put in some water, salt, pepper, sugar, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce until you're satisfied with the taste. Simmer for a few minutes.
3) Add in tofu pok and yellow noodle. Fry until the water is almost dried up.
4) Add in mustard green and bean sprouts.
5) Continue to fry for a few minutes. Do your tasting test and add in more salt/pepper/sugar/soy sauce/chilli flakes/turmeric powder if need be.

I was happy that it tasted like Mamak Mee. This is my first time getting it sooooo right.

Vege Mutton Rendang and Snow Pea Sprouts

Yesterday, I finally had time to go for grocery shopping. After spending an hour in Tesco and roughly RM50, I'm in for a few days of culinary happiness.

Immediately returning from Tesco, I had to prepare for dinner!

First dish: Vegetarian Mutton Rendang

I haven't mastered the art of cooking rendang from scratch but I sure will try it out someday. For this dish, I used a packet of Adabi's rendang paste with some santan and freshly chopped garlic and onion. In the past, I usually use Brahim's brand but Tesco ran out of it so I tried Adabi. I still prefer Brahim's, nonetheless.

Look how the dish turned out? deliciousssss! Next time, I'll try to cook from scratch.

Second dish: Stir-fried Snow Pea Sprouts

I've always liked snow pea sprouts. It has a kind of green taste which is absolutely amazing. Just fry it quickly with garlic, onion and some soy sauce is wonderful enough. It was so good, I ate most of it before remembering to snap a photo. Sorry that the plate was left with only a little sprouts. :D

Sweet and Sour Vege Fish

Three nights ago, hubby and myself were too lazy to go out for dinner after a long day of work. I checked my fridge and cook up something with anything left. There were tomatoes, lemongrass, laksa leaf, ginger, big onions, garlic, green vege and half piece of vegetarian fish.

Guess what I came up with?

Stir fried mustard green with garlic and shallots

Sweet and sour vege fish

Both dishes were taken with rice.

The sweet and sour fish was really nice and simple. Here's how to do it:

Ingredients (rough estimates)

5 cloves of garlic chopped finely
2 lemongrass chopped finely (only the end of the lemongrass used - the whitish part)
5 laksa leaves
1 big onion (cut into rings)
10 pieaces of vegetarian fillets
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup corn starch
olive oil
black pepper
salt
sugar
tomato sauce
dried and fine basil leaves (optional)

1) Make a batter with self-raising flour, corn flour and water.
2) Dip all the vegetarian fish fillets into the batter.
3) Add some olive oil into the non-stick pan and fry the fish fillets. Remove from pan when golden brown.
4) Leave the remaining oil in the pan and fry garlic, lemongrass and laksa leaf until fragrant and add big onions.
5) Add in tomatoes, tomato sauce, black pepper, salt, sugar, basil leaves, add some water and let it simmer for a few minutes
6) Taste the sauce and adjust accordingly.
7) When you are satisfied with the taste and the tomatoes are soft, add in the fried fish fillets and turn off fire.
8) Mix the fish fillets in the sauce evenly and transfer to plate.


This dish actually turned out to be very delicious. Next time, I will try adding in some chili flakes, pineapple and capsicum.

Turning Vegetarian at 29...

and the birth of this blog. I am a 29 years old Chinese woman living in the Kuala Lumpur city. This year, due to numerous reasons, I've decided to finally become a 100% vegetarian. I wouldn't say I am a vegan, however, as I still occasionally get dairy and eggs intake. Nevertheless, turning vegetarian wasn't a decision that was easy to make. Malaysia is a country well known for their delicious delicacies, but mostly un-vegetarian. 

I've been brought up to love food and to live by the saying "Live to Eat". But I always believe if there's a will, there's a way. My reasons for becoming vegetarian is too strong that I do not have any cravings when looking at meat. I love animals, you see. My challenge, really, is not about avoiding meat. Instead, my challenge is to find as much variety in vegetarian food. 

Luckily, with my hubby turning vegetarian with me, things are so much easier. I picked up cooking in order to get more variety and I love every moment of it. I found love in cooking and always thinking of ways to create new dishes.

This blog will journalize the experience I have as a Passionate Vegetarian, from how I cope with this challenge and new developments in my dining lifestyle.