Eating vegan in Singapore

I have been to Singapore several times, but last week was my first visit since I changed my diet to whole food, plant-based diet. My colleague and I were starving when we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon on Monday so we went straight to Paragon Shopping Center and decided to get some lunch at Din Tai Fung. 

Din Tai Fung, Paragon Shopping Center
Having tried DTF at their location in Jakarta before, I knew DTF is a vegan friendly restaurant. And I liked their dumplings and their sauteed pea shoots (pictured below).

Cucumber with sesame sauce - not my favorite. The sauce was too strong for me so I just ate the cucumber. 

Spinach and mushroom dumpling - my go-to dish at DTF and they were tasty

Sauteed watercress was also good but the portion was huge!

 vegetable bun - also my go-to item

My non-vegan colleague also ordered several non-vegetarian buns and dumplings. We had a lot of foods but were able to finish everything! Yes, we were that hungry.

Shangri-La Hotel
After having a big lunch like that, we were still full in the evening and didn't feel like having a big meal for dinner. Instead we just had some snacks at the Horizon Club. I woke up feeling hungry around 3:30 a.m. and ordered some room service when I couldn't go back to sleep. Glad I had some fresh papaya before I enjoyed this bee hon goreng (stir-fried rice vermicelli) at dawn.  

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant every day. My breakfast for the first 3 days of my stay had been fresh fruits and vegetable dumplings because other vegetarian dishes on the buffet table and all bread selections had eggs or butter. On our last day, we went to BLU Restaurant on the 24th floor that had an awesome view of Singapore skyline. The set up was much nicer than the restaurant at the ground level. I had grilled portobello mushroom from their a la carte menu and asked it to be prepared without salt or sauce. It was tasty. 

I enjoyed with a pot of Japanese green tea. I loved the silver tea strainer and wanted to get one for myself but our waitstaff was unable to tell us where we could get one of those. 

Ling Zhi Vegetarian
I had lunch and dinner at their Liat Towers location on Orchard. I am not much of a fake-meat eater, but having read about their story and philosophy at their website, I was intrigued. So off I went for lunch one day. The menu was huge and everything looked delicious! It took me a while to decide what to order. The waitstaff who helped me was very friendly, patience and helped me choose what to order after I told her I did not consume eggs or fish oil. These are the two commonly ingredients used in vegetarian dishes in Asia. I started off with fresh melon juice with no sugar and vegan version of shumai for appetizer. 

Braised spinach soup with bamboo fungus came next. I could have this soup every day again and again. It was that good.

My main course was braised aloe noodle and chlorella with shredded vegetable. The dish didn't look appetizing at all, but it was quite good. Again, the portion was so big that it had to eat it very slowly in order to finish it. 

By the time I finished my meal, there was no room for dessert! I went back to Ling Zhi for dinner and per the restaurant manager's recommendations - she recognized me from lunch-, I ordered less meals. She literally told me that would be enough for me when I was eying the third item to order. 
I had this delicious asparagus and mushroom soup

And beancurd skin dish. Both were as tasty as my lunch earlier. 

I was so bumped out for not having the time to go to Whole Earth to try the peranakan food. Well, there is always next time.....

Raw Avocado, Banana & Chocolate (ABC) Pudding

We love avocados and are very fortunate to be able to get the fresh and organic ones at our farmers' market all year long. This morning, I skipped the green smoothie routine for breakfast and had avocado and chocolate pudding instead. It was easy, nutritious, delicious and didn't take long to prepare.  Just a perfect way to start the day!


ABC Pudding

serves 2

3/4 - 1 cup coconut milk (I used unsweetened So Delicious)

1 organic avocado, peeled and pitted

2 tablespoons organic, raw cocoa powder (I used Navitals Naturals)

4 soaked organic medjool dates, pitted 

1 frozen banana

1/4 teaspoons raw, organic vanilla powder (I used Live Superfoods)

Blend all ingredients together in a high speed blender,  garnish with fresh organic mint leaves and frozen or fresh organic raspberries, and serve. 

Strawberry Sauce

When I bought a basked  of fresh strawberries at the farmers market yesterday, I was planning to make David Lebovitz'  version of vegan strawberry ice cream. I said his version because I don't have an ice cream maker and was thinking about making it more smoothie-like consistency beverage. But I was not in the mood for recipe experiment today so I decided to just whip the strawberry in a food processor. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup organic strawberries
1½ teaspoon raw, organic Chia seeds
1 pinch sea salt
coconut nectar (I used Coconut Secret brand)
soaked organic medjool dates (optional)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice to taste

Preparation: 

Process the strawberries until they are pureed. Add chia seeds, salt and coconut nectar. If the sauce is not sweet enough, add 2 or 3 medjool dates. Pour the sauce into a glass jar, add lemon juice to taste. Cover and chill in the refrigerator. Enjoy it on pancakes, waffles, french toast, ice cream or etc.

An Afternoon Snack

I snack a lot. At work, I will have either 4-5 of organic citrus fruits; tangerines, mandarin oranges, satsuma, or clementine - depending on what is available at our Farmers' Market - or a large handful of raw, organic nuts/seeds and dates. On a nice day like today though- we're very fortunate to have such a beautiful and summer weather in February - I prefer to enjoy a glass of cold milk, nut milk that is. 

Lucky me! I just made a jar of delicious homemade almond milk yesterday. This almond milk and my favorite Andean Dream quinoa chocolate chip cookies is a match made in heaven! Just yummy! These vegan, gluten and soy, corn-free, and fairly traded cookies are the best and tastiest store-bought chocolate chip cookies I have found so far.