For my previous post on Real Food, view this post.

Lunched at West Coast Plaza's Real Food with my parents before going for a weekend staycation (at Movenpick Heritage Hotel on Sentosa) a few weeks ago!

This is Organic Mushroom Aglio Olio ($7.80) that Dad ordered. I believe that he didn't think that it was great and he kept on eating my food LOL.

This is what I ordered. Dumpling Noodles Dry ($8.80). As always, I ordered the dumplings because I feel that it's the most yummy and value-for-money! Usually, I get dumpling soup with rice but this time I had it with noodles for a change. ^^ The noodles were smooth and chewy, yum!! And the chili was great too - I liked it but I can't differentiate good and bad chili; my parents liked it a lot though.

It looks quite little but there was a whole lot of noodles!! ^^

Mum got the Dumpling Soup ($7.00) without rice or noodles - I can't remember why. But this time, the soup was much more oily than the previous times when I ate it!! :O

Here you see Mum scooping the oil off the soup. Lols. 

We also ordered a side dish, Organic Potato Wedges ($6.80). This was a waste of money. Just a few bites. ._.

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A few months back I went to Real Food with my friend.

I don't think that I've showed the interior before. It's small and quite cosy!

Sit at this place for good lighting if you're planning to take photos :) Depends on the weather though, of course. The table at the other end (in this picture) is the best imo. LOL.

The tables at this side are good also, but not in gloomy weather. I like the shelf of colourful magazines! :)

This is the Portobello Burger ($13.80). I've had it before and this time it looked and tasted even better! It's a fried portobello mushroom with fresh greens and organic soy mayo, served with dehydrated fruit chips (which were more chewy than crispy). The menu said 'spicy option available' so I asked for that. The cashier (which is where we place our orders) was kinda confused about the spicy option though. In the end I think there was just some chili flakes on the patty lols.

It was delicious! Crispy outside and juicy inside. The best portobello mushroom burger EVER.

The bread is so fluffy!

So juicy!!!

My friend had Baked Brown Rice ($13.80) which she enjoyed! The rice has a mix of different ingredients. This isn't vegan though; it'll be nice if they had vegan cheese!!!!!!!!

We had ice cream too. It's ice cream from Brownice, I believe.

I can't remember the price ($3.50 per scoop?) but it was a smaller scoop than those you'd get at Brownice. Plus it's a fixed price per scoop, it doesn't get cheaper even when you order more!

This is Strawberry (my favourite) and Hazelnut Coffee (her favourite). ^^

I guess I like the West Coast Plaza outlet the most. Because it's near my house. LOL. Also because the lighting is quite good. :x

Real Food

WEST COAST

154 West Coast Road

(West Coast Plaza)

#B1-06/07

Singapore 127371

T: +65 68721440

(Full list of outlets on their website or in this post!)

Pita Pan serves vegetarian Mediterranean food. Most items are vegan, but some have eggs. Most items are dairy-free, according to their website.

Mum & I went to the Marina Square outlet a few weeks back because we bought a Groupon. It was the last weekend available for using the coupon, so it was quite crowded! I think 4 out of 5 of the customers were using the coupons. 

(I actually get annoyed when restaurants say that their food is 'homemade'. A restaurant isn't a home, shouldn't it be 'house-made' instead? #sorrybeingweird) 

I've been to the Pita Pan outlet at Marina Bay Sands before, but that was over a year ago (approx 77 weeks back). This is a half falafel pocket (wholewheat) with sundried tomato falafel and stuff you pick from the counter. It was my first time having falafel and I thought that it was quite dry and oily (since it's deep fried). It was also my first time having hummus and I loved it! Afterwards I learnt how to make my own falafel (baked), and hummus (lower fat).

We also had a Mediterranean platter ($26.90?!?!?!?!) then. It has pita bread, hummus, couscous, falafel and some other stuff.

Back to the Marina Square outlet! We went for dinner so the lighting was quite bad. ._.

They put fresh veggies on the counter thing as decor lols. This is the selection of ingredients you can take if you order a half or full pocket!

I wanted to order the Mediterranean platter again because it has a bit of everything, but... the plate looks so ugly. LOL.

They have new flavours of falafel now! 

The person taking the order (who's also the cashier) was really unhelpful. We were asking for suggestions on what to order, and she just stood them with a black face. -_- And we got curt replies for our questions. Like we asked "How big is a half pocket?", she replied something like "Half the size of a full pocket."

Well I guess it's kinda understandable because it must've been a busy day with all the Groupon-redeeming people, and the people ahead of us in the queue were really picky and difficult. But still.

Then we finally ordered and sat down to wait. It wasn't a short wait; Mum was shaking this thing and wondering if it was spoiled hahaha.

When it was our turn, I went to fill up the half pita pocket ($7.90)! We got a sumac pita pocket (+$1) with picante falafel (+$1). 

Be careful how you hold your pita pocket when you're filling it up. Because if you tilt it the ingredients which you've so generously piled on may just fall out. :x Hahaha. I hastily (and sheepishly) scooped up as much of the stuff I dropped as I could. But they cleared up the rest quite quickly!

The pocket seems to be toasted in oil. I think if you choose the plain or wholewheat one instead of those with the special stuff they won't add oil when they heat it up!

As before, the falafel were dry and oily. It's supposed to be spicy, but it's not very spicy in my opinion.

This is the Fatosh Salad ($12.20). I know that i'll never be ordering this again! It was cucumber, tomato and cabbage, with deep-fried pita chunks (kinda like the Mediterranean version of youtiao). I think we ordered this at random because the cashier was giving us a black face and the queue was getting longer. For one, it's not worth the price. Also, the fried pita was SO OILY. They were kinda hard too. Youtiao tastes better lols.

This is the Hummus with Mushrooms ($11.90). It comes with a pita bread. It was very smooth and creamy, but also it seems like there's lots of oil used. :/

Oh yes, my mum asked for water (it's free, obviously from the tap), and it tasted weird. So consider bringing your own bottle of water if you don't intend to buy drinks.

Overall, I felt that this meal was very high in fat; it took me quite a while to digest. And also somewhat overpriced (but it's okay if you have coupons). Definitely not my Pocket Full of Health. Hehe. But it's fine once in a while I guess.

Pita Pan

The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
2 Bay Avenue
Singapore 018972
L1-87, Bay Level 

Sun - Thu: 11am to 11pm
Fri and Sat: 11am to 12midnight
Email : pitapan@pitapan.com.sg
Phone: +65 6688 7450

Marina Square 
6 Raffles Boulevard
Singapore 039594
#02-183A

Sun - Thu: 11am to 11pm
Fri and Sat: 11am to 12midnight
Email : pitapan@pitapan.com.sg
Phone: +65 6337 2587

I've seen reviews of Jiv Jago Vegetarian Cafe before, but I've never thought of it as a must-try place for me, since much of the food are deep-fried and have lotsa mock meat. However, my friend and I were in that area, and Bali Lane (located beside Haji Lane) was nearer to us than Fortune Centre haha.

The decor is simple with brick walls and wooden tables.

It's NOT AIR-CONDITIONED. O_O (There's an air-con in the top right but it's not switched on.) It was kinda cooling, but we were out walking* in the sweltering heat...

*We went to the New 2U Thrift shop at Waterloo Street, but the clothes didn't suit our tastes (or maybe the good ones were all taken T.T) and so we went to shop at Bugis Street. And then we walked the wrong direction and had to backtrack in the really hot weather. Heh. 

This cafe serves Western food. It's self-service and there's no service charge or GST. You pay when you order.

I find the food to be quite pricey :/ 

Plus there's no indication of which is vegan and which isn't (those blue magnets don't mean anything right?). The pizzas and Aloo Burger (potato patty) were not available.

I got the Fish Burger ($12.00) while my friend got the BBQ Beef Chop ($13.50).

I felt very very very weird to be ordering a fish burger. ._.

Customer's feedback!

Here's my Fish Burger! It's simpler than expected. I asked for the cheese to be omitted, but I didn't think to ask about the mayo. (I don't know if they use vegan cheese. I should've said that I'm a vegan at the counter -_-" ) It seems like it's veganaise though!

Still, I scraped it off. There was a whole lot of it, but thankfully it was quite thick and... solid (my friend said it looked like udon noodles lol) so it was easy to remove. I don't like mayo, even if it's vegan. 

The burger has a slice of tomato, deep-fried 'fish', iceberg lettuce (and cheese & mayo) between two fluffy white buns. I liked that the lettuce was fresh and crisp, and not limp. However, the 'fish' was soooooo oily omg. Halfway through it I couldn't take it anymore, and blotted it between the paper napkins. :x The texture looked quite like fish, but it's more like a cross between fish + bread when it's in your mouth.

Also, I would've preferred shoe-string fries to crinkle cut, but I still finished it lols. Because I eat what I order, and I order what I eat. (Quote via Durianrider.) Almost always. Thought it's really not a good habit in the face of high-fat high-sodium processed foods. :|

I felt that the meal was very dry. Since my dish didn't really have sauce and they don't seem to serve water.

My friend (she's non-veg) thought that her Beef Chop was very surprisingly realistic! It was deep-fried and super oily though. The portion size was quite big and she couldn't finish it! Lols she was shocked that a meal with The Vegan could be so unhealthy haha.

Overall, I think I'll probably not be coming back here anytime soon. Way too high-fat for me (but if deep-fried food is your kinda thing, then go ahead!). I'm kinda curious about the pizzas and pastas though!

Jiv Jago Vegetarian Cafe
17 Bali Lane (beside Haji Lane, nearest to Bugis MRT)
Singapore 189853
Open Monday-Saturday
12.00nn-10.00pm
Phone: 9679 6722

I baked a Vanilla-Coconut-Sugar Cake for Father's Day yesterday! :) It's essentially the same recipe as my Easy Peasy Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe (made for Mother's Day), but without the cacao powder (Dad's not fond of chocolate), with more sugar (they have sweet tooths) and with less oil (we ran out).

I'm glad that they'd enjoyed it! :) This turned out more moist and fluffy than the chocolate cake, but alas, because of the lesser oil used, it has a slight kueh-like texture and taste. :/

I made simple cake toppers!

I was seriously considering reusing the paper bunting from Mother's Day... but nah.

The batter wasn't as thick as the chocolate one! It's so brown because of the coconut sugar.

I topped it with tofu mousse, banana & kiwi slices, raspberries and rainbow sprinkles.

It's filled with vanilla tofu mousse too!

I made some fruit tea to go with it. ^^

Lols I set all these up and waited for Dad to wake up (he went to watch soccer) and for Mum to come back home (she went for a morning facial).

And we finally ate! The sprinkles melted and the colour ran. And the raspberries stained the other fruits pink. ._.

Yum yum.

Vanilla-coconut-sugar Cake

Serves 3-6

Recipe adapted from here and Instructables

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup wholewheat spelt flour (or other flour)
• 1 cup coconut sugar (or other sugar)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup water at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/6 cup olive oil (or other vegetable oil)*
• 1 tsp coconut vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
• Note: Use more oil & decrease amount of water if you want it to be less kueh-ish

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.
2. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix well until no lumps of flour can be seen.
4. Lightly oil a small pan (mine was 1.0L in volume). Pour in the batter.
5. In a preheated oven, bake at 180 deg C for 15 mins, then lower the temperature to 150 deg C and bake for about another 35-45 mins, or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean.
6. Once done, remove from oven and leave the cake to cool (in the pan) for about 1 hour.
7. Slide a knife about the edges and remove cake from pan. Ice and top with fruits as desired. Enjoy! :)

These Sweet Potato Pizza Bites make for a good meal or snack! They are quite easy to whip up, since there's no need to make a dough for the base, and the sauce is just made with 3 ingredients. :)

And they look so pretty omg. Okay this is like self-praise, but I was super happy while I was editing these because they are so colourful and the lighting was so good! Hahaha

The sauce is made with red bell peppers, tomato and dried cherry tomatoes. This is what it looks like after excess juice has been drained out. Rolled it around in the sieve and it turned into this ball lols.

In the midst of spreading the sauce on the 'base'!

Top with your favourite veggies (or fruits, no one's stopping you) and eat!

These are softer in the middle and crispier at the edges. There are tiny burnt spots on the edges of the sauce, but they can be easily picked out if you mind them.

For an even crispier alternative, you can bake sweet potato chips (no oil needed, 180 deg C, 30-40 mins) and use the pizza sauce as a dip. Yum yum.

3-ingredient Pizza Sauce

Makes twice the amount shown above

You can add in herbs/spices too if you'd like!

• 1 1/2 medium red bell pepper
• 1 medium tomato
• 15-20 dried cherry tomatoes, chopped

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients together in a food processor.
2. Pour mixture onto a sieve (placed over a bowl).
3. Shake the sieve until the juice drains out and the sauce thickens. It's ready to use.
4. Keep the juice to add to soup or smoothies!

Sweet Potato Pizza Bites
(Rough recipe)

• 1 extra large or 2 medium sweet potatoes (I used the Japanese variety)
• 1 batch 3-ingredient Pizza Sauce
• Desired toppings: sliced button mushrooms, onion, corn, carrot, alfalfa, sprouts, nutritional yeast, cracked black pepper

Method:

1. Wash sweet potatoes and slice them thinly (there's no need to remove the skin). 
2. Lay slices on parchment paper.
3. Spread sauce on the sweet potato slices.
4. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 mins - at the 15 minute mark, I added mushrooms and onions.
5. Remove from oven and add other toppings. Enjoy!

My blog is now one year old! ^^ Thank you for 50k views!!!

Initially, I didn't really want to start a blog, because I don't write very well and I didn't know if I could find the time and energy to blog frequently. But I'm glad I did - no more (very) lengthy Instagram captions and I quite enjoy blogging (though I hardly post during some busy months). I have 108 published posts now, which averages to almost one every three days. That's not bad I guess hehe.

So a big THANK YOU to my readers, no matter whether you visit once a week or once a month! :')

P.S. I love it when you all comment.

P.P.S. A bloGIVErsary makes you think of a giveaway, doesn't it? Haha I'm not having one this year, but perhaps next year! :)

♡♡♡

I went to Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC) with a good friend of mine for lunch today! There's actually quite a lot of vegan/ vegan-izable options at ARC. We settled on Sankranti, which is on the first floor. It's an Indian restaurant that's not vegetarian, but has quite a few vegetarian choices. There's also a vegetarian restaurant two doors down, called Komala's. I've eaten there once with my parents before. The prices are in a similar range, but Komala's menu doesn't show the description of the food. ._.

By the way, I LOVE Indian food! ^^ All those spices and weird names and that I-don't-know-what-I'm-eating-but-it's-good feeling. Hehe. 

There are 2 pages of vegetarian options. I had to ask which ones had milk and cream (Indian vegetarian doesn't have egg, according to my mum) but the server didn't understand me. He said that everything had no milk but some of the curries clearly had paneer (Indian cheese). And so he asked someone else, who recommended a set. The set came with curd, which he said he could replace with something else, but he probably forgot.

LOL the communication gap is frustrating but it's all part of the experience. 

Everything seems quite authentic, since 90% of people eating there are Indians. It was relatively empty when we entered at about 12 noon, but by 12.30pm it was more or less full!

This is the Bhojanam ($8.50). The menu states that it has: Phulka (1 piece), White rice, Special Rice, Vepudu, Puluso, Pappu, Rasam, Sambar, Roti Pachadi, Senagapodi with ghee (!!!), Pickles, Pappad, Curd, Sweet.

I totally forgot about asking about the ghee. :( Oh well. When I eat Indian food I know that I'll probably be consuming some dairy.

My friend had Mixed Veg curry ($6.50) and garlic naan ($3.20). The curry was not bad, but it wasn't as spicy as the dishes I had.

There was a MOUNTAIN of rice I kid you not. Probably 2 bowls or almost 2 bowls. But I finished most of it hehehe. The thing on top is the phulka, which is like a flatbread I guess. It's not oily.

The two on the left are soups, followed by a potato curry, mushroom (?) curry, and some solid stuff with spices (the one at the very end had chickpeas, and I had completely no idea what veg was in the one beside it). LOL. It would be nice to eat Indian food with an Indian.

And then there's the special rice, curd (which I didn't eat), and the sweet, as the menu calls it. The sweet was WEIRD. It was gooey and clumpy and that shade of pink is scary for a food. I (bravely) tasted a bit of it and... it tasted like condensed milk. Ugh. (Come to think of it, there was this deep-fried ball soaked in thick syrup that was probably the dessert/'sweet' of the set meal I had at Komala's. It tasted EXACTLY like condensed milk. Like how?? It didn't look milky at all.)

There were also pappadum chips and a fibrous brown dip. Not bad.

I think the two curries in the middle were the best.

The payment is made at the counter to the right of the entrance. Lol we were so confused about what to do because we asked the server (the first one) and his reply was so ambiguous. ><

Overall, I think that this set meal is really worth it! It can probably be shared by two if you order a small side/naan/prata. Ghee is probably used in most dishes though. :( :( :(

Sankranti

#01-03

Alexandra Retail Centre

Alexandra Road

Nearest MRT: Labrador Park (CC27)