I've gone past this store in my dad's car many times before, but I've never tried it. Then, last Saturday, my parents and I were staycationing at Oasia Hotel and we walked to the cinema at Balestier from there (Dad said that it was super near but it was like 2km -_-). 

And we walked past this store on the way. I think Dad was feeling nibblish so we decided to get some piahs, though I was reluctant since I was still full from the buffet.

Oh and by the way, tau sar piah is a round pastry with a flaky crust and a sweet or savoury filling. Tau sar refers to a crumbly mung bean filling, but these piahs can be filled with a variety of ingredients!

We walked in and saw so many variations!

The interior was like old-fashioned factory-ish style. Yeah I don't know how to describe it. :x There's no sitting space; the food's only for takeaway.

Even though the front of the shop displays that the food is vegetarian, I was fully prepared to leave it empty handed. Since I was quite sure that butter is used in the crust. 

But the friendly old man behind the counter told us otherwise! It's made with vegetable oil. Yay it's vegan! ^^ 

So I was glad that we came in!

I chose durian ($0.80), mum chose sweet ($0.60) and dad picked pineapple ($0.70) and yam ($0.60).

We brought it into the cinema to eat hehe. They were warm despite the fact that they looked like they were sitting in the shelf for a while. They were not too sweet, and the crust was flakey, but not so flakey that the bits go all over your mouth & shirt and stick there stubbornly. It would go great with a mug of tea or coffee. ^^ Mum ate hers 2 days later, and it still tasted good.

It was nearing their closing time but there were still many piahs on display. I wonder what they do with them. o_o

It opens 8am - 7pm daily. You can see the address and phone number here:

Totally not related but we went to watch Interstellar. Before entering the cinema I had no clue what it was about... and after leaving I was like "?????". Mum didn't understand the fully either LOL.  Probably because the names and faces were hard to remember. It was 3 hours long and I think the development of the story could've been faster. Like halfway through I was almost feeling resigned that there wouldn't be a climax hahaha. And the jargon they used was confusing. (*spoiler alert*) And I was like ?? at the 'tesseract' and ??? the toilet-roll-tube 'planet' Cooper appeared on at the end. I only got it after reading Wiki's synopsis. LOL. But apparently I must be the shallow one because people my age enjoy it?? Or do they just enjoy being confused? Haha

My parents and I went to lunch at LingZhi for my mum's birthday! It's my first time at this branch at Novena. We went to the Orchard branch for my Dad's birthday earlier this year.. but I never got around to blogging about it hehe :x

We went for the Lunch Buffet ($24.80++). It includes a Mushroom Hotpot and a selection of Dim Sum items!

The design of the place was nice and bright, and I prefer this to the one at Orchard! We got this individual booth because there were no more plugs at the main area for the hotpot. (Yay took photos in peace LOL)

You can choose 2 soups for the mushroom hotpot. We got the Tom Yum soup and the Papaya Yam soup. 

It's called a mushroom hotpot and there were 5 types of mushrooms! They seemed fresh.

There are also quite a few other items: corn, baby corn, orange sweet potato, yam, tofu, tomato, black fungus, lotus root, taukee, 'fish' cake, instant noodles, chinese seaweed, huge bowl of veggies etc... BUT NO CARROTS. o_o

We asked the waitress and we were told that only the vegetable curry and the pork pastry has milk. Okay, it's quite expected for the pastry, but curry??? Curry???? They use both low fat milk and coconut milk in it. Why ruin a good dish -_- 

I was super pleasantly surprised to know that these Heaty Fried Things are vegan woohoo! These were my favourite out of the whole buffet!! More about them later!

The non-vegan Vegetarian Pork Pastry is the one at the top right.

Here you see the condiments table, the dim sum stacks and three dessert items at the back.

The one on the left is the Spicy Sesame Sauce. It wasn't spicy. Slightly bitter.

The other one is the Satay Sauce. It's yummy!! Goes great with everything! In fact, all the vegan satay sauces I've tried have been wonderful. ^^

There's also a Homemade Chili Sauce but I only saw it at the end because dad didn't scoop it lol. 

DIM SUM WOOHOO!!!!!

I have no idea what they're called and I forgot to try the siew mai. ._.

I didn't really like the green + yellow dumplings because I felt that the filling-to-skin ratio was too low. And the veggie buns at the to right tasted average too. The small round dumpling at the top left was quite yummy.

But I really like the char siew bun!!! Yum yum warm and fluffy! Mum thought that it wasn't sweet enough but I felt that it was just right.

There were 7 types of dim sum in total. I had this triangle shaped one which was interesting because there's corn inside!

Heaty fried things!!!

Clockwise from top: Yam Croquette, Spring Roll, Curry Puff, Vegetables Croquette and Carrot Cake. Other than the spring roll, which was average, everything else was SO GOOD! 

The yam croquette was so crispy and flaky on the outside and smooth on the inside. The curry puff was like baked - the shell was like a biscuit - and the filing was flavourful. The vegetables croquette had a chewy mochi-like exterior! And the carrot cake was our favourite - crispy around the edges and it's of just the right savouriness!! The crispiness depends on how fresh they are too though - we had a few more pieces (yes they were that good!) and not all were crispy.

On to the hotpot!

The tom yum soup was nearer to me so that's what I mostly ate from haha. It was sour, flavourful and spicy enough!! :)

The fried noodles were average-tasting. But add on the satay sauce and it's yummy! ^^

The rojak was not bad. I don't have anything to compare it to though; I don't remember eating the non-vegan kind. The you tiao (deep fried dough fritters) in this rojak were CRISPY LIKE COOKIES. Interesting. The apples and pineapple in this are the only fruit I had that meal lols. There was sliced watermelon at the condiments table though.

Desserts: Almond Jelly with Longan, Black Sesame Paste and Sweetened Almond Cream.

The almond jelly dessert was unfortunately the canned fruit cocktail kind. I was expecting pieces of almond jelly! The black sesame paste and almond paste were not too sweet, but I found them to be not rich enough. Hmm.

I find that it's a a bit too pricey for a buffet with this small spread. On the other hand, there's both dim sum and steamboat, and almost all items are vegan. Service was good too. I guess this is a good place for special occasions! I was like full until dinner. So yeah, go with an empty stomach and non-figure-hugging clothes hehe.

LingZhi Vegetarian

Velocity @ Novena Square

238 Thomson Road

#03-09/10

Phone: 6538 2992

Nature Vegetarian is a coffee-shop-style kinda restaurant, located right beside Boneless Kitchen. It was 初一 when my parents and I dined there for dinner, so it was quite crowded! 初一 is the first day of the month in the lunar calendar, and some Buddhists eat vegetarian on that day.

They have an extensive Chinese menu, and a small Western selection that I'm quite sure is not vegan. None of their dishes have egg, but some have dairy. Check with the cashier when you make your order.

They have a small retail area too. As with the items on the menu, all items are vegetarian, but not all are vegan so make sure to check! Some have dairy in them, such as the siew mai which has whey. :(

Nice quote.

You can choose dishes from here, but we got items from the full menu.

This is #724 Mini Wok Rib Noodle ($4.50). My dad liked it a lot; he said it tastes better than meat dishes! I didn't really enjoy this because the noodles were yellow.

#200 Watercress Soup [Medium] ($7.00). When this came I was like woah so much!! Because the bowl is huge. But actually, there isn't much ingredients; it's mostly just the soup. Which was oily. The corn was sliced so thinly too. My mum said that maybe ordering two small soups ($5 each for most) will be more worth it.

#108 Broccoli with Mushroom [Small] ($9.00). Expensive! I didn't like the starchy clumps, but the broccoli was crunchy and the mushrooms were really soft and smooth, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

This #501 Ma Po Tofu [Small] ($8.00) was my favourite dish of all! It was oily but I really like the crunchy fried bits and the sauce-soaked tofu! I didn't find it really spicy but maybe it's because I tried to drain the sauce away. I don't remember eating the meat version, but I asked my parents and they said that it didn't normally come with meat?? I googled and yes usually it's cooked with minced meat.

We also got 2 bowls of brown rice. The meal for 3 costed about $30, which is reasonable.

Nature Vegetarian is definitely not the place to go to if you're looking for healthy food. Most things seem to be oily and prices for some dishes are quite high. But I wouldn't mind eating there again; there's so many more dishes we've not tried! There was a couple beside us sharing a curry, another couple sharing a hill of fried rice, and a family with a mountain of it LOL.

Nature Vegetarian Catering Pte Ltd

Blk 11 Jalan Bukit Merah

#03-4462

Singapore 150011

Phone: 6897 7370

We got these braised meat buns from the frozen retail section of Nature Vegetarian. It's $4.00 for 6 pieces, and according to my grandma and my parents it's cheap.

The ingredient list says that it has: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, gluten and seasoning. Doesn't sound very wholesome LOL. But the 'real' thing is worse so.

It's supposedly handmade.

I had this at a family dinner at my grandparent's house.

My grandma steamed them and it was so fluffy and delicious!! The inside wasn't really gluten-y; it seems to be made of mushroom stems. It wasn't too oily or salty, and we all like it! Even my mum, who dislikes the taste of mock meat! :)

So gooood I want one now

If you were curious, this is usually how family dinners go at my maternal grandparent's place. My grandma cooks a few dishes for me - other then the buns, there's also a tomato onion stew (the onions were SO sweet yum!), stuffed tofu puffs with a thick sauce, veggie & mushroom stir-fry and an unpictured bowl of raw cucumber. I had it with rice. 

I feel so blessed and thankful that my family and relatives are generally supportive. ^^

Click here to view my Top 5 favourite iHerb items!

I think that this is my smallest iHerb haul yet! Haha. But there's quite a few interesting items I'd like to share about. 

Listed prices are in USD and subject to change.

The NOW FOODS Organic Popcorn Kernels ($3.92 per bag) are a re-buy; they've been wonderful and I eat a bowl (1/4 cup un-popped kernels) or more almost every day hehe. I really like the crunch, especially that of the half-popped kernels! I air-pop them on a pan, and it takes just about 5 minutes. It also makes my house smell wonderful! ^^ I got 3 bags of it and one more for my friend.

I've not tried the Alter Eco Dark Blackout Chocolate ($3.38), but once I do I'll post about it here.

This is the Solar Energy Gum ($13.76), Satellite Cinnamon flavour. I actually asked my mum whether I could buy gum from overseas online haha (since gum is banned in Singapore). I guess I treat this more as a supplement! It's fortified with B12, but I can't tell exactly how much from the confusing label and Nutritional Info Panel. Still I really like it because it definitely tastes much better than my current tutti-fruitti-tasting NOW brand B12 lozenges. It's a little spicy which is interesting, and though the reviews on iHerb say that the flavour lasts a long time, I'm ready to spit it out in about 1.5 hours.

Energy gum sounds so cool right?? The label says "...resulting in an exhilarating boost of energy". o_o I'm not sure if it's the placebo effect or the act of chewing that makes me more awake, but I think it kinda works. Like I was chewing gum at night a few days ago and then I saw a time-sale on a blogshop and then I felt really awake and like I really had to buy something. Which I did. And I rarely buy clothes online. Haha. Not a really good example though. XD

I've been wanting to try a Go Picnic Ready-to-eat-meal ($4.20) since I saw it on Instagram over a year ago! Back then iHerb didn't stock Go Picnic, but I'm glad to find it now. I saw that there were about 3 vegan ready-to-eat-meals (there are others but they're non-vegan). I wanted to get another flavour, but it was out of stock. :( Oh well, I'll get it next time! I've not tried this yet; I'll update about it here once I have.

There's quite a few mini-packs of things inside. Yay! How fun.

It's quite high in fat though. I'm planning to share this at a picnic or something hehe.

I got Helwa Organic Lemon Wafers ($2.23) for my dad! Wow I didn't think that I'd ever find wafers that are vegan, plus these are organic!!! They taste quite good too... but wafers are rarely my food of choice (they're so airy I can finish the whole packet with ease).

It's so junky but at least there's no dairy!

Does organic palm oil harm the rainforests though?

This article from One Green Planet looks useful. From what I understand, organic doesn't mean sustainable, and this doesn't have the Green Palm logo to certify that this company uses sustainable palm oil in it's products. :(

This is the back of the Veggie Wash ($3.87). Lol at the Common Sense Precautions. It's been great so far!! My fruits have never been so clean. I can't really tell with my veggies but I feel glad that I'm supposedly ingesting in less pesticides and chemicals. I used to use baking soda (which works great too) but this is much more convenient. :)

You can use my discount code MPF483 if it's your first time shopping at iHerb. It gets you $10 off an order over $40, or $5 off an order under $40. Thanks to those who use/have used it! ^^

♡♡♡

Sufood is a restaurant that serves Italian-inspired vegetarian cuisine. This is probably as close to vegan fine-dining as you can get in Singapore at the moment. Yay small-food-on-big-plates! 

I dined here with my parents. It was about a month ago.. so I might not be able to remember every taste :x 

It's located at Raffles City.

Hehe this colour-coordinated family so cute.

The interior is like a modern Asian style. Lotsa seating space!

There's one set meal and it seems really popular.

There are icons to indicate which dishes have egg, dairy, chili, onion and garlic. And the waiter that took our order was very clear about what was vegan and what wasn't. Great!

The SUFOOD Appetizer consists of Japanese Yuca root with blueberry sauce, oriental white water snowflake greens and savoury tomato jelly.

At the back you can see the vinegar. It was sweet and fruity!

The oriental white water snowflake greens (what are snowflake greens even?? Google gives me nothing) was like a tied-up bunch of green stems in sauce. Interesting.

Rosemary Breadsticks. There's a choice of blueberry/mustard dip, but only the blueberry one is vegan! Each person gets 2 sticks. The blueberry dip is like watery blueberry jam. The bread sticks were gooood. Maybe because I love bread.

Now for the salads. The Mushroom Salad looks much more like a stir-fry than a salad though haha. The mushrooms were well-cooked and it wasn't oily.

This is the Classic Garden Salad. There's a choice of sesame/Caesar dressing, but the latter has egg so we got the sesame one! The sesame sauce alone is so yummy - I dipped mopped it all up with my breadsticks! It's creamy and so fragrant, with the right amount of savouriness. Oh and the salad greens were fresh, with no wilt-y bits. ^^

The Summer Salad came on this huge and heavy plate lol. The veggies were fresh and both the sauces were good! The sauce in the shot glass is similar to the sesame sauce.. but different, according to mum.

All soups are vegan yay! The first one that arrived was this Pumpkin Soup. The plating is pretty, but I guess the taste wasn't wonderful enough for me to remember it.

Mushroom & Pea Pottage. It's great how they got this to be creamy without dairy! :) But out of our three soups, this was our least favourite.

This dull looking Root Soup was wonderfully good! There's burdock root, lotus root and cashews in it. Dad really liked it. I felt that it was really flavourful too - and it's not oily! ^^

Half of the mains are vegan. I chose the Wild Mushroom Charcoal Tagliatelle. The mushrooms (they're supposed to resemble... squid?) were chewy and the noodles were smooth. The portion size was quite generous (taking into account the other courses).

This Conchiglie Mushroom Bake is not vegan. Looks like it can easily be done with vegan cheese! My parents didn't finish it; it contained mock meat which mum didn't like.

The Baked Potato Al Funghi was also very mushroom-y. At the left are king oyster mushrooms with a blob of pumpkin puree in the middle.

Those three things at the back are: a cucumber pickle, mint leaf stuffed in a cherry tomato (omg so intricate) and a pickle of some fruit I can't identify.. pear?

At the right is this delicious mushroom-stuffed baked potato!! I should cook something like this!

Only one out of 4 of the desserts are vegan :( I liked the texture of this Osmanthus Flower Jelly, but jelly for dessert is just... ._. 

The desserts are served with the drinks. I got the Passionfruit Calamansi Tea, which was refreshing, though a little on the sweet side.

Mum got the Banana Cheesecake (not vegan) and Mint Herbal Tea.

Dad got the Vanilla Ice Cream with Hot Chocolate (not vegan) and Yuzu Chamomile Tea.

It's hard-shell chocolate.

I left the restaurant feeling like I ate a healthy meal! Which is rare. I really like that the food here is not greasy or oily, and the ingredients seem really fresh! What I don't like is the lack of vegan dessert choices though. (And the fact that there's no natural lighting for photos haha.) I'd recommend Sufood (especially if you like mushrooms, since almost every dish has it lol), but I don't see myself going back often since I've already tried almost everything vegan. Though if they come up with new vegan desserts I'll be really eager to dine there!

SUFOOD Singapore
Raffles City
252 North Bridge Road #02-19
Singapore 179103
Phone: 6333 5338
Opening Hours:
Lunch: 11.30am - 4.30pm (last order 3.30pm)
Dinner: 5.30pm - 10pm (last order 9pm)