Living Vegan

World vegan day

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:07:00 +0000

It's already past 12am here, and officially: World vegan day!
Happy vegan day to everyone!

Halloween @ Pauline's Lair

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:58:00 +0000

Happy Halloween!
After a more than a month without my PC at home, I am finally able to get it back on halloween and blog on all the things I want to blog for the past month. Hopefully I have enough time! We'll start with Halloween today at Pauline's Lair.

Place was dim and so didn't manage to get good pictures of everyone with my motion-insensitive camera. Managed to get some of the food though while it sits quietly waiting to be devoured.

Pauline's puke salad + special sauce.

Now... Pauline shared with us the secret recipe used to make the sauce, which she learnt from a cooking class. I am so amazed that someone can actually think of this combination of ingredients for the sauce.

You need: Lemon juice, soy powder (mixed with a little water), tomato sauce.
Throw them all together and mix mix mix (you can add some sugar if the soy powder isn't sweetened).
That's all. No specific amount of ingredients to be used, you can vary the amount used according to your preference. Use it like you use a vegan thousand island.

Next up, Neil brought vegan fritters (or vegan "insects" for a halloween twist)...

and samosas...

Vegan laksa by Fang Qi's mum... very tasty!

Halimah's vegan halloween cake - with a partially buried witch, two ghosts and lots of pumpkin.. Yumyum!

And some non-alcoholic drink for the underage courtesy of Rachel and Kau Wee.

Treat Equal

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The cove

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:03:00 +0000

I wanted to write this review sometime back, but my computer was giving me problems. Anyway, The cove movie is still showing in SG GV cinemas so do go and watch while it's still on.

The cove is about the yearly killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, and how one man decided to stop it. With his team under the persue of the Jap govt to prevent this annual hunt from being publicised, they managed to sneak in the cove one night and placed hidden and underwater cameras to record the killing of the dolphins. This whole "espionage" mission is made into a documentary-movie - The Cove, and it is a really enlightening video about how the greed for money and dolphin shows can contribute to this yearly massacre.

To check out how you can help the dolphins click here.

Cow kneels to saviour

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Below is a picture taken in 2008 in Sri Lanka. The monk in the picture saved those cows from slaughter. And after he saved their lives, this was what one grateful cow did.

I think this is more than sufficient to show that animals do not just behave instinctively, have no emotion, and are meant to be meat and milk machines to serve us. No doubt some people do not even have gratitude like this cow.

Shojin Ryori at Enso Kitchen

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Last sunday I joined some of my friends for a shojin ryori lunch. In Singapore, only Enso kitchen offers shojin ryori at the premises of GOTO japanese restaurant on sunday, lunch time. Reservation is required.

For more information of Shojin Ryori cuisine click here.

The ambience of GOTO japanese restaurant is quiet and cosy, with japanese ornaments sitting on the shelves.

You will settle down to a cup of green tea first and can have a nice chat before the "starter" is served.

The starter is known as the king of shojin ryori - "Tofu" that is not made with soybeans - and instead arrowroot imported from japan and sesame. It is served with sauce and a dash of japan-imported wasabi. Our local wasabi sold in supermarts contain milk, chef Danny said.

We got to try the "late summer" set meal as Japan is experiencing that season now. At Enso kitchen, the set meals change every month.

A close up at the Summer set...
Soft sticky rice with sesame.

Salty "Salad" with cucumber, carrot, seaweed, and a piece of sweet tomato. Leaves a very familiar japanese food taste on your tastebuds.

Red miso soup with a piece of konnyaku, bits of carrot and shiitake mushroom. It tastes like miso + a little marmite to me.

Pumpkin with peanut sauce. This is one dish I like. Pumpkin tastes fresh and sweet, blending well with the sweet and salty peanut sauce, yum!

Teriyaki tofu. This taste rather normal to me, but for people who don't have access to ready made tofu, it would probably be nice. The tofu is rather tough on the outside. What is interesting is the few strands of veggies on top of the tofu, I thought it was some normal vegetable, but it's not! It has the kind of hot taste like wasabi.

Eggplant with ginger paste. The ginger used is organic so that it won't taste as strong as non-organic ginger. This is also one of the dishes me and my friends like, salty and slightly hot.

We also had dessert - rock melon and mochi. The mochi is the best I've ever eaten. Soft and "melty".

The total price of the meal would be around $50 inclusive of GST.

The Bio Da Versity Code

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:10:00 +0000

We are all intricately related in the web of life. Destroying others is to slowly destroy ourselves.

Vegan birthday cake

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:50:00 +0000

The birthday dinner was pre-planned, so I decide to secretly order a black forest cake for my mum's birthday. She never had a cake and candles for her birthday before, so it was a pleasant surprise.

This was ordered from Halimah from Kalavira. Here's her website. http://kalavira.com/

Here's a slice of the cake.

Today the 10th library book sale is on and you get to buy books from the library for $2 each. The crowd was really greedy for the books and people were just shoving here and there. However, if you love cooking or are looking for vegetarian cookbooks, you must attend this sale, plenty of vegetarian cookbooks to choose from if you go early, here are just a fistful.

This sale is on till tomorrow at expo hall 6A, 930am - 800pm)

8 treasures vegetarian restaurant

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:24:00 +0000

Today's mum's birthday, so she was given a treat at 8 treasures vegetarian restaurant yesterday.

Ambience was chinese style with music in the background, and the restaurant was located on the 2nd storey of a shop house. We ordered the chef's recommendations on the menu.

Vegetarian sea cucumber and tofu. Tastes nice and yet light, doesn't taste oily. Mock sea cucumber does not have the taste of mock meat that makes you scared of it after eating too much. $12.

Vegetarian satay and satay sauce This is very nice! The only mock meat dish we ordered that is really made with mock meat. $6.

Vegetarian "pi pa duck". This tastes ok, and is a healthier version of mock meat vegetarian "pi pa duck" because it is made with taro instead of gluten. However exterior is deep fried. $10.

Vegetarian mock "squid". They really made it look like the real thing, I am glad it's not. This is made of a small bunch of enoki mushrooms wrapped with a layer of mock meat, and then with a layer of seaweed and deep-fried. If you like fried food, this is pretty good. $10.

With chinese tea, rice, starter and towels, the total is $52.80.
8 treasures also accept vegetarian society's $5 vouchers for every $20 spent.

Location: 282 South bridge road

Stray Dog

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Talk by Dr T. Colin Campbell

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:56:00 +0000

The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health
We had often heard of going veg for animal rights, environment protection and health. This event brought the link between health and going veg.

Last week, I attended a talk by Dr T. Colin Campbell - author of the China study. He showed and explained some of the results of his many years of research on a powerpoint slide, and I felt like I have been teleported back to the days where I sat in a lecture theatre in school listening to my professors speak. However, Campbell's lecture was much easier to understand with many of his slides showing correlation between different aspects to prove his point e.g. protein intake vs foci response.

The main conclusion is that we should eat whole, plant-based foods and I was surprised to learn that vitamins supplements and the like may instead bring you more harm instead of health. However, he did clarify that vegans should take B12. In his book he also advises minimizing refined carbohydrates, added vegetable oils, fish, and to avoid meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs.

We also had 112 year old vegetarian - Teresa Tsu who came for a Q and A. She mentioned she lives largely on raw foods. Usually you hear people say "50 years ago, I such and such..." and you think is was really long ago. But wait till you hear the way Teresa Hsu said "90 years ago, I such and such..." it was simply amazing and amusing at the same time that everyone laughed. Teresa also went to the poolside party by vss last year.

We also had a movie screening, the conclusion was - cut back and avoid animal products.

What's a vss event with no food? Here in the picture you see the crowds queueing (or maybe not) for the food. People who bought the tickets were given $5 food vouchers to spend at the booth.

Mushroom hotpot and dimsum buffet @ Ling Zhi

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Yesterday the Singapore Vegetarian Meetup organized a buffet lunch gathering at Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant at Velocity, Novena.

Ambience was good, with modern-mixed-chinese decor. No background music and not noisy, unless you are seated near a large group of people. However, it could get a little warm with the heat from the hotpot.

You could order some hot Chinese tea (not inclusive in the buffet costs) served in wine glass :) Hot Champagne! Cheers!

Time to tuck in! Steam dim Sum 1st...can't differentiate them from one another.

Fried Dim Sum... From top left going clockwise...
Carrot cake, fried dumpling, chicken nugget (this is nice), fried kway teow, yam croquette (very oily but nice).

Rojak, spring roll and some kind of fried flour with mash veg.

Hotpot! You will have a choice of 2 soups out of 3. Hot and spicy, yam, or clear. In this picture you see yam and clear soup. The clear soup tastes better. Plenty of stuff you can place in the soup... various mushrooms, green leafy vegetables, yam strrips, sweet corn, baby corn, seaweed, tofu, lotus root, ladies finger, tau pok etc.

Dim sum again...Bun. Char siew pau (which seemed to contain a substitute of mock char siew) and vegetable pau (I think uses spinach as the filling).

DeliVege udon noodles

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:58:00 +0000

The other day I had the luxury to attend a seminar away from my company. Luxury not because I love attending seminars, but because I do not have to eat from the one and only vegetarian stall near my workplace. I was really near Chinatown, and was spoiled for choices.

Eventually I settled for DeliVege's udon noodles.

Delivege's special is their DFC - Deli Fried Chicken. So naturally the best stuff in the udon noodles is the deep fried mock meat (12 o'clock position in photo).

I also had orange juice (on the house) which was a nice surprise.

Total cost: $8+

This was what I ate on my previous visit to DeliVege.

While scouting the area, I also saw that Maxwell food centre has got at least 2 vegetarian food stalls, and there's one at Amoy food centre.

Just jeans lobster liberation advertisement

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:28:00 +0000

VSS vegetarian food guide

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Some days back I went for the launch of the singapore vegetarian food guide at botanical gardens. The VSS committee and volunteers did a great job! The guide features vegetarian eat-outs at orchard, city hall/marina, bugis, chinatown, little india, geylang and more. Organic vegetarian food lovers will also be delighted to see which places they can get their meals.

If you are coming to Singapore, get your copy at Singapore Visitors Centres. Alternatively, if the guide is out of stock or you are a local, you can order the guide from Vegetarian Society Singapore here.

Back to the launch... VSS had Desmond Koh and Nadya Hutagalung as the special guests for the launch and I was surprise to know that Desmond is veg.

What's a veg event without veg food? Veg restaurants and eateries catered their food at the launch and everyone rushed to queue and try them out (so typically Singaporean-style) :)

We had food from Saravanaa Bhavan, Original Sin, Seven Sensations, Living Greens, Deli Vege, Nutri-Hub and Taste of Natural. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get pictures from every eatery.

Taste of Natural

Original Sin

Nutri-Hub

Deli Vege

Ok the following two pictures are not meant to show how much a glutton I was, but rather, the food from some of the eateries which I had no chance to take a picture of :)

My loaded plate 1 - Spaghetti and soup from 7 sensations, the white puffs and rice puffs from Saravanaa Bhavan, the rest were from Original Sin.

My loaded plate 2 - bee hoon was from Delivege, savoury cake and rice from taste of natural, and I think it was shepherd's pie and something else from Living Greens. I can't remember where the white veg roll was from.

And I thought I've just got to show you the biodegradable, environmentally friendly plate we used for the food. Can you guess what it is made from?

New Green Pasture Cafe

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Ambience: Quiet as there wasn't much human traffic on 4th floor, take the tables right inside the cafe if you want even more privacy. Plenty of organic/vegan/vegetarian stuff being sold in the cafe.

Down to the food... sorry there were so many dishes I could hardly remember their names, so I gave some of them their own names depending on what they most resemble. For the health concious - none of the dishes below contain mock meat :)

Golden pillow (bread wraps)

Salad soba (must try this, they added some molasses, if you don't want it sweet tell them to hold the molasses) contains soba, veggies, seaweed, rice crackers and lots of stuff which I can't figure out what.

Lor Mai Kai (Chicken and glutinuous rice) and salad

Tau pok wraps (Bean curd skin wraps)

Sushi (Riceless)

Rojak, try this. fruits + veggies in special sauce.

Popiah

They also have soup which you could get from the counter. These were for four people, you'll feel full after eating, yet not heavy inside till you feel sleepy. Cost $10+ per pax.

Address: Fortune centre, level 4.

Btw, there are more veg options at fortune centre now - even Xing Hua vegetarian has moved there (on the 1st floor).

Hong Kong and Macau trip part 2

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:36:00 +0000

I realised I have forgotten to blog about the second part of the HK and macau trip last year :p!

What I really want to show you in this post was the vegetarian food I bought at Sino vegetarian restaurant, near Jordan MTR. I had their vegetarian "beef" noodles which was really good - this dish was actually ovo-lacto, but they ran out of the noodles to make it and did a substitute, so I had it vegan.

Not pretty when packed, but the taste is really different (and good!) compared to the vegetarian Zhi Chars in Singapore. Its unique flavour is something which I have never tasted in Singapore so far. Even the mock meat used tasted different. The serving was also really large and you will be really full unless you like to have 1.5 to 2 Singapore servings of food in your usual meal.

Address of Sino veg rest. at 131-135 Parkes St, Yau Ma Tei, Jordan MTR exit A. It's right at the end of Parkes street which turns into Saigon street.

(Click here to read about the 1st part on the vegetarian food I had at the Big Buddha temple at Lantau island.

The rest of the trip is mainly to the peak, ocean park and disneyland.

View of HK island and Kowloon from The Peak. On the peak, I had boiled vegetables and rice at a non-veg place. Remember to always tellconfirm with the waiter not to use oyster sauce for your veggies even though they said "boiled". This was the most healthy meal I had :D

Ocean park was basically marine animals themed and you get to see lots of marine animals. They are about (or rather they claim they are about) "conservation, education etc. etc.which I thought was just BS.

It's a place where I can't find a single vegetarian place - meat and seafood is what you find. Talk about conservation.

We also get to watch dolphin and seal shows - to bring out the message of living in harmony with sea creatures. Living in harmony when we are keeping them in an unnatural environment, exploiting them for shows. Talk about education.

Disneyland - very good for kids and will satisfy the kid in you. There are vegetarian options if you are willing to compromise a little, no full fledge vegetarian place.

There wasn't time to hunt for vegetarian food in Macau. We signed up for a day tour when we reach Macau and were basically rushed here and there to the tourist spots. However I was told by the tour guide that there aren't any vegetarian places in Macau (or maybe she doesn't know of them :)). Still, there are the famous Macau almond cookies that come in "suitable for vegetarians" labels. Do take note that some of these vegetarian almond cookies contain milk, so are not vegan. But there are dairy-free ones out there, read the ingredients label.

Crab Freedom

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 04:15:00 +0000

Crab freedom - 3 ladies set 2 crabs free.

I like this because it inspires us to do every little bit we can for the world.

VSS 10th anniversary and promoting vegetarianism in Singapore schools

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Yesterday Vegetarian Society Singapore had it's 10th anniversary and Annual general meeting. With the new commitee members, it was really heartening to see the many new ideas and plans being developed and excuted. Among these amazing developments, what stood out to me was the development of the Singapore tourism board brochure for vegetarian food in Singapore (good news for tourists!) as well as the plans to introduce of a vegetarian burger in one of the food stalls in Raffles Institution. We were showed a picture of the burger picture it looks so super delicious that I can't wait to try it, in fact, those who have tried it said it was good. The burger patty is made out of mushrooms and not the usual mock meat and this burger alone fueled the whole room with excitement and ideas on its promotion in schools were injected into the discussion like a flowing stream. With the introduction of familiar food first, progress can be made towards introducing more fruits and vegetables in the diet of students.

The promotion of vegetarianism in Singapore schools is still in its infant stage. VSS held exhibitions and talks in schools and now is moving towards encouraging consumption of healthy vegetarian food in schools. I really hope Singapore principals and teachers will be open to the concept of vegetarianism, and not brush it off with preconceived myths that it is unbalanced and makes you weak. What will really make us weak are our clogged arteries, high blood sugar levels, and the many kinds of illnesses that plague us as we age. This is the reason why the foundation of good health needs to be build in our youth.

Though we may not be opened to very new ideas that are not yet introduced around the world, vegetarian options are not alien to many schools in the west and also in the tertiary institutions in Singapore. It is perfectly fine to introduce this as a healthier choice in Singapore schools, as well as to make lives of vegetarian students easier.

Back to the AGM...The best thing to forward to about these meetings is of course, and ALWAYS the food served :)

This time, we had a vegan cake baked by Halimah which tasted so amazingly non-vegan but yet is cholesterol and dairy free.

Aside from the cake we had brownie catered from wholesome living

And the traditional vegan buns and bee hoon... (sandwiches were not vegan)

Drawing the line when promoting veganism

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:04:00 +0000

I came across this article on going vegan instead of just vegetarian.

In the article, the author describes how animal rights have changed from being animal-centered to human-centered. I thought this is pretty true, some animal rights groups are now supporting the meat industries on to employ more "humane" way of slaughter, scientists to come up with humane lab-grown meat, less cruel way of raising animals by free range etc. These are means of convenience for people, not animals actually.

Sometimes I feel this "softer", grey, approach is more realistic because the whole world would not go vegan, so we should be practical and support better welfare for animals. "But animal rights is not animal welfare" say those with the idealist mindset. Forget about "humane killing" and "less cruelty", you are either white or black, vegan or animal-cruelty supporter.

When we promote veganism where do we draw the line? Which approach do we use?

It is most difficult to keep friends and at the same time use the black and white approach. Some friends may eventually turn vegan with this approach, yes. But a large majority will be turned off (though you may gain applause from vegans), so we may end up backfiring our efforts. To use the softer approach however, may result in the person becoming someone who is contented with his or her lifestyle as an "I don't eat meat but only fish" person, or a vegetarian who is close-eared to any suggestions on moving onto a vegan lifestyle.

My suggestion on the solution is, we have to stick firmly to the black and white principle - because the ultimate goal is that animals will not be exploited. But at the start we can use the soft approach, if the person is receptive we can move on slowly to the black and white approach. At times, we have to know when to inject some hard approach while using the soft, and vice versa. This is though, not an easy thing to accomplish and easier said than done. Always keep in mind to go along with the situation and know when to pull and release the string - like flying a kite.

Every cow's dream

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Lets see... do people hate brussels sprouts that much?

The chronicles of Judith - The Vegetarian

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:31:00 +0000

Nice one, I believe most vegetarians can relate to this or something similar.

Yes Natural and Lotus Heart

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:29:00 +0000

Mui Fan - Rice in gravy from Yes Natural. Pretty usual. What I like about Yes Natural mui fan is that they don't overdo the veggies, they still retain some of that crunchiness.

Stone pot rice also from Yes Natural. The interesting thing about this rice set is they use thin slices of fruit in it so it is a little sweet. The set also contain lots of veggies and mushrooms and some vegetarian meat floss.

These rice sets also come with a bowl of soup - see this entry for soup details.

Lotus Heart at BTRTS have revamped their menu. They no longer serve their daily bento sets now. I ordered the black pepper mock meat rice, but I got black pepper fried noodles - it was still pretty good. Reminds me of the set dishes I had at Lotus vegetarian restaurant.

Fried rice was also nice when it was hot from the wok. But I still prefer the noodles.

Happy new year, we are the vegans

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Forgot to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May all good things come your way in 2009.

For all vegans here's a song dedicated for you, sung by Daniel Thompson. Hope you like it!

VSS Very Vege Christmas Party

livingvegan@gmail.com (dreamy) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:05:00 +0000

20 December 2008: I attended the "very vege christmas party" by Vegetarian Society Singapore. The food was simply amazing!

Vegan log cake! There is only one way to describe the taste - non-vegan. Now we know how good imitations can really get without cruelty! :)

Vegan meat, not like any other. This was simply the best imitation I have ever tried and it couldn't be bought from shops. Chewing on it gives you the shudders because it simply felt like chewing on the real thing.

Vegan Shepherd's pie made by Pauline with mushrooms at the bottom.

Pasta and mash potato...

Kheng's minestrone soup...

And of course, with Shakib around there's always Shakib's salad - beautiful and healthful greens!