Happy Realm Vegetarian Food Centre
100 Eu Tong Sen St (#03-16, Pearl’s Centre), Singapore
When you see that sign on the wall, ‘Please no meat or alcoholics’, you realise that the people who run this restaurant are serious about what they do. Some of the enticing dishes on the menu are familiar, such as the bean curd with eight wonders, although the implication that green peas are wonderful might be pitching it a bit high; the soft tofu is nicely complemented by the wonders, among which are several types of mushroom. New to me were the preserved dough with green chilli (what I would call capsicum), which comes in a black bean sauce, and the seaweed ginger broth, the seaweed dark and soft yet chewy and the ginger in long strips; more mushrooms are included. The restaurant has a gentle air and is popular with families. You eat off plastic, but the cooking has integrity, the menu, entirely vegetarian and almost completely vegan, is amazingly long, and the goodwill of the friendly staff makes exploring it a sheer delight.