VVOC.org

5 Dickson Plaza, 67-69 Woolley St, Dickson ACT

This restaurant offers yet another variation on the infinite possibilities of Chinese food. For starters we had Crunchy Wantons, small mushrooms in batter accompanied by plum and sweet chilli sauces, and Smoky Rolls that turned out to be meat substitute; each came with a serve of carrot, lettuce and cucumber. We also enjoyed a dish of complimentary spring rolls (thank you!) Our main courses were Crispy Mushroom Balls in Plum Sauce, more ball than mushroom, with carrot, lettuce and cucumber, and Stir-fried Lemon-grass Tofu, that came with carrot etc.

It’s one of those styles of Chinese cooking that plays with the conventions rather than aiming for authenticity. The regular, if not inevitable appearence of a side salad is surprising, but the crisp freshness of the ingredients goes well with the rather starchy nature of the food that is served. Most of the menu is given over to soy seafood, chicken, duck, beef, lamb and pork dishes; perhaps they are less starchy.

The Kingsland operates under the auspices of a Supreme Master. It is tucked away in a neighbourhood full of ethic eateries offering vegan and vegetarian possibilities, but certainly worth a visit.

219 Given Terr, Paddington Q 4064

Surely these organic places used to be more common than they are now; the uber-wholesome environment, the committed staff with long hair and the vaguely hippy-like nature of some of the clientele take one way back. But hey man, no need to stress out, for the food here surpasses expectations. The tofu burgers come with a choice of sauces and a salad of shredded carrot, beetroot, green leaves and sprouts, enclosed by slices of very fine bread, creating an extremely satisfying dish. The frittata with asparagus is accompanied by fresh salad (how about beetroot with fetta?), while in one of the breakfast dishes (still available at lunch time) the scrambled eggs team up with avocado, mushrooms and a mixture of beans. In every case the servings are generous and the dishes well thought out so as to provide a balance of flavour and texture. The juices are formidable. This cafe is unreservedly recommended, and for those who want to take some of the experience home there’s a store attached where you can buy, among other things, seriously cool muesli!

201-203 Faraday St, Carlton Vic.

This is an entirely vegetarian and largely vegan restaurant where the dishes seem to have been invented by the cooks, who also have a knack of giving their creations funky names. For starters there is the wonderfully crunchy and tasty Scent of a Green Papaya in which the signature fruit is joined by sprouts, cashews and seaweed, or you can try the Avocado Magic, in which avocado, red capsicum and aubergine come fried in pastry wrappers with a coriander sauce…it’s a great idea, but I’m not sure that cooking delicately flavoured avocado really works. For a main meal, how about the luscious and thoroughly satisfying Green Green Laksa of noodles, coconut milk, sprouts, mushrooms, tofu, seitan and greens, or perhaps the nicely textured Croquettes de Chine of yams, macadamia nuts and potatoes, with accompanying veggies. We drank strawberry lassi and a dark grape juice so thick it needed a glass of water to wash it down. This is genuinely creative cooking, and it’s great fun seeing how the cooks combine familiar ingredients in completely unexpected ways. More of a place for a special outing than everyday eating, the Shakahari is most definitely worth a visit.

8/259-269 Unley Rd, Malvern Village, Malvern SA

This smart restaurant, which occupies two floors, is highly recommended by people in the know, and it’s easy to see why. For starters we enjoyed the vegetable samosas, fat and full of potatoes, green peas and a good spice mix. Our main meals included the Peshawi Aloo, in which the potatoes come with onion, tomatoes and a what is clearly a generous helping of spices, and Egg Plant; on the day we were there it was beautifully soft and red…there is always something immensely satisfying about fried aubergine, and the cooks here handle it superbly. Sometimes it seems a good idea to eat something fresh to balance the flavours of an Indian meal, and we went for the Katchumber Salad of tomatoes, onions, cucumber and capsicum, which turned out to be oddly sweet, apparently a consequence of its being flavoured with both vinegar and lemon. While this restaurant may look like a standard suburban Indian dive, in reality it serves very fine food indeed.

15 Tribune St, South Bank, Brisbane Qld

I think I’m getting the hang of Turkish restaurants: while there’s always plenty of very satisfying bread, you should nibble it slowly so as to leave plenty of room for other things. The Mado offers artichokes as a starter, soft with lots of lemon, and the more substantial white bean salad, which comes on a bed of lettuce with parsley and red onion; this is a heavy dish for a starter, and perhaps could have used a little more dressing.  For a main course you can’t go past the oven cooked vegetables which are served in a litle pot, straight from the oven. The dish of potatoes, green capsicum and mushrooms is not heavily spiced, and the mixture of natural tastes works well. It comes with bread, rice (does it really need both these accompaniments?) and a welcome salad. This is a flavoursome and simple cuisine; people after something a little more spicy should go on Friday or Saturday, when a belly dancer performs.

Shop 5, Harries Rd, Coorparoo, Qld

The menu at this comfortable restaurant allows a good range of vegetarian dishes to be sampled. For starters you can try the fattoush, an old Middle Eastern favourite of greens, cucumber, tomato, parsley and toasted bread (ours came without bread, but the staff brought another bowl.) There is a wonderfully tasty dish of aubergine and tomato served with thin Persian bread, or you could try the falafel and hummus that come as part of non-vegetarian platters. The main meals include Addas Polo, made up of rice with almonds, dates, sultanas and brown lentils; it’s obviously bursting with goodness, but some may find the taste a little bland. Quite the opposite is the intensely sweet Faloodeh, in which strips of vermicelli come with lots of rose water and some lemon sorbet. Strong coffee, which they do well here, goes well with such a dessert! There are all kinds of veggie possibilities in Persian food, which can be enjoyably sampled at this appropriately if unimaginatively named establishment.

58 Serangoon Rd, Singapore

It may have been hunger that drove me into the first restaurant in Serangoon Rd visible from the end of Buffalo St, and I wondered whether I’d made a mistake, for it has a western, bourgeois feel. But Ananda Bhavan is the real thing, with an alcove for washing hands, and its ambience is a reminder that globalization need not be sinister, but can represent non-Western people adopting western ways so as to integrate them into their own systems. They do a wonderful range of thosai (dosas), which come either with or without ghee, simply excellent, and there is a range of fruit drinks,among them the beautifully coloured watermelon.  

There are so many possibilities for vegetarian eating as you stroll along Serangoon Rd! Among the new looking places are a pure vegetarian halal restaurant, and place called Big Bites that seems to be modelled on Western fast food outlets…the former would certainly be interesting to try. And the surrounding streets, such as Racecourse Rd, are full of eateries. Little India is a wonderful section of a country where the food is simply fantastic.

This will be the last restaurant review posted in 2010. I’m grateful to the friends who’ve joined me at the table, and all those who have commented on the reviews. A happy and blessed celebration of the Nativity to all readers of this site! To finish for the year, here’s a short poem by Les Murray, entitled ‘In a Time of Cuisine’.

A fact the gourmet

euphemism can’t silence:

vegetarians eat sex,

carnivores eat violence.

541 Orchard Rd (#05-01/2 Liat Towers; enter by the side street), Singapore

As you study the menu at this stylish restaurant, munching the bowl of plump peanuts that have appeared on the table, it becomes clear that its cooks are keen to try new ideas. Slices of eggplant, stuffed with tofu, come stewed in a mixture of bamboo shoots, mushrooms and both red and green chillis; the dish is nicely textured, very tasty and well complemented by the four small buns that accompany it. The almond jelly recommended by the waiter isn’t as successful; while fine in itself, it comes with an avocado puree of a slightly unsettling colour, two berries and a sprig of mint, creating a mix of flavours that don’t really cohere. The freshly pressed juices are excellent. This restaurant is certainly worth a visit if you are keen to try new things, but you should be aware that you’ll pay twice as much for a meal as you would at the restaurant reviewed most recently.

 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.

133 New Bridge Rd (#B1-02, Chinatown Point, Podium A), Singapore

This Indian vegetarian restaurant has moved to Chinatown, and to get there you pass a row of decidedly non-veggie fast food outlets, but when you take the escalator down you know you’ve come to the right place. It is famous for its buffet lunch: you pick up a metal tray and load it with your choice of sambal (thin, salty, spicy and in in a word excellent!), rice, dahl made from brown lentils, several vegetable curries, water melon and dairy-based sweets. To drink there is lassi, either sweet or salty; the wonderful juices they used to offer seem to be a thing of the past, along with the elegant decor and sari- clad waitresses. When the time comes to go you pay whatever you think the meal was worth, all proceeds going to the charitable organization that runs the restaurant. Deservedly popular with both Singaporeans and tourists, the Annalakshmi takes food seriously, and I remain grateful to the person who first took me there, years ago.