Hi everyone,
If you haven’t already heard, the inaugural Green and Healthy Festival will be taking place this Sunday, 4 September at Singapore EXPO Hall 3A from 9am to 8pm. The event seeks to promote enviromentally conscious and positive lifestyle and dietary choices with over 60 exhibition stalls offering diverse products and services, ranging from eco-friendly food and drinks to holistic healing and wellness checks. The Festival – which will be the largest secular vegetarian event ever held in Singapore – is jointly organized by Kampung Senang Charity and Education Foundation, the Vegetarian Society (Singapore) and Eco Harmony Global Network.
Truly the first of its kind in Singapore, the 1-day Festival will include:
- A veg cooking contest
- The launch of Green and Healthy Monday by Mdm Tin Pei Ling, Member of Parliament for Macpherson
- A talk and amazing show by vegan strongman Luke Tan
- Over 50 veg food stalls, most if not all of which are vegan
- A farmers’ market where you can grab some fresh and organic produce
- A cooking demo from VSS’ new cookbook, At Home From Pot to Pot
- An attempt to enter into the Singapore Book of Records for the most number of people simultaneously drinking a cup of smoothie (how cute is that?!), led by our local smoothie guru, Yeow
- A Smoothie Cycle Competition where participants will try their hand at riding specially designed bicycles to power up blenders for making yummy smoothies
- Yoga and Zumba sessions
- Activities for kids and a Children’s Nature Play Area
- Educational talks on topics such as diet, nutrition and sustainability
- Music performances and Virtual Reality videos
With such an incredible range of activities and events lined up, it’s almost hard to believe that admission for this event is absolutely FREE. Nonetheless, I urge you to purchase festival coupons through this webpage to support the raising of funds for Kampung Senang and for the promotion of eco-conscious and positive lifestyle and dietary choices. I also encourage you to bring your own eating utensils, water bottle, shopping bag, etc. in line with the ethos of the Festival.
More information on the Festival can be found on the Festival’s official website and Facebook page.
See you at Singapore EXPO this Sunday!
Peace, Love, Vegan
Ash
Sufood, which is owned by Taiwan’s largest restaurant chain, has been making waves since opening in Singapore earlier in May. Sufood fills a sizeable space on the second floor of Raffles City with its bright, inviting and playful decor. Options are fairly extensive, and you may order ala carte if you wish, but most would opt for the “8-course” set meal – $25 will get you a starter, bread, vinegar, salad, soup, main, dessert and a drink (the last 5 of which can be chosen from the whole range of options in the menu). Sufood markets itself as serving Italian-inspired vegetarian cuisine, but if you’re a purist like me, you’ll have to manage your expectations – the menu is more accurately described as typical Western fare, with a focus on simple “Italian” mains, and scattered with a few Chinese options. The ingredients used were minimally processed and the vegan dishes I tried were mostly light and healthy. Dishes containing milk, eggs and garlic/onion are also clearly marked out. Service was prompt and helpful, although they seemed to have been in a rush to serve each course more quickly than they should have. And now for a review of all the dishes I tried in each course –
I would recommend you move your way along the SUFOOD Appetizer from right to left – the tiny columns of poached Japanese yuca root were refreshing and slightly creamy, but its character was rather overwhelmed by the sugary blueberry coulis. The adjacent stack of white water snowflake greens were light in flavour and had a pleasant crunch. A savoury cherry tomato jelly surrounding a dried (you guessed it) cherry tomato and spiked with a hint of vinegar rounded it off.
The Rosemary Breadsticks were essentially crunchy batons that were dry, bland and devoid of texture within. You would get to choose from the mustard dip (not vegan) or the blueberry dip, which was similar to the blueberry coulis used in the appetizer – both were too sweet and tasted processed.
The simple, balsamic-glazed Mushroom Salad might actually have been my favourite course of the meal – fresh, plump button mushrooms and shitake mushrooms were accompanied by lightly steamed, and still slightly crunchy, broccoli florets, sweet cherry tomatoes and Japanese cucumber.
Thin slices of lotus root and burdock root, as well as soft cashews and gingko nuts, formed part of the savoury stew in the Root Soup. This would still be my pick despite it having been a tad too salty.
Next in line was the Mushroom & Pea Pottage. Button, shitake and king oyster mushrooms lent a strong earthy flavour to the creamy, and slightly chunky, base of blended sweet peas.
The Cream of Pumpkin Soup used soymilk to great effect in achieving a creamy texture without being dense, but it missed the natural sweetness of pumpkin and turned out bland.
And finally, just as one begins to feel stuffed, the main course arrives. To get to the crux of the Wild Mushroom Charcoal Tagliatelle, which came recommended – the charcoal tagliatelle, while fragrant, were nothing close to al dente. They were soft and tended to clump together, but they were pleasant enough if you were to regard them as regular noodles. I enjoyed the tender yet substantial rings of king oyster mushrooms, which were sauteed in light olive oil and vinegar, as well as very generous doses of garlic, onion and pepper. Fresh green leaves and cherry tomatoes served as a contrast to the more robust ingredients. All in all, the dish was unexceptional in terms of taste and texture (the amount of pepper used was overpowering), but it did use interesting ingredients and served as an adequate main dish. I also liked the serving size, which was far more manageable than the cheese-laden vegetarian mains my counterparts were having.
The meal was concluded with a light, mildly sweet Osmanthus Flower Jelly speckled with chrysanthemum flowers, and a Chamomile Tea with a hint of yuzu flavour and tiny, sweet chunks of yuzu.
Recently opened in January 2014, Ke Zhan serves up Sichuan- and Guangdong-influenced Chinese dishes in a faux traditional Chinese inn (“客棧”) setting. The Cantopop and Korean pop KTV playing on big-screen TVs at the entrance and in the restaurant was a slightly baffling but amusing contrast. Aside from the typical dishes found in a Chinese restaurant, a selection of grilled skewers (more than 10 of which are vegan) is available from 6pm till late. Dishes came in decent portion sizes and were well presented. Booze options included wine, whiskey, shochu, sake and Chinese wine. Service was generally acceptable though the Chinese female servers tended to be slightly grumpy.
The grilled French beans, which came recommended, were sweet and crunchy, while the grilled WaWa vegetable (or Napa cabbage) had thick, subtly flavoured leaves. Both were drizzled with cumin salt and white sesame seeds for extra flavour. ($4 for the French beans, $3.50 for the WaWa vegetable)
Tender and fleshy slices of eggplant, with their glistening deep purple skins intact, were fried in sweet and slightly tangy chilli sauce. A small amount of French beans lent a crunchy texture and refreshing sweetness. This is best eaten while hot as the sauce became sticky and mildly cloying over time. ($15.80)
The Mapo Tofu was a let-down – it was too salty and not spicy in the least. This usually comes with beef so veg*ns would have to advise the waitresses accordingly. ($14.80)
Enoki mushrooms, sliced shitake and medallions of king oyster mushrooms were fried and served in a lightly flavoured vegetable broth. ($14.80)
A simple garlic stir-fry pairing soft, flat slices of bitter gourd with chewy black fungus mushrooms. The bitter gourd was cooked well and was only mildly bitter, but it would have been better if there were other ingredients to complement its flavour. ($12.80)
Afterglow, the mostly-raw and mostly-vegan deli/retailer/bar that opened at Keong Saik in March, has been garnering a lot of love from the media for its unapologetically hipster vibe, industrial chic décor and farm-to-table raw food. Unlike most veg eateries in Singapore, there’s reason to linger after your meal in the evening since it also offers a small selection of wines and craft beer. I’ll certainly be back as I’ve only managed to scrape the surface of the decently sized menu that incorporates many raw interpretations of western and Asian dishes (not to mention plans to open a cocktail bar have been set in motion), but here’s a preliminary impression of the food –
The tom yum soup was very light in flavor and mildly spicy, and slightly warmed so that the broccoli and shitake were almost cooked. I would imagine that the temperature of the soup did not go beyond 40 or so degrees Celsius so it would probably qualify as raw. I prefer my tom yum to be traditionally Thai, i.e. supremely hot and sour, but this might work for you if you prefer a toned down Western version. ($14)
The sushi-in-a-bowl was a hearty portion of chewy black rice with shredded carrot, edamame, and slices of shitake and avocado. This was topped with sesame seeds, nori and refreshing, lightly pickled cucumber rounds. While the sushi bowl had a pleasant concept, the potential of the dish was not maximized as the miso dressing was not flavourful and the avocado should have been left to ripen for a bit longer. ($16)
Thin yellow zucchini spirals with an ideal level of ripeness were the star of this classic raw main dish. The tomato sauce and pesto, however, could do with a richer flavor. ($16)