Graces Court Vegetarian Restaurant: Meatless or Tasteless?

The word 'vegetarian' might not appeal to many, especially the carnivores amongst us or omnivores whose diets consist more of meat. Personally, and honestly, I prefer to acquire my daily intake of lean protein mainly from poultry, not from legumes, and mock meat and all had always been associated with flour and more flour, to me. 

I'm not an avid vegetarian and in fact, this was my first time I had a vegetarian dinner because my dad's friend was having a birthday celebration. This dinner was an eye opener to me, I felt. It widened up my narrow mindset and corrected my misconceptions regarding vegetarianism. How? You may ask, read on to find out.

 Graces Court Vegetarian Restaurant is, I heard, famous among vegetarians here and situating itself at Hotel Royal @ Queens makes dining here seem even more refined.

The appetizer was a platter of visually authentic dishes, such as the sausages, chicken and the five spice meat roll. You'll be surprised, some of them tastes amazingly identical to the real deal as well!

The sausages, though not having that intense meatiness of the real sausages, did well and tasted very close to the actual ones. This goes for the five spice meat roll as well.

Among the six different appetizer, I liked the five spice meat roll the best. Not only because it tasted like the actual thing itself but it had a balanced taste although I couldn't make out what was in them.

The Mock Lemon Chicken was served hidden below a mountain of keropok.

The lemon sauce was too sweet and mock chicken was on the bland side. Loved the keropoks that had speckles of spices in them, but not the mock chicken. Speaking of which, I wondered what the keropoks are made of? (it's a vegetarian dinner - no meat, no fish)

We had a pumpkin mock shark fin soup as well. It was interesting to see a bowl of orangey yellow bowl of shark fin soup and it was okay, with tofu skin substituting shark fins and a generous amount of straw mushrooms, a little on the strachy side though.

This dish is as real and as good as it looks. I felt that this dish of mushrooms and broccoli was probably the best dish for the night. The broccolis were cooked just right, resulting in tender stalks and delightful mouthfuls.

 This was mock ham/luncheon meat with a surprise cube of pineapple placed in the middle. This surprisingly has the meaty taste in it and was delectable.

  This was... did you guess it? Teochew Style Steamed Pomfret, a black one I was presume.

I wouldn't have known if I hadn't read the menu initially. I was anticipating what it would look like. It didn't have the looks, I agree, but it had taste. This tasted 70% similar to the real deal I dare to say.

The greenish black surface is actually layers of seaweed containing a sponge-like ingredient, I don't know what it is made of, but it certainly amazed me.

Last dish of the night, a dessert of course. Any fans of this heavy teochew dessert would be able to tell you what it is with this picture alone.

Yes, it was Orh Nee, and fans of it would surely be able to tell by the looks of gingko nuts studded onto the yam paste. I know of people who hate this but I absolutely love this. Haha, hi-fives to other fans of orh nee.

The Orh Nee was not as smooth as I picture it would be and they used artificial coconut milk which was diluted and thus gave this dish hefty discount. Worth a try, but certainly not the best.

This vegetarian dinner changed my mindset towards vegetarian food - that a lot of flour is being used and it was not tasty - and it was an eating adventure certainly. Though many of the dishes consisted of yellow beans or it products, I quite enjoyed the dinner and would recommend those wanting to try vegetarian food to come here and give it a go. Enjoy.

Graces Court Vegetarian Restaurant

Hotel Royal @ Queens
12 Queen Street #02-03 Singapore 188553

Tel: 62385085 Fax: 62385302

Website: http://www.gracescourt.com.sg/  
   

Hong Kong Street Chun Kee Restaurant: The Real Deal?

Hong Kong Street Restaurant or 香港街珍记 may ring a bell to those who frequent tze char stalls cum restaurants. You might have seen it at Novena, or Bukit Timah, or maybe even Changi, but today I'm introducing the one at Ang Mo Kio.

Hmm? And you thought they are were all under one man's monopoly. Wrong. I'm uncertain as to who's the real founder of the chain of Hong Kong Street Restaurants we have been seeing all around the island, but one thing's for sure, they are famous for their milky fish soup and other fish dishes.

The Sliced Fish with Spring Onion and Ginger certainly did not disappoint. The succulent slices of fishes were well fried with ginger and spring onion, resting on a pool of slightly thicken savoury gravy, it was lip-smacking good. Oh, and FYI, this type of fish said to be good for those who just had undergone any surgical operations as it helps the surgical wound to close up faster.

We ordered the Yam Ring Basket, which was chocked full of mushrooms, vegetables, prawns and topped with some cashew nuts. I have to admit, that although I wouldn't pay so much for a yam ring and mainly vegetables, but the yam ring was no doubt well-prepared. The yam paste, which was smooth and not cloying, does not leaving your mouth feeling very dry and it was fried to a nice and light crisp; Dipping it into sweet, stick sweet sauce was delightfully satisfying.

Unfortunately, the Claypot Tofu was disappointing. With vegetables, slices of yam, roasted pork and big square pieces of tofu all in a claypot, slathered with a starchy gravy, it didn't not exactly appeal to me or surprised me with it taste.

The famous 'Sam Lor Hor Fun' was the equally delicious as the Sliced Fish with Spring Onion and Ginger. Succulent slices of fishes was fried with hor fun and a generous amount of bean sprouts. The bean sprouts added a nice crunch to the overall texture of the dish and the hor fun had a nice subtle 'wok hei' taste to it.

In addition, we called for a plate of Sweet and Sour Pork too. It was good, but didn't come across as great to us.

Have you eaten at another Hong Kong Street Restaurant and would love to share your views? Or do you know the real story behind the chain of Hong Kong Street Restaurants that are popping up all around the island? I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below, thank you.  


Hong Kong Chun Kee Street Resturant
Blk 151, Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 
#01-3030, (S) 560157
Opening Hours: 11am - 2pm, 5pm - 11pm.

Teochew City Seafood Restaurant

Teochew Steamed Pomfret

Mother's Day is a day where mothers are appreciated simply because they're unique and everyone would only have one. And therefore, Mother's Day is a day to celebrate, and what's better than to have a meal together?

Food brings people and joy together, it's true, I can vouch for it and I'm sure you would too.

My family usually celebrates special occasions -birthdays, Father's Day, Mother's Day- with a meal. Be it dining at a restaurant or over at my grandma's place where we'll have red eggs - symbolises good luck, roundness (as in complete happiness) and a sign of prosperity.

There was no exception this time round and my sister suggested that we celebrate in advance at the Teochew City Seafood Restaurant. We were there last Sunday and tried some of their teochew dishes.

As far as I know, teochews are pretty famous for their teochew-style steamed fish. Since we were at a teochew restaurant, how could we not try thier steamed fish? We ordered a steamed pomfret, teochew-style of course, with sour plums and salted vegetable. The fish was fresh and steamed just nice. The salted vegetable and sour plums definitely added flavour to the dish. It was a simple yet great dish.

We ordered a Hot and Spicy Soup too. It wasn't exactly the watery soup kind of soup that we usually have but rather more like the taiwanese thick soup that have been thickened up with cornstarch or 'geng' as they call it. It was nothing special and tasted so-so.

This is a dish that's worth recommending. The Pork Rib with Yam in Claypot is worth recommending.

There were pork ribs, yam and mushroom inside the claypot. The pork ribs and yam were the star of the night. The thick slices of yam were not overcooked till they were mushy and have lost their texture but rather they were soft and chewy. Similarly, the pork ribs were juicy and flavoursome not rubbery. It's definitely a dish worth ordering while you're there at the restaurant.

The Sautéed Chicken Cube with Cashew Nut or Gong Bao Ji Ding was good with tender pieces of chicken coupled with crunchy cashew nuts. The dish was only mildly hot not overpowered by the chillies.

The Teochew Claypot Rice with Yam and Salted Pork wasn't very good. My sister commented that it was overwhelmed by the soya sauce's taste. While I thought it tasted like a non-sticky version of my aunt's glutinous rice, only less flavourful and i didn't even realise there was yam till I saw the menu.

And, of course, we concluded our dinner on a sweet note. My dad actually ordered Orh Nee, a well loved Teochew dessert, but my brother suddenly had the craving for Red Bean Pancakes so we changed the order. Not sure if it was a special order because we just asked them if they had it and they said they have but I didn't find it on the menu.

Anyway, the pancakes' red bean filling tasted fine but the pastry outside it was too thick and hence the pancakes were a tad too oily and not as crispy as they should have been. Have tasted better ones elsewhere. This one, just lacked the oomph in it.

'Smile!'

Happy Mother's Day in advance to all the mothers out there, thank you for the love you have given us!

Teochew City Seafood Restaurant

176 Orchard Road
#05-16 Centrepoint
Singapore 238843

Tel: +65 6733 3338

Opening Hours
Lunch:
10:30am – 3:00pm (Weekdays)
10:30am – 3:30pm (Weekends & PH)
Dinner:
6:30pm – 10:30pm (Daily)