Eating Green Without Your Face Turning Green

[ Vegetarian Food Review ] A certain someone and I have been trying to incorporate more vegetarian fare into our diets — yes, me, voluntarily eating vegetables, and no, it’s not a parallel dimension — and since we had errands to run in town, figured there’s no better opportunity to finally dine at Real Food in Orchard Central. (Don’t worry, this was weeks ago before the rise in cases!)

Real Food has been a relatively popular brand amongst the local vegetarian circle. The food is quite reminiscent of 2nd-tier Chinese cities’ take on Western fusion (except with a hint of local flavours too), where traditional ingredients are made into much lighter, and more carefully curated profiles to fit the mindful diner. While such culinary style can get monotonous quickly without variations in taste intensity, it’s great for someone watching their diet.

By the time we arrived, it was past 8pm. But even then, we just managed to snag the last non-bar seats available. Unfortunately, our luck did not hold — most items were long gone, and after a good 20 mins of back-and-forth with the kitchen, we finally managed to cobble together an order. Welp.

Perhaps we were a little oversold by our peers, but neither of us found the food particularly memorable. So much so that it took me weeks to consider posting this because of how sparse my taste memory is!

The best item of the night was their Steamed Dumplings ($10.80). The little garden each morsel contained was vibrant in taste and texture, and the tamari really added a whole new dimension to the dish.

My main of Organic ‘Belachan’ Fried Rice ($10.80) fared pretty well too, with the substitute of fermented soy for dried shrimp doing a pretty good job of evoking a piquant fragrance not unlike belachan. Unfortunately, the entire thing was so oily I couldn’t get past more than half of it.

A certain someone’s Cheesy Miso Tofu ($15.80) wasn’t great, and didn’t leave much of an impression either. The batter-dipped fried cauliflower on the other hand, was utterly inedible: the poor florets were tarred in a thick layer of unseasoned, and oddly limp batter. Never again.

[ Food Review — Vegetarian Food mini feature: D’Life ] For those unaware, it’s Earth Day yesteday! It has been ongoing since 20th of Apr, but dw if you missed it: All the cool talks on tech, climate literacy etc are still viewable on the official site!

Since this is predominantly my food dairy, I’ll spare you my droning — instead, we’re gonna look at one (of many!) way to help mitigate climate change through our love for food: Eating more vegetables.

Yeap. That’s it. Swap out some of the meat (especially beef; yes, I know it’s hard fellow steak lovers) and replace it with greens, and bam! Lower carbon footprint AND lower calorie count. Amazing right?

Even tho I’m still not the biggest fan of greens, my mum changed that by doing this one thing: She brought me to vegetarian restaurants that mimicked things I love to eat. While the flavours aren’t quite the same, the elaborate myriad of textures and tastes did wonders to abate my apathy! (Ofc the caveat here is don’t eat items that are solely flour! Go get some of those unprocessed greens for that good ol’ fibre action!)

Since my grandpa is vegetarian, one of the places we tend to go is D’Life. They’ve multiple branches; the closest for me is at Beauty World, right outside exit B. Two reasons to eat here: Huge menu + affordable prices (think zichar w/o seafood). For ref, our entire spread here was ~$50, and I was stuffed!

You know how I said try not to have too much flour if you go for vegetarian food? Well, tha doesn’t mean you’ve to avoid mock meats; it just means you need to find places that has a high enough skill floor to incorporate goodies like tofu and ‘shrooms into their “meats”.

Don’t know what to order here? Simple: Replicate our order here (CW from top: Curry mutton, satay, broc + monkey head shrooms, nonya fish, soy nuggets)

If there’s ONE dish you need to get tho, it’s this: Nonya Fish

For me this dish was love at first taste! The sauce is tangy and much richer than most veg replicates; but even if you want something non-spicy, just get their fish dishes. Trust me. The way they fold the tofu into a dense mille feuille does a brilliant job of mimicking actual fish texture — no other place comes close!