When it comes to vegetarian food especially in Malaysia, I'm not a fan since I hate eating wheat gluten that is used to re-create the mock meat in Chinese vegetarian dishes. However, a recent trip to this vegetarian restaurant in Pudu did have me reassesing my previous opinion as their food items were delectable and the ingredients including the gluten used tasted freshly made. This particular restaurant is extremely popular among the Buddhists who follow a vegetarian diet on the first and fifteenth days of the Chinese lunar calendar.
Their signature dish is the assam fish (fish cooked in tamarind) whereby gluten is used to imitate the fish meat. What really stands out is their assam gravy which is fragrant and tangy. I'm sorely tempted to revisit this place for a takeaway and add noodles plus lots of shredded cucumber and pineapple to recreate my favourite assam laksa dish.
Besides gluten, different varieties of mushrooms are mostly used in vegetarian cuisine. I'm totally fine with that since I am a mushroom lover. Usually a mix of canned and fresh mushrooms are used which is braised to give it flavour.
This particular dish uses a mix of fresh vegetables such as sweet corn, capsicum and carrots which is then stir fried in a tasty black bean sauce with mock char siu slices made from gluten and bean curd puffs.
Most times, vegetarian food can be quite oily as it involves a lot of deep frying especially the raw wheat gluten. This particular dish may not have gluten in it but it's still quite unhealthy as it's deep fried. However it tasted really good since it has all my favourite ingredients: seaweed, enoki mushrooms and shredded carrot. Shaped like a meat patty, this is eaten with a plain steamed bun known as mantou.
Besides the cooked items, the restaurant also sells vegetarian items and caters for Buddhist events at the temple.
Restoran Vegetarian Yue Yee Chai
89, Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah
Off Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 03 - 2148 4681
(Open from 11.00 am to 2.30 pm for lunch and 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm for dinner. On the first and fifteenth day of the Chinese lunar calendar, they are opened from 8.00 am to 9.00 pm. Closed on the second day and sixteenth day of the Chinese lunar calendar.)
17 comments:
Love vegetarian... Have you tried Moon Garden cafe in Subang or USJ? Will try that after the fasting month.
there is another popular vegetarian restaurant at taman maluri, near jusco. i cant remember the name or jalan :p will find out later
whoa.... da mushroom with broccoli *drool* i like mantau!!!
Wow! I think that if I could eat these yummy looking food, I could give up meat! Every dish you show looks so delicious!
fulltime mom - nope, I rarely go vegetarian restaurants but this one is yummy. Give it a try one day when you are down town.
jackson - I also want to be yr friend since you get to travel to Taiwan and Bangkok.
babe - wow! u're the vegetarian expert in town.
meiyen - u go try the mantou, very addictive. I was so full already that I was drooling over it, had to resist from having second helpings.
lannae - nice right? Sometimes they kinda taste nicer than the real thing too.
ahh i ate there before...and i do agree... really good vegetarian food
i usually visit one close by to south city plaza, seri kembangan..good food and decent ambience. Another one would be pure mind restaurant at jalan imbi
I am a huge fan of vegetarian food. But I seldom go to vegetarian restaurants because my mother-in-law who's a fulltime vegetarian, is such a fantastic cook, that most restaurant cooking pales in comparison!! Her specialty is curries - nyonya, indian, mamak..you name it, she can cook it!! My husband is always asking me to go learn from his mother so that we can open a vegetarian restaurant next time!! :P
Most restaurants use gluten because it is cheap. My mother-in-law uses soya-based mock meats, which is more expensive, but tastes a lot better.
Boo, I have to transport 43 cupcakes to my daughter's school this Saturday. The cake box I have can carry max 24 in a single layer (there will be frosting on the cakes) and even then I find the box very big and cumbersome to carry around. Do you have any tips on how to pack them for easier transportation? Thanks!
teckiee - yummy esp the assam kuah. Now drooling thinking abt it.
praveen - thxs for the tips
kat - wow the food yr mum sounds good. Sorry, I don't know how you can transport them except in two flat boxes. You need a sturdier one made from corrugated paper as I think a cardboard one will be dangerous esp if not properly packed. Good luck, sounds like a mammoth task.
like i've mentioned before, i have a few full time vegetarian coliks who bring me around for vegetarian food. haha i'm not the expert. ok i've asked one of them, the taman maluri, from jalan cheras, turn left right after jusco. at the end of jusco complex, turn left into the shops parallel to the road. the shop is same row as hock seng guan dried meat.
Theres one more near the Sikh Gurudwara in Petaling Street.Its like an institution around that area
i was just having a conversation with ravenousrabbit on our first meeting...about the strange concept of mockifying meat...trust the chinese lar, you dont see other vegetarians making mock meat right? but it does add color and variety i guess.
ka..t, re your cupcake transportation, if your box is a solid box, you can use something on the four corners to prop up a cake board, and hence adding another layer to your storage. just make 4 lego columns (pillars), and place a cake board (roughly the size of the box, so it wont slide around), on the 4 columns, to create your upper floor.
sorry to lari topic, but you ARE my culinary see foo, boolicious. would you have the A&W type waffle recipe? all the waffle recipes i've tried are too floury, doughy, whereas the A&W one seems mainly air. Nice ler. Got ah?
Boo - will have to scour the cake supply shop to see what they have available! If I cannot find anything, I'm just going to bake one big cake and leave it to the teacher to cut!! :D
fatboybakes - hey! thanks a lot for your suggestion. I was just thinking how to make use of the extra space on top! :)
babe - I also ate at blue boy, will post them up nxt week. Very nice ckt.
sylmatra - thxs! I had Indian veg at Brickfields that day and the payasam was so yummy.
fatboybakes - no idea abt A&W's secret but try those top secret recipes who always try to find out famous restaurants recipes? Great idea on the transportation.Yeah, I read paprika's write up on yr meeting.
kat - I've seen those boxes in the bake shops, they're quite colourful and patterned. May be pricey too but definitely sturdier than the cardboard ones which is used by most bakeries. The last time my sister ordered so many cupcakes, it came a flat box like that.
Thanks for your article about the vegetarian restaurant in Pudu, I will try. As a vegetarian I am amazed with the amount of vegetarian restaurants in KL and PJ, but I always wondered what ingredients they use.
You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
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