Ganbatte!

Ok, many people have asked me why I suddenly became a temporary vegetarian. Even my niece and nephew are confused "why you sometime vegetarian, sometime not?"  This is because usually, on and off, I would be vegetarian for a day, or a week or a month. Well, it was not my friends or family who asked me to, or from any dietitian or doctor. I would not purposely do something just because someone asked me to without giving me a proper reason.  This time round, I was advised by the healing lama to go vegetarian for 100 days, for spiritual, health and luck purposes and maybe some other personal reasons. Thank you, Lama! Ganbatte to myself!

This week's round up of some food I came across....

My usual favourite if I am near Liang Court - Kakiage Udon. This is at the basement of Meidi-ya Supermarket, where they have different counters selling Japanese food, like a Japanese foodcourt; one counter for udon, one for curry, one for sushi, one for ramen etc..  Kakiage Udon is the vegetable tempura with clear broth, and the quality of the thick udon was fantastic. They fry the tempura into a huge ball, made up of strips of carrots, capsicum and big onions. I normally sprinkle alot of Shichimi Togarashi, the Japanese chilli powder, which contains red pepper, roasted orange peel, yellow sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, Japanese pepper, seaweed, ginger. The Kakiage Udon here is one of the best udon around, without restaurant pricing.

I had my favourite Tze Char Hokkien Mee in vegetarian version, which the coffeeshop gladly did for me. The kick of this dish was from the way they fry the Hokkien Mee and the sauce. One of the days, the family had this Yam Basket as well. I did not take the prawns and chicken chunks that came with it. I only ate the deep-fried crispy-outside-soft-inside yam and the vegetables. Ooo... it was very good.

Yes I cooked these dishes! I cooked Sayur Lodeh (vegetable curry), Stir-fry Lotus Root, Mixed Veggies with Broccoli, and Tomato Potatoes.  I missed my yummy crunchy stir-fried lotus root which I usually cook with minced pork. This time I did not use pork, just sesame seeds. Broccoli is one of my favourite vegetables (which I stir fry with carrots and chinese mushrooms). Also made my own tomato sauce potatoes, and added carrots, onions, and yes, apples (because I ran out of green capsicum)!

One of the days, I tried cooking 茶叶蛋 Cha Ye Dan (Tea Leaves Eggs). I have a pack of the spices, and you just need to boil the hard boiled eggs together with the spices and some seasoning. While the whole house was filled with the nice aromatic smell of Cha Ye Dan, and they looked ok when cooked, unfortunately the spice has not thoroughly permeated the eggs, hence it was still bland eggs (even though they were cooked for 2 hours). Now we know why they cooked them in slow cooker in pasar malam stalls.

Perhaps being a vegetarian now gives me more excuse to take sweet desserts? Haha! I was craving for these - Tau Suan (split green bean soup with you tiao) and Black Sesame cream soup.  They were from my neighbourhood market and quite good.