Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant @ Quality Hotel, Balestier for LoveSharks.sg event.

Have you heard of LoveSharks? It's a local shark protectionist group that aims to educate and bring awareness that sharks are friends and not food.

If you have eaten sharksfin recently, you would have played a part in killing of the thousands of sharks that are killed for their fins.

Want to know how you can save the sharks? Hop over to LoveSharks' blog site that brings you news about Sharks at http://lovesharks.sg/

The folks at LoveSharks hosted the media and a few food bloggers to a meal to remind us that you and I can start loving sharks by not eating them! They are alternatives to sharks fin. "Mock Fins" are available if you want to have the texture of sharks fin in your soup or dishes.

The dinner's a vegetarian dinner at Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant at Balestier Road. This meal's available as a set meal available at this restaurant for the coming Chinese New Year festivities.

We started the meal with a vegetarian Prosperity Yu Sheng. Salmon's replaced with mock meat that tasted like a firmer version of fish cakes.




Next's the Vegetarian Sharks Fin Soup. The replacement mock fins not as crunchy as sharks fin, but we know one less shark is killed because we ate mock fins. The soup's not as tasty though. You need the vinegar and maybe pickled green chilli (that's what I did) to make it taste better.



Next dish served was Caltrops with Hairy Mushroom. This dish has the mock fins as well on top.



What are caltrops? It's also known as Water Chestnuts. They look a miniature version of black bull horns. I used to think they were horns when I was a kid! haha...



The Spicy Pan-fried Vegetarian Fish was served next. I would have prefered it without the spicy capsicum and chilli mix on top. They are tofu that suppose to replace cod fish.



The next dish, came served in ice cream cones. Fresh Mushrooms with Asparagus in Ice Cream Cones. The mushroom and asparagus quite all right, but ice cream cones should only go with ice cream. :-)



Oh the next dish quite unique. It's Fruity Almond Rolls and Vegetarian Otah.

Otah's not the thing that's unique, but the Rolls are. It has Nangka (Jackfruit), Banana and Mock Crab sticks in it. Maybe they should use higher heat to quickly deep fry it. It's a bit drenched with oil.



Everyone's favourite it seems. The next dish was Stewed Golden Fungus with Vegetarian Tenderloin. I love this dish very much. If I were to come back here, I would order this again. Daikon, chestnuts, mushrooms, carrot and the vegetarian equivalent of sea cucumber and tendons.



Little rice balls was served next. I wonder how they replicate the real chicken rice balls into these mock chicken rice balls. It was very fragrant but a tad oily.



The rice ball's good, but not the mock chicken. Forget the chicken, the rice balls goes well with the sauce from the previous dish.



Dinner ended with a very pleasant dessert. This is Osmanthus Pudding with Xue Lian.
I am not sure how to describe it, but I just like it!



Thanks to the folks at lovesharks for this meal. This set dinner's for 10 costs S$358++ and it's available at Lotus.


My photos are mostly close up photos. To see the dishes in all their splendour or from a different view/angle, visit my fellow food blogger's site who joined us for dinner. They brought their high end huge cameras. :-)

- Camemberu
- Lady Iron Chef
- Southernoise
- Superfinefeline (Gastronomic Ruminations)


Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant
2nd level, Quality Hotel
201 Balestier Road
Singapore 329926

Hours: Open daily, Lunch: 1130hrs - 1500hrs, Dinner: 1800hrs - 2200hrs
Tel: 6254 0090

Vegetarian Food @ Holland Drive Food Centre

We wanted to go to Holland Village to collect my 'just renewed' Sushi Tei card, but there was no parking. So Momo and I decided to just forget about eating there. We went to Holland Drive Food Centre instead.

To have the ultra cheap $2 meal.
Sorry, the first photo is blurry, it focused on the man at the side instead! I took only 1 photo. haha..



These are the two plates we ordered. It is one of the most filling meal you can have for $2.
Don't think it is healthy though. But the crispy 'roast goose' (tofu / beancurd skin) sure is delicious.

If you are wondering, this is mock vegetarian food, the crispy tofu skin is suppose to represent "sao er" (roast goose). Does it look like it at all? LOL...



I don't fancy mock 'cha shao' (bbq meat). I prefer the real thing. Anyone knows what the brown pieces is suppose to represent? :-)



The thing I like are actually the cabbage, pickled green chilli and crispy tofu skin. They give a lot of bee hoon, so it is super filling.

Noticed that they have gone back to using washable plates instead of disposable Styrofoam plates. Looks like they are turning greenie too.

Zhen Ji Vegetarian Food
44 Holland Drive
02-26 Holland Drive Food Centre
Singapore 120044

Vegetarian @ Holland Drive Food Centre

This is one popular stall in the Holland Drive Food Centre. There is always a snaking queue. Actually it is really interesting in this Food Centre. There's a long queue at both the Vegetarian stall and also the Roast Meat queue. One meat camp, the other anti-meat. haha..

Anyway, this vegetarian shop is really cheap. Used to be $1.50, but nowdays it is $2. Still quite cheap for its generous portions.



This is my colleague's lunch last Wednesday, 2 days ago.
Another post for the NUS/NUH/Science Park lunch people. Enjoy!

Vegetarian Food @ Holland Drive Food Centre

I like vegetables, but not mock meat that's called vegetarian. But this stall in Holland Drive Market / Food Centre is very popular. The queue is always very long. We managed to get there just before the main crowd comes.

The Store... at #02-26



This is a huge plate of food, which costs only $2. It used to cost only $1.50!!!
What you see that looks like meat, no no, they are mock meat!



This is colleague's plate. I think we ordered one each. 4-5 plates of the same thing.
I like the top part, the crispy fried tofu skin. Colleage said that suppose to be mock duck! huh? How can it be duck? hahaha...



It taste quite real actually. But to me, real real veg and real real meat is much better. No fakes. LOL....