Shan Yuan is another stall that is nestled in an extremely vegetarian friendly hawker centre, just outside exit B of Boon Keng MRT. There are over five vegetarian stalls all a stones throw away from each other. There are two downsides, however. Firstly, the opening times of all the stalls are extremely unreliable (I have faced a situation where at 6pm
all the stalls where inexplicably closed). Secondly, they all more or less sell the same conventional stereotypical Chinese vegetarian food. Sigh, how I long for something with a little more unique, sometimes.
Shan Yuan Vegetarian
Location: #01-41, Blk 31 Bendemeer Road
Contact: Unknown
Opening Hours: Closed on Tuesdays
The first dish to greet my assessment table of doom was the
Kway Chap. There are a few laudable aspects to this dish - Namely, the flavourful (yet subtle) soup, and the nicely marinated tofu. What I took less kindly too was the kway. The texture was almost right, but required a little more firmness. Ultimately the kway was too brittle, and disintegrated when picked up.
Price: $2.50. 6/10
The next dish I packeted was the
Fried Rice. For vegans, do make sure to highlight that you don't want eggs in the rice. The rice itself did have pretty good flavour, although there were one too many beansprouts inside for my liking. Beansprouts I associate more with noodle dishes, rather than rice. To make up for the egg, that I asked to be excluded, they added in tofu, which added a perfect substitute for the egg. Those hideous mock seafood jelly 'meats' unfortunately found there way into the packet - All vegetarian stalls really need to stop using that garbage, not only is it unhealthy, it also gives vegetarian food a bad image, in my opinion.
Price: $3.00. 6/10
Conclusion - Although I found the food from this stall to be acceptable, I simply found both dishes quite forgettable - Thus, even finding anything interesting to summarise this review is a challenge. To put it simply, I have had much worse food in Singapore, but I have also experienced much better.
Overall Rating
Food - 6/10
Ambiance- 6/10
Service - 6/10
Value - 6/10
The kway will tend to get soft and disintegrate easily when you doggy bag them for too long. Personally I like them soaking in the braising liquid just a few minutes to soak up the flavours but not too long such it completely falls apart.
ReplyDeleteHey XY,
DeleteI didn't keep in the packet for very long, but yeah, you might have a valid point! :)
Luke
i super agree to the "situation" you've pointed out - do away with the mock meats, please. sometimes the mock meat just "destroy" the dish,imo. though once in a while it taste nice(?) with it?
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley,
DeleteYeah, I am not totally against mock meat. The soy or mushroom type I find quite fine. Plus, it allows people who are converting from meat-diet to vegetarian diet to transition more smoothly.
The mock meat that I really can't stand is those mock seafood jelly type meats, haha. Those ones that are like eating a piece of rubber.
Luke
Hi Luke,
ReplyDeletePersonally I love their marinated mushroom! Maybe yours was soaked in the soup for a while so the flavour was gone. But so far theirs is the best marinated mushroom which I've ever eaten! I'm a mushroom lover! haha!
And, I guess you can tell the stall holders that you don't want the mock meat/fish when you're ordering. I usually did that and asked for more vegetables instead :)
Hey yaya,
DeleteIf you're a mushroom lover, I would recommend the mushrooms from Vegetarian Era from their Hougang and Ang Mo Kio stalls - So far the best mushrooms I've eaten.
Of course, but I guess I often romatically dream of the day when it is in reverse - By default the dish comes with more vegetables and no horrid jelly.
For me, I can tolerate it...But what frustrates me, is people trying vegetarian food for the first time will get the impression this is what vegetarian food is about - When in fact, stalls like this represent the old dated style of vegetarian cooking. Where as, there is a new generation of vegetarian cooking that thankfully is rid of these stereotypes.
Thanks for your feedback! And do try the mushrooms I suggested, would love to know what you think.
Luke