Vegipai @ Taman Desa

Vegetarian eateries  usually exudes a religious ambience by way of : the monotonous chanting played repeatably over the speaker, the free religious CDs/literature at one corner, posters of religious messages /concerts/deities on the walls or all of the above. Anyway, although Vegipie is a vegetarian restaurant, the ambience was young, hip and trendy- exactly as what was mentioned in the menu – this is a lifestyle..

I was suppose to take mum for roast duck / wan tan mee noodles but they were closed that day and that was why we ended up at Vegipie. With free wi-fi, and pink walls…Vegipie serves a variety of dishes include stand alone meals like petai friend rice, seaweed fried rice, Hainanese chicken fried rice, fried glass noodles, fried mee mamak, Cantonese style fried koay teow , pumpkin fried noodles, nyoya laksa, ramen soup and even pizza with a variety of toppings ! And one could also order a variety of dishes like tofu, vegetables and etc.

We decided to try the  bitterguord fried koay teow, spinach in gravy and a variety of mushrooms.

Bitterguord fried kuay teow ( RM9.90), the portion was kinda smallish, there were a large amount of gravy , err..maybe way too much for my liking , apart from slices of bitterguord where still a bit green , there were also slices of carrots and pieces of babycorn, taste wise, not bad lah.

Organic Chinese spinach with gravy ( RM18) , the Chinese spinach were compactly packed and after some ‘unpacking’, there were enough of spinach to share with Popeye and even Olive Oyl. There were some cubes of what I think was winter melon served with the spinach , which was a nice touch as it added another texture to the dish. Luckily the gravy was light and not overly starchy, taste wise- pretty good.

Various mushroom stew with Chinese herbs ( RM25). I can’t named all the mushrooms, so what I can say is there were a variety of mushrooms in this dish- including the ‘monkey brain’ mushroom- which was a bit tough, other than mushrooms, the dish included : lotus seeds, red dates, black fungus, the bamboo thingy that has the texture like a sponge, petals from the magnolia flowers ( pak hap) . Subtle yet refined. This was nice.

Overall, an enjoyable meal.

Location :
37A, Jalan Desa Bakti,
Taman Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : 7982 8184

From the Taman Desa main road ( Jalan Desa Utama, past TM Point( on your right), you will see a  traffic light, turn right- 2 block of shop lots on your right and double storey terrace houses on your left. Vegepie is at the block closer to Faber Towers
Opening hours: 11am till 10pm everyday

Radhey’s Heavenly Delights @ Old Klang Road

A long long long overdue post ( wayyy back in Jan)  –the dog ate my notes

This was another meal from the Groupon promotion..goodness me, it is almost like every post you see here is  a Groupon meal… how har ? how did I survive before Groupon ? Below are the details of the deal

 Radhey offers vegetarian cuisine and is located at the 3 ½ mile of Old Klang Road, most prominent landmark would be HSBC and Old Town Cafe. Our visit took place on a weekend and there were no problem in getting a parking space, I am not sure about the parking availability during weekdays though. We paid a flat rate of RM2/entry

You will have to climb a flight of stairs to get to Radhey..a bit of exercise before a meal…

The official website  http://www.radheys.com.my/main.html and you can view the menu online http://www.radheys.com.my/menu.pdf

The all you can eat buffet is priced at RM27.30 , which ( according to the menu) include variety of rice, vegetables, lentils, complimented with naan/tandoori roti, achar, papaad, chutney cut fruits and dessert. Below is the spread

 For the Groupon deal, for starters- we had a choice of  Hara Bhara Kabab, Paneer Kurkure Kabab, Papadi Chaat, Paneer 65, Sheesh Kabab, Cheese Palak Kabab, Aloo Chaat and Aloo Tikki..Errr…what ? I am know that I am useless in Japanese restaurants as I am not familiar with the names of the dishes and now I can add Indian cuisine to this list of ‘things I am useless in’.  My makan companion for the day was as mong char char /blur sotong as my goodself – this shortcoming meant that the waiter had to explain what were each of the items  on the list. Lucky for us, he was very patient one lor…We decided to go for the Papadi ( Papdi) Chaat.

We were questioning our choice when the Papadi Chaat arrived at our table, it looked kinda intimidating with all that white gooey stuff all over the place. But…when I took the first bite , the combination of the  crispy base , the cold sourish yogurt and combination of spices and apa-apa ingredients camouflaged ( maybe potatoes and chickpeas are there too ?) under the white yogurt storm was wonderful. Ahh…very nice

There were 3 choices of soup : Manchow soup, tomato soup and hot & sour soup. We went for the Manchow and tomato soup.The Manchow soup had cabbages, carrots and what looked like strands of crispy instant noodles in it, the flavour was soup- perut-ish . As for the tomato soup, this was seasoned with some spice and therefore didn’t taste like the western meal type of tomato soup. To summarize – I prefer the western style tomato soup.

For our carbo rations we decided to have naan and rice. And as for the mains we had , Paneer Pasanda : deep fried paneer ( cottage cheese), tomato and mawa cooked in creamy cashewnut gravy; and Paleek Paneer :homemade paneer, cooked with creamed spinach is a delicate blend of Indian spices

 The paneer pasanda was mildly sweetish and mildly spicy. This was very rich, tangy and creamy. I had somehow mistook the paneer for tofu as they had ( according to me) a similar texture….yummyy. The paleek paneer was creamy, green and rich. I liked it so much and  was eating this in spoonfuls instead of with the naan, enjoying each mouthful of the smooth creamed spinach

 Extracted from Wikipedia -  Paneer is  an unaged acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese of curd cheese  made by curdling heated milk  with lemon juice, vinegar, or any other food acids.  Unlike many cheeses in the world, the making of paneer does not involve rennet as the coagulation agent,  thus making it completely lacto- vegetarian and providing one of the sources of protein for vegetarians in India. It is generally unsalted.

For dessert , we had mango and pistachio kulfi. The mango kulfi was delicious. It was creamy and rich. The pistachio kulfi was a bit of a disappointment- the flavour pistachio was overpowered by strong milky-ish flavour, the texture of the pistachio kulfi was a bit uneven as well

 Overall, it was an enjoyable meal

 Business Hours: Mondays 6:00PM – 10:30PM  , Tuesdays to Sundays 11:30 AM – 10:30 PM

 Location :

No. 23-1, 3rd Mile Square, 151 Old Klang Road, Batu 3 ½ 
Kuala Lumpur 58100

Tel : 012 3733225

Tian Xiang Yuan Vegetarian Restaurant 天香苑 @ OUG

Whenever we visit the OUG pasar pagi on weekends , we will pass by this particular vegetarian shop, at the corner of the street and made a mental note that we will have a meal here one day, days passed, months passed and years too….then finally !

Apart from ordering dishes ( to eat with rice) , there are also standalone meals available on the menu. On the day of visit, it was the 15^th day of the lunar calendar and the place was packed. Service was rather prompt – the waitresses cleared the table quickly after meals and passed us the menu and was ready to take our order .

The first dish to arrive – Fried yau mak with beancurd preserve(腐乳) (RM 8), the vegetable came topped with some crunchy bits . The taste of the beancurd preserve taste was just nice and not overpowering,  the stir fried yau mak retained it’s freshness and crunchiness and the crunchy bits added an extra texture to the dish. We enjoyed this tremendously. Good !!

 

Sizzling beancurd (RM9) – I had to contain my saliva when this dish arrived, it was so full of promises  and YES, it didn’t disappoint. The blocks of tofu were bathed in rich, thick and ( slightly) sweetish gravy with cubes of (frozen) vegetable immersed in the matrix. ( minus Neo) .No lah, the vegetable cubes weren’t served frozen , they  were probably frozen prior to being cooked, you know lah, those type that are packed in bags at the frozen food section, with the frozen chips, filament sticks, hotdogs etc ….blah blah blah.. but I digest..err..i mean digress  . This dish is immensely tasty, but after a few mouthfuls, it appeared to be a bit too flavourful and i kinda felt like I need a break from the rather strong and dominant taste of this dish. That is what they say about too much of a good thing…

 

Mutton curry (RM10) – I would have preferred  the gravy a bit thicker , the texture of the ‘mutton’ was a bit ‘loose’ and a bit dry and the pieces were too small. ( I guess I preferred Mama Sayang’s chunky version) . Potato was melt in the mouth ,  soft and mushy .

Total bill came to RM31.40 including 2 rice and a pot of Chinese tea. Which was rather reasonable priced. Overall, an enjoyable meal. I would like to pay Tian Xiang Yuan another visit soon.

 

 Location :

65, Jalan Hujan,

Taman Overseas Union,

58200 KL

Tel : 7784 2348

(go towards OUG, do not turn into the BP petrol station leading  to the OUG market), go straight ahead towards the next traffic light ( before the lights, you will see an open area – MCA activity centre on your left), turn left at traffic light and you should see the restaurant as your turn in, as it occupies the corner lot on your left)