The Central's Noodle House

I was in the Clarke Quay area for a while, and of course, I went to try other food stalls around! Noodle House is also at The Central's basement - just one shop apart from Tea Valley (if you have been following my previous post). This F&B outlet is set in a food court style, at food court prices, but their food is quite flavorful and tasty. 

Food I've tried here! 😊

Mapo tofu. Usual dish comes with minced meat, but I requested for no meat, so more tofu! The tofu is tossed in sweet chilli. Lots of calcium and protein! 😎

Ginger fish slice - I asked to make it full veg, so it was mainly sliced red and white carrots and black fungus.

Just simply eating these is definitely not enough to support the nutritional needs of a vegetarian diet, remember to supplement them with other foods at home! You can check out www.adaveggieeats.wordpress.com for more simple veg food ideas 💡

Tea Valley 茶食坊

Tea Valley is a casual non-vegetarian food eatery located at the basement of The Central shopping centre (just outside Clarke Quay MRT). It serves Taiwanese cuisines, snacks, desserts and drinks at relatively affordable prices.

There wasn't much veg food choices around in the area, so after looking around and trying my luck asking the chefs if they can prepare a vegetarian dish (asking to omit the meat and replace with alternatives from closest possible dish) - I found my meal for the day at Tea Valley! 🙂

I ordered hot and sour soup and rice from their menu as my main meal, and the Tea Valley's chef was quite happy to accommodate with my vegetarian request.

茶食坊坐落于 The Central 商场的底层 （商场就在 Clarke Quay MRT 外面）注意，这家不卖素食！

他们卖台湾餐饮，有各式各类的台湾主食，小吃，甜点和饮料。食物价位蛮合理，差不多 $10 能吃一餐 （包括食物和饮料）。

我之所以会发现这家是因为The Central 周围都没有多少素食选择择，觉得茶食坊佳肴看起来挺不错，便挑了一个半素的佳肴，请问厨师能不能帮我准备全素的，很幸运，厨师欣然答应了我，那我也找到了那天的午餐！

Hot and sour soup - It's a bit like braised soup, accompanied with thinly sliced vegetables including radish and carrots. The chef also kindly added some mixed veg and an egg in my rice to replace the meat.

酸辣汤 – 有一点像卤汤，里头有红和白萝卜丝，黑木耳和白菜片。这道菜也有配饭，里头也有一些菜。因为吃素，厨师也好意在里头加了一粒鸡蛋。

Some snacks to go along with my main meal. Ordered to share with my friends. 

因为当时朋友也在，所以也叫了一些小吃：

Fried straw mushrooms - simple but a very popular Taiwanese snack

炸金针菇 – 台湾炸菇挺受欢迎的 

French fries with seaweed seasoning -  just good 'old tasty fries! 😛

紫菜味薯条 – 大家都爱吃的经典小吃

总的来说，这家台湾餐饮店虽小但食物，价位和服务都很不错，若在附近的话不妨来吃吃看 😋

Address:
The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#B1-47 Singapore 059817

Tea Corner @ Bodhi Meditation Center 菩提禅堂茶香斋

Tea Corner is a relatively new cafe, and aims to serve tea snacks as a way to raise funds for the center. The food and overall cafe ambiance gives a very warm, sincere and homely feeling. Their menu changes on a daily basis, and usually includes popular local tea snacks, such as curry puff, glutinous mushroom rice, steamed pumpkin cake, chwee kueh and cupcakes. 

I bought some of the food home to try 😜

菩提禅修茶香斋是一个刚开张不久的素食店面，主要卖的是茶点，以这方式为禅堂募款。这边的食物和环境给人带来一种很温馨，真诚，和一种 “在家” 的感觉。茶香斋卖的的茶点各式各类，每天都不同，主要卖的是本地受欢迎的食物，包括：咖喱卜，素糯米鸡，金瓜糕，水果和小蛋糕。

我买了一些回家吃 ~

Happy buns (also known as See Pan), a type of Hakka delicacy, made in pumpkin and pandan flavours 
喜板，一种客家佳肴，金瓜和香兰口味

Pumpkin cake - with sliced mushrooms and pumpkin as well as minced mock meat
金瓜糕 - 香菇丝，金瓜丝和碎素肉

The cafe is open everyday of the week, and has friendly and cheerful servers (volunteers) that are readily available to attend to your queries/ needs. You can also talk to them about meditation and the courses that the center conducts. 

Drop by if you would like to just unwind for a while or learn more about meditation :)

茶香斋每天都营业，他们也有友善的服务人员（那里的志工）。如果对禅修感兴趣，想多了解，他们也很乐意和你聊聊，分享资讯。

More about Bodhi Meditation

Bodhi Meditation is an international non-profit organisation founded by Meditation Master JinBodhi in 1991. Its mission is to impart practical, effective meditation techniques as a way of strengthening the energy of the physical body, and to inspire the spiritual mind so as to bring greater health and joy to the world at large. They believe and are guided by compassion and the law of cause and effect, and commit themselves to loving and protecting sentient beings.

Read more here: https://www.puti.org/en/introduction-about-bodhi-meditation/


Address:
482 Serangoon Rd, Singapore 218149

Zi Zai Zhai 自在斋

Zi Zai Zhai is a cosy and affordable eating place located near Boon Keng MRT station. Their food are mostly popular local fares remade into vegetarian versions.

For individual food portions, there is a variety of fried rice, soup noodles and fried noodles (about 10 options for each category) at about $4-$5 per plate.

For larger portions, they have options similar to Tzi Char stall where you can order mains and different types of veg at your preferred dish sizes - small, medium, or large. 

Here are some of the food I ordered at the restaurant 😛

Hokkien mee - A favourite amongst Singaporeans. The ingredients used to replace prawns and octopus in the original version are mock meat and mushrooms. 

Ham fried rice - Fried rice that contain veg ham (mock meat) and mixed peas (carrot, corn, green peas), topped with kelp and sesame veg floss. 

Claypot yee-mee - Yee-mee in braised soup, with mock meat, mushrooms and veg. I thought the texture of the noodles and the taste of the braised soup was nice.

Stir-fry broccoli and shiitake mushrooms: This dish is simply blanched broccoli and fresh mushrooms tossed in a savoury Chinese sauce.

Food at Zi Zai Zhai is decent but I feel it can be improved by cutting down on the use of mock meat and adding more flavours into the dishes. It's also a good place to hang out in its cafe-like ambiance. 

Address:
23 Bendemeer Road, #01-523, 330023

P.S. Bendemeer Market & Food Centre that is located nearby is a food haven too. There's a lot of delicious local fares available all in one place - mee rebus, malay kuehs, chwee kueh, fried carrot cake, chee cheong fun, traditional tau sa piah, and more! You can tabao some back home for your family or breakfast the next day. 😜