Hello all, hope all of you are doing fine this lovely weekend. My wife wanted to visit some nurseries in the central part of Singapore to pick up flowers for her flower arrangement project and when she was done, it was time for dinner. That area is very near to a particular vegetarian stall that I like, so I asked my wife if she would like to visit it for dinner and she agreed. And this vegetarian stall will be what I will be sharing today.
The Place
Ru Lai Vegetarian Food
Address: 24 Sin Ming Rd, #01-51, Singapore 570024
This is a vegetarian stall located in a neighbourhood coffeeshop. And typically when it comes to about 7pm onwards, the only stall that is still operating other than the drinks stall is Ru Lai Vegetarian Food. Because it is a typical coffeeshop setting, I did not take picture of the seating area etc because it is more or less the same everywhere. As such I only took a snap of the stall front.
Here's how the place looks like:
If you are visiting, personally it would be best to access here via public transport because the number of public parking lots is rather limited (mainly season parking lots available). Otherwise there will be another bigger parking area about 5 minutes walk away opposite from the coffeeshop. There is no air condition at this coffeeshop and it is nestled in a very quiet neighbourhood.
Now let's get right on the food.
The Food
There are some favourites that I like to eat at this place, so today I ordered all my favourites because I have been craving for them for a long while. While some of the dish sound like non vegetarian, they are really vegetarian dishes.
- Mee Goreng
- Pork Ribs with Special Sauce
- Curry Lion's Mane Mushroom
3 of my favourite dishes from this stall. And every minute till it is served felt like eternity.
And when they are served, the aroma that came with them just triggers the engine of my digestive juices to start.
So now let's dive into each of the items that we ordered.
Mee Goreng
There is so many variants of this dish and so many different styles to cook this. Every stall will have their own version of this due to the different sauces used to cook this. For me, this dish from Ru Lai Vegetarian Food is cooked really well with a nice charred smoky aroma that elevates the dish. While in normal mee goreng, there will be ingredients such as prawns, squid, pork or even fish cake, but replacing these with vegetarian variants such as mock fish cake, mushrooms and all, the taste still felt great and there is no missing of the non vegetarian ingredients.
The key to a good plate of mee goreng comes in the control of the fire used to stir fry the noodles and how well the blend of the sauces which typically comprise of chilli sauce and ketchup brings up the taste of the noodles but not overpowering such that the taste of the ingredients used in the dished get drowned by the mix of chilli sauce and ketchup. Whether the chef of an eatery is good, mee goreng is one dish that can differentiate the standard. And personally this mee goreng from Ru Lai Vegetarian Food makes it to my top 5 mee goreng, so definitely this is up with those that served with non-vegetarian ingredients.
Pork Ribs with Special Sauce
Now, this dish really wows me everytime I eat it. Reason being that, the non vegetarian version found in various stalls around my country, are not as good as this dish which has absolutely 0 pork within it. The sauce is really nice and it is supposedly secret (I did try to ask the auntie taking my order, she say its their secret). While non-vegetarian version time to time will have bones for the pork ribs, the best tasting version typically only has the meat without the bones. And the one that we ordered here, definitely had no bones but the texture is very well replicated to as similar as you would be biting real meat.
Fantastic sauce, nice texture "meat", together with a nice stir fry, this dish is a must order.
Curry Lion's Mane Mushroom
If you like curry chicken, this could be a possible replacement of the original. This pot of curry is filled with ingredients and generous amounts of lion's mane mushroom. This is a mushroom that has a natural texture to that of meat and has a night bite to it. One great thing about this is that, it is served with in a mini hotpot with solid fuel below it to keep it warm. The curry is so nice, I even drench some of my mee goreng with it to further enhance the flavour of the mee goreng.
Lion's mane is actually rather expensive amongst mushrooms but to see so much lion's mane is being served in this dish, it is totally worth it. The other ingredients were all cooked to the right softness and it makes you feel so hearty when you take a sip of the curry and eat some of the ingredients in the curry. Some people might not like the taste of lion's mane but the curry mix with it just allows the lion's mane to soak up the curry to acceptability to the dish. A nice pot of goodness which personally would be even better when drenched on rice, just wraps up the whole meal as a simple joy. And when compared with curry chicken, it is very well done and also can taste better than some curry chicken that I ever tasted.
Overall:
Vegetarian food cooked to perfection that can compete with non-vegetarian version. Nice control of the wok to ensure the ingredients can replicate how it is like to eat non-vegetarian version, nice portion of food and the price of all the dishes will not create a big hole in your wallet. Simple pleasure, authentic and great taste, a place worth visiting to show support for the effort the stall puts in to make these dishes so well.
Closing
Thank you for coming by and reading my post. Great effort to create these vegetarian dishes, friendly staff and excellent cooking skills wraps up an awesome dinner. A place that I will drive down to get top quality vegetarian food and definitely recommend to friends whom are vegetarian as a new place for them to explore.
See you in the next post!
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