After hearing much ravings about healthy living and vegan diets, I decided to embark on a vegan diet today and here's my journey...
Started off the morning with a fruity smoothie specially prepared by my "dasao". It was really fast and hassle-free. Just pop mangoes, bananas, a squeeze of lime, ice cubes and a handful of Kale veggies into the blender and it's ready to go. The veggies only added the green coloring to the smoothie, with no taste of it luckily:P So I still find it manageable:D Tip to smoothie lovers who aspire to make their own smoothie: a wide variety of fruits can be thrown into the blender, including apples, dragonfruits, oranges, papaya. But rmb to add in a fruit that is thicker to give a thicker milkshake-like consistency, such as mangoes, bananas and avocadoes:)
PS: she also added in organic raw chocolate nibs for added crunch and chocolate taste:)
Lunch was at Yixin Vegetarian Restaurant at Chinatown. I was quite doubtful of the taste of vegetarian food initially. But this place changed my mind. They had bak kut teh, assam laksa and hor fun BUT ALL VEGETARIAN. Yes, it was all vegetarian mock meat. Although the texture was quite obvious and there is only a hint of "meat" taste, I have to admit it is really a good attempt. The bak kut teh had a strong herbal taste which was well-liked by my brother. But to me, the best dish was the hor fun, maybe because of the fried beancurd sticks:P They have a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, including vegetarian dumplings and vegetarian "meat" bun. Really impressed by the kaleidoscope of choices provided.
Following which, dessert was at The Living Cafe. Promoting a relatively new concept of raw vegan living, it is one of the rare few restaurants in Singapore selling raw food. Yes, everything is raw and vegan. This means that the food is not cooked and made fully from vegetarian products. Pasta, burgers, desserts are all raw. That's right! I was quite amazed at this and so decided to give this special diet a go.
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| 2nd Floor selling organic raw products |
We tried the lemon pie, chocolate cake and blueberry cheesecake (left to right). The lemon pie was a tad too sour for our liking. The chocolate cake was quite deceiving. One could not differentiate this from a normal baked chocolate cake. It can easily pass off as a chocolate fudge cake because of its fudgy and moist texture. It was topped with dessicated coconut for additional crunch. The best, in our opinion, was the blueberry cheesecake. The base is similar to our digestive biscuits base, just that it is abit more chewy. There is a strong blueberry taste in the top layer and the best thing, no artificial colouring is added:) The cheesecake layer is also light in taste, so making it guiltfree. The best dessert to end a meal because it is not too sinful and yet you feel happy^^
How do they make pastas, burgers, and even cakes without cooking?! How is it possible to make the pie crust without baking?! Mystery solved: they used dates, coconut oil and walnuts and process them in a food processor. Walnuts provide the crunch needed for crust (sometimes dessicated coconut is added too) while dates provide the thick consistency needed to bind the ingredients together.
The Living Cafe has a really interesting fun concept of providing food for those on raw vegan diet. This diet, although considerably new and not widely embraced in Singapore, is really a great concept worth expanding. It is difficult to stick to such a diet for long period of time, but a raw food diet once a week may be worth trying:) This is a new area of interest for me, not that I will embark on this diet, but hopefully I can learn more about it:)
Who says dessert and healthy living does not go together?
