泰式素食Thai Vegetarian Food

回港後大蕃薯有密密搵食，但就是疏於寫食評……數年前出遠門之際，素食在香港未成氣候，街上難得一見素菜館，大多是齋鋪，食客多為宗教茹素，以老人為主，不免予人沉悶之感。當時社會大眾仍抗拒素食，一般餐廳亦鮮見素菜之餘，即使請求廚師特別烹調，廚師有時亦不明要求。可是短短素年後，經各方推而廣之，今日素食已搖身一變，成了一股潮流。傳統齋鋪以外，今日素茶樓、素西餐廳、素咖啡店等如雨後春筍般落戶全港九新界，大蕃薯近年所見，不論素茶樓、素西餐廳等，皆門庭若市，不少更要排隊以求一席。今年更見不少新派素菜主推某類食品或某國菜式，如分子料理、地中海菜等，昨晚大蕃薯就偕朋友西瓜小姐去品嚐泰式素菜。

有「小泰國」之稱的九龍城，有不下十多間泰國菜館，【泰式素食Thai Vegetarian Food】正座落於最熱鬧的角南道，小店前前後後都是泰國菜館。西瓜小姐打電話去訂座，老闆說不用，來到就有位。到了才發覺根本就很受歡迎嘛，小店不夠廿個位，我倆食晚市，七點去到，幸運地佔到最後兩個位！

每次去到素菜館大蕃薯都會有選擇困難症……無他，平時餐牌上只有寥寥幾款素菜，所以一有選擇就有點無所適從。大蕃薯跟西瓜看了又看，挑了又挑，最終選定平時少見的冬蔭功湯麵、米紙春卷和木瓜沙津（一般泰式沙律有魚露和蝦米），還有一個椰青。

眼見小店只有一位廚房和兩位樓面，上菜卻甚有效率，春卷、沙津先上，手機先食之際，冬蔭功湯麵接著上菜。西瓜非常喜歡這款木瓜沙津，夏日炎炎，酸甜的沙津正好開胃。米紙春卷跟平時的差不多，以生菜、青瓜、素肉等做饀。

大蕃薯已有數年無喝過冬蔭功湯，對它「應有」的味道印象不深，但這碗冬蔭功湯麵好鮮味，嚐到不同香料，酸、辣兩味各領風騷，但湯底未算太辣（大蕃薯嗜辣），唯一有待改善的是麵底黏成一塊。朋友說比這碗素湯底比一般的較清淡，大蕃薯飯後不致太飽濟，品嚐美食之餘又不會傷胃。

免煮的椰青居然遲遲未上，難道仍掛在椰樹上麼……小店客滿，老闆娘（？）忙於落單執枱出菜落單執枱出菜落單執枱出菜落單執枱出菜落單執枱出菜落單執枱出菜，我倆抱住虔誠的心，等呀等，等了又等，終於等到老闆娘有空，她應了一聲，說要去開椰青，說罷走出去，離開我倆視線範圍……哦？原來椰青不在店面，要到外面開。

椰汁入口，大蕃薯頓覺自己飄到海邊，椰林樹影，水清沙幼，麥兜上身……

泰式素食Thai Vegetarian Food

地址：九龍城南角道廿八號A地下

營業時間：星期一至日、下午十二點至三點、晚上六點至十點

Best spaghetti @ Venezia, Italy

I was so lucky to tried some really good representation of the typical Italian food in the two-week journey. First was the pizza in Rome, then came the risotto in Siena, and at last the spaghetti in Venice.

We reached that restaurant by coincidence. We jumped off the water bus a few stops earlier, then we followed other passages to walk into the maze like city. After a few turns we saw this restaurant. My friend was really craving for the squid spaghetti (Not veggie!) and we asked the chef if they had it. It was still early and there were no other customers.

Sometimes we need to rely on our intuition to seek for good food. We succeed most of the time in the trip and this had no exception! The spaghetti was the best for 3 main reasons: 1. It's al dente. 2. Every single spaghetti on the plate were having the same tenderness and chewiness. 3. Ingredients as simple as spaghetti (and spices) only!! The last reason is always one of my measurement of the food. The simplier the dish, the more difficult to make it impressive.


It's just basic spaghetti with garlic and basil. Unlike what happened quite often with a plate of normal quality spaghetti, not even one spaghetti of this one was softer or harder than the rest on the plate. There was no sudden and abrasive sand/ rock-like texture pumped up when I was enjoying the whole plate. And no two spaghetti stuck together. Of course the spices were just enough to taste didn't make me drank bottles of water afterwards.


I also ordered another veggie dish - butter bean! I like butter bean a lot because of its creamy taste.

Unfortunately, I could not find the name of the restaurant. I still wanna recommend to it even I don't have the name. Here is the front door of the restaurant. It's own by a couple.

Best risotto @ Malborghetto, Siena

Siena is one of the cities famous for Tuscan wine and cuisine - The "cock wine" is one of the good example. Well... it's called Chianti classico, with the eye-catching cock logo. It was just me and my friend, and both of us can't drink much. Most restaurant/ wine bar don't offer the wine in glass. Therefore I didn't have the chance to take a sip ='[

However, I did tried something really good. The B-E-S-T-! The risotto I had in Siena ranked number 1 among all the food I had in Italy! It is a zucchini and saffron risotto. Three (main) ingredients, as simple as that. All fragments of the spices and freshness of the ingredients were absolutely balanced. Nothing too outstanding, nothing hiding from my taste bud. It's harmonised like floating peacefully on the water.

And look at the beautiful scenic behind! Yaaaaaa, I was eating outdoor, under the sun with mild wind. The weather was as perfect as the food! The restaurant was Malborghetto, which locates below the Piazza del Campo, at the end of the car park. The food are all in reasonable price.

The scene behind the restaurant is breath-taking. The car park is a balcony, which we can view a 270-degree down hill. The colourful, irregular, fair-tale houses are packed on both sides, and a green woodland/ farmland with streams and churches in front.

Siena is definitely worth for a visit.

Story after-------------------------------------

I attempted once to make the same risotto at home, but it was a failure O.o It tasted nothing like the one I had in Siena. Before I can make it again, the beautiful risotto stays in my memory only.
It looks not bad though.

Gentle Gourmet Cafe (and more...) @ Paris

How can we miss croissant in France? I found the BEST vegan croissant! A MUST-try in Paris!!

Gentle Gourmet Cafe is a fine dining vegan restaurant in the 12th district of Paris. I went there for a French breakfast. It's better to make a reservation a day before even for breakfast. The cafe opens at 8am. I was there at 8.15am, but it wasn't ready. Luckily, they let me in and waited.

I was very hungry and the kitchen was still warming up. I decided to order something quick: croissant and a cup of coffee with heavy cream =]

The croissant really surprised me. A vegan croissant is difficult to make well, as it requires a lot of butter to give the layering and fluffiness and the pleasant smell. Usually vegetable margarine can't replace it well, but this one has almost the same taste as a normal croissant!!

Plus it had a blink blink surface, which is usually a brush of egg. I guess it was a brush of soya milk and sugar mixture (learned in the vegan dessert class, write about that later).

A chocolate dip came separate. It tasted so much like nutexxx!! That's a bonus to me.

The coffee is good as well, and I was very satisfied with the heavy cream on it. It was smooth and light sweet.

The cafe was serving a late summer menu. Half an hour later my full breakfast came to the table. I ordered a creamy scramble tofu with baguette.

The ingredients in the scramble tofu was a perfect match: smoked vegan ham, mushrooms, shallots and asparagus. Especially the asparagus made a well balance with the  sauce. One fresh and light, one creamy and heavy. The smoked vegan ham was firm tofu strips actually. If you expected something resembles ham, that might be a bit disappointing. I'm a big fan of tofu products, so again that was a bonus for me! The baguette was herbed rather that just plain.



The meal was quite cosy, but imagine how many times you can try a vegan croissant! At least chill for an hour or two with a coffee and the vegan croissant there!!

I had a nice Italian pizza and ice-cream... Check the ice-cream store and you may be surprised how many vegan flavour they had... the one I went had 6~7! The pizza was a take-away near the Sacre Coeur. Simply order a vegetarian pizza without cheese, then it turns into a vegan pizza =] The ingredients were abundant: aubergine, olives, tomato, mushrooms, pepper, etc. The pizza was baked fresh after the order. The base was a medium.

Max Pett @ München (Part I)

Ya... This is part one in München. I enjoyed my dessertsssssssss in Tushita tea house after I had my lunch in Max Pett. Max Pett is a proper vegan restaurant. It's 10 minutes walk from München main train station. It situated at a side street, so the out door seats are quiet and nice.

When I arrived it was still serving a buffet breakfast. It's 10.5euro (as I could remember) all-you-can eat.

As mentioned it was hot and sunny. The thing I wanted most after the 10-minute walk from main station was something fresh. I ordered the spring salad from the special menu.

When the salad came to my table, I had to say it pretty!! "Pretty" is not a phrase for food but it really did look good! Look at the nice daisy~
The golden balls are tempeh. Besides the greens there were avocado and a sweet-and-sour dip (Thai sauce).



Another order on the table was this main course, from the weekly menu 23-29th April. It's grilled veggie in orange sauce. I would like to highlight the potato wedge, which is just-well-and-evenly-baked! Not too old nor too raw, and unlike some which are partly cooked and partly raw.




The little drawback for this restaurant was the waitress messed up with our order. We was ordering a pasta main course but it came up with this potato dish (anyway it's good). We ordered one juice and it came up with three and forgot the ice chocolate beverage. May be it's due to the language thing... My Deutsch is pretty basic, just enough to understand the menu but need to place my order in English. I guess next time stated clearly my order will help.

Last but not least, the dessert! Ya, I had dessert already before I visit Tushita. Wonder why I gained 3kg after the trip =p It's ICE-CREAM!! Do you know how much I miss ICE-CREAM! Soy milk and soya burger fillets are easily found around my neighbourhood, but no soy ice-cream ='[

In Max Pett there were a few kinds of ice-cream and they even had "banana boat". Banana boat is something full in my childhood's memory. An ice-cream bowl with 3 cones and a whole banana =] But that day I had no one willing to share ice-cream with me, therefore I ordered a single scroop. Besides vanilla/ chocolate these kind of common flavour, they had Nougat ice-cream. It came with a waffle biscuit!

Being a vegan is not easy, but not as difficult as imagined. It's really thankful that nowadays there are so many nice plant-based food like all those I had in the trip.

Always be thankful for what we can eat and we can eat =]

Continue in Wien......

Culux/ Edekiosk @ Frankfurt

Just back from a 10-day trip around mid-Europe!! Beautiful scenic and of course great veggie food!

How can we survive in Germany without sausage!? Good new for all vegetarians and vegans, we can find veggie sausage in Culux. Both vegetarian and VEGAN!! Culux is a sausage restaurant. They are serving around 10 different kind of sausages with a variety of sauce. I tried the vegan sausage with typical curry sauce. There are 5 degree of spiciness and I picked the 2nd most spicy.

The curry sauce really impressed me. It's SUPERRRR spicy (which I enjoy)! Look all the spicy on the sausage! <<
The vegan sausage was made with tofu skin. I guessed the chef rolled the tofu skin tightly to make the sausage.  Tofu skin is something I really miss from home ><" It's  uncommon in a western cuisine even in veggie places.

The sausage can be served in a meal with fries and salad. I ordered it with salad only because I need to reserve some space for my dessert......

Edekiosk is a vegan bakery/ cafe. It's quite new. A few kinds of cakes and beverage are served everyday. The day I visited they had vanilla and chocolate cupcake, coconut mandarin cake and chocolate banana cake.

I felt like something creammmmy therefore I picked the chocolate banana cake, with a cup of soja-cappuccino =] The cake tasted very homemade. The sweetness was just right. The chocolate cream is creamy but can be a bit thicker. And it had fresh banana slice in between =]

I took away a piece of coconut mandarin cake as breakfast for next morning. After a night in the fridge it still taste good! Personally, I perfer the coconut mandarin cake. Coconut an mandarin gave a shocking match on my tongue and the pastry was crispy. 

The only thing not good about this cafe was the theme colour. Blue usually doesn't make people feel too much appetite... But the sofa were comfortable and they provides a few readings and magazines about vegan cooking.

Continue in München......