Friday, December 28, 2012

Tulasi


Insane craving for spices. After devouring two portions of Boon Lay Power nasi lemak with a ton of sambal, we rounded up the friends for lunch at Tulasi Vegetarian Restaurant. At the peak meal hours, be prepared for a bit of a wait. It's worth it though. It's got a huge menu, with non-spicy food included, extending to Chinese stir-fry style kway teow, fried rice, dumpling soup and the sorts.

I don't like mock meats at all. To me, it's just weird chewing on them. Most times, it has terrible texture. I want my vegetarian food FULL of vegetables and the sorts, thankyou. Hate mock meats, and most of all, those char siew mock meat thingies at oily vegetarian bee hoon stalls. So unfortunately, Chinese vegetarian food ranks lowest on my list. It's either gluten or starch or stir-fry vegetables. Very low on creativity. I prefer other vegetarian options. And I can make my own dips and hummus. Mmmm.

We're only here for one reason. The biryani. Malabar dum biryani. There're options of chicken, mutton, fish, prawn, crab and I forgot what else. Each version tasted different. I don't particularly care about the mock meats. It's the rice and whatever else inside that makes the biryani taste sooo good. It meant that the kitchen took the trouble to prep them differently. Best. There're also versions of Hyderabad, Lucknowi and Chennai biryani. Give them all a try. If it's your first visit, take the Malabar dum biryani. That's awesome. I love the one with fake fish best. Just don't eat the fake fish. We've been returning many times, and the biryani is to-die-for. Cooking style has stayed consistent. The spices they use are so generous, and lovingly steeped, way better than any actual-meat-based biryani at the other restaurants which have the slight advantage of cheating on the spices as they use the richness in the meat to compensate for the final flavors.

In addition, their mutton soup is good, surprisingly so, much better than the lentil soup! It's been consistent. I skipped the mock mutton, and simply slurped the rich flavors of the soup. Mmmm. This visit, we had murtabak. Never ordered it before, and we were pleased to find out that it's a very good version, and I definitely prefer this over the regular murtabak at other eateries. Skip the manchurian aloo gobi. Oddly, it was horribly mushy the two times we tried it.

This round, of course we rolled out of the restaurant stuffed to the brim. Sank into a food coma and never came out of it till the next day. Clearly, dinner had to be skipped. No space to eat anything else after the carb-laden-oh-so-delicious-lunch. The spices lingered on the tongue. SO SO GOOD.

Tulasi Vegetarian Restaurant
74 Race Course Road
Singapore 218574
T: +65 6299 3809, closed on Mondays

8 comments:

kikare said...

agree wholeheartedly with the mock meat bit. it feels like an insult to vegetarian cooking.

there's a popular vegetarian restaurant in town that serves "fake of the day" during lunch hours. it gets a big TSK from me :p

FML said...

>> There're options of chicken,
>> mutton, fish, prawn, crab and I
>> forgot what else
huh? all those in vegetarian restaurant???

>> Hyderabad, Lucknowi and Chennai
>> biryani
interesting choices, time to activate my makankakis :)

what other interesting vegetarian dish will u recommend as well?

thanks!

imp said...

kikare: totally. but i'm sure the vegetarian restaurant at your end would have something great isn't it? Like moussaka or something else? and not just salads and toasties?

FML: the biryani offers contents of the different mock meats, and each version is cooked slightly different. wide menu. i'm not sure of your tastebuds, so take a look at its rather extensive menu and see what attracts the table.

bmuse said...

Wow. Drooling over pics and your description! Must check it out! :)

imp said...

bmuse: you'll like it. i'll go as far as to say that PB will like it too! :)

sinlady said...

totally agree mock meat ala Chinese vegetarian is bad stuff. usually salt- and see yeow-laden too :( gives vegetarianism a bad reputation!

bmuse said...

Yes you are right! Hee smart Imp! ;)

imp said...

sinlady: that too. Although Tulasi merrily does the mock meat too. So skip that. Pure gluten.

bmuse: heeeee.