Brilliant Corners, London: Wonderful Japanese Food, Weird Name, Atrocious Service

As we saw in the Singapore travel post, this city-state is a wonderful destination even if you aren’t (synchronized) swimmin’ in dollas. This tiny lil baby island republic has lots of interesting sites, history, and culture to offer regular old visitors like you and me (I’m assuming you, unless you’re like Jeff Bezos but I don’t think Bezos reads this site anymore, not after all the shit I said about him (#billionairesareimmoral)). But that’s not what we’re after. No, who cares about history? When it comes to Singapore, the #1 priority is the food. And like most of its Southeast Asian neighbors (and most places in general nowadays), the vegan food is incredible, cheap, and easy to find. As the kids today would say, it slaps. The food slaps. Am I using that right? 

Not to make all my talk about Singapore reference Crazy Rich Asians (although it IS the best movie of 2018 and I dare you to question that (no really I’d love to talk more about 2018 movies if you want)) (okay you’re right, tied for first with Set It Up, of course of course), but you know the scene when Nick and Rachel arrive in Singapore and Dr. Azumi and her kind of magoo fiance take them to the food markets and Nick’s like “Singapore’s the only place in the world where market stalls earn Michelin stars” and you’re like “okay buster that happened like two times ever, chill your jets” but you don’t actually say anything mean to Nick because he’s too really really ridiculously good-looking? That scene very accurately captures my time in Singapore, just in awe of the incredible food. Pretend every day is Thanksgiving and/or you’re practicing to be a competitive eater. Act like those monsters at President Snow’s fancy parties in the Capital. We went to those markets. And you’ll go to those markets. Because honestly, all you should be doing in Singapore is eating, and then going to see all the cultural sites mostly to build up an appetite. 

That CRA market, Newton Centre, might be famous for its pork noodles and its chicken rice, plus its long lines of people waiting for those classic dishes, but vegans should eagerly jump right into the fray as well. You can easily get those amazing noodles sans meat, con veggies (Singapore mixes cultures and cuisines like I’m mixing languages), and there are veggies, tofu, soy milks, and beans-atop-shaved-ice all over. 

A similar giant, crowded, amazing food market is the Albert Centre, which is where my (terrible; it was dark and crowded and also I was distracted by ALL THE FOOD) pictures were taken. The Albert (at 270 Queen Street) is less touristy than the Newton but just as good. I found some of my favorite vegan-friendly stalls here.

You can’t see it because of the terrible lighting (I told you, can’t be mad) but the sign reads “Woong Kee Traditional Beancurd”. Traditional beancurd??? Fire that sucker up and throw it at my face! Like with everything, you have to be careful and communicate that you don’t want any gross animal products, but this particular stall was pretty clear. I got a little cup o’ dessert beancurd, flavored with a simple syrup (not actual ‘simple syrup’, like a simple syrup). Who doesn’t love a cup o’ beancurd! (Lots of you I bet, but you’re missing out. TOFU IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT!)

If anyone goes and finds out what Healthy Bean has for sale, let me know; I’m sad it was closed.

One thing that Singapore does very, very wool is epic shaved ice dessert concoctions. You get a wonderfully wide range of topping options, from tropical fruit to sugar syrups to all kinds of beans (I love that Asia recognizes that beans are for every meal). You can’t go wrong doing what I did – just pointing at brightly colored pictures and saying ‘yes please’ and it will hundo p be delicious. 

Don’t forget to order my favorite thing (signage-wise) at this stall – the rainbow grains! Best name for jimmies/sprinkles yet.

Okay, our next stop on our whirlwind tour of just some of what we ate in Singapore, is one of my favorites because I prefer supes healthy food, especially when traveling, but I know the majority of people like to indulge more when traveling. (“Why can’t you just bring a toothbrush?” “Same reason I’m not bringing my cholesterol medicine! I’m on vacation!” (Bobby Cobb, Cougar Town.)) But near the Chinatown Food Market was a place called Well Dressed Salad Bar & Cafe (282 South Bridge Road) that had my favorite ever kind of menu: juices and smoothies, plus truly epic loaded salad bowls. The vegan items were labeled with the Vegan Society logo, and they had all kinds of veggies, fruits, and fun additions like ‘springy tofu’ and tofu feta. You could also get any item as a salad OR a wrap. MY HEAVEN.

I ordered the Manja Ninja mostly for its name. No, it also had all the things I wanted: mixed greens, shredded beets, quinoa, edamame, peaches, avocado, the tofu feta, purple cabbage and a mustard-wasabi dressing. YUM.

We also had great, refreshing fresh juices. 

Since all the healthy needs were being met, I also got an order of meaty skewers, called the Satay Party, you know because I love to party. Yes, in addition to all the juices and all the salads they also have a great hot food menu, including full vegan brunch, epic tofu egg sandwiches, shakshuka, soups, truffle mayo fries (!), and more. The skewers were made from grilled beancurd skin, served with cucumber, pineapple, and peanut sauce. So good! I wish I ate there a bunch so I could have tried more but we had such a long list. 

Next up was an all-vegan, HappyCow favorite, a fast food eatery called NomVNom (Clarke Quay for me, but I believe has several locations). Junk food isn’t usually my favorite (see above, too much talking about salads) but I do like trying the crazy vegan options every so often. And NomVNom didn’t feel that junky. Sure it’s burgers and fries but it didn’t leave me feeling gross. It was also super delicious! It’s in the basement food court area of Clarke Quay, and there’s plenty of NVN dedicated seating so you can all enjoy your amazing burger together and laugh at everyone who still thinks veganism is hard. 

I got the special Truffle Lion’s Mane burger and it was sooo good in like a creamy mayo chicken sandwich way, you know? It had a crispy lion’s mane mushroom patty, mushrooms on top, lettuce, and black pepper truffle mayo. I usually am a sweet potato fries person, at least over regular fries, but the menu was so extensive they had even more than those two to choose from! Pictured are my Jap Potato Fries, obviously ordered because of the name and obviously short for ‘Japanese’ but also, ya know, funny for JAP reasons. Yum! The whole menu looked incredible and I wish I could have tried everything. I mean look at these burgers! And don’t look at the weirdly crooked photo I took! 

Let’s take a brief food pause to marvel at the shopping on offer in Chinatown. I bought some of the plush doggo toys, and my baby nephew loves his, so that’s great, but I still am kicking myself for not buying this teacup below, ohhh my god. 

We’ve still got two amazing restaurants to talk about, two restaurants that were so great that I miss them like with my blood, like I feel it in my blood. First up is Whole Earth Vegetarian, the only vegetarian restaurant awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2016 and 2017, which I guess means this post is part of my #VeganMichelinSeries, whaaat. Turn! Of! Events! Whole Earth Vegetarian (76 Peck Seah Street), to none of our surprise by the way things in this post have been going, had a super extensive menu that was so hard to choose from, I think I took longer to order than I ever have ever ever. But I ordered SO WELL. First, we got their house specialty, the Enchanted Forest – monkeyhead mushrooms over broccoli. UGH IT WAS AMAZING.

We also got an incredible Thai rendang-inspired pile of DELICIOUS greens and spicy green beans with housemade tempeh, so this meal was basically all my favorite non-salad non-pretzels foods at once and it was MARVELOUS. 

Okay folks, we made it to the last big restaurant meal before I share special bonus food at the end. This restaurant is ALSO one of my favorites EVER. Didn’t I say the food in Singapore was insanely great?? It really was. We’re up to Lotus Kitchen (133 New Bridge Road), which was very close to our hotel so like we should have gone there all the time but we only had three days, remember??? Anyway, so Lotus Kitchen is a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, and perfectly represents Singaporean culture in its cuisine: Chinese, but influenced by the other cultures in Singapore. Fusiony, and so good. 

We had dumplings – OBVIOUSLY, because we are not stupid people – to start; plus like tofu skin roll up jawns filled with vegetables and just overall magic; broccoli because we needed more greens; and OF COURSE Singapore noodles because hellooo. The noodles were SO amazing and the sauce and SO creamy and SO spicy.

So, as you can see and because I am telling you so, vegan food in Singapore is superb. I would love to go back to all these places again and try all the other places on my long list that I didn’t have time for. THE BEST, THE END. 

Oh I almost forgot, here’s your bonus: a salad I forget all the details of – what, where, why. Well no we know why, I love salad. Byeeees.