When I was planning to go back to Singapore in February, I had such a long list of foods that I wanted to eat. But now that I have started to learn how to cook many of the dishes I miss, my list has gotten much shorter...
However, if there is one thing I miss here, it will be the easy availability of chinese vegeterian food in singapore..
In dubai, we do have korean, chinese, taiwanese and hongkie restaurants, and they do offer vegeterian options.. but it is still different from the vegeterian places that we frequent like Circuit Road, Zizai.. and I really miss those foods:)
Our friend kept telling us that there is a chinese vegeterian restaurant here and that it tastes quite good.. so leh, I tried to google for it and found that there is actually a vegeterian restaurant in Dubai called Pure Lotus.. so I forwarded their FB page to Max with a note that we should visit it someday...
And boy, was it a meal I would never forget!
First and foremost, it is one of the most expensive vegeterian meals I have ever eaten in my life!
We ordered one fish, one handroll for the each of us, one fried toufu and a fried veggie and two fruit juices and just white rice to go with it... The total bill came to almost 500 dirhams! That is something like $170 for just three dishes!
Secondly, when we arrived, we discovered that this restaurant is considered fine dining.. if I had known, I still would have gone.. but maybe not on the day where I am grumpy cos Max reached home late the night before and woke at 2pm, making me really hungry... and I would have dressed nicely and bothered to make up than just appear in my liverpool jersey and shorts.. hahahaha:) I also would have brought along my Lumix camera instead of just relying on the iphone!
Apparently, this is a branch... and the main branch of this restaurant is in Beijing. They are considered very high end restaurants and have served many famous people like politicians and movie stars... or at least that is what the waiter told us.. I only know tat when i typed in the keywords "Pure Lotus" in Google to search for their address, there were many links popping up tat were linked to the branch in China and after just skimming through them, the impression I had of the beijing one is tat it is very popular and the food is very good.
Fancy eating off a pearl shell plate?
They even serve arabic and italian vegeterian food!:)
Ace saw the pagoda in the middle of the restaurant and kept bugging me to go take photos for him there...
They even show chinese animation tat is drawn using chinese water colour painting methods.. we were told that the animation and even the decor is changed once every few months.. Even the waiter's uniforms are changed according to the four seasons....
Check out the tassels on the chair:)
Everything is sort of decorated with a little something.. the fruit Juice is also decorated with some sort of leaf...
Max taking a break...
Ace trying to weave the leaves to make some sort of bracelet...
Well, on top of what we ordered.. we were also given some "freebies".. for example, this pickled dish.. and it is served on a crystal lotus!
Here comes our handroll! Actually i think I can make my own leh. if you unroll it, inside is just one leave, mayo and tomato sauce and carrot sticks and cucumber sticks and some veg bah hu with a strawberry on the top. For S$6 a piece, this is really quite ex...
But it tasted good lah and Ace enjoyed it..
They also use very nice plates...I miss my nice plates in Singapore.. I think when i shift to my new home, I am going to take the out and use them!
Also on the house.. a starter.. comprising of two types of vegetrian sashimi and also a longan stuffed with glutinous rice...
And itis served in a big pot with real ice and dry ice in it and some twigs..
Like a lovely artwork... Keep in mind, these are wat you are paying for!!!
Our fried fish servied in tiny basket and some sort of leaf...
This is how the fish looks like up close and it is delicious.. it is made of toufu and toufu skin.. I dunno how they made it and they managed to really capture and even give the texture of a real fish...
The waiter served us our food and this is how it looks like on a plate:)
Rice served on white bowl with fern underneath for decoration...
Next, our tofu! It came in some jade like container...
And when opened up, there is a big packet covered in aluminium foil and amnother smaller aluminium foil made into the shape of a small dish with some fuel put on it and they started to burn it... so tat it looks like this!
Free vinegar for better digestion...
After burning, they cut it open and there is our toufu!"_
The next dish is the fried veg.. tat was briefly fried and put into a lotus leaf to be steamed for more fragrance:) It came with a rose as decor...
Ace loved the rose so much and so the waiter said Ace could bring it home...
Because Ace loved the rose so much and was so happy he could bring it home, he asked us if we could come to this place EVERY WEEK??!!
Our fried veggies..
Max very full after the meal.. also very seh... cos he havent recovered from his drinking from last night..
Before we left, they also gave me a choice to choose one ring as a souvenir...
Max signing the check with a feather pen...
This is part of the restaurant decor.. it features plum blossoms in winter.. they are getting more made.. to feature the plum blossoms in the four seasons...
While I did enjoy the food immensely, I guess I am not one for fine dining.. I think the quality of the food is comparable to Zizai but it costs 8 times more just because they add alot of fancy touches like leaves and roses and giving you free ring.. etc.. but all these are cheap things added just to make you feel that it is worth it that you paid so much for it..
Very clever business man if you ask me..We were told the owner is in his early 30s.. prob younger than me! He started doing business when he was in his teens and he is a devout buddhist... his workers are all required to be vegeterian as well.. including the chefs.. which makes good sense.. cos honestly, chefs who have never been vegeterian themselves will tend not to understand the vegeterian palate...
Anwyay, after we saw the bill, I told Ace that we can come back again.. but probably this is the sort of place we will come once a year instead of once week:) wahahaaha
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