Sometimes everybody in a group of friends is either vegetarian or prefers to eat vegetarian on a particular day. It then becomes imperative to find somewhere new and exciting to go to. One of the places in town that offers an all vegetarian menu is Whole Earth, Singapore’s first and only Thai-Peranakan Vegetarian restaurant, Whole Earth has built a healthier community that comprises of families, healthy food-seekers, executives, vegans, and foodies who have found a healthier alternative, where each dish is inspired by two very strong food cultures.
The restaurant is located in busy Peck Seah Street, perfect for a working lunch crowd as well as people hunting for elusive all vegetarian food. The exterior and interior are bright and cheerful café style and the idea behind the concept is to make vegetarian food that is not only nutritious but appealing to meat eaters as well. We decided to go for a jug of cold lemongrass juice with Japanese konnyaku , known to have cleansing properties and calm the nerves to share and we weren’t disappointed with our choice.
There were four of us in the group and one of us didn’t like mushrooms at all, so when the time came to choosing the food we had to be rather careful because unlike true vegetarian cuisine, a lot of the dishes replicate meat and fish dishes in order to appeal to meat eaters and ex-meat eaters, so mushrooms and tofu are used extensively in order to make up for the texture of these foods.
However, this was not an impossible task and in the end we ordered a Thai spicy fresh lettuce roll $ 9, Thai mango and tamarind fish $18, Olive Rice $ 6 and Sambal Kangkong $ 12 to share. When the food arrived, it was a pleasant surprise as the spicy lettuce roll which was minced tofu was very tasty, as was the olive rice and the sambal Kangkong which was spicy as expected. The mango and tamarind fish was extremely tasty and made out of crispy beancurd , but didn’t appeal to one of our group as she didn’t like the texture that she felt was not really vegetarian . Portion sizes were very decent and the 4 dishes were enough for reasonable appetites.
We didn’t order any desserts but people with a sweet tooth can choose from between homemade Konnyaku jelly and Nonya golden pumpkin desserts priced at between 3 and 6.5 $. One of their top sellers is the Assam Pedas which means “sour spicy” in Malay and is made out of bean curd with tamarind, galangal, chilli and ginger flower which we hoped to try out the next time, because this is definitely a place we would go back to. The only thing that true blue vegans and vegetarians have to watch out for is the fact that some of the dishes do try to replicate the taste and texture of meat though they are a 100% vegetarian.
Whole Earth Vegetarian
76 Peck Seah St (Tg Pagar MRT Exit A) Singapore 079331
For Reservations:
Tel: +65 6323 3308
Modern Peranakan-Thai Vegetarian Cuisine.
No added-MSG. Open Daily.
Operating Hours: Lunch: 11:30am to 3pm (last order at 2:30pm) Dinner: 5:30 to 10pm (last order at 9:15pm)