Buzzing with FOOD

 This place hardly needs any introduction. Anyone who craves for some authentic banana leaf cuisine will surely be reminded of Passions of Kerala Restaurant. They have a branch in Brown Garden, this one in Service Road (off Burmah Road) and the latest new outlet at New World Park.

Of the 3 branches, I prefer the environment and setting in Service Road. It still maintains its old pre-war house charm (unlike the spanking new cafe concept in New World Park) and is considerably very clean (Brown Garden’s branch is a little worn out, hence looking less appealing). There’s air-conditioning in here too, although the restaurant doors are left open.

Some spices crucial in Indian cooking. No spice no Indian food, as they say.

Menu

Prices differ from branch to branch. The one in New World Park is more expensive.

All the portion and serving shown in the menu are meant for one to two pax.

How can I go to an Indian restaurant without ordering my favourite mango lassi (RM 4.50)

Banana leaf being laid out.

The vegetarian set (RM 5.00) includes five types of dishes - chilli beansprout, pickled mango, mayo salad, papadam and one more which I cant recall.

If 2 pieces of papadam is not enough, you can order a basket but it cost RM 1.00, not FOC.

One serving of McNairs fried chicken. This taste great as it was well marinated with spices but not spicy. The only setback was that one piece of chicken was a little uncooked in the center part, near the bones. Other than that, it’s a winner.

Fried ladies fingers. I was trying to get others to agree to order the fried bitter gourd but they were not as adventurous and opted for ladies fingers. Not over-fried and very crunchy. This can be gone in minutes since it’s a nice dish to munch on while waiting for other dishes to be served. Same goes with the fried squid  (sotong). I guess I was too busy eating and hence forgot to snap a photo of that dish. But it was as crunchy as the ladies fingers and didn’t taste "rubbery".

Mutton masala is richly cooked in their special masala sauce. It was very tender and goes very well with rice.

Curry fish with ladies fingers. The never-fail curry version with ikan bawal. Not very spicy for me but others might think otherwise.

Chicken masala. Isn’t this table full of "masalah"?? Haha, no it’s not the masalah (problem) but masala. This dish is very flavourful and has a thick gravy coating the chicken. Their combination of spices is just right. You won’t feel like there’s too strong taste of one certain spice, which can contribute to the downfall of a dish.

Fish curry, chicken curry and dhall all united to drown the rice and other side dishes on the banana leaf. You can request to have more or less gravy, depending on your stlye of eating. Me, I prefer my rice wet, so more gravy please!!!

Price list.

Thank you to the guest whom we brought here to eat. It was suppose to be my treat, since I’m the one bringing the guest out for dinner, but I was a minute too late in grabbing the bill.

Contact:

40, Service Road (Burmah Square),
10050, Penang
Tel:04-229 2570

Map:

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Today marks the last day of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Hokkien: Kow Ong Yeah). This Taoist festival is a nine-day celebration where Chinese Taoist will go on a strict vegetarian diet lasting from 3-days to 9-days. In Penang, many will make a visit to the Nine Emperor Gods Temple located at Burma Road to pray and make their aspirations.

(For further reading: Nine Emperor Gods Festival, All set for the Nine Emperor Gods Fest)

The strict vegetarian diet means there should not be any consumption of dairy, onions or garlic (believed to give bad breathe, hence not allowed), spring onion and also other products from animal source. Even the cooking utensils, cups, etc. are strictly used only for this vegetarian period or completely new.

I’m not a Taoist but I joined in the vegetarian diet since it’s been practised in my household and also I somehow prefer to eat less meat these days, so going through this vegetarian diet is not a big change to my usual eating habit. My mum also cooks during this period (using all utensils used only at this time of the year), so it’s a healthy vegetarian diet for me (outside vegetarian food seems very oily nowadays)

I managed to snap some photos of the temporary stalls set up for the public to buy vegetarian food. This was taken in Madras Lane, just opposite the Nine Emperor Gods Temple. They have practically everything from economy rice, curry mee, loh mee, char hor fun, nyonya kuih, pau, poh piah, to even satay, pizza and bak kut teh. There’s also an array of snacks like crackers, biscuits and pastries.

Tonight, there will be a grand send-off procession to the sea for the nine emperor gods to mark the end of the nine day festival.

Annalakshmi is an international chain of vegetarian restaurants operating in a unique concept of "Eat to your heart’s content, Pay what your heart feels". It is a Non-profit organization.

Eating is considered a sacred ritual everyday in everybody’s life as the prayer goes — “thank you for today’s bread”. Anna means food and Lakshmi is the presiding deity. Hence the food served is “Prasad” - a sanctified offering. Any food or drink prepared lovingly, selflessly is delicious and nourishing, not because of its recipe and rich ingredients, but because of the spirit of self-less.

It has a branch in Perth called as Annalakshmi on the swan, located on the Swan River.

read more here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact:

Annalakshmi Vegetarian Restaurant

a.k.a The Temple of Fine Arts Malaysia

 1, Babington Avenue, Georgetown,
10300, Penang

Tel: 04-2288 575

http://www.annalakshmi.org

 

Others:
Payment is purely on donation basis (Pay as you wish)

Business Hours:

11.30am onwards - Lunch
6.30pm onwards - Dinner

(Monday to Sunday)

GPS:

5°23.460′ N   100°16.726′ E

Map:

Vegetarianism has recently become very popular. A choice of only a few last time, now many has taken the step to go veg either totally or on certain specific days. Whether it’s due to health, religion, culture, or just tired of eating meat reasons, being vegetarian does have it’s good sides. Besides our personal health, it is also good for the earth as we cut down on the demand for animal meat. How is that? Animal agriculture is the number one source of methane gas (non-CO2 greenhouse gas) producer. Read the Methane and Vegetarianism section in this article to find out more

And did you know there a a few types of vegetarianism? Here’s some common terminology (in case you go blur when a friend tells you they are one of these)

Vegetarianism

• Lacto-ovo vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish but allows egg, dairy and honey.
• Lacto vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, egg but allows dairy and honey.
• Ovo vegetarianism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, dairy but allows egg and honey.
• Veganism—A diet with no meat, poultry, fish, egg, dairy and honey.

Additionally, many individuals describe themselves as simply "vegetarian" while actually practicing a semi-vegetarian diet.^[19]

• Semi-vegetarianism—A diet that excludes certain meats, particularly red meat, but allows the consumption of others.
  • Pescetarianism—A diet that excludes all meat except fish, shellfish, and crustacea.
  • Pollotarianism (also Poultratarianism - slang)—A diet that excludes all meat except poultry and fowl.
• Flexitarianism—A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food, but that allows occasional exceptions.

Unlike last time when the "trend" has not set of, we can hardly find shops and outlets which serves nice vegetarian food. But there’s an abundance of such shops nowadays. Just an example, in Farlim (Bandar Baru Air Itam) alone, there are about 5 vegetarian shops, all located within few hundred meters apart!!

One shop which has been around for a long time since this new township is set up is Chong De Vegetarian Restaurant. It is located behind Alliance Bank (opposite Shell petrol kiosk) and a walking distance from Bandar Baru Air Itam supermarket.

This shop serves vegetarian economy rice during lunch time. For dinner time, food can be ordered from the menu list and cooked upon receiving orders. This includes, char hor fun, noodle soup, fried rice, fried meehoon, etc.

Lunch time usually packs a crowd, especially so when it falls on the 1st or 15th of the Chinese calander month. There are at least 25-30 varieties to choose from and the dishes are constantly being dished out during peak period of lunch time. There is also a choice of white rice or brown rice for those health concious.

For me and my family, we usually prefer to take-away our meal since the parking over there can be quite a hassle. Parking are limited to lots outside all the shophouses and the roads are pretty narrow.

You can see that their vege are usually very fresh and colorful, hence looks simply appetizing. Most vegetarian dishes are made of bean/soy products and greens. Only the way it’s cooked and the presentation differs.

Vegetarian char siew (dark colored) and sweet and sour potatoes with pineapple and cucumber.

Fried tanghoon with cabbage and beancurd. The rice is totally covered beneath the vege!!! We usually take more of a certain dish in our own box and share it later so that we can taste different varieties.

3 boxes only cost less than RM10. Economy yet satisfying to the tastebuds and stomach!

Most vegetarian shop in Penang are the ones like above, selling economy rice. I tried before a Vegetarian Cafe in Taman Desa, KL and it was really good and the ambience is like well-established cafes (air-cond, waiters, menus, beverages section) and not hawker-style type. Is there any vegetarian cafe in Penang?