It never fails to excite me when I find out about a new vegetarian eatery opening up in Singapore. I get even more excited, however, when the stall/restaurant seems to be doing something out of the box. 33 Vegetarian Food is a stall that is specialising in mock chicken - Almost all of their dishes involve mock chicken in one form of the other. 33 Vegetarian officially opened on the 13th August 2014, and their opening day (when I visited) was met by a long queue of eager customers.
33 Vegetarian Food
Location: #01-33 Blk 409 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
Contact: None
Opening Hours: Daily 11.00am-8.00pm. Closed Wednesday.
The uncle who runs this stall is Mr Sow, who has a really interesting story. Mr Sow was previously selling real chicken rice at this same stall for 15 years. His vegetarian epiphany came last year, when his wife started working in his chicken rice stall. His wife was trying to become vegetarian (due to their devotion to Guan Yin) and didn't like chopping/killing of chickens. Therefore, Mr Sow vowed to change his stall into vegetarian chicken rice, so he and his wife need not have to kill and chop chickens anymore. Both Mr Sow and his wife became full time vegetarians in January 2014.
As I mentioned earlier, the menu has all sorts of different chicken dishes. Not a place to consider visiting if you're someone opposed to the idea of mock meat.
We started our feast off with the Vegetarian Steamed Chicken Rice. Before I start, I asked the auntie taking orders if the rice contains any margarine, butter or dairy products, she was adament the rice does not contain any of the aforementioned. Mr Sow's rice was very good, the grains were firm, and flavourful. However, the rice didn't quite manage to capture the same level of flavour that Mr Goh's Tanaka chicken rice does. The steamed chicken 白鸡饭 was soft and doughy, which was not to my preference. However, if anyone should be able to mimick real chicken, then Mr Sow should surely know how to.
Price: $3.00. 6/10
Along with steamed, 33 Vegetarian is also selling Vegetarian Roasted Chicken Rice. This version is identical to the steamed chicken dish, with the only exception being the mock chicken used. The fried layer beancurd sheets were tasty overall. I certainly preferred this mock to the prior one, when combined with the rice it was really delicious. One glaring omission in both the chicken rice dishes is the lack of any dark sauce. For myself, no chicken rice is complete without the orange chilli and dark sauce. Orange chilli was provided on the side, along with ginger.
Price: $3.00. 7/10
Sawadeecluck, the next chicken dish to our table was the Thai Vegetarian Chicken. For this dish, the chicken is served on an oval plate, lying in a shallow puddle of Thai style sauce. The chicken used is the same as the steamed chicken, but this time it is heavily deep fried. The fried batter is very light, so I didn't feel that 'jialat' sensation, which I usualy get after eating fried food. The soup and chicken were the highlights of the dish, but the let down was the Thai sauce. The flavour of the sauce really didn't bare any similarity to Thai sauce, and seemed more like it came from a bottle. A better sauce would have really propelled this dish to much higher levels.
Price: $3.00. 6/10
Vegetarian Chicken Curry Noodle was the next dish I sampled. I was pleased that this dish didn't have any overwhelming spice level, and was thickened perfectly thanks to the coconut milk used. Although this is branded as 'chicken curry' there is not really any noticable presence of chicken inside. Instead, mock mutton mushroom style meat is used. I loved how well the potatoes were cooked, and how they managed to absorb the magnificent flavour of the curry. Definitely an above average dish, that I would order again.
Price: $3.50. 7/10
Lastly, we have the Vegetarian Chicken Burger with Fries. This was probably the most disappointing dish I sampled from 33 Vegetarian. The mock chicken burger was quite tasteless, and there was too much mayonesse inside. Moreover, there was a lack of any real imagination or creativity in the burger - Definitely not a burger that will cause Vegan Burg to be quivering in their boots.
Price: $3.50. 5/10
Conclusion - I felt like I was growing feathers after this overload of mock chicken. Yes, the food is hardly healthy, but I was really moved by Mr Sow's heartwarming story of conversion to vegetarianism, so I really wish nothing but the best for his new vegetarian stall. I can only hope more meat stalls have this same epiphany in the future.
Overall Rating
Food - 6/10
Ambiance- 6/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 8/10
33 Vegetarian Food
Location: #01-33 Blk 409 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
Contact: None
Opening Hours: Daily 11.00am-8.00pm. Closed Wednesday.
The uncle who runs this stall is Mr Sow, who has a really interesting story. Mr Sow was previously selling real chicken rice at this same stall for 15 years. His vegetarian epiphany came last year, when his wife started working in his chicken rice stall. His wife was trying to become vegetarian (due to their devotion to Guan Yin) and didn't like chopping/killing of chickens. Therefore, Mr Sow vowed to change his stall into vegetarian chicken rice, so he and his wife need not have to kill and chop chickens anymore. Both Mr Sow and his wife became full time vegetarians in January 2014.
As I mentioned earlier, the menu has all sorts of different chicken dishes. Not a place to consider visiting if you're someone opposed to the idea of mock meat.
We started our feast off with the Vegetarian Steamed Chicken Rice. Before I start, I asked the auntie taking orders if the rice contains any margarine, butter or dairy products, she was adament the rice does not contain any of the aforementioned. Mr Sow's rice was very good, the grains were firm, and flavourful. However, the rice didn't quite manage to capture the same level of flavour that Mr Goh's Tanaka chicken rice does. The steamed chicken 白鸡饭 was soft and doughy, which was not to my preference. However, if anyone should be able to mimick real chicken, then Mr Sow should surely know how to.
Price: $3.00. 6/10
Along with steamed, 33 Vegetarian is also selling Vegetarian Roasted Chicken Rice. This version is identical to the steamed chicken dish, with the only exception being the mock chicken used. The fried layer beancurd sheets were tasty overall. I certainly preferred this mock to the prior one, when combined with the rice it was really delicious. One glaring omission in both the chicken rice dishes is the lack of any dark sauce. For myself, no chicken rice is complete without the orange chilli and dark sauce. Orange chilli was provided on the side, along with ginger.
Price: $3.00. 7/10
Sawadeecluck, the next chicken dish to our table was the Thai Vegetarian Chicken. For this dish, the chicken is served on an oval plate, lying in a shallow puddle of Thai style sauce. The chicken used is the same as the steamed chicken, but this time it is heavily deep fried. The fried batter is very light, so I didn't feel that 'jialat' sensation, which I usualy get after eating fried food. The soup and chicken were the highlights of the dish, but the let down was the Thai sauce. The flavour of the sauce really didn't bare any similarity to Thai sauce, and seemed more like it came from a bottle. A better sauce would have really propelled this dish to much higher levels.
Price: $3.00. 6/10
Vegetarian Chicken Curry Noodle was the next dish I sampled. I was pleased that this dish didn't have any overwhelming spice level, and was thickened perfectly thanks to the coconut milk used. Although this is branded as 'chicken curry' there is not really any noticable presence of chicken inside. Instead, mock mutton mushroom style meat is used. I loved how well the potatoes were cooked, and how they managed to absorb the magnificent flavour of the curry. Definitely an above average dish, that I would order again.
Price: $3.50. 7/10
Lastly, we have the Vegetarian Chicken Burger with Fries. This was probably the most disappointing dish I sampled from 33 Vegetarian. The mock chicken burger was quite tasteless, and there was too much mayonesse inside. Moreover, there was a lack of any real imagination or creativity in the burger - Definitely not a burger that will cause Vegan Burg to be quivering in their boots.
Price: $3.50. 5/10
Conclusion - I felt like I was growing feathers after this overload of mock chicken. Yes, the food is hardly healthy, but I was really moved by Mr Sow's heartwarming story of conversion to vegetarianism, so I really wish nothing but the best for his new vegetarian stall. I can only hope more meat stalls have this same epiphany in the future.
Overall Rating
Food - 6/10
Ambiance- 6/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 8/10