A vegan’s guide to eating in Singapore
Veteran travel writer and vegan food scavenger Sanjay Surana reveals his top hawkers, wet markets and vegetarian eats on our Red Dot.
Text: Sanjay Surana
Credit: Miss Tam Chiak
Singapore’s food is legendary and yet judging by our celebrated favourites, it’s big on animal products but a little lacking for vegetarians and vegans like me. Think of chicken rice, bak kut teh, Hokkien prawn mee, laksa, nasi lemak, char kway teow, and the slices of char siew that accompany wanton mee. But scratch under the surface and what becomes evident is that Singapore is a wellspring of delight for plant-based food lovers. From bountiful, verdant wet markets to restaurants and stalls of thrilling cuisines, there is plenty on the Little Red Dot to excite to tantalise the most dedicated of vegetarians and vegans among us.
Nature’s Bounty
Every neighbourhood in Singapore has a wet market, with discrete sections devoted to meat, fish/seafood, eggs, fruit, and vegetables, with prices lower than in supermarkets and goods that are fresher. For the discerning home cook, or the inquisitive gourmand, a few markets stand out. Tekka Centre’s market, on the edge of Little India, is popular not with just with the Indian community but also with chefs in search of purple carrots from New Zealand and endives from Belgium as well as more commonly available vegetables from Malaysia, Thailand, China and Australia. Nearby, Mustafa Centre, is chock full of produce flown in from India, including tender okra, fresh fenugreek leaves, and, during the annual spring season, fragrant, juicy Alphonso mangoes. In the island’s east, Geylang Serai, whose design was inspired by traditional Malay houses, is a wet market that stocks handsomely priced fruits and vegetables — this is where to find Malaysian jungle ferns and wild greens that are delicious when simply stir-fried with garlic.
Credit: Instagram @vegetarianworldfoods
Plant-based Provisions
For packed and frozen items, order online from Vegetarian World Foods. Based in a nondescript office/semi-industrial building in the island’s centre, it has a large stock of vegan goods, including laksa paste, sambal, and numerous frozen mock meats and seafood (there’s even vegan char siew here!). Items can be picked up for free within an hour of ordering or delivered anywhere in the island for a fee.
Credit: Murugan Idli Shop
A Passage to India
For vegans that prefer to leave the cooking to someone else, there are plenty of options for eating out all over Singapore. In Little India, home to many 100% vegetarian restaurants, Murugan Idli Shop, directly across from Mustafa Centre, stands out. A high-ceilinged, no-frills boîte with bare bones tables, benches and chairs, and minimal decor, it serves vegan-friendly dosas and idlis accompanied by warming sambar and an array of chutneys prepared from coconut, chilli, and tomato. The dosas are large, crispy, and served on banana leaf, adding a dose of authenticity to the experience.
Local Delights
A short walk away, the hawker stall Shang De Vegetarian uses no onion, garlic, or eggs in its dishes. Offering a compact selection of noodle, rice and soup dishes, and run by a friendly husband-and-wife team, the highlight here is the wanton mee, where noodles with a pleasing springy bite come with greens, vegan char siew, and pickled chillis — it looks like the standard, beloved meat version available in hawker centres around Singapore.
Another Lion City favourite gets the vegan treatment at 33 Vegetarian Food in Ang Mo Kio. The long queues around lunch time at this hawker stall attest to the popularity of its vegan chicken rice, served as a simple plate for $3.00 or a full chicken rice set for $6.80. Opt for the latter, not just for the hearty amount of food but also the presentation that’s uncommon in hawker centres: the dish of steamed and roasted vegan chicken, silky rice, green vegetables, soup, achar pickled vegetables, and three dipping sauces including the chilli lime and minced ginger, is served on a large platter populated with small serving dishes that form a pretty crescent. It’s Instagram-worthy plating and the food is just as appealing.
For a couple more Singapore classics, head to the east to Kwan Tzi Zhai Vegetarian (formerly known as Kwan Inn) for its vegan versions of Hokkien prawn mee and laksa. Of the two, the laksa is my favourite with heady, rich, creamy coconut broth, crunchy bean sprouts, a couple of kalamansi lime halves, and pieces of chewy tofu puff that soak up the intense, deep flavours. Bring tissues — the hot, spicy soup will get the sinuses flowing!
Spice It Up
Chilli is a dominant ingredient at Mala Hot Pot. The unfussy stall in Ang Mo Kio, set inside the S11 hawker centre between multi-story shopping malls and HDB shophouse stores, is helmed by a lively, cheery, ever-smiling young man from Hunan. Vegan diners can choose from the vegetables in the glass display cabinet in the front, and pay based on the weight of the items chosen, or opt for set-price one-, two- or three-person bowl where the chef chooses the ingredients and fires up a bowl. This option is a steal at only $8 for the one-person bowl, $15 for two, and comes with the element of surprise, as the chef decides on the day what to put in the mix (be sure to specify that bowl should be vegetarian and have no eggs). In reality, the one-person bowl is enough for two people as it comes with white rice and an aromatic, soothing soup. The spice options include mild, medium or high spice, though whatever the spice level, diners can look forward to a feast with greens, bamboo shoots, crunchy lotus root, pressed bean curd noodles, oyster mushrooms, crunchy red-skinned peanuts, coriander, Sichuan peppercorns and — of course — plenty of chilli.
Credit: Facebook - Diandin Leluk Thai Restaurant
Thai Time
Diners at Diandin Leluk, the hugely enjoyable Thai restaurant in the Golden Mile Complex that was open 24 hours a day before the pandemic, can choose the level of chilli in their dishes. They can also request many things on the menu as ‘J’, or vegetarian, made without eggs, fish sauce or any other animal products — meaning the chicken chilli basil, green papaya salad, seafood kway teow, and creamy, heady green curry will all be made with tofu and vegetables, but won’t sacrifice any of the sumptuous, sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavours that make this restaurant such an enjoyable place to eat as a vegan.
