Whole Earth (Peck Seah Street)

I have a secret desire to one day go vegetarian for all the healthy and spiritual benefits that it brings. But I find it hard to bid farewell to my seafood and meats so until I have a really good reason to...vegetarian remains a integral part of my diet. Plus the fact that trying to eat healthy, along the lines of going organic or pure vegetarian is actually more expensive here in Singapore. Anything not genetically engineered or ladened (read: flavoured) with pesticides cost less than any naturally grown veg in the wild.

I enthusiastically agreed to go for the food tasting at Whole Earth upon invitation from HGW. After I agreed though, I realised that I wasn't quite sure what kind of vegan food they serve thinking that it might be one of those faddish organic joints or worse... raw food diet!

Was absolutely relived when Hoongy explained that its more chinese vegetarian where the focus is more on using fresh vegetables without MSG and none of those mock meats made of gluten. The latter puts me off.

A little sign outside the restaurant said "Peranakan Thai Vegetarian". I was more intrigured and with the restaurant almost full with the CBD lunch crowd, it was looking very promising.

Our lunch was pre-ordered and I was famished and eager to dig in.

We were first offer the fresh lemongrass drink with honey which to me is always a refreshing start to any meal. Mild enough to cleanse your palette and cool enough to calm your system.

Sambal Belachan with homemade seaweed chips: This is a small dish of starter made of fried beancurd with seaweed which makes it look like fried fish skin. Very addictive and I kind of secretly had most to myself since it was on my side of the table. (SORRY GUYS!..hehe)

Tom Yam Soup: Their tom yum soup to me is a fusion of the Thai and Peranakan version. Not quite crystal clear like the thai tom yum but not quite coconut milky like the nonya style. The owner Phyllis explained that the lean towards the Thai border more than the Melakan/Peranakan style, making their soup more sour-ish.

Sambal Kangkong: The secret is in the sambal!

Assam Pedas: This is my favourite dish and I believe it got a thumbs up from most of us around the table too. The "fish" was made of beancurd and the texture taste exactly like the real thing. Very tasty and you really wouldn't know the difference if no one told you it wasn't fish.

Nyonya Curry: This apparently took 8 hours of laborious cooking and you could tell from the flavour that its very close to the peranakan version.

Bailing Mushroom with Fresh Greens: I love the mushrooms! These are apparently "compressed" mushrooms which I have no idea what it meant but I suppose it just refers to the flattened out mushrooms which I guess have been compressed? (doh!)

Thai Green Curry : I think I much prefer the original version. Didn't quite tickle me fancy.

Ngor Hiang: Not as fragrant as the real peranakan ones but still tasty.

Rendang: The rendang looks exactly like it but the "meat" was made of tofu! The restaurant uses over a dozen different types of tofu and have spent hours researching and testing the various combination to obtain the exact texture they want.

Olive Rice: Very fragrant and a lot less oily than most I've had.

Cold Tofu with minced "meat" : The most fascinating part of this is the supposedly minced "meat" which was made out of ...OATMEAL!! I swear it looks and taste like meat. They could do a really mean "Char Jiang Mian" and no one could know the difference!

We've probably only tried about 30% of their menu and upon flipping through the rest of what they have to offer, I salivate at the pictorial sight of the other dishes which looks extremely promising. Definitely a vegan's dream come true!

The Wife has lost appetite for meat in the past few days, so we decided to go to this place near my workplace which serves vegetarian dishes. We arrived at 6pm, but the place was still locked although the stated opening hour was 530pm. Fortunately some of the staff members inside saw us through the glass walls, and promptly unlocked the door to welcome us in.

The setup of the whole place was quite simplistic, almost spartan with white walls and some black features on the wall, and ample space for quite a number of tables and plastic chairs. World music played in the background, providing a calm ambience, which I guess goes with the theme of healthy eating. Not quite a place for romantic dinners, but may be suitable for outings - we later saw another table of about 10 people.

After we were seated, we were promptly served with two finger food: fried seaweed and sour mango pickles/salad. The seaweed was particularly addictive and was gone in no time - value for money (yes the finger food were charged).

The efficient service continued throughout, with our dishes coming up quite quickly. First up was a Healthy Wolfberry Soup, which still manage to be savoury despite not using animal stock. The Nonya Curry followed quite soon - creamy and well-flavoured without being spicy. It had potato and mock meat inside, and the latter had quite a nice texture and flavour - definitely not like what one usually finds in hawker-centre vegetarian stalls. The gravy went well also with the rice, which the Wife noted to be quite good quality rice. The last dish to arrive was the Oatmeal Tofu with Curry Leaves. The tofu was fried to be crisp outside and tender inside, and the oatmeal crumbs lent a tinge of sweetness to the otherwise bland tofu. It was well executed, but it is not particularly special - very much like how oatmeal prawns are done, and the tofu was more on the bland side. Still, all three dishes tasted good and we liked them.

For drinks, the Wife had a cold lemongrass drink and I tried the "Beauty Enzyme Drink" - it mentioned apple and tomato and something else I forgot as the ingredient, but basically the sum total effect is a sweet-sour drink that tasted a bit of alcohol/fermentation. It brought to mind Japanese fruit-flavoured rice vinegar. All in all the drinks were refreshing, but note that they can be costly - the price for Enzyme Drink was not listed, and came up to $12.

In fact price would be the main sticking point of this place, as they were not cheap for the amount / type of food and drink you get. However, the quality is there and we put the price to the quality of the ingredient used, and the fact that they are serving a niche vegetarian market.

Definitely a place we would consider the next time there is a need to go vegetarian. Otherwise, there should be other more interesting options.

Ambience is good for modern dining. However, that is the only good thing about the restaurant. It is as if that is to attract young & hip health conscious diners and to overcharge them.

Nothing special... had olive fried rice$7, olive brown rice$8, nyonya curry $19, mango thai  and assam fish $19, sambal king $12.

portion is not large for the price and standard is like my mom's cooking. U can still get real curry fish head for $18 (large portion) but Whole Earth's portion is  much less n no meat for $19....

Mango thai & assam fish is just fried mock meat with thai sauce. Definitely not worth the $19 bucks.

The only up to par dish is the sambal king... that too is not worth the price.

You can get same quality olive Fried Rice for $5 in Ci Hang, great vegetarian Curry Fish Head from 7 Sensations for lesser price, great vegetarian lasagna & shephard's pie from Living Greens. All at much reasonable price and better taste.

If there is a vegetarian restaurant that I will introduce to my carnivorous friends, it would be Whole Earth. The restaurant serves tasty "Peranakan" and Thai food, and sometimes, you would be wondering "you mean this is vegetarian?". 

Happy to report that the dishes that had none those "mock meat" that is so typical of local Singapore vegetarian food. They use good quality mushrooms, tofu, vegetables and natural spices. The dishes were tasty and flavourful. Who says healthy food can't be good? 

Go to my blog for more reviews and photos

http://nateniale.blogspot.com/2011/09/whole-earth.html

For pictures and the full review, click here! Otherwise, read on...

The food at Whole Earth is so amazing – it is definitely on my list of Top 5 vegetarian restaurants in Singapore. The semi-extensive menu boasts an expert use of spices to bring out the Peranakan-Thai flavours and a creative adaptation of soy and mushroom products to produce deceptively genuine “meat” dishes. It is definitely the place you have to go to if you’re a vegetarian who is craving for the texture of meat or a non-vegetarian worried about leaving hungry and dissatisfied. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been there, but the last time I went I decided to order all my favourite dishes, which I’m going to blog about in this entry. Service is always efficient and friendly, though I find it kinda annoying that they have repeatedly asked us to pay the bill even though we’re not finished eating as they have to “close the register” – Doesn’t management realise how rude that is?

NB. You would realise I labelled more than a few dishes as “MUST-TRIES”, but before you think I’m full of s***, this is only because I’ve tried lots of dishes on the menu and these are literally the best ones that you HAVE to try.

Signature Olive Brown Rice

So basically the Whole Earth menu is adequately long enough that you can go back again and again, but out of all the dishes I’ve tried my favourite will ALWAYS be the signature olive brown rice. Words fail me. I love how simple, innocuous dishes feel like heaven when they are perfectly executed.

Penang Redang

A MUST-TRY - my ultimate go-to dish when I feel like having something meaty. These spicy pan- mushrooms are amazing! I’m not sure which type of mushroom they used for the dish, but it is thick and fibrous and has an unbelievably meaty texture.

Oatmeal Tofu with Curry Leaves

The menu says that is one of Whole Earth’s bestsellers and it’s not surprising why. Also a MUST-TRY – the tofu itself is beautiful – soft, silken, perfectly cooked with a paper-thin crispy skin. This is covered by a generous serving of oatmeal flakes that are light and airy and flavourful at the same time.

Thai Mango and Tamarind Fish

Another MUST-TRY – the beancurd “fishcakes” are encircled by a crispy outer layer and drenched in the sweet mango and slightly sour tamarind sauce. The first time I tried the dish I was just so amazed because the texture imitated that of fish so well that my friend and I actually expected to find fish bones in it (and we came to that conclusion independently). But the second time I tried it, it lacked that extra bite and it just tasted like soft fish – perhaps it was overcooked or something went wrong when making the “fishcakes”? But a great dish, nonetheless.

Thai Sweet and Sour Delight

Again, a very meaty dish that reminded me of sweet and sour pork – the fresh, sweet pineapple slices complemented the sour, tangy sauce perfectly.

Conclusion: Impossible for me to get sick of this place – vegetarian or not, you have to try it if you haven’t already been there!



For pictures and the full review, click here!

My friends and I (three of use visited this restaurant) and we scratch our head as the restaurant claim that they they aim not to serve traditional mock meat and no MSG. I wonder what they mean by traditional mock meat. 

SECTION A: THE FOOD

 

1) Olive Rice (Chef Recommended)

Three of us like this dish. The rice is done in a fried rice manner and it comes with small chunks of black olive and mock meat (probably made of processed tofu). 

2) Nyonya Curry (chef recommended) 

The curry is thick and creamy. Not spicy, not oily and can taste just a bit of curry spices. Inside the curry there is large chunks of potato, which according to my friend comment that it is still hard and taste like it was cooked separately, which I totally agree. The mock meat was "homemade" according to the waitress which was actually made of shitake mushroom. Before asking the waitress, I thought it was mock meat that you can get from the supermarket. But if I have read the menu more careful is was actually stated there. But regardless of that the mushroom still taste like those you bought in supermarket, hence this dish (chef recommended) I gave a low score because of the "non-exiciting" mock meat and tasteless potato. But hey, this is a vegan curry, it will appeal to those who have limited choice.   

3) Thai Mango and Tamarind Fish

This dish comes with round slices (2-3cm think) of mock fish, stacked slice by slice. Under the fish there is the savory sauce with heavy Thai Mango taste. To complete the dish, the chef sprinkled thinly sliced Thai Mango on the mock fish. The mock fish is made of beancurd which the texture is like dry fish. Nevertheless the mock fish is dry but it is savory, I like sour things, hence Thai Mango goes well and the sauce comes is a bit sweet and comes with small diced vege (I suspect celery).   

4) Braised Monkey Head Mushroom with Broccoli (Chef Recommended)

This is the best dish that we had today. It comes with Monkey Head Mushroom, Brocolli, slices of chinese herb (I will ask my mum what herb is that tomorrow) and sauce that is infused with the chinese herb. We have never taste Monkey Head Mushroom hence the first bite that we had, we are all amazed by a few things: i) As the mushroom is diced into large chunk there are a few different parts, the mushroom head and stem. The mushroom head has a rough skin that taste like roast pork skin that is being cooked in sauce. The stem absorbs much of the sauce, hence when you eat it has a stronger taste compare to the other part. Nothing special about the broccolli, but this is to ensure that monkey head mushroom is the main ingredient here. We all like this dish very much!

5) Assorted Mushroom wrapped with Chinese Cabbage 

Thinly sliced vege + mushroom wrapped in Chinese white cabbage. The portion of the filling (vege+mushroom) is very small quantity and wrapped in large and thick Chinese cabbage. When you eat it, you taste nothing but the white Chinese cabbage, it defeats the purpose of having filling inside. I was quite dissapoint in this dish. One thing to look out if in the future I am going to make dish wrapped in Chinese cabbage. Unexpectedly, the sauce was very good, which taste like beef stock made of Bovril and has wolfberry. It is sweet and salty. We ask the waitress and she told us it is made of spinach. My eye went wide and shocked! 

6) Homemade Beancurd with Mushroom Roll (Nam Lu)

Everyone like this dish. When you place this mushroom roll into your mouth and just before you start biting it, there is an aromatic smell that smells like fresh a bit buttery and fresh bread that just came out from oven. The fillings are sliced mushroom and I think it was black fungus (Apologize for not able to 100% confirm on this). The mushroom roll is garnished with my favorite coriander leaves, it was perfect!

7) Nyonya Golden Pumpkin with Coconut Milk

This dessert got its inspiration from Chinese black glutinous rice dessert. Instead of using black glutinous rice, it was replaced with pumpkin. Let me recall, it has coconut milk, sago and very small quantity of black glutinous rice. It is delicious 

8) Homemade Konnyaku Jelly with Sea Coconut

I will not talk much about this dessert. It comes with three main thing: i) crush ice which I personally think it is annoying and unnecessary; ii) jelly which is nothing special but there is a tinge of honey; iii) sea coconut, which is hard and tasteless. 

9) Lemongrass Drink (cold and hot)

Refreshing drink and we like it. 

After the meal, we are quite full but not bloated (8 dish!). The food is not that oily as well though there are 2 dishes that are fried. But when we people ask me where to get healthy food, I would not have the slightest thought of recommending this restaurant. There are deep fried food and spicy food. The food is nothing novel and new, I feel I know most of the dishes, like Chinese dish, not much surprise for me. As Dilip say, you only need one or two signature dish, tonight for me it might be the monkey head mushroom dish, but I'm still not sure if that is their signature dish as it is a Chinese dish, it's not even Pernakan or Thai dish. 

The dish that we order make us feel like we are in a Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant - does not complement to the Thai and Pernakan theme that they claim. But I guess the customer will not be bother about this. Overall I will rate that restaurant conservative but the food they prepared is good (not fabulous though) and acceptable by the majority diners. 

SECTION B: THE INTERIOR DESIGN

1) Minimum decoration

2) curvy sponge deco on the wall here and there. Probably there are trying to show that they are friendly to the earth by reusing unwanted materials? 

3) Around 64 seats; Male and female toilets - small. 

4) It was a bit noisy even when there is only a handful of diners when we are waiting for our food

5) The wall was decorated with one big mirror on a wall; There are those contours, which look like those geography contour to show the "earth" aspect of its name. 

6) This is one example that simple looks nice, but they made a wrong choice on the curvy sponge deco, it feels out of place (in my own opinion).  

7) Plastic chair and only give you a serviette and a pair of chopstick + Chinese soup spoon.  

8) Aircond temp was good, I wasn't sweating while eating and talking a lot. 

9) The serving dish is a bit modern. I'm ok with it. 

SECTION C: STAFF SERVICE

1) Only one waitress knows about the menu and the restaurant. The others waiter is to serve food, clean dish and bring the bill. 

2) They did not provide us spoon, we also didn't bother asking for one until the 4th or 5th dish. 

3) While ordering food, the waitress tap the menu that I'm holding using her pen (I nearly fainted). 

4) They immediately took the chopstick away from my friend and gave him fork and spoon (at least ask first la..). 

5) Only that particular waitress interact with us much, but still I personally feel can still be improved. 

6) It takes about 15 minutes or so for us to get the few dishes rolling out. 

Service was average, if not because of the waitress reply my questions, I will give it a below average because of all the "confusing" staff that just stand there and unable to help me without asking for assistance form that waitress (sigh). 

 

 

We had the monkeyhead mushroom with broccoli, nyonya curry, and sambal with long beans, all of which had varied, meat-like textures and rich flavors, and olive brown rice.  The decor is cafeteria-like, and so is the service.  When we made the reservation for 8:30 on a Saturday night, they told us 8:00 would be better, which seemed strange because they said they close at 9:30.  Nonetheless, they accepted the 8:30 reservation (which turned out not to be necessary) and when we arrived, we were pressured to order in minutes.  By the time the second dish arrived the waitress barked, "Last order! you want the nyonya curry? Our signature dish!"  We took her suggestion.  The check was pushed in my face, mid-bite, long before the last dish arrived.  Soon the lights started dimming and we took our cue.  The last table looked at us forlornly as we exited and said, "Now they'll surround us."  "Good luck!" we said.  This is a place for fine vegetarian food, but don't go for a leisurely evening dining experience. 

I'm not sure about the pricing as I was invited to Whole Earth on a dinner treat, but I felt that it's really worth whatever amount that was paid.

I had one of the best vegetarian meals there at Whole Earth. The oatmeal beancurd was superb, loved the curry leaves in there. The abalone mushroom with vegetables was also one of the best that I'd ever tasted. The pumpkin dessert was surprisingly good.

I don't usually like "mock" meats in vegetarian dishes but perhaps it was the dishes that were chosen, there weren't much mock meats in there and I quite liked it.

The waitresses/waiters are friendly, polite, and they have the initiative to help us pass the dishes around the table of 11 people.

Overall, I felt this was a really good place not to be missed, even for non-vegetarians.

I have visited the sister outlet Naive twice. So I decided to try Whole Earth when I had a vegetarian craving again. I read the reviews from HGW and had a pretty good idea what to expect.

Table service started with 2 finger food; a small dish of fried bean curd skin and another of pickles. At $1.50 each, they should have advise that this would be added to the bill. I hate restaurants that 'spring unsuspecting' customers with extra charges. So one thumb down.

We had the following:

Homemade beancurd with mushroom - the description on the menu sounded delectable. But it turned out to be a plate of beancurd skin rolled and deep fried. A real let down.

Broccoli with braised monkeyhead mushroom - the chef did a better job with this then at Naive. I really like teh texture and crunch of monkeyhead mushroom at both places and it is normally not available in other restaurants.

Homemade Assam Pedas - true to the recommendation in HGW, this was really good. I cleaned the dish with olive brown rice.

Dessert was homemade lemongrass jelly with longan - the lemongrass jelly was really fragrant. This make sthis dessert so much more interesting than the usual jelly with longan.

So overall, the food was on par with the sister-restaurant, Naive. But its ambience was not good; the place is a noise maker and considreing there was about 15 people in a 50-seater place, the noise level was high so I can't imagine what it is like if it was full.

The service staff were very friendly and attentive. Though I found it odd that when my friend and I were deep in conversation, the server came over to chat with us about the food on 2 occasions. I found that intrusive.

Would I come back again - only if I have a craving for their assam pedas. 

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” — Albert Einstein.

Ok actually my mother just wanted to check out Whole Earth after my aunties recommended the place to her.

Look! Even HungryGoWhere patronizes Whole Earth! This guy was spotted with about 6 plastic takeaway boxes. :P

We didn’t order the appetizers ($3), yet they are not complimentary. The Seaweed chips are just fried beancurd skin. I didn’t try the other appetizer which is some vegetable soaked in vinegar.

My mother wanted to try the Olive Rice ($6) which was one of the chef’s recommendations in the menu. We were quite disappointed because it tasted quite like ordinary fried rice.

However, I kinda like the quality of rice that was used which is not the typical thin grain Thai rice. I was also thankful that the rice wasn’t oily.

The Nonya curry ($16) was not too spicy and was slightly sweet. Good for those who cannot stomach spicy food. But the portion is really quite small. I wouldn’t really recommend this.

Another healthy dish, Fresh Greens with Jade Bailing Mushrooms ($15)! The mushrooms were firm yet easy to chew and the texture is not too rubbery.

My family loves spicy food so for us to pass up the Tom yam soup ($15) is simply out of the question. It was spicy enough to satisfy me. Although I don’t really like sour food, I feel that the tom yam soup would deserve more marks if it was slightly more sour. There were generous servings of vegetables and lemongrass in it.

In fact, my brother loved the tom yam soup so much that he suggested we should try the Tom Yam Fried Rice ($6) too. It wasn’t that spicy but it was definitely better than the olive fried rice.

The Fried Mee Suah ($6) was a little bit oily but still acceptable. I don’t have anything else to comment. Haha.

I strongly recommend the 5-Spice Ngor Hiang Roll ($10)! Not only is it value for money, I like its presentation too. Finally something that looks more interesting than soup or rice. Haha! Yeah it tastes good too, just remember to dip it into the sweet sauce. Not too much though!

For those who love your greens might wanna consider the Sambal Kangkong ($12). I will not compare it with the non-vegetarian version because it it ultimately the belachan that brings out the flavor in this dish.

It’s nice to go on a vegetarian diet once in a while and it’s also interesting to see how people can get creative coming up with meatless dishes!

Total bill came to about $100 after 10% service charge.

Feel free to read up on my review here :)

We chanced upon Whole Earth one day when my lunch kaki and I were searching for a place for lunch at Tanjong Pagar and their $9.90+ set lunch got our attention.

We ordered Kong Bah Braised Mushroom and Nyonya Curry as our mains and topped up extra $1 for their olive rice.

The mushrooms certainly had been braised in gravy for several intensive hours, as each bite onto which resulted bursting of rich flavours. It was my companion’s choice of main, but I almost finished the entire dish myself.

As for the curry, both of us agreed that it tasted even better than the real deal (the meat version)!

Besides this weekday lunch promotion, Worth Earth’s menu also carries a full array of Thai Peranakan dishes promise to tantalise your taste buds yet go easy on your wallet. Don’t just take my word for it, hit Tanjong Pagar today down to Worth Earth and try it yourself.

For a full write-up and more photos, feel free to visit amasou-umasou.