Putu Mayam Oo~La~La

Served with dessicated coconut and red sugar, this simple South Indian snack of steamed vermicelli-like noodles is one of my favourite choice for breakfast.

Plain and simple as it may seem, not all putu mayam tastes the same. Some sellers heat it up prior to serving the customers while others just dump spoonfuls of 'aged', dry dessicated coconut on it.

For me, I found the perfect putu mayam with the slightly moist vermicelli-like noodles served with fresh dessicated coconut and red sugar in the Bendemeer market.

Komala Vilas

I've been patronising this little South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant in Little India since my NS days in 1994, although I do not go there on a regular basis, I do like to bring overseas visitors there and whenever I find any reason to go there. This restaurant has been around since 1947 and has been popular with the local indian and non-indian populations alike!

I've always ordered the same thing when I dine there: The South Indian Vegetarian Meal, Paper Thosai and the Marsala Thosai, so much so that I don't even know what the other dishes are called after all these years! If I find a good thing, I'll stick with it!

So just yesterday, I found another reason to bring a friend there since it was his first time eating in Little India! Faithfully, I ordered the South Indian Veg Meal for him and a Marsala Thosai for myself, complete with 2 Lassis (Yoghurt drinks).

South Indian Vegetarian Meal - It's $6.70 and all-you-can-eat free refill for rice and all the accompanying dishes. I rarely go beyond the first serving as you can see, they do tend to give a lot of rice! I've no idea what goes inside those little side dishes but they are all wonderfully cooked with lots of Indian spices. They are not very hot but with lots of flavor! There's even a small cup of soup and a ginger sago dessert that goes with it.

Marsala Thosai - $2.70. A tad more filling than the paper thosai, the Marsala Thosai is filled with potatoes cooked with spices to the right consistency. I like to eat it with the curry best (middle), not so much with the coconut based dip on the right hand side. For the price, it's definitely 2 thumbs up!

And of course, they say: "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", so I always wash my hands clean and tuck in to my food with my fingers when I am there!

Lookout for the bright yellow sign that says "KOMALA VILAS VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT" along the main road of Little India!

Annalakshmi @ Chinatown Point

I came to know of the restaurant Annalakshmi through the Channel 5 program, Buffetlicious. It is just another typical Indian vegetarian restaurant if not for it's "Eat What You Want and Give As You Feel" philosophy made possible by the service of voluntary staff. Yes, you read it right! There's no fixed price for the food charged in the restaurant. Simply pay whatever price you feel is right or affordable to you!

Despite the airing of the program on national television and the 'reassurance' from the restaurant's website, it still sounded too good to be true to me. Hence, a trip was made to the branch at Chinatown Point.

Upon arrival at the restaurant slightly after noon, I was expecting to find it crowded with hungry customers looking for a cheap deal. On the contrary, it was not even half-full and only after being attended by a polite waiter did I realised that the tables were all fully reserved. I was about to make my hasty retreat in disappointment but was instead offered a reserved table with the condition that I free it in an hour's time. The deal was struck and after being shown to my table, I was delighted to be offered a list of drinks ranging from lassi, pineapple juice, lime juice etc other than plain water!

The buffet spread didn't really have the "wow" factor unlike it's hotel counterpart. Nevertheless, with a choice of 4 different types of rice, some 5 to 6 varieties of accompanying gravy, fried lady's finger, papadam (my absolute favourite!), sweet yoghurt dessert and freshly-cut water melon, it definitely more than satisfied my hunger pang on a Sunday afternoon.

Note: For those naan-lovers, it's only available during the dinner buffet. Lunch buffet (11am - 3pm) and dinner buffet (6pm - 9pm) at Chinatown Point are only available from Friday to Sunday. Reservation (6339 9993) is highly recommended.

I brought with me a somewhat sense of skepticism but left feeling good, knowing that there's still a strong belief of goodwill and charitableness in people. It's a nice feeling to know that not everything is about dollars and cents in this realistic world. :)

Indian Vegetarian Lunch

It's been quite a while since I last tasted an Indian vegetarian meal. So after exploring Mustafa on a rainy afternoon, I made a quick dash across the road to a nearby vegetarian self-serve restaurant.

The food listings on the menu were almost foreign to me having had close to zero prior experience in authentic Indian cuisine except for the knowledge of naan and bearing in mind that roti prata does not originate from India.

Feeling slightly adventurous, I ordered the South Indian Set and just as a backup, I proceeded to order the Garlic Naan Set as well.



Both set lunches came with the main course accompanied by several small bowls of gravy. In the end, what started with just a simple vegetarian lunch ended up in a tedious mathematical attempt of permutation and combination of rice, naan, cracker and gravy to find the best match.

In the end, after having my tongue numbed by the spicy gravy, I could only offer the following comments:

- the thin crackers seen in the extreme right side of the South Indian set is definitely my favourite. It goes well with any of the gravy and even on it's own!

- the murky looking sauce seen in the extreme right side of the South Indian set is actually red bean soup. I quite liked it as it's not as sweet as those sold in the dessert shops.

- the garlic naan was quite a disappointment to me as it resembles just a stab of thick dense bread with no garlic or toasted bread fragrance whatsoever. I always had nice savoury memories of the bread and thought it was such a basic primary source of carbohydrate in the Indian's diet that it just simply can't go wrong. I was wrong though...

- the rest of the gravy are not so fantastic either


For sure, I'll not be returning to the same restaurant and as a rule of thumb, I'll definitely be consulting my Indian friends before I go on my next Indian food 'adventure'!