[SG EATS] This Lunar New Year With Elemen- Vegetarian-style of Celebration
With Chinese New Year just around the corner, you must have seen many photos of Yu Sheng islandwide and I bet you have yet to see a vegetarian yu sheng. Well, the folks at Elemen have just introduced me to my first vegetarian Yu Sheng and do not disappoint me.
Prosperity Truffle Yu Sheng (松露富贵捞生)
Elemen’s Prosperity Truffle Yu Sheng, is made up of many ingredients such as konnyaku jelly, black truffles, melon strips, pickled cucumber, sesame seeds, peanuts, white ginger, fried yam, pok chui, beetroot, white radish, carrot, purple cabbage, pomelo, dried tangerine peel and homemade sour plum sauce. Personally, I love my Yu Sheng with raw fish slices but as a substitute for the fish, konnyaku jellies was used. And it was a perfect substitute; the jelly has the smooth textures elements in it. Taste-wise, it’s has a strong truffle taste at first but eventually, it got overpowered by the taste of ginger.
The Prosperity Truffle Yu Sheng is a part of Elemen’s Prosper-licious 8-Course Menu, which is available from 12 February – 2 March 2018. The menu consists of the following:
5 Element Soup (元素五行汤)
The soup base ingredients include burdock root, carrot, shiitake mushroom, radish, radish leaves along with the snow lotus seed, bamboo fungus, Chinese golden fungus and red dates as topping. The best part is that the soup is brewed for 5 to 6 hours in a coconut shell, which makes the coconut flesh tasting like Yam. On the first sip, it tasted like brewed soup from home but eventually the taste lean towards it being more savoury.
Charcoal Beancurd with Golden Oyster Mushroom (金蚝菇伴竹炭豆腐)
Homemade charcoal beancurd served with asparagus, golden oyster mushroom and drizzled with miso gravy. The burnt taste of the tofu skin was just right for me, and along with the sauce, the tofu melted in my mouth gracefully. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fried mushroom; it was too crunchy for my liking.
Apple cider (幸福苹果醋) (No photo taken)
This was a refreshing shot that tastes like Apple vinegar, and it was nice of to serve in between the meals to have a little ‘perk me up.’
Firecracker Nest (如意爆竹金丝巢)
This spicy, sour and zesty “chicken” is one of my favourites from the set. It is actually fried spicy monkey head mushroom with cashew nuts, pineapple and Si Chuan peppers. Don’t let the looks of this dish fool you, this chicken was fiery like a bowl of Sichuan Mala. This would be perfect with a bowl of rice too.
Steamed truffle rice with braised sauce (常满红烧松露蒸饭)
Fans of Chinese glutinous rice would love this. The moist yet truffle flavoured steamed rice is my favourite from this set. The oyster mushroom that was paired with it, was a match in heaven with the braised sauce.
Purple rice porridge with coconut ice cream (香椰冰淇淋紫米粥)
When I saw the name of this dish, I was thinking of yam with porridge, but this dish ended up being a great alternative to the traditional pulut hitam. The use of coconut ice cream as a substitute for condensed milk was brilliant. I loved how this was leaning towards a crunchier pulut hitam, with the addition of almond nuts flakes.
Strawberry with plum sauce drink (草莓梅子特调)
A fizzy drink with a big slab of strawberries, which is bound to give a refreshing taste. The taste of the plum sauce was not very evident but I liked how concentrated the drink was.
This is my first vegetarian meal for the chinese new year, and I am glad Elemen did not disappoint as there were many instances where I had to ask myself if this was really a vegetarian meal. Folks at Elemen have just set my vegetarians’ meal standards by a notch up and I am still blown away by the creativity and resourcefulness of the folks here on cloning dishes with a vegetarian twist.
The prosper-licious meal is priced at S$108.90++ for 2 person, and S$208.80++ for 4 person. It is available from 12th of February to 2nd of March 2018. This would be a great place to kick off the prosperous new year with your vegetarian friend and non vegetarian friends too!
Read about my previous experience with Elemen At Millenia Walk
Read more about Chinese New Year 2018 restaurants here.
Address:
Elemen @ Millenia Walk
9 Raffles Boulevard
#01-75A/76 Millenia Walk
Singapore 039596
Elemen @ Thomson Plaza
301 Upper Thomson Road
#01-113 Thomson Plaza
Singapore 574408
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3988.8445188188184!2d103.81871921463026!3d1.2659166990766793!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x31da1be33cc07519%3A0xa649b58095a5c6ca!2sHarbourfront+Centre!5e0!3m2!1sen!2ssg!4v1517454618788&w=600&h=450]
Elemen@Harbourfront Centre
1 Maritime Square #02-85
Singapore 099253
Website: http://www.elemen.com.sg/
[ This is written by Guest Writer, Felicia. Edited by Hazel]
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