Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Tasty vegetarian Thai, old Georgetown

My spell of year-end leisure continues in the old part of Georgetown. I love this area, around the heritage enclave. Every visit invariably reminds me of how lucky I am to be able to call this gorgeous town home, with its colonial-era architecture, narrow streets and most of all its general atmosphere - distinctly nostalgic and chilled at the same time.
Lots of good flavours can be found in this part of the town too. We were farewelling some vegetarian friends bound back to big bad-ass KL, so we parked ourselves at Tasty Bake, a 6-week old cafe on Pitt St near the splendid Goddess of Mercy temple.
This place isn't designed to handle a huge traffic of diners - just a couple of tables set up outside and a sofa area inside. As we soon found out, this was directly related to the the kitchen capacity as well - only one dish at a time. So if you went in a big group, you'd find that the first person who got served would have well finished his/her meal before the last person got fed.
First up was Phad Ki Mow - basically fried flat noodles with vegetables, plenty of basil and hot, hot bird's eye chilli. Extremely palatable.
Fried vegetarian "chicken" nuggets - I don't know about this. My stand on vegetarian is to stay clear of mock meats, regardless of how it's prepared.

Star dish of the day was definitely the Cashew Salad, no contest. Toasted, crunchy cashews tossed with diced tomatoes, red peppers, onion, basil and coriander and probably a hearty squeeze of lemon juice... beautiful!


MS and KJ both ordered the mixed Vegetable Green Curry, which came with rice. The curry was probably too light and watery for my liking but once again, basil came to the rescue.

The Mutton Curry was spicier, richer and more agreeable to me than its green amigo. Yes, mock meat elbowed its way in but who can resist the call of the flesh?

I settled for the Tasty Fried Rice, which was ordinary on its own, but delicious when paired with the mutton curry.

After enduring the wait time in between every dish, we decided to further test our patience by ordering a round of healthy drinks while witnessing a couple of obviously high or drunk jockey touts fight out some territorial dispute. No one got seriously hurt, thank goodness. And when it finally arrived, the pineapple coconut smoothie (with choice of whole or soy milk) was a refreshing end to a lovely meal and good company. Thanks for picking up the tab, H! Hope you had a good trip back!

11 comments:

Bangsar-bAbE said...

I don't like eating mock meats. It's just not the same. The Phad Ki Mow looks good...makes me want to eat hor fun now... o_0

Poppy Seed said...

Yay! Take Me there!

backStreetGluttons said...

vegetarian food has crept up the cool n hip byway and some are of another level , with amazingly animal life-like presentations so it is eerily strange indeed . Heck some even taste so meaty & form vs function culinary escapade is getting blurred but those guys are good !

Happy New Year to another Penang lang

-j- said...

happy new year to you and your family!!!

Food Paradise said...

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

choi yen said...

Good to take vegetarian once a while to detoxed our body hor.... :)

minchow said...

Bangsar Babe, yeah, no to mock meat!

Poppy Seed, we go we go...

BSG, Happy New Year to you too! Ever tried an 8-course Chinese vegetarian meal, with the requisite fish/prawn coming in 5th or 6th? Surreal, man!

Duckie and Food Paradise, thanks for wishes! Happy New Year to both of you too!

Mimid3vil, yup, especially with all the over-indulgence in December!

worldwindows said...

Vegetarian is not one of my favorite but I love those dishes that are without pseudo-meats but with lots of aromatic herbs and spices.

Rebecca Saw said...

hellloo there! ;p
been awy fr blogging for a while n wan to extend my Happy New yr wishes to ya..albeit wayyyy late ;p
And yes, i soo digg vege food! much to the chagrin of my eating partners. so i end up eating vegetarian alone ;(
But i muz say this outlet serves more fusion-ed kinda of dishes..great to tease the palate aft the normal vege fare we normally get..

minchow said...

Worldwindows, herbs and spices definitely go a long way... Indian methinks is the ultimate vegetarian cuisine!

Nomad Gourmand, Happy New Year to you too! I'm on a real vegetarian phase at the moment, as I'm trying to redeem myself after a particularly excessive holiday season :-P Let me know if you're feeling up for some!

Anonymous said...

may i know this shop at where? By the way, still open?