I was in Melaka for a durian trip with Lindsay over the weekend. She’s a vegan (no dairy, no eggs, no animal byproducts) so we went to Chin Hua Vegetarian Food for dinner. I think this is only the second or third time in my entire life that I’ve gone into a vegetarian restaurant. It’s not high on my list of preferences since I eat just about anything, including exotic animals like dog, snake and rat. I have no religious or social taboos against any type of meat. I just don’t discriminate like that. 
The woman manning the place looks Thai but she speaks fluent Mandarin. They have a rather popular chap fan service. I saw quite a few people eating here, including a large family. Lindsay chose six items for RM 6 from the warmers and I tried some of them. I thought the fungus was quite decent. It doesn’t taste bad at all but I feel like they use a lot of seasoning, oil and salt to boost the taste profiles.
This is the Vegetarian Water Chestnut Ball (RM 5). It’s made to order and you can either choose to have it fried or boiled. This is the latter – it’s actually meant to be an analog of the ubiquitous fishball soup. The water chestnut balls have a springy and yielding texture like a fish ball and the soup is flavored the same way. I would never have guessed that this was made with water chestnuts. It’s remarkable! It really eats like fishballs.
I had the Sizzling Mee (RM 5) which came with generous portions of vegetables. The meat is replaced with mock meat (either gluten/seitan or soy) in a variety of textures. It was alright. The noodles are perfectly edible, just not downright delicious. I feel like this is one of the problems with vegetarian food, together with over-seasoning to replicate meat or enhance neutral flavor profiles.
It was a great experience though. The meal just cost RM 16 for two and I wouldn’t have stepped foot into a vegetarian or vegan place otherwise. My parents don’t do the vegetarian cuisine during CNY thing coz they’re Christians so I have limited exposure to such food. I would eat it again but not by myself. I’ll be perfectly happy to go with a vegetarian or vegan though. That’s about the best thing I can say about vegetarian food. Haha.
Vegetarian food. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love veges but dislike those meat substitute ones. I don’t understand why we need to eat Assam FISH or sweet and sour CHICKEN in a vegetarian restaurant.
If I wanna be a vegetarian, I’ll just eat real vege and skip those substitutes. I just don’t see the logic to it hence I am not a vegetarian. Hehe.
I tried a vegetarian burger once, they made the “meat” from the stems of the dried shitake mushrooms. Not quite like the real thing, but it was nice.
That’s the first time I’ve seen a vegetarian water chestnut ball in replacement of a fish ball….haha! 😀
Hi Lindsay! I remember this lady who loves durians, right?
I am so surprised that you have hardly eaten vegetarian food all your life. Well, that’s your choice and no harm about this. Just that most Malaysian Chinese tend to eat vegetarian on off for no religious reasons like me too. I started to enjoy these meals after trying at the Yishenshu at One Utama.
HB, glad you taste this vegan restaurant and I am not vegan eater also but like to try all kind of food. Taiwan had many restaurants that vegan like dim sums the most. When I on a diet vegan the best for it.
I like vegetarian fishballs but dislike mock char siew. It taste and smell like rubber. lol
Water chestnut ball really intrigue my curiosity, how it can resemble the texture of fishball?
I wonder what else is used to to make the vegetarian water chestnut ball apart from water chestnut.