Organic and Vegetarian Food

By Foong, on June 8th, 2008

The popularity of organic food is on the rise with more people realising the unhealthy effects of consuming foods that are laced with pesticides and are genetically modified. Most of the time, I do buy organic vegetables mainly because it tastes better and does not contain pesticides. Pesticides, even those approved, are linked to cancer and other serious diseases.

So, for a healthier lifestyle, I am slowly making a change to go for organic food. If anything, it is better to prevent than cure, especially with studies and research showing that children received four times more exposure to pesticides residues as compared to adults. Too bad we do not have organically cultivated livestock and poultry here although there are plenty of organic vegetables in the market.

In my search for organic food, there is this little organic shop I found that sells organic food stuff and also offers lunch. Surprisingly, although they only offer vegetarian food, the dishes are good and they offer quite a variety of different foods on different days.

This small little organic restaurant, called Seed Natural Food Care, boasts of ‘no salt, no MSG, no meat and all organic food’ and is situated along the row of pre-war houses converted into shophouses at Nagore Place (Nagore Road) in Penang.

These are the food that I have tried there:

Pinenuts Spaghetti

This is the first time that I have tasted this type of spaghetti. It contains pinenuts and the green sauce is made of basil. So, if you like the smell of basil, this is a very good dish to try out. It is really unique and the taste, interestingly enough, is good.

Vegetarian Hokkien Mee

Since this shop sells only vegetarian food, I did not expect them to have local hawker fare like Hokkien Mee and on the day that I went, it was one of the items in the menu of the day. So, I gave it a try. It tasted almost like the real Hokkien Mee except that it does not have the strong smell of prawns. It is spicy, with a bit of lor and the first time that I tasted a really good vegetarian Hokkien Mee!

Seaweed Spaghetti

This is another surprisingly unique dish as it is spaghetti mixed with seaweed, some chili, basil and olive oil. So if you don’t like creamy sauce or tomato based spaghetti, this is as close as you can get to a local taste of spaghetti. In fact, it was like fried noodles with seaweed. The seaweed gave it the salty tinge and the chili adds some spice to it.

Creamy Mushrooms Spaghetti

Of course, they also offer the creamy mushrooms spaghetti but with a twist, it has some chili in it to give it a spicy taste. The creamy base isn’t so thick so it is not too rich while the chilies gave it extra flavour and taste.

Wolfberry Tea

This shop also specialises in specially prepared drinks such as fruit juices and natural caffeine-free tea. One of their specialty is this nutrient packed Wolfberry Tea which is a blend of wolfberries, red dates, raisins and longans. The taste of it is like a thick shake that is sweet with a tinge of sour and a strong longan smell. It is unique but honestly, if you can’t stomach the taste of all those ingredients blended together, don’t order this. I could only handle one cup of it although TH seemed to love this tea.

Rojak

Dessert consists of fruit platter or this, rojak! The rojak sauce is specially homemade with organic ingredients and yes, without the smelly shrimp paste. Surprisingly, it is just as thick and tasty as the real thing.

Other foods this shop offers include daily set lunch of rice and dishes and specialty a-la carte items like Burdock Rice, Spaghetti, Bak Kut Teh, Nasi Lemak, Kua Chai Rice and Red Yeast Mee Suah (ang chau mee suah). These specialty foods are available on different days and usually it will be written on the menu.

The prices are not exactly cheap since it is selling the more expensive organic foods. Each dish is from RM5 and above. The shop is open daily from 9am to 6pm and it is closed on Sundays. You can call them up to ask about the menu of the day at 04-2297903.

Rating: 8 /10

Price: $$$