Johor Buzz: Vegetarians Not Forgotten

[suchandra]

Johor Buzz: Vegetarians not forgotten

Kamachy Habimanan

NSTONLINE

2007/12/07 <!--start pix1--> <table align="center" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"> <tbody><tr> <td class="caption" id="aphoto">

UNIQUE PREPARATION: N. Elamaran's vegetarian fried mee, cooked without onion, garlic, mushroom and egg, is very popular among his customers. </td></tr> </tbody></table> <!--end pix1--> MORE people are choosing to be vegetarians these days. In fact, gone are the days when they did this solely for religious purposes.

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<table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3" width="200"> <tbody><tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td class="caption">SPOILT FOR CHOICE: At Maitra Vegetarian Restaurant, customers can choose from a wide variety of Indian, Chinese and Western fare, which includes vegetarian burger (above) and a special cauliflower dish that is part of the buffet lunch.</td></tr> <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td class="caption">

</td></tr> </tbody></table> <!--end pix2 & pix3--> "Nowadays, the reason for eating vegetarian food is different. Many are more health conscious. This has created a need for variety in vegetarian food," said N. Elamaran, owner of Maitra Vegetarian Restaurant.

 

The restaurant, which serves a mix of Chinese, Indian and Western fare, is one of the popular vegetarian restaurants in Skudai.

 

It is unique in that it promotes pure vegetarian food from Elamaran's own recipes, minus onion, garlic, mushroom and egg.

 

Some of the popular dishes at the restaurant are sweet and sour taufu, Chinese-style chap chai, brinjal sambal and vegetarian fish sambal or fish curry.

Elamaran uses his own masala (spice mix) to cook these items with fresh vegetables.

 

The restaurant also serves traditional Indian food such as vadai, thosai and roti canai, as well as local dishes like fried meehoon, fried mee and fried rice.

 

The restaurant, which is mostly popular among Buddhists, also offers vegetarian nasi lemak, vegetarian pizza, vegetarian cake and vegetarian sweets such as cashewnut laddu.

 

Elamaran, who has several years of experience cooking at the Krishna temples in Orissa, India, said he learnt cooking and baking mostly in India.

 

"I am a Hare Rama Hare Krishna follower who used to travel a lot. I have friends all over the world and they taught me how to bake cakes and make pizzas. Our ingredients to bake are different from the usual ones because we do not use eggs.

 

"I also read lots of cookbooks and often try out new dishes with ideas of my own."

 

Maitra Vegetarian Restaurant is located at No 81, Jalan Laksaman 1, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah. The restaurant, which operates from 7am to 6pm daily, also offers catering services for all occasions.