On Oscar Weekend 2020, Tinseltown’s best and brightest dined on a lavish plant-based menu by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. While the food catered prior to the Academy Awards was entirely plant-based, the Oscars’ afterparty (also known as the Governor’s Ball) featured a 70 percent vegan menu. Both the Golden Globes and Critic Choice Awards also featured plant-based menus.
(Related: Ease into a plant-based lifestyle at this resort on Sumba Island)
Celebrities still dined on classic luxuries like Miyazaki wagyu and caviar – but for the first time in his 26 years catering for the afterparty, Puck’s menu focused on mostly vegan dishes such as sweet potato tempura with mint cilantro aioli and Vietnamese-inspired rice paper rolls. Yes, dessert was mostly vegan too: ube and coconut cream pillow tarts and gold-leaf-coated elderflower lollipops were some of the delights on offer.
(Related: Are plant-based meats just a fad or paving the way for the future?)
The food wasn’t just vegan: Puck and his team took pains to source much of the ingredients from sustainable or organic farms in California. The decorations for the 92nd Oscars and Governors Ball were also either repurposed or recycled; nor could you find a single plastic water bottle at the Oscar Nominees luncheon, the Oscars, or the afterparty.
In other news, Best Actor winner and vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix followed up on his Oscars’ acceptance speech – where he urged the audience to fight back against animal cruelty – by rescuing a cow and its week-old calf from a Californian slaughterhouse.
(Related: Championing plant-based cuisine: Peggy Chan)
Here are some of Singapore’s best vegan options (and even one Oscar recipe for the home cooks among us, courtesy of Wolfgang Puck) so you can sup like a celebrity in 2020: sustainably.
https://www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg/gourmet-travel/oscars-weekend-vegan-restaurants/
Oscars Vegan
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If plush cushions, modern European cuisine and inclusive dining are your thing, Porta is for you. Its recently launched Green Monday menu is a collaboration with a Hong Kong-based venture that promotes plant-based lifestyles. Contrary to its name, the Green Monday menu isn’t confined to one day a week. Available daily, flexibility is the name of the game: think of it as vegan, vegetarian or allergen-free options that put flavours first. Start with the (coconut) cream of pumpkin soup: sweet, rich and perfect for lunch without the usual 2pm slump. And, well, if you’re willing to cheat just a little: the orecchiette pasta – which contains dairy – with wild mushroom, spinach and Beyond sausage is sinfully good. Else, ask for the Beyond burger with lettuce leaves instead of the fluffy brioche buns if you’re sacrificing the carbs. Everything else about it is already vegan though: from dairy-free Daiya cheese, to coconut oil mayo and truffle fries.
Level 1, Park Hotel Clark Quay. Tel: 6593-8855
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Since 2009, Wild Honey has been serving up an eclectic selection of all-day breakfasts. They also feature a medley of vegan options so that you’ll never have to say: “Guess I’ll get the fries.” These include the Amazon, an acai bowl packed with chia seeds, mixed berries, coconut water, baked granola and coconut and tropical fruits. The towering Eden burger features an Impossible meat patty, portobello mushroom and avocado slices with caramelised onion and red pepper jam. They also have a selection of desserts from vegan ice cream to halva & tahini cookies.
6 Scotts Road, #03-K1/01/02. Tel: 6636-1816
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The Botanic combines plant-focused organic ingredients with Asian and Mediterranean influences under executive chef Shannon Binne, a protege of chef-restaurateur Luke Mangan. Being vegan herself, Binnie knows her way around making a plate of food taste good without meat or dairy. Vegan dishes include baked pumpkin and chickpea in curry leaf infused oil and a sharing plate featuring grilled tofu, smoked aubergine and quinoa tabbouleh with cassava, sauerkraut and pickles. There’s also an eggless meringue that features the classic pairing of mango and passionfruit.
252 North Bridge Road, #01-22A, Raffles City Shopping Centre. Tel: 6837-0995
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Prive’s outlets are scattered islandwide, each offering a unique atmosphere from cosy to frenetic – with the same good food. Well, not exactly: though there are vegan options at each of Prive’s locations, you can now emulate a Hollywood power luncheon with Prive’s Fresh menu that features a plant-based lunch set. Available at Prive ACM, Keppel Bay and Paragon, the lunch set lets you choose a soup and a main. These include a creamy (but creamless) Hokkaido corn chowder adorned with sweet paprika and spring onions, the Italian Job – raw vegan lasagna that replaces pasta sheets with zucchini slices, baked with a tomato and walnut sauce, nut “cheese” and basil pesto; as well as an Asian poke bowl that features maple-miso glazed tofu with edamame, shitake mushrooms, goji berries, butternut squash and other goodies doused in chili-sesame dressing.
Multiple Outlets.
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This vegetarian-vegan joint is all about mindful eating — think descriptors like “farm to table”, “eco-friendly”, and “community-based”. The menu here ticks many health trend boxes, offering a range of keto, raw food, or gluten-free dishes like almond “rice” sushi with homemade kimchi and avocado; and teriyaki mushroom “meatballs” served on salsa and lettuce. They’ve also got a whole selection of raw food mains, which are have been prepared with temperatures under 45°C. There’s a raw crispy lasagna, made with zucchini sheets, cashew nut cream cheese, mixed herb pesto, dehydrated cherry tomatoes, marinated baby spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and a garden salad with honey-mint dressing. There’s also an impressive-sounding selection of desserts, given the limitations — the chocolate salted “caramel” fudge is made with raw avocado and cacao, tahini, and a walnut crust infused with cold-pressed coconut oil and medjool dates.
24 Keong Saik Rd. Tel: 6224-8921
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Vegetable Rice Paper Roll
Serves one
Sweet Chili Sauce:
2 Tablespoons of Agave
1 Tablespoon of Sriracha
1 Teaspoon chopped garlic
½ teaspoon of minced ginger
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sweet soy sauce
1 teaspoon chopped mint
1 teaspoon of cilantro chopped
Directions:
1. Combine ingredients and bring to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring
constantly until it begins to boil and remove from heat.
2. Take off heat and cool using an ice bath.
Main:
1 8” rice paper wrap
½ mango peeled, julienned into 3 inch sticks
½ tsp togarashi (shichimi)
4 mint, leaves picked
3 thai basil, leaves picked
1 whole fuyu persimmon, julienned
1 whole jalapeno, seeded and julienned
1 whole cucumber, julienned into 3 inch sticks (Discard the seeds)
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce (recipe above)
1 whole fresh lime zest
3 shiso leaves
¼ c micro shiso
Directions:
1. Take a bowl with hot water and place one rice paper round in until it is softens and is malleable,
about 15 -20 seconds. Be sure to use to large enough bowl for the rice paper to fit without bending or
folding.
2. Place the now rehydrated rice paper on a dry cutting board or flat clean surface.
3. Place towards a quarter of the way down the rice paper: 4 julienned strips of mango, 3 to 4 pieces of
persimmon, 4 strips of cucumber, 3-4 strips of jalapeno, tablespoon of sweet chili sauce, zest a teaspoon
of lime, ½ teaspoon of Togarashi, 3 mint leaves, 2 Thai basil leaves, shingle the shiso leaves on tip.
4. Take the sides of the rice paper roll and fold inward, then bring the bottom of the rice paper and fold
over the ingredients and gently roll upward.
5. Cutting the rice paper roll into desired pieces and garnish with micro shiso leaves.
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If dining in cosy, convivial greenery is up your alley, Kilo Kitchen of the Kilo Collective promises a culinary experience that’ll leave your bellies full – and warm. As part of their monthly Cooking Beats initiative, an all-vegan menu was paired with biodynamic wines for just one night on 26 Feb. Think effortless and easy dining that brings out the best in earth-friendly ingredients, including a sweet-spicy compressed watermelon with perilla and tajin and deliciously smoky zucchini skewer. The highlight was a mushroom udon that combined roasted cremini, shitakes and button mushrooms with soya and mirin for a heady stock teeming with earthy umami. Grilled maitake, shimeiji and tomato with crispy shallots rounded out the extraordinary dish. Though chef Manel Valero doesn’t have plans to add vegan items to the usual menu just yet, we’re looking forward to it – and if the menu includes any hint of mushroom udon, we’ll be back.
97 Duxton Road. Tel: 9625-0279
