Shimmy Shimmy Coconut

This meal was based on a recipe from Delicious magazine (I think August, 2007 ), in which fish was crusted with a mix of uncooked polenta and herbs. I simply made up a mix of polenta, sage, rosemary and thyme with some cracked pepper, in one bowl and a corn flour and warm water mix in another. I double dipped a 3/4 inch thick tofu ’steak’ in both mixes then fried lightly in some vegetable oil until the polenta had turned a golden brown colour:

Served on some pappardelle pasta with a side of roasted asparagus and snow peas. I’d recommend marinading the tofu for a while before hand, but can’t really think what would be best - any ideas?

Slowly, my meat-eating friends are starting to integrate vegan foods into their lives. It helps that I force feed them vegan baked goods whenever I get the chance. One restaurant that has made it particularly easy to get my friends to eat tofu is ‘Dumpling Inn’ at Jamison shops. Since one fateful night late last year, we have been going to this restaurant at least once a month ( and more like once a week) and we pretty much order the same things:

Sizzling bean curd - the sauce is either a plum or sweet and sour sauce as far as we can discern, and is thick and perfectly balanced in flavour. I dream about this dish (not really, but it is good enough that I could dream about it) and pretty much crave it most days.

Bean curd with hot rock salt - oh the garlic and salty goodness of this dish! Very few restaurants have made this as well as Dumpling Inn.

Four season beans with mince pork (minus the minced pork, of course) - a recent addition to our order. Frankly, it doesn’t compare to the tofu dishes, but it is quite nice in its own right.

One of my friends (a seasoned Chinese restaurant frequenter) suggested getting the shallot cakes (which I will likely blog about my attempt to make these soon enough) as an entree and I thank her for that as they were so delicious. The picture is blurry and doesn’t do them justice - tastewise:

One of my friends is very anti-tofu and he seems to have no trouble eating his fair share of these dishes (the truth is, I wish he didn’t like them at all - more for me that way)!

All in all Dumpling Inn is a cheap, really tasty dining experience with friendly service that makes it well worth the very frequent visits.