At this Mala stand tucked away in the corner of the foodcourt next to the Thai stall , it was fabulous to have 2 soup bases to choose from : tomato and mushroom. The challenge is I'm unsure if they could have communicated with me if I was not able to speak Mandarin. I chose the mushroom based soup and it was delicious, at 中 辣 or medium spiced, it also contained some goji berries, red dates and Chinese roots that perfectly balanced the chillies. The soup also did not contain any msg I was told. I was also sure to specify: total vegan specifically no chicken powder, and asked if any of the soup had milk or dairy.
As for the ingredients, this mushroom-holic was so pleased to find that unlike many places, 🍄 were the same price as all the veg- a little dear at $2.50 per 100 g. Many mala places price shrooms at $3 per 100 grams, making it the same price as meat which is preposterous and ludicrous! Happily, I had a large variety of shrooms to choose from: white and brown shimeji, sliced King oyster (refreshingly rare, they are normally whole and sting you in weight) , enoki, ,oyster and dried shitake. They also had 4 types of fried beancurd and rehydrated bean curd strips and about 4 types of noodles including 2 potato starch noodles- thin and thick noodles plus dried tung Hoon. Usual bunches of greens, and even smaller florets of broccoli and cauliflower were all on offer.
It came to $15 which was rather pricey but after a few days of very little veggie matter, I was not quibbling over this too much.
I will return soon to try the fried mala xiang guo version soon. Fab for vegans!
