Trip to: BOLLYWOOD VEGGIES + POISON IVY BISTRO

Over the Vesak Day holiday, I made a trip to Bollywood Veggies!

I’ve long wanted to go there because it’s a place that really resonates with me. I love the idea that it’s actually possible to have a plot of land in highly urban and modern Singapore and actually grow crops without the help of pesticides and chemicals. No fancy schmancy profit making scheme. No mega food corporation. Just wholesome, natural food organically grown from garden to plate.

How nice!

It is no wonder then that I am in deep deep admiration of the founder of Bollywood Veggies, Ivy Singh and her husband. Not only did they believe in sustainable, organic farming enough to devote their retirement years to actually running one (talk about walking the talk!), their farm and bistro also make it a point to hire special and challenged people, especially local Singaporeans, giving work opportunities to all.  Ivy also helped to establish a new Kranjiside Association to represent local farmers and improve transport around the area. (The shuttlebus makes getting there so convenient!). Everything about the idea behind it and the place itself just really encourages people to continue learning, growing and getting back to the basics. Life can really be so simple and happy.

Environmental sustainability, company of good friends and family, health, education, fun- this place represents everything I believe in as well. ( Pity there were no chickens I could kidnap) Lots of green pictures ahead! It was a gorgeously sunny (almost too hot; we were there till past noon) day and I really had a lovely time. Try identifying the fruits and veg in each picture! I knew I couldn’t. In fact for a really long time, I couldn’t even shop at wet markets because I couldn’t identify one leafy veg from another without supermarket tags. How sad is that? I wonder if the next generation would think vegetables grow in supermarkets? Or chickens are born nugget shaped?

Didn’t drive to the place so I didn’t get one of these. Was so tempted though!

Was really happy to see little kids from different kindergatens as well as secondary schools visiting the place! Everybody should make it a point to go and just spend time among the plants. I felt the guides at Bollywood veggies were really good. We explored on our own mostly but trailed a tour group bringing a group of secondary school students around. The tour was interactive and engaging and the kids got to learn (and eat!) about the different plants. Lots of interesting and intriguing facts were dished out! It really made me more appreciative of the effort it takes to grow food and the value of real food.

I NEVER KNEW PAPAYAS/ PINEAPPLES GREW LIKE THAT.  WHERE HAVE I BEEN ALL MY LIFE.

Apparently, the spider is a natural predator of insects and whatnots (sorry, my knowledge about such thing is reeaaaalllly limited) that attack and feed on the jackfruit.

(Another interesting fact gleaned by leeching on one of the tour groups haha)

 Nature is so pretty. Full of SUCH vibrant colours. *happy sigh.

Come to think of it, I never knew how garlic grew either. I always figured they grew in a nice big necklace shaped clump for easy wearing against vampires.

Now I know why so many people consider mother nature the finest artist. Look at the colours, the textures! They can be so gnarled and aggressive looking one moment and yet so sot and fluffy the next. Inspiring!

 This is going to be one heck of a creepy place at night.

 Composting!!! Some days when I’m supposed to Pay Attention to Deep Lectures, I put on my Pay Attention Face and allow my mind to wander to the the day I can grow stuff in my HDB apartment and compost my own food scraps for fertiliser. In my perfect world, money spent on creating yet another bomb would be spent teaching people how to grow organic crops in high rise buildings and the miliatry R&D budget can be spent analysing how to make non smelly compost.

I hate bugs, usually. But when you are out there surrounded by all the greenery and all, a bug like that looks almost too cute. I was enthralled for a bit and stopped to watch it make it’s merry way across the road telling itself “left leg 1, right leg 1, left leg 2, right leg 2… left leg 300, wait was it 299?”

Cheerful at the thought that I had quite a good workout by proxy and in need of a drink,  we decided to go check out Poison Ivy Bistro for lunch.

 

Awesome place. The food was really homely and yummy. We ordered pretty standard fare but I must say the highlight of the meal was definitely the…

MORINGA TEMPURA. Seriously. I need to learn how to make this. Does anybody have a recipe? I cannot believe it’s probably just some leaves in batter.  LEAVES!!!

It was non greasy and fried to this really addictive lightness. The chef must have gotten his frying techniques down pat. This didn’t taste greasy at all which made it a happy indulgence. I’m okay with fried food if they are fried properly! Read my previous post to find out why not all fried food are equally bad!

 Other orders included an Aloe Vera drink to cool off in the heat, a serving of brown rice, otah omelette and banana curry. Ordered the banana curry as I had read rave reviews online. While it is tasty and novel, the dish was a little too starchy for me. I’d recommend you try it for the sake of it but I wouldn’t likely reorder it the next time I go. Just twenty take away bags of the Moringa Tempura please.

 Another lovely drink- the Fig Tea! Try it!

 Immensely satisfied, we left the bistro and spotted a little pushcart selling dried goods and the like outside. The lady manning it gave us free bananas! I LOVE BANANAS!! THey aren’t as pretty looking at the ones you get in supermarkets but they taste SO GOOD.

 The boyfriend went off to pay at the cashier after the meal while I made a few calls and came back with this banana cake to take home. I like banana cake in general so I was pleasantly surprised but not expecting much. What I did not expect was HOW GOOD IT WAS/ IS. SERIOUSLY. It was so fluffy and moist and full of banana-y goodness.

Toasted a slice of it in the oven for a minute when i got home and it was so warm, slightly crisp outside, fluffy inside and filled with this gooey melty banana bits.

I only regret not buying more because once my dad got his hands on it, it didn’t last very long.

Comes in chocolate as well! But I didn’t try that!

And that concludes my visit to Bollywood Veggies!  I recommend you go just to get away from the usual shopping mall haunt. It was nice to be out in the sun (very rare for me to say that as I’m a polar bear by nature) and surrounded by all the colours. If anything, just go for the food at Poison Ivy Bistro. It’s unpretentious, hearty, wholesome. Exactly like how food should be.

In health and happiness!

Bollywood Veggies 

9:30am- 6:30pm

http://bollywoodveggies.com/

100 Neo Tiew Rd  Singapore 719026