NOODLE SHACK @ IPC [Vegetarian Options]

- March 16, 2018

EAT WHAT LEH?

To my vegetarian/non-vegetarian readers, I found a new affordable place to eat and they have really good meat-less selections! So a little back story, I actually didn't know about IPC Shopping Mall or that there are so many food a floor below Ikea all this while, till my friends brought me there for lunch one day. I was like "Omg! How did I not know about this?" Today, I will be sharing with you my meal and experience at Noodle Shack.

Located at the L1 (same level as the car park and B.I.G)

The reason why I was drawn to try this place was because I saw their Hakka Pounded Tea Flat Noodle (more known as Lei Cha amongst Chinese) on their poster. If you would ask me what is a dish that I can eat for the rest of my life but will never get bored of, it would be Lei Cha. Growing up, my nanny would make them for us and that was how my love for Lei Cha came about.

It was actually my first time seeing Lei Cha served with noodle as we would normally have it with rice so it got me even more excited to try it! Good news to all vegetarians, they do have a variety of meat-less selections and Miss Allyna here tried all of it and here are my thoughts!

CUTEST MENU! The food here are claimed to be pork free, no added MSG/preservative/colouring.

MEAT-LESS SELECTIONS

Everything looks so good!

(Whole menu at the end of the blog, as always ;)

To those that do not know what is Lei Cha , it is basically a Hakka dish. The translation of Lei Cha is "pounded tea/thunder tea" (most likely from the noise of pestle and mortar from pounding the herbs for the soup). It is a thick green herbal soup that is normally served with rice that is topped with peanuts, tofus, preserved turnips (chye poh), and any sort of veges. Not everyone likes it as some may find it bitter or are even afraid to try it because of the colour. Tbh, a lot of my friends think that I'm weird because I love Lei Cha, but actually, I think they are the weird ones and are missing out in life! (no offense ;P)

I made two visits in order to try everything on the meat-less menu. On my first visit, I tried their Hakka Pounded Tea Flat Noodle (Dry). They do serve it with peanuts but I'm allergic to nuts. Frankly speaking, I prefer their soup than the one at Simple Life (served with brown rice, RM18.90). Based on my personal experiences, Simple Life's tasted sweet and I'm not a fan of it.

It was a bit weird actually having it with noodles but I must say, I really liked their flat noodles! The texture of it is bouncy (so cute haha). The portion of the soup is just nice though I hope they gave more.

Made my second trip there with my mum and I ordered the rest of the meat-less noodle. Yup! 3 big bowls for 2 ladies hahaha

Served with Enoki mushrooms, tofu, spinach, fungus, and I think that's Shiitake Mushroom.. (tbh i'm really bad with mushrooms because I used to hate them)

They normally serve it with hand torn noodles but I asked for long noodles. Took my first sip of the soup and I thought it tasted a bit bland but my mum said that it has strong mushroom taste to it. This dish is perfect for those that prefers a lighter and subtle taste. After eating a few more bites, the soup's mushroomy taste finally hit me hahaha (Allyna kan always slow a bit) I have nothing much to say about it actually.

Served with okras, brinjals, Aburaage (deep fried tofu), tofus and topped with spring onions, chillis and sambal.

Once again, they normally serve it with hand torn noodles but I asked for long noodles because eating hand torn noodles with anything else besides pan mee is just not right 😂 . It was my first time trying Soy Milk curry (it sounds so healthy haha) It has a really strong coconut taste to it but the waiter told me that they didn't use any coconut. The curry's thickness is just nice, not too diluted.

Rate of spiciness: 6/10 (not that spicy)

So I did some research and Zha Jiang Mian is actually a Chinese dish that has been adopted as a popular Korean comfort food, Jajangmyeon. ZJM usually is based on soybean paste whereas JJM uses fermented black bean paste. Fun fact, I didn't know about this haha.

ZJM sauce is normally cooked with ground meat. The one here at Noodle Shack is substituted with mushrooms instead and it also came with a bowl of soup. The noodle is served with shredded cucumber and carrots, the sauce, spring onions and there's cooked spinach at the bottom too! (love me some spinachhhh).

To my surprise, I actually really loved it. The raw greens made the dish really fresh and the sauce is good. My plan was to just try a few bites and then take away the rest because both my mum and I already had a bowl of noodles each. I ended up eating the whole bowl! I just couldn't stop eating it. I would definitely come back for this. I'm not a fan of the soup though haha like it just didn't go well with the noodles.

Killed it! Both my mum and I don't eat brinjals btw hahaha

Overall Verdict :-

Food : 7/10 (only based on the meat-less selections)

Price: Really affordable!

Would I return?: It's an easy yes! You will see me here all the time after this hahaha

Others:Lei Cha Noodle & Zha Jiang Mian are my TOP 1 followed by soy milk curry and mushroom noodle soup. My mum's favourite is the Soy Milk Curry.I would come and try the ones with meat too when I'm not on a vegetarian diet in the near future haha

*Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and may vary with other's

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Allyna Wong