Vegan feast at Gokul Raas

Riding on a breezy Thursday, Kelly nudged us to try Gokul-Raas restaurant at Upper Dickson Rd, one of her favourite vegetarian joints in Little India.

The four of us stormed in, roaring with hunger and began eyeballing mock meats on glaring green menu, finger-guided by our vegan champ.

First to greet us was Soup Kambing - a rich broth flavoured with 20 different spices and soya mutton chunks. Three words to describe the taste: No Goat Run. Flavourfully thick! Tastes better than actual Kambing soup.

Next dish to arrive was ... Everything. All at once. They were laid down one after another as we immersed mindlessly in Alan's favourite topics: CSR, saikang and SOS legends.

Taken by surprise, Alan and Eugene struggled to position the dishes as perfectly as they could, sensing what was to come.

As I sipped my hot masala tea, Kelly snapped her fingers, hinting the waitress to double up as camerawoman; a frequent request, I'm sure, from office patrons.

And the deed was complete.

Here are the dishes that came in a blink:

Sardine kalipok - Flavourful fried puffs with spicy vegetarian fish filling. Dont be fooled by its look. Its Yummy fantasty!!

The all time favourite Kothu Prata Set - Minced parata mixed with soya chunks, vegetables & tofu served with gravy. A first for the 3 of us.

Gokul Special that Kelly chose - Hokkien Mee (yes. Jialat, this one also very nice, how?): Stir Fried Combination of Beehoon, Yellow Mee and Kway Teow noodles in fragrant sauce. Kelly squeezing lime all over.

Another all time favourite on the menu - Crispy Paneer Pakoras: Popular Snack of marinated and breaded cottage cheese (Paneer) chunks dipped in batter and fried crispy. Fragrant mint dips.

Aloo Gobi - Semi dry Indian dish of potatoes, cauliflower & mixed spieces.

Butter Chicken - Classic Punjabi dish of vegan chicken chunks cooked in creamy cashew tomato gravy. This is sourish tasty. My poorly taken pic did not do justice to its great taste.

Of course, we ordered Tandoori roti and sesame naan to dip into these mood lifting gravy.

What's my favourite dish? I rate all 8/10 but there is a clear winner - Hyderabad Dum Briyani. 8.4/10. No horse run. No basmati wasted.

The taste is intense. I joked we should all eat this on Mondays to jolt us awake and alive. I saw Eugene nodding, his thumbs firmly erected.

Hyderabad Dum Briyani - Claypot Long grain basmati rice cooked with masala soya chunks Hyderabadi style.

Kelly insisted the honour to buy lunch is hers and hers alone. We bowed respectfully and suggested something refreshing to clear our pallettes.

A cup of hot tea would suffice. So drink we shall, Teh O Limau panas, at a place neither far from Gokul nor far off our mind.

And time for another selfie.

Like nomads, we trudged, cutting through busy fivefoot alleys beneath the grey heavens. I triggered some point and shoots for inspiration.

Always time for another selfie. Mask is optional.

We reached ABC Nasi Kandar and downed a cup of Teh O Limau panas to hydrate our systems and sanity.

The tangy sweet drink rounded up our flavourful Thursday.

We rushed back to office and BAM! The next best thing happened...

My watch beeped 5:30pm.

My heart screamed: 3 cheers to Kelly!

Thanks for reading, till then! 🐻

Check out Gokul here