IF there’s one vegetarian restaurant I would gladly eat at, it would be Five Fingers Organic Grocer & Green Cafe in Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya.

To my surprise I also met a familiar face there, its chef-owner Shaolin Lau. It’s a pet name he acquired because of his bald head, he said.

Lau previously owned Organic Recipe in Bandar Utama and Organic Express in SS2.

He has had 15 years in the business and though I’m not a vegetarian, I do appreciate the way he has turned vegetarian food around and given it a tasty, acceptable feel.

There is no gluten mock meat in the Five Fingers menu – it’s all about organic vegetables, beans, rice and noodles, even mushroom burgers and pizzas. There are eggs in some dishes, while others are wholly vegan.

I did not miss meat at all, especially with the delicious stir-fried coconut with black pepper sauce (RM19.90). Slices of young coconut flesh were dipped in batter and deep-fried, then stir-fried in black pepper sauce with carrot and tomato.

The coconut tasted sweet and spicy and it had the texture of meat, like the Hakka “char yoke” (deep-fried pork).

Simmered ginger with black vinegar (RM15.90) is like the classic black vinegar pork trotter with all the right nuances of sweet, sour and hot with ginger.

Instead of pork trotters, there were big and chunky mushrooms braised in the vinegar, as well as generous slices of old ginger, lots of black beans and a hard-boiled egg.

The tender mushrooms tasted almost like meat and I liked the black beans and egg in this delicious vinegary stew. Vinegar makes you think clearer, says Lau. This comes with a bowl of brown rice.

Nyonya-style dishes are Lau’s forte at Five Fingers. The Nyonya petai sambal (RM23.90) was unforgettable for the spicy and aromatic blend of petai, tomato and cubes of fried tofu. 

I couldn’t resist ordering the Nyonya style sambal fried rice (RM13.90) after seeing that it has petai in it on the menu.

It was a well-fried spicy rice with lots of “wok hei” (wok heat). I encountered nubs of petai in it, fried soy “meat” and long beans. Acar and pappadam were served with it.

As for noodles, I liked very much the bitter gourd koay teow with black bean sauce (RM13.90).

Slices of bitter gourd, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, fu chuk and black fungus were fried with the koay teow and finished with a flavourful black bean sauce. I was told the fried brown rice vermicelli with lam yee sauce was yummy too.

I had been thinking of Hakka lei cha (rice with an array of vegetables and basil and tea soup) on my second visit there, but it’s only available from Friday to Sunday, and “praying” days

Pizza and pasta are on the menu too. The classic pesto mushroom (RM15.90) was a good choice.

Green and fragrant was the pesto sauce, made up of basil and mint, and finished with a little cream. I would have liked the pasta better if it had been al dente.

There were vegetables in every bite – mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, pepper and long beans.

There will be banana leaf rice and steamboat after Wesak, says Lau, who is also planning a cooking show on Youtube.

Five Fingers is also an organic grocer so you can shop for all kinds of dried foodstuff and frozen food like black bean tempeh, dumplings, and buns with vegetable and sweet fillings.

The restaurant is at 17 & 19, Jalan 22/23, Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya. Number to call is 03-7731 3387. – May 14, 2022.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.