The only reason I go to Jaya One nowadays is bouldering. After two hours of climbing, I’d be famished and in want of vegan food. Thankfully, Jaya One has Atap Nasi Kandar, which is a restaurant that serves mixed rice dishes as well as fried dishes like fried rice and fried noodles. Typically, most nasi kandar places would also have vegetarian dishes which tend to be vegan by default.

Nasi Kandar Vegan Tips

In Malaysia, most people would understand the term vegetarian rather than vegan.

As Buddhism has been around in the land for centuries and is currently the second-largest religion in Malaysia, the vegetarian diet is quite common.

However, the definition of ‘vegetarian’ may differ from person to person.

Some consider it as containing no eggs and no dairy i.e. vegan. Some would say that the dish would not contain allium foods like onion and garlic.

That is why it’s a bit difficult to get a consensus on what vegetarianism is. Each culture has a slightly different definition.

In this Atap Nasi Kandar case, there are no eggs or dairy in the veg dishes but they may contain onions and garlic. So, it is technically vegan.

Personally, the term vegetarian should mean that the dish does not contain any animal-based ingredients. However, due to cultural history, that is not the case. That is why the term vegan is needed and must not be twisted as well.

Vegan Food at Atap Nasi Kandar

When I went to Atap Nasi Kandar, they had about 15 vegetable dishes. They’ll give you some rice and you can choose the dishes to put on your plate.

I was hungry and the dishes looked delicious. I filled my plate as much as I could.

On my plate, there were tofu cubes, stir fry okra or bindhi, stir fry spinach, fried bitter gourd and some dhal.

My friend Suba had almost the same. Instead of the spinach, she opted for long beans, and fried cauliflowers instead of the bitter gourd.

They all tasted so good!

These two dishes plus iced lemon tea without sugar came up to nearly MYR 20 which was not bad at all. Considering that we heaped up loads of veg dishes on our plate and that they’re all really yummy, it’s definitely value for money.