Monday, May 1, 2017

Joo Bar @ Tan Quee Lan Street

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It was a ladies meet-up session and the place of choice was Joo Bar. Conveniently located at Tan Quee Lan Street and accessible via the Downtown line. Reservation was made and we made our way there separately. This place serves Korean-styled dishes and brews. Expect tapas sized servings though.

Joo Bar signage
The place was rather busy and our reserved place was at Level 2. Joo Bar is a cosy place with rather dim lightings.

seats at Level 2

As it was still happy hour, we ordered a Joo Beer and Joo Brew for $10++ each. The makgeolli was very nice. The beer was refreshing on the warm night.

Brew and Beer - happy hour
 For food, we ordered some anju (안주) or drinking snacks such as the Kimcheese pancake, Honey Butter Chicken, pork belly and the army stew.

Kimcheese Bacon Pancake @$22++
Honey Butter Chicken @$16++
The honey butter chicken was a wrong order as the Korean waiter had ordered his favourite instead of what we wanted, which was the dak gan jung or spicy chicken.

We were rather surprised by the Army Stew as it was of the smallest size that we've ever seen. Think it was meant for one or two pax. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the rich broth that's robust and spicy.

Army Stew @$24++

Also ordered some meat to share. The Slow Roasted Mangalitsa Pork Belly was nice and tender but nothing to shout about. The side salad was rather enjoyable though. Maybe order the chicken wings next time? Saw the table next to us had it and it looked delicious.

Slow Roasted Mangalitsa Pork Belly @$25++

Overall, we had fun at Joo Bar. The drinks made us happy and the food was decent.


Sunday, April 30, 2017

[Media Invite] Yoogane @ Serangoon NEX

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Yoogane originated from Busan and I first had a taste of it at its Myeongdong branch. It's a simple shop where one walks in, get a table, order the combination of choice and the staff will bring the necessary and cooks it at your table. The side dishes (banchan) are self-service and the staff usually brings water in the form of a steel water container bottle to the table. Utensils are in the drawer that one slides out at the end of the table.

store front

Similarly, one expects the same at Yoogane Singapore. Personally, I found that the side dishes in Yoogane Singapore tasted better than the version I had in Myeongdong some years ago. There's strawberry sauce or sesame sauce for the salads, the kimchi was nicely marinated and the yellow radish was tasty. Unlimited refills, so take as much as you need.

At Yoogane, the must order would be the dak galbi (닭갈비 - stir fried spicy chicken). For its 3rd Anniversary in May, Yoogane is launching new dishes. For chicken galbi, do order the one with cheese and the staff will bring over the grill with a side rim for the cheesy dips. We tried the cheesy corn and cheesy mushroom. The grill looks familiar to those that can be found at korean bbq stores.
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Cheesy Duet  of Cheesy Corn & Cheesy Mushroom Chicken Galbi @$59.90
Various toppings such as ramyeon, rice or dokbokki can be added. The toppings prices ranged from $3.90 to $6.90 per plate. I'd recommend the sweet potato dokbokki. Must try. Looked cute too! The sweet potato dokbokki has mung beans as it fillings so it was like eating spicy ang ku kueh.

sweet potato dokbokki (고구마 떡볶이 ) @$5.90
staff cooks

The cheese was enjoyable and liked that it was so stringy. Had fun trying to pull the longest cheese strings!

yummy cheesy corn

While staff cooks the dak galbi, one could order side dishes to munch on. The seafood pancake (hameul pajeon) is a popular choice, and we had egg roll and Taeyang (from Big Bang?!) salad too.

Korean Style Seafood Pancake @$18.90
Egg Roll @$10.90
Taeyang Salad - Chicken Galbi Salad with sesame dressing @$12.90

The chicken galbi was not very spicy and liked the cheese at the side. The egg rolls were good too, but do eat it while it is still warm. The taeyang (sun) salad is basically fresh lettuces, cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumber slices and julienned carrots with chicken galbi and a poached egg.


let it flow

On a very hot day, one could also opt for naengmyeon which is basically the cold buckwheat noodles. Served with light and refreshing broth and one adds vinegar and mustard according to own's liking.

Naengmyeon (Cold Noodles) @$11.90
cutting the noodles

On 8 May, Yoogane will be launching the Dosirak (도시락) or lunch boxes, where it is prepared in a metal tin box, just like how it's being done in Korea. One could try these dosiraks in May; Chicken Galbi, Chicken Bulgogi and Beef Bulgogi. The items in the dosirak include the main meats (chicken galbi or chicken bulgogi or beef bulgogi), crispy chicken luncheon meat, kimchi, seaweed, korean fishcakes, anchovies and served with a sunny side up. The metal boxes are meant to be shaken before eating. Kind of getting an arm-workout prior to enjoying the carbs.

Dosirak (도시락) @$12.90

Next, we tried an existing item in the menu, which was the Octopus and Chicken Galbi. Last had this while I was at Myeongdong. The Yoogane taste is pretty consistent.

Octopus and Chicken Galbi @$59.90
almost ready
enjoy~

Expect to spend about $30 per pax for a meal here with drinks. The service staff are friendly and they will greet the diners upon entering and leaving their premise.

Special thanks to HGW for the invite and Yoogane Singapore for the hosting the dinner.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

[Media Invite] The Peranakan Set Menu of Yesteryears (13 and 14 May 2017) @ Claymore Connect

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Thinking of where to dine during Mother's Day this year? If mom likes peranakan food, then you may want to indulge her at The Peranakan, conveniently located at Claymore Connect near Orchard Hotel. For Mother's Day, Chef Raymond has lovingly put up a menu that consists of favourite dishes in a 9-course menu suitable for 4 pax. We took a sneak peak of what's in this menu. So let's eat!

The course started off with a soup. One could choose Sup Bakwan Kepiting or Itik Tim; both are common in peranakan cuisine. I got the Sup Bakwan Kepiting, a mince pork and crab meatballs soup. The broth is subtle, with a tinge of sweetness and the shredded bamboo shoots added a bit of crunch with each bite.

soup

Sup Bakwan Kepiting
Next up, for Mother's Day only, a heart-shaped nasi ulam will be making its presence known. The nasi ulam requires hours of preparations, resulting in a tasty nutritious dish. All of us enjoyed this.

Nasi Ulam
Next up, was an array of delicious and authentic peranakan dishes served together for communal dining. I was looking forward to the Sambal Pisang Jantung (though more commonly written as Sambal Jantung Pisang) which is actually a salad of banana flower.

Sambal Pisang Jantung

The Sambal Pisang Jantung was served on a plate lined with banana leave, where the salad sits in the middle with prawns adorning its crown and surrounded by crispy emping (crackers). Chef recommends us to pick up a piece of the cracker, scoop a generous amount of the salad onto it and pile it with a piece of prawn. I wasn't sure of what to expect as this was the first time I was having the banana heart salad. It was surprisingly sweet, a tad refreshing, a little piquantness and ended with a slight spicy note.

a bite of freshness

If you are looking to dishes with kuah (gravy), no worries. Coming right up!

Babi Asam
Udang Masak Nanas

Babi Asam, was a dish of no return. One bite, led to another and another. It was so flavourful! The sauce and white rice equated to yums. It had a little bit more spicy kick as compared to the rest of the dishes in this course. Liked the tender pork with a good fats to meat ratio. This ranks up there with the Trotters Babi Pongteh.

If you like it sweet, then the Udang Masak Nanas will tickle your tastebuds. The gravy was more like a soup and it was quite addictive. Just found it troublesome to have to peel off the shell off the prawns.

Bitergourd Asam Busuk
When Chef Raymond came round our table to talk about the Bittergourd Asam Busuk, we were like, "Uh? Say that again?" Yes, the name literally meant 'smelly' asam bittergourd. Even stranger, was the two fried dough fritters that sat at the both sides of the plate. For the life of me, I have never seen nor heard about this dish, have you?

Well, it turned out that the 'busuk' was implied from the salted fish. Alright, salted fish do have a distinct smell. Fortunately for us, this dish didn't smell funky at all. The salted fish was cooked down till its fragrance is extracted into the gravy which then paired well with the bitterness from the gourd and when mixed with asam, everything just harmonizes together. It had a good balance of sweet, salty, and savoury. The 'you tiao' (dough fritters) were good by the way, and we were to break it up and dip (or if you prefer, to soak up) into the gravy before popping it into the mouth. I liked it and, I think this was my favourite way of having the bittergourd asam busuk.

Telor Goreng Chinchalok

As part of the course meal, there was a lighter dish of Telor Goreng Chinchalok. Chinchalok originated from Malacca and is made of fermented shrimps. Chinchalok is one of those things that smells funky but taste so good. You could have it out of the bottle and mix it with chopped red onions with a squeeze of lime and pile some of it onto hot steamed rice. Here, at The Peranakan, chinchalok is mixed into the omelette and for extras, there is a small dish of it for you to add more. The chinchalok omelette makes a good side dish.

Of course, no one shall leave The Peranakan without ever trying its rendition of Ayam Buah Keluak. Again, this dish required steadfastness, as the preparations for the buah keluak is a tedious process. Thoroughly enjoyed the sauce and the chicken. For me, the buah keluak is an acquired taste. It's either you like it or you don't. But I do appreciate the effort that Chef Raymond and his team are putting in, in order to make this dish available at The Peranakan.

Ayam Buah Keluak

The Set Course ends with a dessert. However, the Apom Bokwa Pisang was not available during the tasting so we had kueh dadar instead. Ordered a pot of hot Malacca tea to go along with it.

kueh dadar

The above 9-Course Peranakan Set Menu of Yesteryears is priced at $200 (usual price $233) for 4 pax and is available during Mother's Day on 13 and 14 May 2017.

Thank you Hence for the invitation, Chef Raymond Khoo for hosting the dinner and The Peranakan team for taking care of us.

The Peranakan

Location: 442 Orchard Road, Level 2 Claymore Connect, 238879
Website: http://www.theperanakan.com/
Contact: +65 6262 4428
Business Hours
Monday-Sunday (11:00AM – 10:00PM)





 
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