Makan-Makan @ Pasir Panjang Food Centre - In search of BBQ Chicken Wings and Ended Up with More!

Was in the mood for some BBQ chicken wings, and we were nearby Pasir Panjang Food Centre so off we went in search for some smokey tasty meat.

There are more than one stalls that offers BBQ chicken wings and with similar pricing, so we decided we'd try 216 Choa Chu Kang BBQ Chicken Wing since the person who stays in CCK, have not tried any CCK BBQ wings. That would be me, by the way. Hahaha!

chicken wings @$9.80 (7 pieces)

The wings did not look like much but it had good flavours. Smokey, well marinated and goes well with that plate of watery tangy chili sauce. Was kind of worried the light plate might flip anytime if a strong enough gust of wind would come our way!

Next up, satay. I mean, who can resist this bite-sized flavourful meat skewers. Maybe vegetarian, but I digressed. Again, there are plenty of satay stalls in this food centre but we zoomed right in to the popular one, which is Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay.

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay - chicken, beef and mutton (min. order of 10 sticks)

First noticeable thing about Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay was how deeply coloured the satay is. I would imagine that was because all the seasoning and marinade had seeped deep into the meat. The sauce was also thick and looked so inviting. The satay may look tough but it wasn't. Instead the tongue was greeted with a sweetish-savoury marinade with meat that was nicely firm and chewy.

Edges of the meat was also nicely charred but of course, nowadays we shouldn't eat too much of those charred parts. But that's where the essence of the smokey flavours congregates!

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay

We had placed an order for BBQ stingray from Xin Fu Ji (新福记) but that'll take about 45 minutes to cook. Saw there's one stall (Li Yuan) next to the BBQ seafood stall that sells oyster omelette so we ordered one to munch on while waiting for the stingray.

Li Yuan fried oyster  蠔煎 @$8 (medium)

This stall will hand you a buzzer so that you can be notified when the food is ready. The other stalls seemed to be able to deliver to your table though. The oyster were large but I didn't like the flour in this version. The inclusion of lots of herbs and spring onions were good. Otherwise, its flavours were rather muted.

huge oyster

Actually, there is also a satay stall at where we were sitting and it sells pork satay. Hence, we ordered some to try. By 'some', it meant another 10 sticks! Wow, at this moment, I then realised that we had overdone ourselves and ordered too much.

Hmm, this stall #3 doesn't seem to have a name though I can see words like "Famous Satay" on its lighted boards. It sells BBQ chicken wings, and satay (chicken, pork, mutton). However, the pork satay was too lean for me. It will be good if it could have just 5% more of fats.

Famous Satay - pork satay @70 cents per stick (min. 10 sticks)

Finally, the BBQ stingray reaches our table. The lady was quite apologetic about it. The first-time experience in ordering was also quite awkward. The Xin Fu Ji stall only had this lady to take orders and there is a man inside the very very tiny kitchen to cook all the orders. The lady would be busy bustling around taking the seafood from the ice-box and prepping them on a plate for the man inside. While she was doing all these, the customer would just have to stand around and wait till she is ready to glance at you.

新福记 BBQ stingray @$15 (medium)

The order arrived with side plates and a complimentary tissue pack. I found that a rather nice gesture for a hawker centre setup. Was the wait worth it? At $15 per medium sized stingray, there was an abundance of meat. Flesh was tender though it was lacking in the char department. The sauce was also rather subtle. Leaning more like an assam sauce where it is more tangy than spicy. In fact, the spice level was rather mild. Loved the chenchaluk onion sauce that came with this. This stall was mentioned in Michelin Guide 2017.

All in all, it was a hawker food feast on a weekday evening. We ordered too much and ate a tad more than we should. However, we enjoyed it!

216 Choa Chu Kang BBQ Chicken Wing

Address: 119 Pasir Panjang Rd, Singapore 117424 Pasir Panjang Rd, Singapore 117424
Business Hours:
Daily 5pm to 10.30pm

Yusoff Haji Jalal Satay

Address: Pasir Panjang Food Centre 10, 121 Pasir Panjang Rd, S118543
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yusoff-Haji-Jalal-Satay-Pasir-Panjang-Food-Centre/146365652103947
Business Hours:
Wednesday to Sunday 5pm to 11pm

Li Yuan 丽园

Address: 13 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road, S118543
Business Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm daily. Closed on Tuesday.

Xin Fu Ji Seafood 新福记

Address: 15 Pasir Panjang Food Centre, 121 Pasir Panjang Road, S118543

Business Hours:

Daily: 5.30pm to 11.30pm. Closed on Mondays

[ Busan] Hou Yangkkochi 호우양꼬치

We had pork and beef BBQ prior and there's still room for more. So what did we do? Went right into this shop that had lamb skewers! Right, we expect nothing less from foodies...but stressed leh...we ate and ate and ate somemore!

menu

We took the course set on the left; lamb cutlet, lamb chops, lamb skewers and tangsuyuk. No rice, of course. After that, we were surprised when the boss brought out a bottle of Harbin beer. "Service." He said. Which means, he gave us a bottle of free beer. How cool was that! Busan people are really friendly.

beer - complimentary

This BBQ place was more of Chinese-styled. Even the seasoning spices for the BBQ is reminiscent of Xinjiang meat skewers. Liked that the place is spacious, modern and using charcoal grill. Yay!

lamb chop on the grill

left to right: spices: flavoured salt (curry), cumin, chili flakes, pickles, salted peanuts and spring onions

The guy who attended to us, I think he is the boss since he was the one that brought the beer FOC. Pssst...He's also quite good looking. He helped to cook the meat, cut up the meat into chunky bite sized and also distributed the meat evenly towards the two sides of the grill where we are seated.

meat is cut-up to bite size pieces

양고기 meat from the lamb chop separated and ready to eat

The pineapple and rice cake (떡) are then left on the grill to char a bit. The meat was surprisingly gentle to the jaw. Not too gamey. Tasted pretty good with the cumin and flavoured salt. Not forgetting the ice cold beer. Ahhh...that hits the spot.

spiced it up!

And, then the tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) came. It looked rather impressive with its golden brown colour and large pieces. Unfortunately, that 'large piece' were mainly sweet potato flour. The meat was really really thin and tiny. We didn't finish this plate. The sauce was nicely sweet and sour though. What a pity.

sweet and sour pork 탕수육

look at the size and that's not a teaspoon btw

Lastly, the lamb skewers. Amidst the skewers, there was one with gingko nuts. Nice.

lamb skewers 어린 양 꼬챙이

self-rotating skewers

Here's a super short video of the action:

The food and place was nice and with friendly staff. It was just a random place that we dropped by. 맥주 감사합니다!

Hou Yangkkochi 호우양꼬치

Address: 168-150 Bujeon-dong, Busanjin-gu, Busan, South Korea
Contact: +82 51-804-1199

[Media Invite] 푸짐 PUJIM @ 82 Amoy Street

There is a new Korean BBQ restaurant at 82 Amoy Street and we were excited to try! The restaurant is easy to spot and if you are lucky, you may get a parking spot close to the restaurant. PUJIM is owned  by Busan native, Mr D.O Kim and this spacious new place serves Busan cuisine and good meats for its BBQ.

When you walk into the restaurant, you will definitely notice the purple neon signs scattered throughout the dark interior of the restaurant. Of course, the other noticeable item would be the smoke extractor above all tables. The neon signs gave the place a rather happening vibe and the tables are adequately spaced out.

PUJIM's interior

PUJIM is fairly new and there is an opening promotion at the moment. The menu will indicate accordingly, or you could also enquire from the friendly staff.

menu

artwork

We noted that free wifi is available in the restaurant. For drinks, the range of alcoholic drinks included local beer or Korean beer (Hite/Cass), soju (plain or flavoured), makgeolli, baekseju, bokbunja, and non-alcoholic drinks of canned drinks and bottled water. You can also BYOB and the corkage fee is $50 for wine and $70 for others.

drinks

This BBQ place offers 6 types of banchans and for BBQ, there is a minimum order of 300gms for the first order and subsequent order is in minimum of 100gms thereafter.

banchan for two tables

For the banchans, the kimchi was pretty good and the apple salad was rather refreshing. The surprise item was the pickled celery. It was a surprise as the taste is of a familiar and unexpectedly homely. Try it and you'll understand what I mean.

lovely kimchi

pickled celery

are we having bread later?

The utensils are placed in the drawer located at the ends of the table.

retrieve the utensils and we are ready to eat

The staff will do the cooking and diners only need to enjoy the food. There are plenty of dishes that one could order while waiting for the BBQ. We started with Busan Amok Tang (부산어묵탕) and Seafood Soup (해물탕). Two medium sized bronze pots were brought to the table and placed ontop of the gas stoves.

Seafood Soup 해물탕 @$35 (UP $40)

Busan Amok Tang 부산어묵탕 @$35 (UP $38)

The haemultang (seafood soup) was loaded with seafood such as flower crabs, large scallops, prawns, mussels, clams, octopus and squid. The soup was slightly spicy with a lovely umami flavour. Shiok!

The Busan Amok Tang (Fishcake Soup) is suitable for the kids, and came with many variants of fried fishcake (long, short, round, squarish), lots of onions and spring onions and some ricecake (tteokbokki). The soup was sweet and tasty. Our table liked both of these soups. I personally preferred the seafood soup.

There is also the seafood pancake 해물파전 which looked slightly different from what I had tried before in other Korean restaurants. The flour was really to a minimum and the base was mainly green spring onions.

Haemul Pajeon 해물파전  @$35

Plenty of crunchy shiny prawns ontop of the pancake and some squid too. The pancake was nice, not overly seasoned, and lovely prawns but I kind of missed the flour. Dipping sauce is provided but it was not necessary. This dish was also noticeably oily towards the base.

prawns

Next up, meats! We were so ready for these. Started with Premium Beef Ribeye Cap, which is said to be the tastiest cut of a steak. It is shaped like a prawn and is located under the front section of the backbone.

Premium Beef - Ribeye Cap @$38 per 100gm (UP $43 per 100gm)

sizzling in progress

The smell from the grill was amazing. The prawn-shaped meat cooked well and we got to enjoy this delicious and rare cut within minutes. The cooked meat would be laid ontop of the white bread for guests to partake.

The meat had lovely grill marks and the thin layer of meat was easy to breakdown. As this was not marinated, one could enjoy the natural taste of the meat. The meat was easily chewed and it wasn't too oily.

Ribeye Cap

Next, was the ultimate Premium Beef of dreams. The striploin A4 wagyu. Look at those marblings and imagine its melty taste..mMmmm.

Premium Beef - Striploin @$35 per 100gm (UP $40 per 100 gm)

listen to its sizzles~

fire dance

I actually preferred the striploin over the ribeye cap. Loved the oily mouthfeel of the striploin and it just melted in my mouth. Minimal chewing was needed. Enjoyed this premium beef very much!

striploin - chunky cut (by female staff)

striploin second piece - strip cut (by male staff)

What goes well with the grilled meats? A little bit of alcohol. Beer or soju, your choice. Wah, did not realise that the flavoured soju was actually pretty good.

flavoured soju (grape) and Korean beer

For non-beef eaters, one could do BBQ pork as well. The version here uses Iberico pork and diners would have a happy-belly good time with quality meats. The pork collar was a formidable looking chunk. Enough meat to feed all the meatatarians in the group!

Iberico Pork Neck @$54 for 300gm (+30gm free) (UP $20 per 100gm)

Not too sure how this large chunk of meat was supposed to be cooked but luckily, the staff was on-hand to do the cooking.

look at those fats!

Watch the meat cooks and hear it sizzles (please don't mind the noise behind):



The pork neck needs to be cooked much longer as it was of a thick cut and with plenty of fats. Till the meat turned a delicious brown and that's when it is ready to be eaten. The pork neck has stronger flavours and it paired well with icy cold beer.

Iberico pork neck

For pork, of course one must not leave out the pork belly cut. Samgyeopsal is the classic cut for Korean BBQ. The plate of pork belly in PUJIM looked really beautiful and the layers of fat and meat were so evenly spread!

Pork Belly 삼겹살 @$11 for 100gm (UP $13 per 100gm)

grilled samgyeopsal

chunky meat lettuce wrap with a dab of gochujang

After all the unmarinated meats had been consumed, it was time to move on to the marinated beef brisket.

beef brisket $16 per 100 gm (UP $18 per 100 gm)

The thinly sliced briskets cooks quickly, and once again, we enjoyed the tasty flavours of this cut. Tender, slightly leaning on the sweet side and highly enjoyable. Recommended.

grilling the briskets

beef brisket wrap

It has been a while since I've enjoyed good quality meats at a Korean BBQ place. It brings back lovely memories of Busan's trip.

All in all, PUJIM is a Korean BBQ restaurant that offers its diners not only good quality meat but also Busan's flavours and hospitality.

Special thanks to Alvin for extending the invitation and PUJIM for hosting us. Had enjoyed the food and the hospitality. Will be back, see you soon.

Thank you Alvin, Kris, Jennifer, Tiara, Melissa and Ivan for sharing the calories!

푸짐 PUJIM 

Address: 82 Amoy St, Singapore 069901
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PUJIMHADA/
Contact: 6224 1588
Business Hours:
Daily 1130am to 11pm