Noodle Star K 누들스타 케이 @ 58 Tanjong Pagar Road

Was doing a staycation nearby at Amara, hence dropped by here for lunch. We were led to Level 2 of the shop.

shopfront

menu

Ordered the cold noodles, chicken noodles, tangsuyuk (because I insisted!) and gogi mandu (meat dumplings).

Side dishes are served once our order has been taken.

boiled beansprouts, pickled radish, sauce for mandu and kimchi

The kimchi here has a stronger fermented smell to it, hence am not used to this version. Taste wise was ok, quite appetizing.

The orders are served quickly. Pretty efficient!

Chik Naengmyeon 냉면 (冷麵)

Chicken Kalguksu 닭칼국수

soft, chewy noodles

Cold noodles are refreshing while the chicken kalguksu is more comforting. Both were nice.

Given a chance, I'd always want to try tangsuyuk from the various shops here. Have I found the one? Not yet, unfortunately. The criteria involves good batter, ratio of meat to batter, flavour, and sauce taste. Even in Busan, the portion given was impressive but the ratio of batter to meat was overwhelming with very little meat to taste.

At Noodle Star K, the tangsuyuk is kind of slim whereas other places seemed to go with the flatter rectangular slice. The batter wasn't crispy but still tasted nice when it was warm. The sauce was sweet but not overpowering.

tangsuyuk @$28

dipping or pouring?

lean meat

Gogi Mandu

The barley drinks here costs $3 per glass. Not sure if it is refillable. Noodles are priced at $16+ onwards.

We spent about $28 per pax for lunch.

Noodle Star K 누들스타 케이

Address: 58 Tg Pagar Rd, Singapore 088479

Website: https://noodlestark.com/

Contact: 6224 6061

Business Hours:

Daily:  11:30am–3:30pm, 5:30–9:30pm

Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant 手拉手京华小官 @ 141-143 Jalan Besar

First experience was at the newer Boat Quay outlet and we decided to check out its original outlet located at Jalan Besar, which is the usual one that our lovely couple goes to.

As with any Chinese restaurant, there's cover charge in the form of peanuts and wet tissue. 

peanuts (unsalted) @$1++

We ordered similar things as per the Boat Quay outlet, except we didn't order Peking duck here. To start, we have the Shredded Chinese Cabbage with Jelly fish. Pricing wise, the Jalan Besar outlet may have dishes at a better rate, but by large, mostly similarly priced.

Shredded Chinese Cabbage with Jelly fish 白菜丝半海蜇 @$12.80++ (M)

I liked the cabbage salad. Doused generously with vinegar, it's an enjoyable cold dish with crunchy soft jelly fish texture.

Scallion Oil Chicken 葱油鸡 @$8.80++

Tried a new dish; Scallion Oil Chicken which was decent, but probably not as famous as its cousin the 口水鸡 (Steamed Chicken in Spicy Sauce).

Braised Chicken Feet @$3.80++

The chicken feet were 'fall off the bones' kind of tender. Tasty and easy to eat.

Chive eggs pancake 韭菜鸡蛋饼 @$8++ (2 pieces)

Fresh Cuttlefish dumplings and Dumplings with Chinese Cabbage @$9.80++, @$6.80++ respectively

Fish Meat Dumplings @$9.80++

Dumplings with Chinese Cabbage @$6.80++ (original serving size - 8 pieces)

From all the dumplings that I had tried here, the fish and cuttlefish dumplings were more for the novelty of it and at times, it may be a tad fishy for some. To be safe, I'd go for the dumplings with Chinese cabbage.

The must order, is the Steamed Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao, or any xiao long baos for that matter. This recommendation is consistent for both outlets.

Xiao Long Bao/Steamed Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao @$8.80++ / $13.80++ respectively

juicy

After this meal, we were in dumplings coma for the rest of the day. Hence, words from the wise... order enough xiao long bao so that one gets to try the original first, and followed by the crab roe version. Recommend minimally 2 pieces of each to satisfy. Otherwise, not quite complete.

Expect to spend between $25 to $32 per pax for a meal.

Lunch with fellow foodies; Hence, Tracy, Ivan and Kris. 

Hand in Hand Beijing Restaurant 手拉手京华小官

Address: 143 Jln Besar, Singapore 208859

Website: https://handinhandfood.com/

Contact: 6297 1398

Business Hours:

Daily: 10am–3pm, 4:30–10pm

Hand In Hand Shandong Restaurant 手拉手山东菜馆 @ 69 Boat Quay

Was doing a staycation nearby, and this was one of our dinner destination. Makan kakis have patronized their Jalan Besar outlet before and this is our first time trying the Boat Quay one.

Had a reservation but the staff had mistakenly put it down as 8pm instead of the earlier timing of 630pm. Hence, there was a bit of a scramble to get us a table. Only available ones seemed to be at their third floor, which involved some steep steps climbing.

restaurant entrance

interior

ready to eat

I trust my buddies to order and we waited for the food to arrive. The food would be sent up using the food lift. And I had a good view of it, so it was always in anticipation if those were our orders.

First to land on our table, was the plate of cold appetiser of shredded cabbage with jellyfish. Hmm, first time having this and it was rather refreshing as it was vinegary and light.

Shredded Chinese Cabbage with Jellyfish @$9.80

Next, was the Peking Duck, served on a tray and looking all glistening and nice.

Peking Duck @$38.80 (half)

yummy

Next, we had a couple of baskets of dumplings but for some odd reason, the speed of serving these started to slow down. The interval between each basket of the dumplings seemed to be between 10 to 5 minutes each.

Steamed Xiao Long Bao @$6.80

Steamed Crab Roe Xiao Long Bao @$9.80

Was too hungry so the steamed xiao long baos were quickly devoured. Loved the crab roe ones. I think they are comparable to another famous brand.

Fresh Cuttlefish Dumplings @$9.50

insides of the cuttlefish dumplings

Dumplings with Chive Egg and Shrimp @$7.50

fully loaded

In total, we had waited for about close to an hour for all the dumplings and with two to three reminders to the wait staff in between.

We had chosen the duck bones to be cooked in cabbage soup and boy, that was a good choice! A huge bowl of soup was brought to our table and just the perfect dish on a cold night. It is rare for me to say but the tofu in the soup was pretty good too. The cabbage had nicely soaked up on the delicious broth and tasted sweet. The glass noodles were slurp worthy as well.

Duck Bone Stewed Cabbage with Tofu and Glass Noodles @$13.80

cabbage soup

The last to arrive was a wrong order but since it was already sent up, we ate it. It was pork shao bing (pork pancake) and, it was pretty yummy albeit a tad oily. Freshly cooked and was somewhat piping hot when served. The shao bing was crisp on its outerside yet airy when bitten into. The fillings consists of bell pepper, pork bits and green onions. Pricier but delicious nonetheless.

Old Beijing Pork Sauce Pie @$13.80

All in all, it was a good meal shared with good buddies. Cheers to our impromptu food adventures and here's to many more to come!

Hand In Hand Shandong Restaurant 手拉手山东菜馆

Address: 69 Boat Quay, Singapore 049857

Website: https://handinhandfood.com/

Contact:  6970 0226

Business Hours:

Daily 11am–3pm, 5:30–10:30pm

[Seoul] Happy Days at Hapjeong 합정

One of the things that I like about travelling, is the opportunity to try the one of the many accommodations that are available in each of the places that one visits. Of course, there are some duds and some gems. Am much appreciative of the reviews that many before us had posted, and often, after each visit, we contributed back with our updated reviews.

During the last visit to Seoul, after researching for a long while, had to pick an accommodation for 3 nights in Seoul and my choice was a place called ROinhome (로인홈). It is a 2-star guest house (at least according to Agoda) and costs about $94 per night for a double-room. Yes, I need my privacy.

The reason for choosing this guest house was because it is close to the subway; about 10 minutes walk to Hapjeong. The guest house utilizes Line app to comms with their guests, so I just needed to message them when I exited from Hapjeong and they responded super fast with the right directions to ROinhome.

ROinhome from across the street

It was a pleasant surprise when I was at the zebra crossing across the road. The guest relation officer was already waiting outside of the guest house. Wow. Such customer service! She isn't native Korean (maybe Taiwanese) and she kindly helped to carry my 23 inch luggage to the second floor (my room is at Level 2). So nice.

Check-in was a breeze and there's a nice area to sit at the lobby.

view from guest house lobby

The main gate and door to the second level guest house will be locked after 1am. And guests were supplied with the passwords. Simple breakfast was provided daily and delivered to your room door. It'd be hanging at the door handle around 8am.

The room was lovely and if you need extra amenities such as toilet roll, or toothbrush, those are located at the common area.

double bed

room delivery

breakfast (usually sweet stuffs)

There are many coffee house around this area too. Plenty of restaurants but I was too shy to enter to any of those except for the dumpling shop. There's two shops just across each other and I'd passed by these every day of my stay there.

dumpling shop

am guessing that many K-Stars have eaten here before

The place was a no-frills place and simply decorated. Observed that the diners would just get into the shop, take a seat and call out their order in Korean or order before taking a seat. For me, there was a sudden awareness that am really a dummy in Korean language. But still managed to get the staff recommendation for their bestseller mandu. The lady manning the counter recommended the La Galbi Mandu.

Was pleasantly surprised to get a steamer tray of 10-pieces of beef dumpling, a bowl of seaweed soup and a side dish of pickled yellow radish. Wow. Only ₩3000 for all of these. Good value. Better than street food, in fact.

dumplings lunch

갈비만두

yummy

I must say that I enjoyed the dumpling lunch a lot. So tasty!

Visited two of the nearby coffee places; Beliefcoffee Roaster and Double Harmony plus a tea-shop.

Beliefcoffee Roasters

peek-a-boo from outside

what would be your order?

interior

It was tough balancing the coffee cups and trying to climb down the stairs to the seating area. Spillage was rather unavoidable.

piccolo and latte

affogato

machinery

There was another coffee roaster but it was closed most of the days during Chuseok. Did pass by once when it opened.

Red Planet Coffee Roasters

Double-Harmony was the nearest to ROinhome guest house. The interior was eclectic chic.

entrance

take-out menu

I was there rather late and could only get the single-origin coffee as the specials required a certain barista to handle and that person had already left the shop when I visited.

mostly Indonesian beans

single-origin coffee

ROinhome (로인홈)

Address: 478-7 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: https://www.roinhome.com/
Contact: +82 2-3144-3946

Mapo Mandu 마포만두

Address: 393-1 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: http://www.mapomandu.com/
Contact: +82 2-333-9842
Business Hours:
Daily 24 hours

Beliefcoffee Roasters 빌리프커피 로스터스

Address:384-3, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Website: http://beliefcoffee.com/
Contact:+82 2-322-3100
Business Hours: 
09:30 - 23:30

Double Harmony 더블하모니

Address: 29 Donggyo-ro 12an-gil, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Contact: +82 2-763-0123