Dookki 두끼 @ Clementi Mall

Do you love chewy rice cake in spicy gochujang sauce as much as you love those fishcake skewers (odeng) soaked in clear broth? If your answer is yes to both, then you'd love Dookki. Imagine eating an unlimited amount of tteokbokki and fishcakes to your heart's content, buffet style! Sounds fantastic, yes? Ahhh, but there is a catch. This is a time-limited buffet. For dinner, there is a 90-minutes time limit. Adequate for the majority of us as the ingredients only needed a few minutes to cook.

store front

Just make sure that all pax in the party are at the door otherwise, time starts when the first person starts. The service staff would ask if it is your first time, and if yes, he/she will take the time to explain briefly the processes.

instructions

Staff will help you to create the sauce in accordance to your spice level preference. We asked for a mild spicy as there is one in our party that has lower tolerance to spicy food. The broth will be set to boil while the staff goes to make the sauce. If you'd like to add the cheese ring to the meal, it is of a separate charge and not included in the buffet by default. About $9.80 for the cheese ring with sweet corn.

broth (soup base for the sauce)

A tumbler of the base broth will be left at the table and diners are free to pout it into the pot once the pot became too concentrated after prolonged cooking.

Staff would explain which are the containers for cooked food, and raw ingredients. Each diner gets their own personal 'plate' that look like a mini tiny sauce-pan. So cute.

raw ingredients

Liked that the tteokbokki are really tiny. Loved the purple coloured ones for they reminds me of ang ku kueh. Chewy exterior plus sweet fillings. Try it and you'll know what I mean. If you like the cheesy ones, the pale yellow tteokbokki that looks like mini sausages (similar to purple tteok) contain cheese fillings. The chicken bulgogi tasted good even when boiled in the soup/sauce. And with Korean army stew style, one could put in as many pieces of luncheon as you desire.

take your pick 

first round

We exercised caution when taking the ingredients. First round was just to try what's good and what's not. For the cooked food section, there was a lot of fried stuffs (twigim). Totally regretted taking the fried chicken! More flour than chicken. The mandu are decent and so was the gimmari (fried seaweed roll).

twigim 튀김

My favourite and probably the safest bet, was the odeng / eumok (fishcakes). A few varieties and my friend asked what's the difference. Err...the shape and density? Hahaha!

fishcakes 어묵/오뎅

Meanwhile, do place all the ingredients that needed cooking into the pot. And while it is boiling away, one could start with the twigims and eumoks. Remember to eat the cheese ring once it start bubbling otherwise, either the cheese gets chaotar (burnt) or the ring will stopped cooking after a short while and the cheese will harden.

cooking in progress

If you are looking for utensils/tissue paper, for Korean food dining, most places would have this compartment as part of the table design. For Dookki, it is the same.

at the side of the table

For the best fish cake, it got to be this one. The soft and fluffy ones.

best fish cake

For dessert, don't bother. Just shaved ice and chocolate sauce. Hmmm, we shared one and agreed that this was not worth any stomach space.

shaved milk ice with chocolate sauce

Sakae Sushi @ Lot One

My parents would visit this outlet each time they are in Singapore. Reason being that Lot One is close to the place that we are staying. Otherwise, the other option would be Ichiban Boshi at Jurong East.

The menu at Sakae has been revamped and it is pretty decent. Am having a thing for aburi sushi and they do have 4-pieces of aburi salmon for $10. Not a bad deal. Especially if the size of the sushi is not too minuscule that it then becomes irksome.

Aburi Salmon Sushi @$10 (4 pieces)

pretty good

For me, I'd usually do 7-pieces of sushi for a meal. As in every meal, there should be some greens, so I got myself a plate of wakame (seaweed) sushi. Just loved those saltish crunchy texture of the seaweed.

wakame ワカメ

The last finale piece, was a handroll. Been ages since I last ate one. Oops, for this meal, I'd consider the amount of rice in the handroll as x 3 of any sushi piece. Means, I ate 9 pieces of sushi in total. No wonder I remembered feeling rather full after that.

California Handroll 手巻

La Cala @ DUO Galleria

Once again, we met at the designated place. This time round, a jug of Sangria was already placed on the table with a quarter of its content finding its way into the wine glasses held by Ivan and Elle. Of course, in no time, some of those fruity grape juice made its way into mine as well. Hoong Ann of course, eventually had his glass filled as well. Cheers to our wine dinner!

Sangria (Red) @$65

The Sangria was adequately fortified and it came with plenty of fruit slices. Of oranges, strawberries, pineapples and pears. Enjoyable but a tad too sweet. Go slow on this as one might consume too much if goes unnoticed.

menu

Work situation was chaotic this week and was actually quite famished by dinner time. Ivan suggested the tasting menu which consists of appetisers, tapas, main and dessert. Minimum two to order and each costs $98. The friendly service captain suggested to do the regular mains and a couple of tapas in order to enjoy slightly bigger portion (relatively) for the mains.

tasting menu

After a short consideration, we opted for the ala-carte selections. Freedom to choose! And, we chose pigeon paella, crispy suckling pig and roasted octopus as the mains. For tapas, we ordered the jamon croquetas (one of the specials on the board), Tsarskaya oysters No. 2 and Foie gras terrine cookie. We were informed that each mains feeds around 2 pax.

olives

Where's my bread? In the oven, they said. The bread came after some time as it was heated up in the oven prior to serving. Warm and toasty mini baguette. Yums.

bread basket (extra basket @$3.50)

Let's start with the oysters. Tsarskaya oysters are from France and is a type of farmed oysters. Tasted clean, mild and plump. Two is never enough.

Tsarskaya Oyster No. 2 @ $36 (2 piece for $18)

Next, was the foie gras terrine cookie. Presentation was rather pretty. Looked like a dessert. The puff pastry was light and inside there was a spread of duck foie gras terrine. The 'cookie' was placed atop of the apple compote which was still stuck to the plate after the cookie was lifted. Interesting piece but somewhat acquired taste.

foie gras terrine @$18

As for the jamon croquetas, it came in a two-bite size with a lovely piece of cured ham. Flavours were good and creamy. But all those tapas, did nothing to satiate the hunger within. The pigeon paella came just at the right time. Something that's piping hot with stronger flavours.

Pigeon Paella @$38

The grains were just right for me. Loved that it was nicely moist and well coated with flavours. Each grain was savoured with maximum satisfaction. Though the pan was large, the rice covered only a shallow depth hence, the fastest spoon wins. After the few scoops, the pan was almost empty.

Crispy Suckling Pig @$35

The suckling pig looked tempting with its thin crackly skin that beckons with its light sheen of oil. The meat itself was fork tender. Not too gamey and we had fun trying to figure out those accompanying sauces. Nice presentation but it wouldn't satisfy any cravings for suckling pig.

Roasted Octopus @$32

Am glad that we ordered the roasted octopus with potatoes crisp and romesco sauce. So so good! Flavours were mild and while it lacked that charred flavour, I liked that it was so tender. Couldn't believe that I was chewing on a piece of octopus that was really so enjoyable to bite. Lovely texture. The sauce was of nut and red pepper-based sauce that originated from Tarragona, Catalonia.

Good company, good food and good mood. All Fridays should be of such.

Cheers, and see you guys again!