Bugis+ Food Trail 2013: Laksania

Have you ever wondered how many types of laksa exist out there? Or, what is the difference between Singapore and Malaysia laksa? Sounds like Laksalogy #101, a study of laksa!

Laksania at Level 4 of Bugis+ has many types of laksa on its menu. Singapore, Kelantan, Penang, Sarawak, Laksa Goreng, Laksa Lasagna or Vegetarian Laksa.

Laksania

Only had time to sample 3 different types; Kelantan, Sarawak and Singapore laksa.

Kelantan laksa

Sarawak laksa

Singapore laksa

In terms of taste, Singapore laksa would be what we are most accustomed to, naturally. Just the right blend of spices, flavours from dried shrimps, that 'lemakness' from coconut milk plus fresh cockles and super absorbent tao pok. Yums.

Quite liked the Kelantan version too. It's bright yellow broth (mackerels and yellow ginger) was pretty visually, and tasty too!

The Sarawak laksa's broth, is boiled from chicken and prawns with a very distinct herb taste. Served with beehoon instead of the typical laksa noodles.

They have satay too. The chicken satay (@$3.80+ for 3 pieces) was nice! Served hot. Wash all these spices down with an iced lemongrass tea drink (@$2.80+). Laksa are priced between $6.50+ to $7.50+.

satay

lemongrass drink

<prev post >                                                                    <next post>

Laksania

Address: 201 Victoria Street, #04-04 Singapore 188067
Contact: +65 6636 9776
Website: www.laksania.com

Bugis+ Food Trail 2013: Taipei Station

Located at Level 4 of Bugis+, this bright red and white outlet sure looked chirpy in the morning.

Taipei Station counter

Drinks have customisable sweetness level, so I had my usual 30% sugar and less pearl for my drink.

Jasmine Green Tea with Pearl (@$2.50)

Got to sample some of their Star items.

food from top, left to right: sweet potato fries, crispy fried vegetables, original crispy chicken, cheese crispy chicken, oyster vermicelli and braised pork rice

Mains can be ordered ala-carte or as a set. The set means choice of 1 main + 1 side dish +1 drink. Sets are priced between $7.90 - $8.60. Prices of mains are between $4.20 to $4.90.

Original Crispy Chicken (@$4.20)

Cheese Crispy Chicken (@$4.50)

The sweet potato fries were really sweet, no kidding! Didn't know deep fried french beans could taste so good. If you need lots of carbs, then probably may want to try the braised pork rice as it was not too salty and the meat wasn't too fatty. Just simple comfort food.

<prev post>                                                                       <next post>

Taipei Station

Address: 201 Victoria Street #04-03 Bugis+, Singapore 188067
Twitter: www.twitter.com/taipeistation
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sgtaipeistation
Website: www.taipeistation.com.sg

Bugis+ Food Trail 2013 @ Bugis+

Located at 201 Victoria Street, accessible via Bugis MRT and various buses.

Bugis+

How does one blog about a food trail of 11 stations, of non-stop eating that stretches across a span of approximately five plus hours?

Logically, it'll be multiple posts so interested readers has the option to choose what they'd like to see. Sounds good? Right, let's do it that way then!

Organised by Omy Singapore, this event was held on 2 March 2013 at Bugis+. The restaurants/food outlets that we visited were Taipei Station, Laksania, Crystal Jade C-Jade HK Café IN, Rocku Yakiniku, Sukiya, Manhattan Fish Market, Seoul Yummy, Ramen Champion, Ireland's Potato, Berrylite and Aloha Ma Maison. (click on the respective food outlets/restaurant's name to see what we ate there!)

Bugis+ Food Trail 2013

Was pretty interesting for me because it was the perfect opportunity to see what's available at Bugis+, in terms of dining options and what are some of the dishes that each has to offer.

Are you ready for a Bugis+ gastronomical journey? Loosen your (seat)belt, 'coz here we go!

Craving for Taiwanese snacks and drinks? Hop on to Taipei Station at Level 4.

Taipei Station's food and drinks

Has an urge for something spicy and wants variety in laksa? Choose from Laksania, a laksa specialty shop. Kelantan, Sarawak or Singapore laksa? Take your pick!

Kelantan Laksa (lovely soup base made from mackerel)

Third stop was C-Jade HK Café IN. Never had I been more entralled (yet) a by a milk tea drink before...Superb taste, smooth, fragrant and just nicely sweetened. 好飲~ Good~!

Chilled Hong Kong Milk Tea (奶茶), with special effects

Next, Rocku Yakiniku. Grafitis on the wall, street-like-culture feels, and its BBQ grill, simply rocks! More wagyu please!

Rocku BBQ Prime Set

Fancy some sukiyaki and shabu-shabu? Look no more. Sukiya has it! Just a few steps away from Rocku. Actually, both brands are under the same company; The Creative Eateries Group.

sukiyaki and shabu-shabu

How about a western interlude at Manhattan Fish Market? Ask for the Manhattan Flaming Seafood Platter and the Sizzling Brownie with Ice-Cream. Nice show.

Sizzling Brownie with Ice-Cream

Everyone's talking about the Korean wave. So, how about some Korean food? Patience, my friends. Seoul Yummy, the seventh destination. Seafood stew, spicy and shioks!

Seoul Yummy, communal dining

Still not done yet, proceeded to Ramen Champion to sample ramen from Aoyama, Bario, Gantetsu, Ikkousha, Iroha, Riki, Taishoken and Taka No Tsume. Each stall has their own specialties, so depending on your mood and cravings, we're spoilt for choice!

cold & spicy tsukemen (Taishoken)

Emerging victorious, with still some space in the tummy. Next, was Ireland's Potato, take-away.

cheesy baked potato skin, honey mustard, sour cream

How about something really cold & yummy, healthy and fat-free? Found that at Berrylite, 100% American fat-free frozen yoghurt.

soon to be launched (in April 2013): Greek yoghurt parfait

The finale of the Bugis+ Food Trail 2013, and last (11th) stop at Hawaiian Kitchen Aloha Ma Maison, located at Level 1. Pancakes!

homemade fruit pancakes with whipped cream

If you're interested to know more, just click on the individual links to the respective dining places. Click here to go back to the top links.

Special thanks to the organisers and our various hosts for this Bugis+ Food Trail. Thank you for the food, your time and the useful information! To fellow bloggers, pleased to meet you and till next time, take care!

<next post>

 

Bugis+

Location: 201 Victoria Street, Singapore 188067
Operating hours: 10:00am to 10:00pm Daily
Website: www.bugis-plus.com.sg
Twitter:  twitter.com/bugisplusmall
Facebook: facebook.com/BugisPlus.SG

Gyu-Kaku BBQ Restaurant @ Anchorpoint

Located at Alexandra Road Anchorpoint, this place is quite near my office, about two bus stops away or 10 minutes walk thereabouts. Can't missed it. That white building near Anchorpoint.

hot tea

our table

Chose one of their lunch sets; the Shabu beef set. Two cuts of wagyu; brisket and the other thinner slice which I had asked but now forgotten. Gosh... old age a-calling...

loaded and ready to grill

The set comes with a bowl of rice, pickles, salad and soup.

from top: pickles, salad, sweet sauce, (not really) spicy sauce and hot tea

salad

really yummy pickles

kelp soup, quite nice tasting

 All three of us ordered the same thing, so they placed all the meats together.

tadah~ Shabu beef set for 3 pax

special sauce for the beef

very thinly sliced beef (colleague's fav)

brisket, with fats.. more of my style~

One of the staff told us to cook the thin slices of beef at the outer ring of the grill because then, the heat would not be too strong. He was right. Those that we placed smack right in the middle of the grill, got stuck and for those times, we ended up having shredded beef instead!

beautifully cooked

The beef was tasty. The brisket was kind of fatty and juicy. Yummeh yummeh! At the end of the meal, we were served matcha ice-cream. Nice.

creamy matcha ice cream

Service was generally good most of the times. The grill plate was changed without prompting as they had noticed that it was getting blackened. The only feedback to the service team would be, for staff who is not feeling well (ie. having flu symptoms), please exclude yourself from serving the food. Thank you very much.

Overall, food was good and ambiance was nice. The lunch set costs about $23++ (hope I remember it correctly) excluding drinks. However, some BBQ smell did linger on us afterwards.

Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant @ Far East Plaza

Located at Level 5 of Far East Plaza and can be seen immediately if you're coming up via the escalator. Made reservations a day before.

start-up kit, salt and miso on the right

table seats

We got the counter seats, and has a clear view of the grill and the two chefs.

grilling away~

Ordered up a feast, and while waiting for the food to arrive, we sipped on our tea served in a nondescript black cup.

to clean our fingers before the meal

otoshi of yasai sticks (@$2++ per pax)

My friend loves garlic fried rice, and so we had to order one here. Plus she said she was starving!

garlic fried rice (@$5++)

Hmm, the garlic fried rice here tasted heavily of pepper, so it wasn't the version that we're hoping for. Perhaps we should stick to yakitori instead.

First up, salmon belly or sake harasu (@$7++ per stick).

salmon belly with huge mound of radish

Very nice smokey flavour but surprisingly, it was pretty lean for a salmon belly.

nanbanyaki (@$8.50++ for 2 sticks)

Next up, we had the nanbanyaki or beef with bean paste sauce. Chewy and done medium well. Wonder if we can have it medium rare? Forgot to ask as we were too busy chatting.

Had a bit of trouble identifying the next stick as the chef would just place the plates at the space infront of us quietly.

hatsu (@$4.60++)

It took a few seconds more before we realised that we were about to eat the chicken hearts. Hahaha! Flavourful and has a good texture. More please!

Think we made an effort to get one item out of each yakitori meat section! Tried beef, lamb, pork, chicken and seafood.

butabara yuzukosho (@$7++ for 2 sticks)

The butabara was strongly flavoured and goes well with beer. The meat was a little tough though.

gyu yaki (@$14++ for 2 sticks)

The gyu yaki or wagyu beef steak was less chewy than the nanbanyaki but still not as tender as hoped for. Go for this if you like beef with alot of bite.

The lamb yaki or lamb chop, was recommended by my friend. It is a must-eat item for her, everytime she visits this place.

lamb yaki (@$13++ per stick)

The lamb was nicely tender, and has a good lamb flavour. Not overly gamey. Liked the charred oily bits in them. Has a tad more salt on it as compared to the rest of the sticks that we had.

By right, that was the end of our meal, but no... A small whole fish was being grilled so nicely infront of us, and hence, we had to enquire about it. Turned out to be aji shioyaki or grilled horse mackerel with salt. So we busted our budget and ordered that to try.

aji shioyaki (@$25++)

yummy sweet flesh

The sight of the skewered fish being grilled somehow reminded me of Japan hour where fish gets grilled over the hearth.

The fish was nicely salted and its flesh fresh and sweet. Cooked over the fire at just about the right amount of time and achieved a nice texture. However, this mackerel has a lot of small sharp bones so had to eat this slowly and carefully.

For 'desserts', we ordered the sweet corn. How can we not? The whole stack of bright yellowish golden corn on cobs (and it looked as if, they'd be sweeeet) were staring right at us, in our face.

grilled sweet corn (@$7++), buttered and salted

golden bits

Food here is definitely pricey. But it was fun watching our food getting cooked right infront of our eyes, as well as taking a peek at what others were eating. Though we sat indoors with the open grill, the food scent was pleasant and it doesn't stick to our clothes that much by the end of our meal.

Service was alright although it took some effort to get the staff's attention to have our tea refilled.

This meal costs about $114 for two pax.