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!

[Seoul] Yogiyo Chicken 요기요치킨 홍대점

This place was a recommendation from Ivan. Yogiyo Chicken literally means, "Over here chicken"? Funny name. We visited the Hongdae branch as we were staying nearby. This was almost towards the end of our trip where we had inhaled more than our fair share of food. For Korean Fried Chicken, we did the max of 3 chickens in one sitting for 5 pax and though we could do no more.

The foodie in us, decided to up our game and try Yogiyo Chicken to relive the glorious continuation of fried chicken tastings.

crowd at Hongdae

It was really really crowded at Hongdae on a weekend and no surprise there. The chicken place was rather quiet though with only maybe two other tables occupied. The place was in the basement and looked rather dingy.

There were booth seats which looked more like karaoke rooms with low tables and transparent glass sliding doors. We were placed in one and felt rather claustrophobic. Opted for the regular seats in the dining area.

interior

The menu felt greasy and looked quite dilapidated. We ordered 3 chicken; two types of fried chicken and one andong chicken. Think there was a bowl of ramen in the mix somewhere. But this time round, we were down to 4 pax as one of our friend could not join us for dinner.

menu

We received our food after a short wait. The first to arrive was the plate of half-half regular fried chicken and yangyeon fried chicken. The portion here seemed more 'realistic' than Kyochon.

half-and-half  양념 반, 후라이드 반

Hmm, we were more impressed with Kyochon than this version. Next, was the spring onion fried chicken. For this plate, the chicken parts were all buried under a huge heap of julienned spring onions. Spicy (from the onions) and sweet (from the sauce). Lots of mayonnaise too! Flavourful and enjoyable. Sinful too!

green onions fried chicken 파닭

The last chicken was my favourite from Yogiyo Chicken. The Andong Jjimdak or braised Andong chicken. Braised chicken in dark spicy-sweetish sauce. There's a bunch of chewy potato noodles in there too.

Andong jjimdak 안동찜닭

With this finale, I think all of us exceeded our quota for Korean Fried Chicken for that year.

the amused look after all the korean fried chicken

Yogiyo Chicken 요기요치킨 홍대점

Address: B1F 163-12, Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Contact: 02-324-9900
Business Hours:
Daily 10:00~03:00 am

[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

[Seoul] Korean BBQ @ Maple Tree House Itaewon

We were always on the lookout for great tasting grilled meats and decided to go for the crowd favourite at Maple Tree House Itaewon. This area is pretty well known for its its cosmopolitan dining and nightlife, and is practically littered with many restaurants including Korean BBQ. Many foreigners like to hangout at this area too.

Arrived at that area at about 8pm and there was a queue already. Left our name and the service staff informed us to come back in another half hour's time to check if there's any available table.

let's dine here

Was basically just walking up and down that area to kill time. There was a huge Chinese restaurant, international restaurants serving German, French fares and plenty of watering holes.

soju bottles as wall decor

Finally got a table at about 840pm and we were pretty excited! The restaurant serves mid to premium range meats, and its diners were mostly working adults and tourists.

our corner

for larger groups

Our main target for the night was Korean beef, 한우 (Hanwoo). When else can we eat Hanwoo if not when we were in Seoul, right? But we were also mindful of budget so we ordered sparingly. Almost.

USDA Prime Ribeye (150g)

Premium Korean Aged Beef Striploin (150g)

charcoal fire is a must

wait for it

almost there

grab a bite of mouthwatering succulent piece

The beef was tender yet retained its beefy-ness. Not overly marbled but satisfying enough. I think we ordered another round of the striploin for the finale.

For drinks, we had Korean raspberry wine. Like a dessert wine. Offered a glass to the Caucasian family at the next table to try.

bokbunja

Also ordered some pork to grill. Fresh meat that was not frozen makes all the difference, you know.

front: Jeju Korean Black Pork Belly (150g) Back: Jeju Korean Black Pork Collar (150g)

let it grill~ let it grill~

The pork jowl was so amazingly white and promises of an amazing experience. Indeed, it had a fantastic mouthfeel and 'crunchy' firm when the meat was chewed. Juicy as promised.

Pork Jowl (150g)

pork jowl

The grilled meat came with leafy vegetables for the wrap, salad and some side dishes like kimchi and tofu.

pickled perilla leaf

We enjoyed the meats and left the place happy. Spent about $50 to $60 per pax. To end the meal, we were served cold omija tea. It's also known as five-flavours tea which consist of sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and pungency/tartness.

omija 오미자차

Maple Tree House

Address: 26 Itaewon-ro 27ga-gil, Itaewon 1(il)-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Website: http://www.mapletreehouse.co.kr/kor/html/main.asp
Contact: +82 2-790-7977
Business Hours:
Daily 1130am to 1030pm (till 12am on Fri and Sat)