Bornga 본가/本家 @ Star Vista, Buona Vista

Located at Level 2 of Star Vista, Bornga was one of the few restaurants that piqued my interest, especially if its "WooSamGyup" 우삼겹 (new style Korean beef BBQ) recipe by Chef Paik Jong Won, is a patented one.

Was there around 7pm on a weekend and the waiting time was about 20-30 minutes.

BBQ meat prices ranges from $18++ till $45++. The intention was to try their trademarked dish "WooSamGyup" ($22++), but the minimum order is 2 portions so we ordered the Samgyupsal 삼겹살 ($18++) as well.

table setting

Complimentary drinks came in the form of a plastic jug of tea (room temperature), which is left on the table for the diners to help themselves with.

complimentary tea

help yourself

For those having BBQ, there would be a flurry of activities as the service staff will bring sauces, vegetables platter and side dishes to your table.

special sauce for the WooSamGyup

tasted like sesame oil

garlic slices

The special sauce tasted salty, tangy and sweet. The assorted vegetable was kind of impressive due to its length. Covered the entire width of the table. WOoo!

Ssamcheban (assorted vegetables platter)

The Ssamcheban has lettuces, cabbages (boiled), spinach (raw), carrot sticks and large green chilies and some unknown vege.

There were four types of side dishes; lettuce salad, shredded spring onion kimchi/salad, kimchi (non-spicy) and radish kimchi served in medium bowls.

lettuce salad

shredded spring onions

radish kimchi

watery kimchi (didn't fancy this)

The radish kimchi was the nicest of all side dishes. Juicy and tangy! The shredded onions was nice too, if you like onions but I choked on it the first time because of its 'spiciness' (similar to wasabi but not as powerful).

Samgyupsal (pork belly, lightly seasoned with pepper)

WooSamGyup (marinated thinly sliced beef brisket)

Once the meat arrived, and the grill has heated up, it was time for BBQ!

slow and easy

looking good

Grilling the meats were easy-peasy. The thinly sliced beef sizzled right away, and it'll taste good no matter how you cooked it (unless it's burnt to a crisp..)

beautiful looking ready-to-eat WooSamGyup

Then, enjoy the meat by wrapping it in wonderfully fresh lettuce.

lettuce wrapped WooSamGyup

For pork belly, the grilling time was definitely much longer and it always made the grilling plate dirty pretty fast. Service staff who happened to walk by would then offer to change the grilling plate to a clean one.

grilled pork belly

almost finishing the bean paste sauce

Chomped down lettuces upon lettuces and pretty soon, the platter looked like this:

where has all the greens gone to?

Ate the green chili and found that, actually there wasn't any heat in it at all. Just seeds. Lots of seeds.

hot stuffs

All the side dishes are refillable, but the two of us barely managed to finish them. But we did request for one more small plate of lettuce. If you're really not into grilling, then perhaps can ask for assistance as I saw the floor manager (presumably) going round and helping diners with the meat grilling. But he didn't help us. But that's because I think we were grilling too slowly (like two to four few pieces at any time) to require any assistance!

At the end of the meal, the staff will serve diners with a complimentary drink: omija (오미자). Also known as 五味茶 or five flavour tea. Its berry is called the five flavour berry. According to wikipedia, this berry has medicinal values but should not be used by pregnant women.

omija drink

Omija was served in a small bowl, with crushed ice. Tasted salty, sweet and tangy (sour). Didn't taste any bitter nor spicy taste though. If you like sour plum drink, then you'll probably like this drink too. 

orangey coloured

Service staff were friendly, and they were pretty alert on dirty grill plates. After the BBQ meal, we smelled like BBQ ourselves.

This meal costs $49.45 for two pax and it fed us well.

KPO Cafe Bar @ Killiney Road

Located at Killiney Road Post Office, this building is near Orchard Central.

as seen from across the road

dinner & drinks

drinks menu (just kidding, they do have laminated menu for the table)

Happy hour till 8pm, so quickly ordered our beers. Had Kronenbourg (HH: $13, non HH: $18).

Kronenbourg Blanc & Lager

choice beer for the night

There was a bowl of tapioca sticks on our table after I got back from the washroom. First bowl of tapioca sticks was complimentary. Subsequently, it's priced at $4 per refill.

tapioca stick

salty and hard crispy

Piping hot, juicy deep fried chicken wings made a nice meaty appetiser. It was devoured to the bones in no time.

simple deep fried wings (5 pieces)

skinny wings

juicy drumlet

Was a little surprised when we were automatically presented with the bill when food was served. Eh? Maybe this is the default practice? Not sure.

Anyways, subsequently we asked for them to keep an open tab since we were still waiting for another friend to arrive and will surely be ordering more food and beers. For this, they'll take away your credit card and gives you a metal tag (like a wrist dog-tag) to keep in-lieu. Everytime the table orders something, the service person will look at that number from the tag and jot it in the order chit, and lets you sign on it.

order chit

Ordered more food: KPO Hokkien Mee ($14), Kronenbourg Fish & Chips ($23) and Pizza Bruschetta ($22).

KPO Hokkien Mee

thick bee hoon and yellow noodles

sambal yums

The hokkien mee was like comfort food. Familiar taste, hawker style in bar ambiance. Add a bit of sambal for that extra oomph.

Our table was definitely too small for all the plates, bowls and glasses! Overflowed.

fish and chips

The Kronenbourg Fish & Chips, has with tartar sauce onplate and if you wish for additional sauces, they also have mustard, chili, ketchup and mayo too. Not sure what type of fish it was, but the meat was kind of soft. The beer batter was crispy, but the flesh of the fish disintegrated too easily. The fries had hints of truffle fragrance. Fun food to be eaten with fingers, and washed down with beer. *burp*

Pizza Bruschetta

a slice is not enough

The pizza was thin crusted, and tasted exactly like how a bruschetta would taste except there's no bready dough. Only crispy cracker-like crust. Krak krak, nyam nyam. Liked the rocket leaves too for a hint of bitterness, though it looked quite limp in the picture...

All the above fed four females, and most of us had beer while one had Earl Grey Tea. Total cost was about $38 per pax.

Service that night was generally good. The guy who took our order, came back with a tiny plastic chair for us to put our bags since it was cumbersome to carry it on our laps. And, they'll come back often to clear plates, bowls and bones (if any). Iced water is available upon request.

Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen @ Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City

Have you tried Tsukemen (つけ麺) or dipping noodles before? The basic ingredients are pretty similar to ramen; ie. noodles, toppings and hot broth. Probably like a deconstructed version where the noodles are served separate from the now thicker broth, and the way to eat it is to dip the cold noodles into the hot thick broth before slurping it up. Sounds familiar? Yep, much like eating cold soba!

You may have heard of the legendary Mr Kazuo Yamagishi (Taishoken - Higashi Ikebukuro), the inventor of tsukemen. Now, one of his disciples, Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa was recently in town to introduce Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen.

From right to left: Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa and Mr Koji Yahata

Jyoshoken (常勝軒) Seasonal Special Tsukemen, crafted by Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa using freshly made noodles and broth made from pork and fish. Was invited to the tasting session at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and thus, had the opportunity to sample this special dish.

Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen

closer look of the noodles and toppings

hot dipping broth (boiled from pork and fish)

The egg noodles were thick and cooked just right, chewy with bouncy and springy texture. I was seated amongst native Japanese, so the guys were dipping the cold noodles into the hot broth and was slurping them up quickly while making "zuuzuuzuuzuuu" sounds. I tried to do the same and ended up splattering some sauce on my shirt. Ha ha! What was I thinking? -_-'

chewy and springy well cooked noodles

The dipping broth was concentrated, rich and very strongly flavoured. There were lots of menma (or bamboo shoots), spring onions and a slice of narutomaki (fish cake) in the bowl. Be patient for those who wants to drink up the broth. Now is not the time, yet.

The Special Tsukemen char shiu toppings was from three different cuts; Pork loin, pork belly and back of neck. The loin char shiu was far too lean for my liking, hence it didn't have the melt-in-your-mouth texture. The meat from the back of neck was tender but with a little bite at the same time. The roasted sesame added extra fragrance to the clean tasting meat. Nice. Liked the belly part lots, as it was the most tender out of the three. Yums.

pork belly and back of neck

pork loin

The ramen egg or ajitsuke tamago was almost perfect. Somehow, couldn't quite taste the seasoning in the perfectly textured yolk. Ate the egg last, so perhaps it was overshadowed by the strong taste of the dipping broth that lingered on the tastebuds.

ramen egg

After finishing the noodles, do request for the hot dashi (made from clear mushroom stock) to pour into the dipping broth to dilute it before enjoying it as soup. The dashi stock was unseasoned and has moderately strong mushroom fragrance.

dashi to pour into dipping broth

Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen will be available at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and Robertson Quay from now onwards till end of December 2012 (or until further notice). Priced at $16.80++ at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and $14.80++ at Robertson Quay.

Zaseki - tatami styled rooms at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City

various sake on display

Here are Jyoshoken locations details:

Ebisboshi Shotengai
1 Kim Seng Promenade, Great World City
#01-22 Singapore 237994
Tel/Fax: 62356190

Daikokuya (Jyoshoken's full menu is available here)
30 Robertson Quay, #01-05 Riverside Village Residences,
Singapore 238251
Tel: 67371521


Special thanks to Prue, Mr Koji Yahata and Darren, from Komars Group for the invitation to this tasting session.