SG Cafe Series: Korean Cafe Tom N Toms Cafe in Singapore

Missing the relaxing ambience of a Korean cafe?  I am sharing my favourite hide-out away from the hustle and bustle of shopping mall cafe - Tom N Toms cafe.  Located at a not-so-prominent Icon Village at Tanjong Pagar, the cafe plays the best of non-stop K-pop and most of the service crew are also Koreans.  The cafe may be full-house even during off-office hours but it is a quiet place to chill out.

There are 2 sections to the cafe.  The main cafe has piped-in music while the side section is quiet.  Students and office workers use the cafe for discussions and it is quiet a common sight.

 

(Main Cafe)

 

(Side Cafe)

Just like what is commonly seen in cafes in Korea, a pretty wall mural can be found at Tom N Toms.

 
The drinks selection is much more interesting than what we normally get from CBTL or Starbucks eg. cinnamon mocha, green mint mocha etc.  Food-wise, pretzel is a signature bakery at Tom N Toms.  But for the Singapore outlet, they do not serve pretzel.  Instead , they serve thicktoast bread with flavoured whipped cream as well as tortilla pizza.

 

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Good news for those who needs to get online often.  The cafe provides free wifi!!  This cafe has been around for a few years, and I hoping to see more Tom N Toms in Singapore in the future!


Tom N Toms
12 Gopeng Street #01-12 ICON Village, Singapore 078877
 Tel: 62256313
Opening Hours: 7am to 1am

Getting there: The cafe is 2-minutes walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT station.  Use Exit A, walk along Choon Guan Street, turn left at Peck Seah Street.  Walk ahead and cross the junction at Gopeng Street.



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[Korean Food] First Specialty Store in Kimbap and Tteokbokki : Rolling Rice

Are you a fan of Korean Street Food such as mini kimbap (rice rolls), tteokbokki (rice cakes) and summer dessert patbingsu (shaved ice)?  Most Korean restaurants in Singapore serve main course dishes such as jjigae (stew), rice or noodles dishes and Rolling Rice is probably first to specialise in serving Korean street food in Singapore.  They are perfect for a light meal or something easy to take out, including their patbingsu.

Rolling Rice has more than 10 outlets in Korea and a few store globally including in Japan and Philippines.  I am really glad that they had chosen Singapore as part of their global expansion.

 

The outlet is conveniently located at the basement level of The Central.  It is the first stall that you see when you take the escalator from the street level.

Check out the menu!  There is a great variety of mini kimbap as well as tteokbokki in addition to popular Korean rice or noodle selection.  What I really like is that there is a selection of tteokbokki cooked using the Korean-traditional gochujang or the western-type cream sauce.  For those of us who have tried School Food (in Korea), Rolling Rice's concept is very similar to School Food's!

 

On my first visit to Rolling Rice, I was on vegetarian diet, and the silken tofu salad was perfect for me!

A wide selection of Korean drinks is available to go with your meal... The can on the left is Orange, center can is sujeonggwa, a traditional fruit punch made from dried persimmon, cinnamon and ginger, and the can on the right is shikhye, a traditional Korean sweeten rice punch.

Main course 1: Cream sauce tteokbokki.  This is similar to having pasta, just that tteokbokki replaces pasta as the staple ingredient.  The cream sauce is pretty light.

Main course 2: Spam (or luncheon meat in our local terms) kimbap.  It is basically rice roll with spam and pickled radish.  It comes with soy sauce to dip the kimbap, if you prefer a little savoury taste.

Main Course 3: Rice cake and dumpling ramyeon.  This is cooked using Korean instant noodles with pork or kimchi dumpling and sliced rice cakes.

Dessert: That's the main reason I was there for dinner - the patbingsu.  It is quite difficult to get patbingsu in Singapore.  Other than Paris Baguette (PB) and Seoul Yummy (SY), I do not know if any other restaurants that serve patbingsu.  Personally, I find the patbingsu to be the most authentic compare to PB or SY, even though it does not taste exactly like what you can get in Korea itself.  Good thing about the patbingsu at RR is the choice of regular ones with red bean or milk-flavoured / nut-flavoured patbingsu.

Take-away is also available for patbingsu.  The dessert will be packed in a container as well as in chiller bag!  The service stall are very friendly and easy going.  Do check it out!

Rolling Rice
The Central, Eu Tong Sen Street, #B1-49
Tel: 6222 0801
Opening Hour: Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm.  Last Order is 8.30pm.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RollingRiceSingapore
Website: http://www.rollingrice.co.kr/

Getting there: Take MRT to Clarke Quay Station and take the connected exit to basement 1.  It is located near Crystal Jade Bakery. 



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[Korean Food] Bibigo goes to Suntec City

It is Chuseok on Thursday!  Celebration starts ahead of Chuseok as Bibigo celebrates the opening of it's 4th Singapore outlet at Suntec City!  The menu is complete with selection of traditional dishes including soup, hot stone dishes, pancakes rice, noodles etc; as well as modern and fusion dishes such as salads, desserts and drinks.  These are the dishes which I have tried and my verdict is ~ ~ 2 thumbs up!

Spicy Soft Tofu Stew with Seafood.  Served in a sizzling-hot hotstone bowl, the soup was really appetizing and the spiciness level was just right.  While the tofu was firm and may not be as soft as you expected, it goes not break away easily.

The Hot-Stone Chicken was yummy too.  The char-grilled chicken was well-marinated and the chicken thigh meat was tender and juicy.  The balance  of sweet and savoury taste was almost perfect.

Courgette pancake is exclusive to the Suntec outlet.  It is a Korean-style pancake with courgette (also known as zucchini, it is a type of vegetable which is related to the pumpkin family), sweet potato, butternut squash, topped with rocket salad.  The pancake was really fragrant and slightly crispy.  This is suitable for non-meat eater.

The characteristics of Bibigo pancake is that there is much more vegetable than the batter.  In this seafood pancake, scallion is used as the main ingredient topped with shrimps and squids.  This way, the dish is healthier since vegetables contain fibre!



Meals aren't complete without desserts.  The glazed sweet potato is a unique dish.  The fried sweet potato is coated with a layer of Korean grain syrup.  Even though the sweet potato has been fried, the dish managed to maintain the root vegetable's moisture.  The dish comes with glazed walnut and rice crispy too.  This dish is also suitable for non-meat eater.

If you like something cold, go for the Rosi Nero ice cream, which is made of black rice.  The ice cream is light, refreshing and not too sweet.

The Bibigo salad is another new addition to it's menu.  Served with apple sauce, this is a perfect dish for a light meal comprising of greens, chicken breast meat, crispy rice and tomatoes.

At least 5 dishes are added to Bibigo's existing menu and exclusive to the Suntec City outlet to mark the celebration of a major milestone for the global brand.  The launch of this latest outlet puts Singapore on the map as 1 of the 2 leading regions for Bibigo in the world!

The menu addition features some traditional favourites from Korea such as Hot Stone Galbi (Beef), Courgette Pancake (as featured above), BBQ Spicy Chicken, Bibigo Salad (as featured above), Oriental Chopped Salad and Grilled Ssamjang Pork.  So, be sure to check out Bibigo at Suntec City!

Suntec City Mall Tower 3, #B1-107
(For those of us who are familiar with the Suntec city layout, Bibigo sits at where McDonald's used to be)
Tel:
Daily: 11am to 10pm

For reservations at any of the outlets, call 6336 4745.

For Bibigo's delivery order, call 6604 7718.

Getting there: Take MRT to Esplanade Station and use the exit that is directly connected to Suntec City.



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Summer Desserts - Patbingsu and Ice Kacang

For country like Singapore where we do not have 4 distinctive seasons, we have perhaps missed out the fun of enjoying things that others living in seasonal countries do.  Besides the change in fashion or experiencing seasonal activities such skiing, cherry blossoms, we also missed out the fun of enjoying food that are in season as the weather changes.

As the temperature rises from sub-zero to now hitting a high of almost 30 degrees in Korea, summer dessert patbingsu (팥빙수), a shaved ice dessert topped up with generous serving of red beans, fruits, ice cream and rice cake, is a common dessert that runs from June to perhaps mid October.  It could come with different variety such as even green tea or coffee flavours.

While in Jeonju last year, I tried this delicious bingsu.  What made this bingsu memorable was the black sesame paste that was drenched onto the shaved ice.  The white pieces are plain rice cakes while the green centre piece was green tea rice cake.  The sweet taste for this dessert was mainly from the generous portion of the sweetened red beans that topped over the shaved ice.

Oh well, in Singapore.  While there are now many Korean restaurants serving steamboats, BBQ and many other dishes, I can hardly find any Korean dessert shops. The solely existing cafe that serves bingsu is Seoul Yummy.  The tall ice cream attracts all the attention away from patbingsu, didn't it?

In any case, Singapore do have our own version of shaved ice dessert, Ice Kacang.  With our historical connection with Malaysia, kacang is a Malay word for red beans.  If you wonder where the red beans are, they are covered by the ice.  In fact, other than red beans, the other hidden ingredients include sweet corns, attap seeds (palm seeds) and jelly.  There are different varieties too for the Singapore shaved ice.  How about one that's topped off with Hershey's Chocolate Syrup like what you see in this picture?  ^^

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