Auntie Kim's

My colleague has been enticing me to try out the Korean food at Auntie Kim's. I finally went last Friday, during lunch :)

Address and phone number are below.

It is located on the stretch of eateries before Thomson Plaza (in the direction towards AMK).

The restaurant isn't big. Would suggest that reservations be made if going on weekends or in big groups.

These are the side dishes. The kimchi is quite good. But I think additional servings may cost $. Anyway, they were enough for just 2 persons.

We ordered Grilled Mackeral and Bibimbap (the latter was HIGHLY recommended by my colleague).

The grilled mackeral and its dip goes very well - very appetising + the fish skin is so crispy. Hmmm.... yummy!

As for the bibimbap, it isn't too bad but somehow I think it lacks something - cant articulate what it is. I cant help but thinks that the one at Ju Shin Jung East is better.

I would not mind going back there to try other dishes such as the beancurd soup, kimchi chigae and BBQ chicken :)

Dae Jang Geum Korean Restaurant

I remember going to this Korean Restaurant for dinner late last year. The name of the restaurant is Dae Jang Geum, supposedly the owner wanted to ride on the popularity of that Korean drama... but I have to say - I'd be very sad for the king if that was the standard of the food served to him. I exaggerated a bit lah...

25 shenton way, #01-01/02-01, YESS Leisure ( formerly is NTUC CLUB)

Tel: 6224 5525

That's the restaurant entrance... the dining halls are at 1st and 2nd level. I was late and me (trying to be too smart) greeted the waitress '안녕하세요! 주리아씨어디에요?'. She replied '이증으로올라가세요.' I was stunned for a while but I understood 이증... ho ho ho... so quickly went up to 2nd floor. From then onwards, I remembered this phrase. :)

The ladies has already placed order for the food... so I just ate and ate and ate.

We also had the korean steamboat... so i ate and ate and ate....

That was a close-up of one of the side dishes. Can't remember how it tasted like. Most of the dishes did not have a lasting impression of me. Maybe bcos my food company was good.... as usual, we had lots of laughter till the waiters had to remind us 'I'm sorry....'....


Pork BBQ.... I would say... not as presentable... the waiters make better eye candies. kekeke!

But the deco on 2nd floor is still quite unique.

Wld I go back again? Well, the food would not be the primary reason.

Hanguk Guan Charcoal BBQ Korean Restaurant

Since I blogged abt Ju Shin Jung East, I just feel that I should say something about Hanguk Guan Charcoal BBQ cos it is still my fav Korean restaurant (food court outlets not included) to date. It used to be known as Mee-doo Korean Restaurant.

Location: 26 Tanjong Pagar

Tel : 62242881

The last time I went was the past CNY. We ordered pa-jeon (my fav), korean steamboat and 2 portions of BBQ. There were only 3 of us and our tummy almost burst by the time we left. Our wallet also burst, of cos.

The pa-jeon is slightly thick and I like it cos got 'substance'. I also like the soy sauce for the pa-jeon.

Above is the korean bbq. It was a little too chunky...

Below is the korean steamboat with enoki, tofu, korean hotdog (the overall texture is softer than the western type hotdog), mushroom, pork and forgot what else... oh ya, I added the ramen which costs me a few bucks!

Frankly, there was way too much that we ordered, otherwise I would have enjoyed the meal very much.

Ju Shin Jung East

Had Mother's Day dinner at Ju Shin Jung East yesterday. The place is at Burger King drive thru at East Coast Park... It is also where Long Beach Seafood Restaurant is located.

1018 East Coast Parkway #02-01 Raintree Cove S449877

Tel : 6447-9279

The restaurant is very huge. I did a rough count and I estimated that it can sit a capacity of 200 diners. They also have a few private rooms, which are chargable if your total bill is below $200. Well, considering that the average bill size per pax is $30, it's not much of a problem if you have 8 pax.

We were there early... so early that the staff were still have their ops briefing. A Korean guy attended to us. He could speak English... with a Korean accent. But most of the staff there are PRC, whom some can speak fluent Korean.

They serve buffet lunch at $29+++... the menu reads "Unlimited Lunch BBQ". Sounds good... yummy!

For this dinner, we ordered a bibimbap, pajeon, pork belly bbq and chicken bbq.

The pajeon was not as good as I expected. Cost abt $20!

Heard that if you order the BBQ, it comes with more side dishes. If you order other dishes, then there's less side dishes. Sides dishes include potato pancakes, potato salad, cold tofu, kimchi, fishcakes, several types of salad, octopus, na-mu, individual servings of cold kimchi soup, onion, chilli sauce and sesame oil.

The pork belly looks good. It tastes good when hot but gets a bit tough when it turns old. Best eaten hot cos you can feel the "oil" oozing when you bite on the fatty portion. Just like pork satay... if you like that feeling. Haha!

The chicken did not "look" as delicious but it was well marinated... so it tasted good hot and cold. :)

Beware of thick and fatty chicken skin....

The restaurant was almost full when I left.... it was about 7pm.

"I shall be back"...

Ju Shin Jung Korean Restaurant

Omo! Omo! I was travelling along East Coast Parkway yesterday and I saw Ju Shin Jung Korean Restaurant lighted signboard! I remember clearly that there is an outlet at West Coast Highway but never knew that there is one at East Coast (Highway). Did my eyes play tricks on me??

Could not contain my curiousity.

See what I found out!!

Midnight Baking

Was into the baking mood after tasting Mummy Lian's Devil's Food Cake. It was so yummy that I forgot to take a pic.

SMART ger also had a try in baking over Labour Day... that's her Raisin Cookie. Taste not bad too... it is the chewy type of cookie.

Since my oven has been left idling for some time, I decide to make Butter Cookies last night. Oh boy... it was 2am+ by the time I cleared up.

Since I did not have any Mixer, it was pure manual labour trying to cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. My arms are slightly aching now.

See my cookies with almond and cashew nuts? Looks good? But in actual fact, it wasnt as good as it looks. As the dough was too big thick, the center sections of the cookies were still moist. But R and I still ate them anyway.

Bought a mixer today and it definitely made work lighter and faster :) Finished baking at 12am+ a while ago.

Decided to improvise a little, and so I added cocoa powder and turned the butter cookie recipe into chocolate cookie recipe.

The cookies are much smaller learning from yesterday's lesson.

See the 3 dark dark cookies? They are further improvised into Cashew Choco Cookies and Almond Choco Cookies.

Anyone wants to try?

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon butter
• 1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 egg
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla.
• Combine the flour and salt; stir into the sugar mixture.
• Cover dough, and chill for at least one hour. Chill cookie sheets.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Press dough out onto ungreased, chilled cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly golden at the edges.
• Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

Source : www.bakery.sg

吃在无锡 (Makan @ Wuxi)

I began to enjoy China food more as the days passed...

Hangzhou is famous for Dongpo's meat.

Nanjing is famous for Salted Duck.

What about Wuxi?

If you have read my other blog, I have written somewhere “无锡看骨头" which literally means 'Go Wuxi to see bones'.

Bones?!?!

The bones actually refers to Pork Ribs.

Besides Pork Ribs, Wuxi is also famous for Fried Glutton and Three-White Lake Delicacies(White Shrimp, White Fish and White Bait). Because of the freshness of the water from Tai Lake (太湖), it rears good quality seafood.

太湖三白 : 白虾，白鱼，银鱼

2 of my meals in Wuxi were at the hotel I stayed - Kaida Grand Hotel. The restaurant is located at Level 1.

The location of this hotel is quite good - next to a train and bus station. On the same day where we checked in, some of our tour mates din get their luggage delivered to them room till quite late cos there were 100 other guests from HK who arrived at abt the same time. That caused a bottle neck!

We were lucky that dinner was served on time!

Yummy! Yummy! This is the Pork Ribs. The ribs were tender and 够味！

And the rest of my dinner...

Breakfast queue was slightly longer cos of the 100 + guests from HK. But it was bearable... but something else did irritate us!

I wonder if Ruby is reading this. If so, CAN YOU HEAR ME??

By now, I know that typical chinese breakfast comprised fried egg, cold fried rice, cold steamed bao / mantou etc. oops!

But I was pleasantly surprised to see french fries!! Though they are cold french fries! :(

I wonder if my tour mates were irritated by an unusual ritual that bb and I had - we had to take pics of our food before we start eating. And I would wait till I have "collected" all the dishes that I want before I take my pic and start eating.

Lunch was at a nice restaurant - 紫云湖鲜馆 - probably means a seafood restaurant. Opposite the restaurant is a fish farm.

That's my lunch. Can you see the small silver fish at 12 o'clock position of the pile and fried glutton at the 6 o'clock position?

That's the White Fish - indeed it is white like correction fluid but tastes rather blend by itself. Think someone told me it is high in cholesterol. On my! I ate a lot cos I love fried food :P

That's the White Shrimp. Actually I was expecting to see something totally white white leh... how come it is still orangy?!

Are all these yummy food making you hungry?

~~~

吃在南京 (Makan @ Nanjing)

Was told that Nanjing is famous for its Salted Soup Duck (盐水鸭). It is a steam dish marinated with salt and spices.

In fact, walking along the streets in Nanjing, there are lots of Salted Soup Duck ready-packs... like those u open and eat. May not even require any heating.

Dinner @ Nanjing

Dinner was in a restaurant in Fuzimiao (夫子庙）region.

You can easily miss the restaurant cos

1) it is located on 2nd floor

2) they do not on the lights at the entrance and even the stairs to 2nd floor

3) it looks run down ... a make-over seems quite necessary

At first, we did not feel too comfortable dining in this restaurant at all...cos the table top was wet, the plates were wet and the washroom... er... the advise was not to go if you can tahan.

BUT, BUT... the food was good! The cabbage was well-cooked (which I like), the sweet and sour pork was crispy and yummy. The food definitely looked more colourful and appetising.

The saltwater duck was not disappointing at all.

But guess what... I forgot to take down the restaurant's name... :(

Breakfast @ Nanjing

Breakfast was provided by the hotel (Hanzhong Hotel 汉中酒店). It was quite a disappointing meal.

Cold youtiao, cold bao, cold rice does not suit my taste...

Lunch @ Nanjing

Was told our guide that this may be the largest restaurant in Asia. The entire building is a restaurant. The restaurant name is Sunward Fishery Restaurant (向阳渔港). According to its website, it can hold a capacity of 5,000 people.



The quality of food was good (except for 1 dish which I find it stinko... no joke... it is stinko). Even so, the rest of the dishes made up for my breakfast disappointment. On the top left corner is Salted Soup Duck.

We thought the food was good but something else impressed us more - the toilet cubicles. Most of the cubs has a small TV flat screen... you get to know what is happening in the world while doing your "business".

Interesting, ya?

吃在杭州 (Makan @ Hangzhou)

Was told by the Hangzhou local guide that Dongpo's meat is Hangzhou's signature dish. Apparently this dish was 'invented' by a famous poet cum politician Su Dongpo (苏东坡).

Dinner @ Hangzhou

At a fishing resort.

This is Dongpo's meat. It is made from streaky pork (五花肉) with wine. I usually avoid eating pork if given a choice but this dish (which I only ate the lean portion) was really yummy.

This was what I had for dinner + rice + some soup.

Breakfast @ Hangzhou

I had a filling breakfast though there was not much selection...

The 汤圆 was pretty good. The sesame filling is slightly finer than what we normally have in Singapore.

There was no soup for my dumpling, which I though was a bit strange. Thought that the portion was a little too much for 1 person. There were about 8 dumplings.

Also had 2 pieces of cakes that looks like mini buns + milk (牛奶水).

And a mini 包.

Lunch @ Hangzhou

Lunch was at this place called Grandma's Kitchen (外婆家). The food there was quite good... we were optimistic that the food will get better as the days pass. Haha!

Well, there were greater variety la - got fried chicken, pork, fried fish fillet, vege, potatoe, tou gua etc...