Hankook Rice Cake House

Hankook Rice Cake House

No.9 Thomson Ridge (Off Thomsom Road)

Singapore 574637

Tel: 64563456

Fax: 64563470

Open everyday except on Wednesdays

or at Square 2 (next to Novena Square)

This shop sells authentic korean rice cakes and does not use butter or egg in the process. Hence, these are really quite healthy stuff.

I bought a box of rice cake that has red bean paste fillings and it tasted quite good. There is a nice gentle aroma of sesame oil and the red bean paste is really smooth.

A healthy dessert indeed.

bQ Korea

bQ Korea

70-74 Telok Ayer Street, #01-01 Far East Square

Tel: 6536 7703

Closed on Sundays

Since back from Korea, we are still missing Korean food. One of which was Andong Chicken Jjim and Alicia told us one day that bQ Korea serves Andong Chicken! But this is not one of the dishes on their regular menu. We need to place order beforehand and they only this during dinner when the shop is not as crowded compared to lunch.

So about 16 of decided to give it a try....

Basically, Andong Chicken is a dish comprising of large pieces of potatoes, carrots, onions, chicken, glass noodles cooked spicy sauce & sweet sauce using low heat. I guess that's why it is not served during lunch since it looks rather time-consuming to cook it over low heat.

Side dishes to go with the main dishes...

Overall... was quite different from the one in Korea. :P Probably will go back bQ Korea for some other dishes such as bibimbap and Ginseng Chicken soup and enjoy the Korean TV channels on their huge TV.

 

 

Related Post:

- Hyang To Gol Korean Restaurant (click)

- Hansang Korean Restaurant (click)

- O Dae Yang Korean Restaurant (click)



Marche @ Vivocity

It has been ages since I last went to Marche. Back then, it was either at Heeren or Suntec. I so so so miss the banana crepe and was wondering if the new Marche @ Vivocity (#03-14) has it.

Wala! And I found it!

And I ordered my then fav banana crepe. It is a thin layer of crepe that wraps slices of banana with caramel inside. Looks the same as it used to be. ^^

The banana sure looks delicious. BUT, I would say that the standard is not as good as it used to be :( Something was lacking but I could not pinpoint what it was exactly. Perhaps it is the quality of banana, perhaps it is the taste of caramel which was not as strong.

The chicken wing was quite disappointing too... :( it was not as tasty as it looks and the thick layer of fats beneath the skin puts me off a little.

This is the 1st time I am trying the smoothie since the waitress strongly recommended it. The colour combi looks really attractive and the smoothie was really thick. BUT it tasted a little too sweet after drinking for a while... :( And I added ice to try to dilute the sweetness....

Overall, it wasn't a very satisfying meal. And I really miss those days when the food was much better, back then at Heeren and Suntec.

Spicy Chicken Soup from Food Republic Vivocity

This Spicy Chicken Soup is the chicken version for Yuk Gae Jang (Spicy Beef Soup) found at Vivocity Food Republic. My craving for chicken yuk gae jang was due to a korean movie Le Grand Chef which I had watched before dinner.

The main ingredients were chicken strips, glass noodles, bean curd and vegetables in spicy soup. No complaints about the dish except that it could be spicer and... a little more generous with the side dish.

That's a promotion sticker stuck on the dining tables to promote the movie Le Grand Chef as well as the Korean stall in the food court.

Pineapple Tart From Food Mapping

For the 3rd year in a row, I am getting Pineapple Tarts from Food Mapping. I was introduced to pineapple tarts by Alice (the baker) through my ex-colleague, who used to bring us samples of cookies from Alice.

The pineapple tarts are freshly baked at the stall located at

144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Beauty World Centre #04-25 (tel : 90686047).

They can barely meeting the demands from the customers... who keeps coming when I went there during lunch yesterday. I really wonder how these people know of Alice's pineapple tarts cos the stall is hardly prominent and the Beauty World Centre isn't really that accessible. Well, words gets around, I guess!

The pineapple tarts come in 'open' and 'close' tarts and I somehow feels that the 'close' ones taste better, when in fact, the ingredients are the same. It tastes a little less sweet than the 'open' ones and the crust that wraps the pineapple filling nicely. Butter tastes isn't too strong so no worries about the butter after taste in the mouth or lingering smell on the fingers.

Each pineapple is handmade, when the lines on the crust is carefully done using an equipment one by one.

Here's the stall. On non-CNY days, it is actually a dessert stall which specialises in agar agar. Yes, agar agar made into cakes etc.

As for CNY cookies, besides pineapple tarts, there are also almond cookies (highly recommended), cashew cookies, laksa cookies (something unusual), loveletters, prawn rolls etc. Most of the cookies are selling between $11 to $13. Upsized ones are going at $26.

Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant (Top of UOB Plaza)

The Si Chuan Dou Hua has got to be one of my fav chinese restaurant for family dining. But so far, I have not been to other outlets besides the one at Top of UOB Plaza.

Don't be mistaken that they only serve dou hua (ie. bean curd). They do serve a wide variety of meat, veg, seafood, rice & noodles and desserts. Of course, dou hua is one of their specialities. On weekends, I do see many others going there for their family dinners as well.

This is a tea master who gets into act for the 'gong-fu' tea. The water that travels from the kettle through the long spout spins the water quickly in the tea cup. Spinning the water and tea leaves together quickly helps to bring out the tea fragrance.


A nice cup of chrysanthumum tea with wolfberries.

Each is given an individual serving of appetiser and chilli sauce. I like both the haebeehiam (prawn paste chilli) and bean paste chilli.

I love this pan-fried cod-fish with sauce. The cod fish is so fresh. There is no 'fishiness' or 'cod-oiliness'. To me, this is a must-try dish. The pan-fried outer-layer is so crispy. But there is a minimum order of 2 slices of cod-fish, which costs $10 each. Cod-fish lovers could easily finish both slices at 1 go... ^^

This is pan-fried toufu with spinach and dried scallop gravy. There are about 4 or 5 pieces of toufu covered by the scallop gravy. Overall, the tou-fu was good. The top layer of the tou-fu was made of mashed spinach. It is quite unique and the tou-fu was smooth and soft.

However, the scallop taste was kinda strong and overpowering for the veg.

This is brocolli with crab meat gravy. There is generous serving of crab meat as shown in the pic. Nothing spectacular but it was within expected standard.

My mom likes the XO Seafood Fried Rice. The colour looks light but it is quite tasty. The prawns (lots of it) are really fresh. Can feel the crunchiness as I chew them.

Our final 2 dishes were desserts - dou hua with wolfberries and dou hua with water chestnut. The dou hua is really very very smooth and silky. The one with wolfberries was slightly sweeter. Both are equally great - I cld not decide which is better.

A fortune cookie to end the dinner.... there is a little note of 'advice' in each cookie.

Though the dinner did burn a little hole in my pocket but it was a very satisfying dinner and it has always been the case there. Thank goodness, there is 15% off for UOB card holders.

Verdict : Many happy returns...

Western Food @ Biopolis Food Court

Went Biopolis for lunch a few days back. The ride was just a few minutes away but we hardly go there. We have been talking about taking the Biopolis bus, which supposedly brings Biopolis people to and fro GM market. Anyway, RK drove there that day.

The food court was not extremely crowded. The environment in Biopolis gave me a campus feeling, just like in NTU.

All 3 of us ordered different dishes from the western food stall. I ordered the fish fillet with fried rice ($4). The price is quite reasonable considering that there is a small portion of salad.

The fish fillet covered with breadcrumbs was quite crispy, the batter thickness was fine, though I think some people may find it too thick. It came with chilli sauce instead of tartar sauce.

The rice was a little bland and I think the gravy did not make it any better.

Verdict : Once is enough.

Fei Fei Wanton Mee 飞飞云吞面

This is one of the more popular places for wanton mee. It is a little confusing here as you will be able to find another Fei Fei Wanton Mee just across the street. Well, what I have heard is that the older version located in Sin Wah Coffeeshop is the original stall. But it is always crowded (again, the crowd explains for itself).

Anyhow, we could not find a seat at the original and so we decided to go for the next best alternative located at:

72 Joo Chiat Place, Singapore 427789

This coffeeshop is at the juction of Joo Chiat Place and famous (or infamous) Everitt Road.

Supposedly, these are handmade noodles. The serving portion isn't big. The noodle looks bland. BUT, once mixed with the sauce and chilli, it tastes quite decent. The wantons and charsiew are hidden beneath the noodles.

If the noodle portion does not fill your tummy, add on with some yong tau foo. The yong tau foo comes in standard selection... so you can't pick what you like. It is served dry with a sauce on top. They were a little crispy so I think they have been deep-fried. A quick deep-fried. They taste good with the sauce.

And if both wanton mee and yong tau fee are still not sufficient, top it up with Dumpling soup. I think each portion comes with 8 pieces? Main filling include prawn and pork. IMHO, the standard of the dumpling is only so-so.

Since the place is open 24-hour, can consider going there for supper if you have sudden food craving in the middle of the night.

Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

It was New Year's eve and we reckon that most places would be crowded so we decided to head to some "outskirt" place for lunch. Since we were travelling along Upper Serangoon Road, we decided to check out if there is anything interesting to eat there. Found that some shops were closed because it has past lunch hour.

We settled down for lunch at Ratana Thai Seafood Restaurant

27 Teck Chye Terrace S545729

Tel : 6285 9092 / 9766 5737

Ordered a Tom Yam Chicken Soup. Had moderated the level of spiciness and sourness.

This Garlic fish looks interesting and I was rather suprised that it came with nice presentation... I am not sure what fish it was since it was almost fully covered by the garlic and onion garnishes. The entire fish was deep-fried and every part was very crispy, which also means if you like to taste the tenderness of the fish meat, you will be disappointed.

The hotplate tofu was a little disappointing as it somehow lack 'character'... it only seemed like a plate of rojak with everything tasting alike.

Garlic-fried seasonal veg... it was just normal.

Thai Lemon Juice. Besides the sour taste, there is also a light stint of saltiness. Maybe it is the characteristics of Thai Lemon Juice.

Generally, it was a very normal meal for a normal day on 31 Dec 2007.

Olio @ Holland V

There is a new Olio Cafe, located at Holland V. The place used to be Gelare, the ice cream parlour.

There was a good choice of food but I opted for something not too heavy - Olio Gourmet Pie with Red Curry Chicken ($12.90). I'd had imagined the curry to be the traditional red curry but it turned out to be "fusion" curry. Just imagine that it is something with a stronger spice taste and little coconut milk or perhaps none at all.

I was a little disappointed.... the puff pastry was the saving grace.

Fortunately, we ordered some desserts, which were yummy and nice in presentation. The Olio style brownie ($7.50) came in a chocolate hot plate, just like the gravy in hot plate tofu. The brownie itself has a level of vanilla gelato in the centre.

Another saving grace for this meal was the tiramisu ($6.80). It tasted rather milky, which I like. Am not bothered that it has very coffee taste :P

My conclusion would be to always choose something that is recommended by the chef, at least at Olio Cafe.