Noci Pasta Bar, Suntec City

Korean pasta place at Suntec (#01-386 Suntec City Mall, 8 Temasek Boulevard) that opened late last year. They're by a Gold Moon Restaurants Group which has brought in brands like Tonshou and Seoul Noodle Shop.

Complimentary sourdough with whipped butter. Butter's nice. Bread's okay-ish. I prefer them with a bit more tang and texture.

There's baccala. Not as lard infused as I was imagining. Flavour's mostly from the fish which wasn't a bad thing.

Had a couple of pastas. This one featured their in house squid ink tajarin with bottarga and anchovies - understandably umami that way. Not bad.

The other was their cacio e pepe which also used their house made tajarin. What's different from the usual cacio e pepe are the crush bits of pistachio. Would like for it to be a bit more cheesy and peppery but I think I enjoyed this as well.

Both pasta had great texture.

A coffee called cream di noci which had bits of walnut and walnut oil. There was a thick crema but I didn't detect walnut flavour from the mundane tasting coffee which had little worth mentioning.

Itaewon Jjajang, Peck Seah Street

Korean Chinese food here at Itaewon Jjajang (64 Peck Seah Street, tel : +65 6223 1600). Have noticed them numerous times whenever we're around the vicinity.

Their banchan look poised to cut grease (or attempt to) from our palates. Each one of them was a pickled vegetable. The last dish was their rendition of Sichuan preserved mustard greens (四川菜).

I was curious about their jjampong. Clean seafood flavour from the broth where one can choose from 3 levels of heat. This was level 2. Was manageable at the beginning but was definitely burning by the time we were done. Heat was cranked up by chilli padi/bird's eye chilli. Seafood's pretty good quality. Don't have anything against it but I don't think I'll get it again. I like the smoky rendition from Jeong's Jjajang much better.

Saeu bokkeumbap's a little bland on it's own but maybe the intention was that we should be having every mouthful with the jjajang - which by the way was velvety, full of bean flavour and layered with the aroma and sweetness of melty onions

Those pieces of fried pork from their tangsuyuk were coated with a layer of something soft and chewy... like mochi.

Re-revisiting Jeong's Jjajang

I've been wanting to come back for this stir fried jjampong from Jeong's Jjajang. It surprisingly packed little heat compared to their regular jjampong and was also less smoky. Wasn't bad tasting but I was imagining/anticipating/looking forward to more smokiness and burn from it. Squids were pretty chewy.

Song Gye Ok (송계옥), Centrepoint

Song Gye Ok has a branch at Centrepoint (#02-53 The Centrepoint, 176 Orchard Road, tel : +65 8088 2035). Menu looks similar to the shop at Telok Ayer.

We were here for their cheongguk doenjang jjigae and more grilled chicken parts.

But first some sikhye. Today's tasted toasty.

I just noticed that they sprinkle parmesan cheese on their baek kimchi. It works.

Got ourselves some chicken hearts and garlic fried rice.

And chicken neck which was fatty with crisp skin.

Nice.

Love the Uiseong garlic fried rice. It has cheese melted in and there was a nice natural sweetness which seemed to come from the garlic. This tasted much better than it looked.

What I was looking forward to was their SGO Cheongguk Doenjang Stew which I couldn't help but compare to the impressive cheonggukjang jjigae from Ko Ryo Jeong. This one was less stinky but delicious in its own fermented bean-y way.

Revisiting Tonshou

Back at Tonshou. Man, it's been almost a year and that sure went by quickly.

I just found out that the chilled corn soup is refillable. 😬

Tried their Blackpink Tonkatsu. According to them, it's Hokkaido kurobuta rosu with charcoal breadcrumbs imported from Korea.

This one has the same smokiness as their other tonkatsu. My favourite way to eat it is with salt and wasabi. Their rounded tonkatsu sauce was actually pretty good as well. It's less vinegary than most.

Jin Kimchi Express, Bukit Merah Central

I've bought kimchi from Jin Kimchi before but never made the connection with them to their Jin Kimchi Express stalls for some reasons. Ate somethings from their Bukit Merah Central branch (#01-3749, 161 Bukit Merah Central, tel : 6910 3180) recently. They're in the same SG Kopitiam as No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle.

Happy with their signature kimchi set with added sausage and egg. It's actually pretty good. The bowl was generously loaded with kimchi, tofu, and thin sliced pork belly in a savoury broth that was also kinda briny. That little serving of banchan on the side had really nice savoury sweet marinated quail eggs.

Jjajangmyeon wasn't great in my opinion. Was looking forward to a more robust bean-y flavour in the sauce.

Dubu House Korea, Gloria Outlets, Taipei

Korean lunch at the Gloria branch of Dubu House Korea (3rd Floor, No. 189, Chunde Road, Zhongli District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan).

Banchan has nice kimchi, nice (albeit sweetish) potato salad, bland bean sprouts and the wood ear fungus has ginger. Variety is kinda limited. One item not featured in the picture was nori which we got multiple refills of which was good eating with the kimchi (which we got multiple refills of as well) and the potato salad.

A pretty decent sparkling rose Americano to start. Surprisingly drinkable coffee.

This truffle cheese omelette had loads of truffle paste inside. Nice with the nori too.

Gyeran jjim with cheese and tobiko. And also baby corn. Not bad. Cheese added a needed saltiness which made it delicious.

This was their thick haemul pajeon. Seafood pancake. Nice. 👍🏼 Loads of seafood in it. It felt like eating a seafood quiche.

Pretty surprised to find lamb as a protein option in their kimchi sundubu. Not bad. I liked that the flavour of the meat was infused in the broth.

This was supposed to be their oyster seaweed sundubu. Never even noticed that there wasn't any seaweed in it. Anyways, I loaded it with a lot of nori because it was kinda bland.

I don't know if it's customary for them to serve dessert after meals. We didn't order but got some sweet bean curd.

Tofu G (豆府記 두부젤라또), Mandarin Gallery

Came across Tofu G (#03-30 Mandarin Gallery, 333A Orchard Road, tel : +65 8970 6493) recently and tried a couple of their tofu gelato. Apparently, they're the first tofu gelato here and the spot they're on is a pop up. Nicest looking pop up I've seen.

The lavender coloured one was Korean sweet potato - if you asked me, it tasted like yam and coconut. The Sandy coloured one's pistachio with its unmistakeable nuttiness. These were a lot lighter compared to regular dairy based gelato. Not bad.

Back at SBCD Korean Tofu House

Happenstance dinner at SBCD Korean Tofu House. It's been a lot longer than I realised since the last time. This was a combo with spicy chicken and their original beef soontofu/sundubu.

Their spicy chicken's kinda nice. Charred, smoky and sweet. The heat wasn't as intimidating as what most people might imagine. We almost thought this was the teriyaki chicken served by mistake.

That original beef soontofu has sliced and minced meat. Noticed substantially more tofu than I recall ever getting from the last times. This pot was great with rice.

Re-visiting Jeong's Jjajang

There were a couple of things we wanted to come back to Jeong's Jjajang for. The first was to try their jjampong and the other was to get their delicious mandus again. And then we also found something else this time. 

I love the smoky aroma infused in their jjampong's broth. It's exactly the same soup as what they gave us on the side the last time we were here. It's so good. Will try the stir fried one next.

There's kalguksu which I hadn't noticed on their menu the last time. The in house made soya bean broth was deliciously bean-y. 

Possibly the best mandus we've had to date. Not that we've had that much but the quality is obvious and the stuffings, generous.