Jeju Sanghoe & Juk (제주상회&죽), myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens

This outpost by Jeju Sanghoe is Jeju Sanghoe & Juk (#B1-03 myVillage @ Serangoon Gardens, 1 Maju Avenue) - the name clearly references their porridge which has more variety than the shop at Tras Street.

But first some chilled sikhye which was a sweet reprieve from the blazing heat.

We came here today for their abalone innards juk/porridge.

Quite a bit of sliced abalones in there.

I was expecting more intense flavour because of the innards but the flavours that mostly came through was from the seaweed and sesame oil. It was a nice bowl of porridge though.

Compose Coffee, One Raffles Place

Dropped by Compose Coffee (#01-02 One Raffles Place, 1 Raffles Place) for some flavoured caffeine alchemy.

The banana coffee above was just iced Americano with banana milk. Not bad tasting if you didn't mind artificial banana flavouring from banana milk. We didn't. The coffee's actually pretty drinkable stuff.

Amangchu - their rendition is peach tea with cubed mangoes and espresso. Wasn't expecting the peach component but turned out to be great for the sweltering heat.

Sodeng Korean Vintage BBQ (소댕), Telok Ayer Street

Sodeng (175 Telok Ayer Street, tel : +65 9787 4542) is by Um Yong Baek. They're another KBBQ shop and what's differentiates Sodeng is barbequed duck which is a first here. We came for lunch and didn't get anything on the grill. Just a couple of stuff from the lunch menu.

Banchan. Kimchi's fresh and actually enjoyable considering that I normally gravitate towards the more intense/fermented/sour ones.

Yuja dressing on the salad was nice.

What got our attention was the egg drop soup with dried pollack. Love how the flavour from the fish infused the eggy broth.

The one duck item we did get was their Gwangju styled oritang. Never had oritang before and I had the idea that there would be duck flavour in the broth. This Gwangju styled rendition was just nutty, full of perilla seeds. I liked it though. There's duck meat inside.

I remembered wondering once about where one could get yukhoe bibimbap previously.

This was was $17, has bits of sliced pears and came with a bottle self serve sesame oil which was deliciously nutty.

What's this pandan infused water that they provide? Nice.

Noci Bakehouse, Suntec City

Sister to Noci Pasta Bar located at the end of Suntec closer to Millenia Walk (#01-604, Suntec City Tower 3, 3 Temasek Boulevard). They're at the spot that used to be Bakery 1946.

What's enticing about the bakery are their salt bread - their equivalent to Japanese shio pan. These here were larger. Got the one with black sesame and butter.

The insides had sweet black sesame paste and butter. Nice! 

The cream salt bun is not to be missed.

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.