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.

Octopus and more cheonggukjang jjigae at Ko Ryo Jeong (고려정)

We've seen this poster on the wall at Ko Ryo Jeong since the first time we were here. Have always been curious about the octopus so we asked about it the last time but it wasn't available. It was today. We had initially assumed that because of the price, what we would be paying for is a set that might come with a stew, other specific dishes and rice. Just like how it was for their ganjang gejang. 

They explained that this one only consisted of a plate of octopus and the reason it was priced so high was because it was imported from Korea.

Anyway, banchan. Today's kimchi was extraordinary.

Here's the octopus. Did not quite look like what the poster depicted. It was much smaller than we thought. While it wasn't rubbery, it needed a bit more chewing and it wasn't as tender as I imagined. Wouldn't be ordering this again because I didn't think it was worth even half of what they charged. Now we know.

Thankfully, the cheonggukjang jjigae was still reliably delicious. Thick, stinky with the fermented bean and served piping hot.

First time we were given brown rice here. Didn't realize that they had these and for some reasons, we had never thought to ask as well.

They ran out of fish cake strips for the banchan and replaced it with these preserved vegetables which tasted like a fibrous version of mustard greens. Don't know what these were.

Cheonggukjang jjigae, beef bibimbap & godeungeo gui at Ko Ryo Jeong (고려정)

Been a while since we were last here at Ko Ryo Jeong. Wanted to try the octopus set they put up on a poster but it wasn't available. Sundae was also not available - which was strange because they said it was not legal and we've seen it around. Anyways, we fell back onto some dependables...

...like their cheonggukjang jjigae - the rich soybean paste stew which is fast on the way to becoming a regular item for us.  

Got the bibimbap with beef because we had the one with pork the last time.

Something buried deep within the savoury tanginess and umami amid the textures that makes rice salads like this such great eats.

We had an order of godeungeo gui because I wanted to know if this would leave me the same impression about saba/mackerel like the one Myung Ga III did. The grilled fish here didn't leave a groove as deep.

Revisiting Ko Ryo Jeong Korean Restaurant (고려정)

Seems like we've been having a bit of Korean food lately. The last time we were here which was not a few days back, we had the cheonggukjang jjigae. Today we got the ugeoji galbitang. Among a couple of other things.

Today's banchan was almost entirely different from the last time; which was also different from the first time. Except for the kimchi. Rotation's good because there's something hopefully good to look forward to. Well, it's been good here so far.

When they refilled the banchan, we even had something new. I'm gonna take a stab at it and call it spring onion pancake. That was what it tasted like.

Ordered a bibimbap with pork. Portions were huge. Could feed two.

I think this was gosari namul - fiddlehead ferns hidden beneath the other vegetables. They're apparently a classic ingredient in bibimbap but I've never noticed them till now.

They gave us a small bowl of soup (maybe sundubu jjigae) and a dish of gochujang for the bibimbap. Look at the ingredients that made the multitudes of different textures. This was so good.

Kimchi jeon - the crusty exterior tasted a little cheesy. Not bad but a little greasy.

Their ugeoji galbitang was delicious. The ugeoji part refers to the cabbage leaves. Lots of them inside together with leeks and onions and whathaveyous along with tender fatty short rib pieces. Love the beefy flavour of the broth.

Lunch @ Ko Ryo Jeong

Rained again so we ended up at Ko Ryo Jeong for lunch instead of heading towards Maxwell Food Centre like we originally intended. Actually, it was a good thing that we came here instead because we had previously wanted to explore their menu and that didn't happen then because...ganjang gejang.

While looking through the the menu, we found cheonggukjang jjigae - something we've never seen in our limited ventures into local Korean restaurants and it sounded good. In English, it's an extra-strong fermented soybean paste stew. The proprietress looked concerned when we ordered but we knew it wouldn't bother us.

Hell yeah this was good! The cloudy stew/soup/broth had a flavour profile similar an intense dou ban jiang (豆瓣酱) / miso; plus a tiny bit of funk that might be construed as natto-ish. The pot was mostly vegetables with sparing bits of fatty pork inside. I'd eat this again.

That's gul jeon - oyster pancakes. Ate them with kimchi from the banchan which was great pairing because that kimchi was well aged and hence, pretty tangy. Natural pairing here to the greasy omelette oysters.

Kimchi fried rice was not bad too. Not as intensely flavoured as I was hoping for but maybe it was a good thing today. There's one item from the banchan I liked (apart from the kimchi and the sweet fish cake slices). Those chives in some fish sauce/sugar marinate. Looking forward to coming back.