Canton-i, Orchard ION

The wanton noodle down at Canton-i (2 Orchard Turn, #03-14 ION Orchard, tel : +65 6509 8368) was not bad. Portions were kinda small though. What pleasantly surprised me was the firm and chewy texture of the noodles that felt almost like Tsim Chai Kee in Hong Kong. Almost. To compare between the two, I would have to hands down pick the latter as the better bowl for both the taste and the level of satisfaction. Portions were definitely more generous and it was less expensive. The wantons here in Canton-i might have been larger than many, filled with fresh crunchy prawns. Still not a match for the flavours and size for the king prawn wanton noodles Tsim Chai Kee. 

I ordered their Japanese sweet potato with cheese out of curiosity and those turned out to be two little dry bars of sweet potato with a textured crust at the top that had so little cheese that I couldn't taste them.

Lunching at Your Woul

Headed back to Your Woul to try their lunch sets priced at $9.90 and landed ourselves a heo dup bab and a jab che bab. These items turned out to be pretty good. The former was almost a riot of flavors (in a good way) from the fish roe, seaweed, sesame seeds and what tasted to me like some sort of powdery fish floss. I definitely would have loved for this to be in larger portions.

The jab che bab set as I've learn from previous experience were glass noodles and some assorted vegetables that came with rice. The rendition of the jabchae here was savoury and peppery compared to the ones done at Arirang. I couldn't say which one was better since I enjoyed them both.

I'm starting to like the chilled cinnamon and ginger date tea stuff that they serve at the end of meals.

Burger Shack, King's Arcade

This place (559 Bukit Timah Road, #01-01 King's Arcade, tel : +65 6466 3477) which was opened by Island Creamery wasn't too bad at all. The double burger from the menu had did come with nicely char grilled medium well patty which contained enough flavors to be both beefy with the grill aroma at the same time. Albeit, neither of which were as intense as I would have preferred. I guess having just some onions and a leaf of lettuce helps things not to be detracted from the original flavors they were trying to build here and it was probably a good thing that I forgot to ask for additional toppings of cheese. I did like the lightly toasted and airy buns which they used. Fries were pretty ordinary and I thought that having more variety of beers apart from just Tiger would probably spruce the place up in the arena of options.

Nothing over the top or mind blowing, but good enough for me to come back again to.

Arirang Korean Restaurant, Liang Seah Street

Unusual how we were led to this restaurant (1 Liang Seah Street, #01-07/08 Liang Seah Place, tel : +65 6333 0025). We were looking for a place to eat where we could pay by card because we had run out of cash. Coming in from Beach Road and hungry, this happened to be one of the first places that we came across that looked decent and with the recent Korean food craze we were in, it looked like it was a good idea.

We were quite glad that we gave it a chance despite the initial apprehension I had after seeing the crazy crowd seated indoors for their all you can eat "Korean" BBQ buffet.

We started off with a plate of japchae (sounding suspiciously like a Nonya chap chye) which was a large portion for something that came from the appetizer section. I was initially worried from the first mouthful that the sweet flavour of the vermicelli would become overwhelming like the jajangmyeon experience previously, but the taste actually grew on me. The sweetness were relatively mild and the play of textures between the chewy glass noodles and mix of vegetables were enjoyable. Will definitely put this under a re-order consideration.

The spicy seafood soup here put the one at Crystal Jade Ginseng Chicken to shame. It was a notch spicier. In the unassuming pot of orange broth beneath the vegetables and tofu, were 4 large prawns, mussels, fish and squid. In spite of being slightly overcooked, the natural sweetness of the prawns came through. This soup was a daily special of the week and the setback for it was an affordable $10. Considering that it came with rice and refills of banchan, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

What took us by surprise for the spicy beef soup was the beefiness in the broth which we had assumed would be subdued by the spiciness. Again, another interesting bunch of textures coming from the meat, sprouts, spring onions, egg and vermicelli. The fact that there wasn't really that much beef in them didn't even matter.

I think I'm willing to overlook the mediocre banchan and come back again.

Your Woul, Goldhill Centre

We liked the food at this place (165 Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre, tel : +65 6251 0123) enough that we came back for seconds on the very next day to do dinner again. The crowd on the weeknights helped convince us that we were eating at some place right.  But service sure did become very spotty once it got crowded. It was rather difficult to get any attention during those peak hours, especially with the refills of the banchan. There was definitely some preferential treatment going on around here. I'm serious.

Service aside, the food was unpretentiously hearty. A couple of notables from the banchan included the smoky sweet radish and fragrant fried anchovies. I haven't yet mastered the subtleties of kimchi. To me they were pretty much just a variation of different levels of sour and spiciness, so I couldn't really comment if it was good.

1st night

We opted for a kimchi jigae and a aal-bab set. The latter a stone rice bowl that came topped with what looked like tobiko. I guess what I liked about the spicy kimchi soup was the bodied aroma apart from just the obvious sour and spicy flavours. It was almost like there was miso in them. The aal-bab was a reminiscence of Chinese claypot rice with a medley of flavour from the pickled vegetables, seaweed and burnt bits of rice off the sides. Apart from the occasional pop between the teeth, I couldn't get much out of the fish roe.

2nd night

On the returning night, we grabbed a dong tae tang which was a pollack soup and a spicy stew of baby octopuses and pork belly. Beside the hassle of having to remove endless amounts of fine fish bones off the pollack, the food was all tasty with the sweet and savoury almost miso like quality of the soup filled with the big headed bean sprouts which I liked. Same for the nutty and spicy gravy which the sliced pork belly and octopus came in. The gravy from the latter made me order extra portions of rice.

I would love to come by for more of the food here. But I suppose it is time for me to give the other places a chance.

Crystal Jade Ginseng Chicken & BBQ, Ngee Ann City

Here was an opportunity to get reacquainted with some Korean food and even though this Crystal Jade (391 Orchard Road, #04-20 Ngee Ann City, tel : +65 6733 3229) might not have been the best place to start, it was convenient. The setup was much like many Korean outfits. There were tables fitted with a grill for meats. Things got moving after orders with a serving of banchan. I loved those big headed bean sprouts there.

The stewed beef ribs was pretty good at the start with generous portions and caramelized bits. After a few pieces, the sweetness became cloying and it started becoming a chore to finish. The meat was not as tender as I was hoping for and they certainly weren't the type that slid of the bone easily. Wasn't something that I disliked, but one could just eat a little before the taste became monotonous. Definitely for sharing between more than 2-3 persons.

Faring better in my opinion was the spicy seafood and tofu soup. The combination of savoury and spiciness definitely helped offset the sweetness from the ribs. I was actually expecting a larger variety of seafood from the name of the soup but I guess it was just shrimps and squid.