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.

Horiginal Beef Noodle, Telok Blangah

I read about Horiginal Beef Noodle some time ago but didn't expect to stumble onto one of the branches at Telok Blangah (78A Telok Blangah Street 32, #02-01). If anyone was wondering, this stall is located at the same coffee shop at Liang Ji. Here's a bowl of oxtail soup with tendon.

Pretty decent tasting beef broth which can be enhanced by the juice from a couple of limes that one can help themselves to. While those oxtail chunks were tender and fell off the bone with relative ease, they weren't so much slurp off the bone tender. Tendons also have a bit of bite. By the way, short grained rice is used here. Will look forward to coming back to get another bowl of something else. 

Liang Ji (梁記), Telok Blangah

I gather that Liang Ji (78A Telok Blangah Street 32, #02-01) is better known for their char kuey teow/炒粿条 and chai tow kuey/菜头粿 (stir fried radish cake) but I ended up gravitating towards the mala bacon fried rice because curiosity. 

I enjoyed it and that was largely because the mala flavour was present but not overwhelming so. Much like the mala-bonara that we had recently. That with a bit of heat and salt made it savoury-ishly delicious. I made up one of those words but you get the drift. Liang Ji's fried rice was very much a local rendition rather than the Taiwanese style which many noobs tend to post about and blabber like they're experts on them. Regular jasmine rice with soya sauce and a grainier texture.

Will come back another time for the other stuff.

Thigh and drumstick from 169 Hainanese Chicken Rice

I've been wanting to come back for the thigh and drumstick portion that 169 Hainanese Chicken Rice has. Now that it's finally happened, it wasn't what it imagined it to be. 

The chickens they are using have changed. While there were still tender, they're also leaner and definitely not as meaty as before. Aren't these kampong chicken?

Flavour from the rice wasn't as good as the last time I've had it. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. But it seems the queue is still around.

Icelandic cod liver on toast for breakfast

Got these canned cod livers as a gift. 

Looks good - much like how I expected them to look. The ingredients stated cod liver in their own oil and salt.

We toasted bread and made breakfast out of those with the cod livers. Was thinking if we should do some butter but in the end we did without.

Pretty good tasting. Quite similar to those we've had at Atout but I'm not sure if they are exactly the same. Tried these with another can we bought some time back from Huber's and we thought these were better because it tasted more livery.

Saizeriya, Chinatown Point

This happened (#02-10 Chinatown Point, 133 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 6822 0340) because I came across the mala-bonara pasta that they were having on a limited time availability. What's that mala-bonara you might wonder. Can't you guess?

But first some mushroom soup. At their price point, I've always thought they were underrated.

Beddar Cheddar sausages. I know. But they're nice, smoky and cheesy.

They also have pretty tasty chicken wings. In spite of appearance, there was actually some crisp to those mid wings.

Mussels in some spicy tomato broth. Broth's not bad actually and I liked the garlic in them but the mussels were forgettable.

Didn't look like much but I liked the mala-bonara. If anyone hasn't figured out at this point, it's their spin on a mala carbonara. Salty, savoury and had enough but not too much of that mala flavour that it was enjoyable. At least for me it was. The egg and a bit of the powdered parmesan added richness to the sauce. I like. 

Just another round of their squid ink pasta with egg. First time we're egging it. That and the cheese powder made this.

Not a fan of their cheese hamburger. The menu misled us because the picture did not show any sauce slathered over it. Meat's kinda soft. Won't be getting it again.