Togi, 11 Mosque Street

Tucked away in the hustle and bustle of the crowded Chinatown district in Mosque Street is this innocuous Korean restaurant. Cozy little place. Which euphemistically meant small, crowded and noisy. The interior consisted of closely packed tables with chairs up to the glass doorway with several tables outdoors as well. It looked like one of those where one would have to stand in line for a long wait if reservations are not made in advance judging from the crowd on a Friday evening.

I'm still in the process of discovering Korean food. This would be the first entry I have under the label Korean. I've been under the impression that most of their food were just spicy, sweet or sour and it seemed that I wasn't not too far off with that perception. Besides Seoul Garden which I've had the misfortune to visit years back, I haven't really eaten anything Korean (I know Seoul Garden doesn't count) before. Here I am then, sifting through tongue twisting names that I have difficulty pronouncing and not understanding a single word of the names without translation. I had it better with Japanese. In retrospect, I still maintain that Japanese food is more interesting than Korean. Things may change in the future of course. That much is for time to unfold.

brown rice with beans

We were started with a serving of rice and an assortment of pickles and banchan (small side dishes). There are options for white rice or the brown ones with beans. Those banchan which can be refilled as often as requested included kimchi, salted fried anchovies, potato salad and assorted stir fried or pickled vegetables.

Kim chi hea mool jun (kimchi and seafood pancake)

This seafood pancake contained what I detected to be only squid. That's about all the seafood in there. The rest of the fillings were miscellaneous bits of vegetables and chilli. The pancake tasted a little like Chinese radish cakes.

Nak j bok (spicy stir fried octopus)

This is octopus by name from the menu, but I think they were actually squid in some sort of nutty spicy sauce. That sauce tasted like satay gravy with a sharper flavour. Nothing much to see here, just stir fried squid in a spicy sauce.

Dak do li tang (spicy chicken stew with potatoes and onions)

The dak do li tan was a chicken stew in some spicy broth. The broth again has a nutty flavour to it. This was a serving for 3.

Sam gyeuo sal (pan grilled pork belly)

Sam gyeuo sal cooked

The sam gyeuo sal was pork belly that came with onions, sliced potatoes and mushrooms on the side. The ingredients were brought to the table uncooked and prepared table side. The melted fat of the pork belly greased the pan for grilling the accompanied vegetables and excess oil was drained off into the center of the grill. The meats can be eaten as is or wrapped in lettuce leaves with garlic, green chilli and some salty brown sauce that tasted like they're made from fermented beans.

Bao Today, Marina Square

Bao Today at Marina Square (#02-234-235/236) is a little dim sum place a difference in ingredients and delivery. From the menu of Bao Today prices aren't over the roof. In fact, it was really affordable. I've personally been told that the food here isn't really exceptional (euphemism for mediocre if you didn't catch the drift) by people that I know (and trust in recommendations). Still I didn't think that it would be so bad that I would write them off without even trying. It's not too bad really. For their prices, it was actually decent. But as I like to think it, taste, like art is subjective.

Minced meat & century egg congee

@ $2.50 a bowl, I got a generous amount of minced meat and some bits of century eggs in there, however it's a very noticeably smaller bowl than I expected. I think it's of a good size if you're doing dim sum and not just having congee. Not mediocre, just pretty ordinary.

Xiao long bao

The xiao long baos ($3) were actually a disappointment. They seem to contain little soup in each dumpling. The skins of the dumpling stuck to any surface they come in contact with so picking them up was tedious process. If you're concerned with having them with the juices intact well..... Crystal Jade and Din Tai Feng does much better ones than these. These, are truly mediocre.

har gao (prawn dumplings)

The prawn dumpings ($3.50) here are quite large. The prawn filling however does come with something which could be fish paste as they look fused together. In all, it was not too bad, but I couldn't wipe away the suspicions of the fillings.

Open faced buns

A basket of these open faced buns came at $2.50. These aren't the usual baos as we know them. What you get is an assortment of meats (pork, shrimp and maybe chicken) with mushrooms and salted egg yoke laid on top of clam shaped "half buns". It looks gimmicky, but didn't taste too bad.

Bao Today's signature Black Sesame Bun with pork fillings

Noteable things about these black sesame buns apart from the grayish skin shade is that the interior were filled with soup or juices more than a usual bao has. For a non dumpling, the insides were really wet and biting into them risks those hot juices bursting into your mouth. I didn't really think too much of the meat fillings which has a generic processed meat flavor making it quite unidentifiable. The black sesame which has been added into the flour that made the bun didn't have the fragrance I was expecting neither.

a gaping wound in the Black Sesame Bun

With a name like Bao Today, I think that it would be great if there was some improvement in how their buns are done. I expected so.

The Diamond Cut

Lawry's is currently doing a promotion called The More the Merrier (it ends in a couple of days so hurry!) Basically they subject the interested to a mind boggling formula which calculates a certain discount percentage based on the number of mains ordered which goes something like x = (total amount of mains X 10) - 10 where x is the said discount in percentage which only applies to mains. Phew, I'm sure it didn't boggle you there. What better time than now to take advantage of the deal for some solid juicy prime ribs... or a Diamond Jim Brady. This promotion does trim some corners off the usual offering that come with their meal. The servings of the Yorkshire pudding were reduced to a single piece per person as compared to the usual entire pudding per person. How much cost could they have saved for some eggs and flour anyway?


The Diamond Jim Brady cut from Lawry's is their largest cut, weighing 450g. For $94.80, one can land themselves a juicy and most satisfying slab of prime rib meat. Does cost a pretty penny obviously. I'll save myself the usual description and let the pictures do the talking. This was the first time I'm having one and in retrospect, I think nothing else smaller might do in the future.

The soup & bread bar @ Cedele

Spinach & chicken soup

For $7.50 one can get lunch in Cedele at the soup and bread bar. Which was soup they have for the day and a free flow of bread that you can help yourself with from their bread bar. There a small variety like the regular baguette, walnut loaf, garlic focaccia and some other dark rye bread. The soup was warm and pretty decent but the bread however were generally hard and cold. Despite the fact that the place always appears crowded at lunchtime, the turnover for the bread bar doesn't occur frequently enough. Probably means that they're not a popular choice since the carbs tend send us halfway through to the midday siesta as we struggle to pretend to stay awake at work. Lol.

Muthu's Curry, Suntec City Mall Basement

From Race Course Road, Muthu's Curry has expanded into prime grounds at the basement at Suntec City. I hadn't expect the variety in the menu since everyone only talks about their curry fish head which led to my assumption that it was mostly what they served. Apparently, their menu is fairly comprehensive.


This was the smallest order of the Curry Fish Head. $20. It served about 3. Almost. The gravy was less viscous and was also not as robust tasting as I was expecting. That was not to say that it was not good, but it was thin enough that I could actually drink it like soup. Which I did for most of the part after the dippers (the tandoori prata and cheese naan) ran out.

Taandori prata

Cheese naan

I hadn't a clue what a tandoori prata could be until today. Essentially, it's a roti prata that looked like it was baked rather than pan fried. Tasted like it contained less oil with a texture that was something between a regular roti prata and chapati. I much preferred the cheese naan but that's coming from someone who digs cheese in general. And of course, the palak paneer didn't escape my notice...


Their's was fine and smooth compared some other places. I noticed that they fried their cottage cheese cubes and that gave them more fragrance. If I might say so, this was one of the more buttery tasting spinach puree I've had.

Back in Banoo

My previous visits to Banoo had always been positive experiences. This weekend lunch made another another one of them. From the food to the service, I have had little to complain about eating here. Food has been great and the people here are well.....friendly. In comparison with the other restaurants down in Mohd Sultan Road, Banoo was even relatively inexpensive.