Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

My CG and I had a rocking good time at this restaurant and endorse it as YUMMY(worth the shuttle bus trip here)! Luckily didn't listen tio the kok and leave the restaurant for curry flavour =P politeness of Kumar and I NOT to walk out - cos the Kok suddenly remembered curry flavour was near and good, the guys yearning to watch hip hop (i still dunno why they were so obsessed to catch the performance at the forum below) and jason hating cheese and buttery food (hence no Pasta de Waruku) sealed our fates ; we had to try this restaurant.

can you recognise the artiste here?

its edmund chen..my original intention was actually to take a photo of the logo of the restaurant not realising it was Edmund Chen at the corner there until my friends thought i was papparazzi trying to snap him with some illicit kids(they don't look like Chen Xi =P)THEN i realised who he was.

Hansang has this open concept and Kels and I was always walking through this passageway from TTSH but somehow we never stopped to try their food which is a waste really....the Korean food here is so much better than Seoul Yummy.

Hansang occupies most of the third floor and there are several sections. There's this open area where you can look over to the lower floors and we chose to perch ourselves at the tables nearest the latch so we can lean over to check out the hip hop competition happening down at the forum...oh the moves by one of the contestent was amazing it was as if he could detach certain parts of his body, getting them to move independently. The other groups just amaze us with their energy and strength swinging around their limbs....while sedentary us (or at least me oh sobs i realise i was the only stagnant one in the group kumar and kok run , jason tennis and kels hits the pool =/ ) just loaded up on the calories happily.

Korean Amuse Bouche?

This is the complimentary starter.. their rendition of a palate cleanser? At first (to my horror) I thought it was the complimentary side dishes and before I could exclaim how little it was, the many many side dishes finally appeared shortly =P

this starter consisted of (from left) ikan bilis and peanut, potato salad (looks deceivingly like icecream!!) and kidney beans.

Dubokgee $5

There's this small counter where this lady was cooking these rice cakes - and I always see this dish in those Korean shows - so I was really curious to try. This was the small size and the large size is 10 bucks. This was like the highlight of my meal because it was my first time having Korean rice cakes and it was really chewy and the sauce was savoury-sweet, and perfect with the dash of sesame seeds. Its like denser mochi skin in a miso paste. Very very good.. and not all the rice cakes were of the same cylindrical shape! There were some triangular shapes, and I think there were some bits of onions inside the sauce.

Complimentary side dishes

Bibimbob Hotstone Pot $13

I must always try the Bibimbab in Korean restaurants because I like claypot rice - i especially like the charred rice when it contacts the hotstone. Korean claypots always come with a yolk and with some vigorous stirring every grain of rice will be coated with the yolk, with the heat cooking the yolk. You gotta be real quick about it because once the yolk cooks you can't mix it around the rice. I lovee the smell from the sizzling hot stone.

The vegetables here -and my favourite mushrooms too - are definitely of the more expensive type (as compared to the Seoul Yummy express outlet at Food Republic Suntec where I always go for my super good Bibimbap fix) - the macrosomic tauge (the bean seeds are huge!) and the soft cucumber and purple cabbage.. after mixing the vegetable and (very little) beef around it really tastes like fried rice, with the crunchiness of the raw carrots and assorted vegetables. All I had to do was add some red miso paste sauce and I was one happy person stirring around and eating.

Oh the only suspicious looking thing here was this 2 translucent rectangular starch like chewy thing that we couldnt figure out what it was. any clue??

Dupbob Beef $10

DubBob Chicken $10

The 3 guys that had this DubBob - can choose either beef, chicken or cuttlefish - concluded the meats were fantastic because it was marinated very well and they were very generous with the portion of the meat. There was substantially more meat than rice. And they're big eaters ok(in more ways than one), I can vouch for that.

Hotpot Lunch set - with pancake and rice $15

Kels had this..there were alot alot of vegetables inside the soup as well as some noodles which I tried and tasted like ramen..what was awesome in the set was the fried pancake. It was a rice cake which was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.. oh I must try the other pancakes the next time round.

They served dessert too (although only Kels ordered a lunch set) - watermelon slices in a juice which i didn't eat because I dislike watermelon. I don't know why they always serve this fruit after all the Japanese and Korean meals...if its so economical isn't it not very fresh when they serve it outside? Nonetheless all my friends enjoyed the dessert (and none of them had a stomachache)

The take-away rice cake shop. I believe they sell both sweet and savoury rice cakes.

Now that we are all charged up we are all ready to face the onslaught of tutor (thankfully the tutor today was hilarious and so so nice signing everything for us, made our day even better!!!) and lecturer (bad bad bad). Good lunches are oh so important.

And it seems my CG is always having Korean food, it was with Kels, Kumar and Kok that we tried Seoul Yummy round the corner too, but not like im complaining because Korean food is really interesting. Oh thats many many Ks in one sentence..

Hansang Korean Family Restaurant

Square 2 Novena

Cafe Salivation, Space@Humble House, Cafe Domus

K and i 's grand plan was to scot off to Wild Rocket so we can check out the Mount Sophia area -Sinema Old School and the new Timbre @ Old School during our long long lunch break but we got so lost in the Mackenzie area and it was very very late , close to their last order and closing time + ERP -> Little India/ Golden Mile...the former cos I really didn't wanna sweat cos I'll be out for dinner/ supper too although I'll def make a trip to Golden Mile soon to try the ROC pizza, Ice Queen and Belgian waffles!!

there was a recent article in the Sunday Times about how all these non Indian eateries are popping up all over Little India and diluting the Indian culture there...i totally disagree cos these places add a dash of vibrancy to that area and its not as if the Indian culture is that easy to dilute lol

Situated along Syed Alwi which is this lane of traffic (and PARKING!) madness alongside Mustafa (which I havent entered before - there's a new Mustafa building -which has no snacks!! -beside the older Mustafa ), Cafe Salivation is this new chic and GIRLY (wallpaper screams pink everywhere) cafe offers a smorgasbord of Western vegeterian fare - pasta, sandwiches, burgers, wraps. Some of the food has some Indian influences - spices, although there was no curries nor Indian-named dishes like Idli or rice dishes.

Mezze Platter - Cream Cheese Pate, Tsatziki(raita), and Hummus

Served with Pita bread $7

We started off with this Mezze platter which I always order in a middle eastern restaurant. I love the fact that the Pita bread was toasted and nicely warm.

The cream cheese pete (the orange one on the right) was new for me, and this tasted quite like Philadelphia cheese with an onion aftertaste.. there was red bits which we were trying to figure out what they were.

the Tsatziki is actually a yoghurt (the white one on the left) - another first pairing bread with yoghurt for me (always granola and yoghurt!)

the Hummus (the middle dip) was the best, although there was quite a large proportion of olive oil in it! We mopped up every bit of this, with the fries and burger bread which was in our Soya burger.

Soya Burger - spicy soya granules formed into patties and seasoned with spices $5

Being fans of soya beans (and I a burger fan!) we couldnt resist choosing this - although the manager recommended the feta cheese burger. well we concluded...always follow the manager's opinion =P we couldn't really taste much of the soya beans as it was overwhelmed by the curry spiciness and in the end it tasted like a fried curry potato cutlet =P a first for me trying a vegeterian burger man, can't fathom burgers without the meat patties.. i can never figure out how people can order the Portabello cheese burger from Relish man..

although there's this tempeh burger that was featured in the same Sunday times article, this cafe in Little India called Food03 that offers this...sounds interesting!

Enchiladas Remo

Tortillas stuffed with stirfried vegetables and topped with tomato sauce, white cheese sauce and baked in the oven $7

Enchiladas is a Mexican dish and this turned out to be the best dish - maybe cos we are fans of anything that has flour and cheese and tomatoes ie pizza. but i must say the vegetables, despite being stirfried, retained its crunchiness and they added some raw red capsicum as well, so it went well with the tortillas that was softened with the cheeses and tomato sauces.

in honour of dr annapoorna...
we were bored with walking around Mustafa so we went off to our usual threading place Vanessa along Buffalo road and we decided to henna our backs (although the plan was to henna the legs) ..the dye requires a down time of 30 minutes at least to dry and because we were in a rush to get back to KK by 430... it was hilarious because in an effort not to smudge the tattoos and not to kena my car seats..we didnt belt up and we were leaning forward during our entire speedy drive back! crossing our fingers the entire time the lecturer was gonna be late - and i couldnt not go cos i unfortunately attended his morning clinic.

the dye will actually peel off leaving a brownish stain on your skin and lasts up till 7 days..K and i thought it'll be interesting if we go tanning and we'd have interesting tan lines but since I don't go under the sun now, K will tell me if it works!

then for dinner, i continued onto Space @My Humble House for dinner with short and doms..short and i were very amused by this sign in Esplanade.

been wanting to try out this place after ian raved about their fish soup and m raved about the lamb bakuteh, which is possibly the only bakuteh i can ever eat (despite the fact that i can just buy the herb off the shelves and cook with whatever meat i want).

Oh yes this place has the dumb NO PHOTOGRAPHY policy too (bad reviews?copycats??) i mean, whats wrong with photography?? its publicity all the same (good or bad, still publicity means some talk about your restaurant) and copycats are the best form of flattery anyway. but still managed to get some shots, despite being eyed by the waitress in her very short short qipao blouse. the waitresses from the more expensive humble house have skirts with slits all the way to the hip bone man, must be incredibly stressful being a waitress there being careful not to zaogeng all the time (or maybe they have instructions otherwise, shudders).

we ordered these 3 items...there were 3 more items behind but we didnt order those...

Rice Noodles with fish fillet - Crisp fried fish fillet, salted vegetables, tomatoes, coriander, lettuce, spring onions and fried onions with rice noodles in a fish consomme, $12

this was nat's. well I'm always eating fish soup with rice and since this was highly recommended by ian i tried some of the soup but alas, the fish soup was tainted by the sour twang from the zealous addition of tomato. tried the fried fish too but again it was nondescript. I prefer the Jinhua fish soup rice over at Maxwell Market, anytime.

Claypot rice in Consomme $12

Fragrant Jasmine rice is simmered with crabmeat, shrimp, scallops, straw and shiitake mushrooms and quail eggs, in a chicken consomme, sprinkled with fried onions and coriander

this was dom's and was the favourite dish of the night. the stock was flavourful - soaking up the seafood and chicken essences thoroughly. there was a generous serving of seaweed too, and it tasted oh so good with the soup and rice. the prawn was crunchy too. no wonder dom wanted this all to herself!

Rack of lamb bak kut teh $ 14

Airflown from New Zealand, the most tender and succulent baby lamb rack is cooked with mushrooms and Chinese herbs in a Bak Kut Teh broth and served with rice and kailan

This was mine. I like lamb alot, and the only other time I had lamb soup outside was at Foo House when I tried the Irish lamb stew. This was the Bak Kut Teh version of lamb soup, and the soup was also robust with the distinct lamb taste (but not to the point of being overly muttony). The lamb was quite tender too but it was rather small!! just 2 small pieces of lamb chop. definitely not enough meat. I soaked the rice (garnished with fried shallots and spring onions) in soup and it was warm, comfort food =) herbal soups really remind me of my grandma's cooking.

and because I left my week's worth of painstakingly handwritten notes in the MO room at KK..i drove back to KKH again crossing every possible finger i have cos i was so scared i wont find it!! im a horrible driver when im stressed so luckily i made it there in one piece...and after that we decided to cover ANOTHER place in Little India in the Sunday Times article - so yay 2 places conquered in a day!!- Cafe Domus which opens from 7 pm to 3am on Friday nights. Perfect for the late night supper...and desserts and drinks.

This place is really VERY ulu..its at Owen Road and at night (and at little india) it can be quite scary cos its totally desserted (no pun intended...read on). There are only shophouses there and plenty of lorries and suspicious looking cars. We almost wanted to run off to UDDERS (but I forgot what time it closes) but luckily I didn't because I found a gem in this quaint hangout.

gorgeous lights and pretty pinkish flowery wallpaper galore.. M actually told me that this place is a hippie homofriendly place but i totally forgot because I was so excited about the dessert offerings here. nonetheless, great music, boardgames and cards - great for a late night chilling out with the girls.

After Chong arrived ( and we alr decided before she did =P and dom found a fried food partner in crime) - and her strange request to have a pot of Earl Grey tea meant we ordered 2 sets of desserts (the desserts paired up with tea) and another ala-carte order of 2 scoops of ice cream.

Chocolate Pecan Pie - with I-scream, $9

This was the favourite of the night. The pecan nuts were plentiful and the chocolate was chewy. We had this with Nutella delight with oreos ice cream.

Cheese cake (Ferroro Rocher) $8.50

You should know by now that we are big fans of Gianduja or hazelnut flavoured chocolate. The cheese centre was really dense, and there was more chocolate brownie covering than cheesecake, and we thought it'd be better still if it was paired up with an icecream. A rather heavy going cake but delicous nonetheless. The black cherry cheesecake seemed interesting too, shall try that the next time i return.

2 scoops of I-Scream - Mrs Smith, Nutty Peanut Butter $6.20

I liked the nutty peanut butter alot, it was creamy but i wished there was more nuts! I actually found the apple flavoured Mrs Smith yummy as well, despite not liking sour ice creams much. The apple flavour was distinct, but not overtly sour like real green apples ( i hate those)

Oh the I-scream here is from Ice cream chefs. Anyone care to share the scoop prices as compared to the main branch? here there is no ice cream teppanyaki concept though, that is the trademark of Ice cream chefs in the east.

and every monday they have a i-scream buffet from 7pm to midnight and judgin by how much we enjoyed the ice cream here we'd definitely be back. It costs $10 per person and bookings are essential according to owners Fred and Jacq who say that they are usually full on Monday nights.

This place serves fried savoury platters as well, and M says their alcoholic drinks are potent. We had 2 pots of tea - Earl Grey and Cranberry infused tea. We should have tried their coffee liquer because all their combinations of coffee and liquer sound really good!

This place gives a real homely vibe. There is an alfresco area behind, and the layout is like that of a pebble garden (bamboo trees, minimal lighting..you get the idea) and there is a balcony area that is only open for private(hmmmmms....) events.

Even the desserts are home made. Jac's mom bakes the chocolate pecan pie and Fred's friend's mother bakes the cheesecakes. Oh it is my dream to own such a lovely hangout which opens only at 7 pm - imagine everyday waking up so late!! My friends don't think so though, they think that by the time the Cafe opens there will be nothing left to sell. Oh well.

Cafe Salivation 75 Syed Alwi Road

Space @ My Humble House 寒舍一隔 8 Raffles Avenue #02-25 Esplanade Mall

Cafe Domus 124 Owen Road

Nanbantei

yesterday, M, fish annalisa and i the far east gang made our way again to try nanbantei at far east plaza. previously we were here at far east too after anasthesia at kk to try out wasabi tei. we were freakin early that one time and to our dismay both Wasabi tei and Nanbantei opens at 12 sharp (okay not that sharp for the nazi chef at Wasabi tei) so we were lingering around feeling miserably hungry....

but this time the opposite happened to us! fish and annalisa's neonatal tutor took forever and when m and i were feeling ravenous at the LT lounge ( we nearly wanted to take off to Nogawa alr, even made a reservation =P) and when we called Nambantei their last order was at 230 and they close at 3 so we were damnnn scared we couldnt make it!!

but of cos we did =) (tho m and i were slightly disappointed we couldnt try nogawa hahaha) ..the other option was this waruku branch thats their newest over at starhub centre but ERP+ ex parking -> Nambantei...

its quite a small place over here..about 3 tables and a counter as above.. fish commented they have another branch over at cuppage (not sure if its kazu) with the same layout...oh because they grill their skewers of meat at the counter, the meat smell will definitely cling onto your clothes..

this is my very comprehensive yakitori set $12.50. i requested for the pork items to be replaced so what you see above is mushrooms stuffed with chicken, eel (below that), chicken meat, quail egg, and chicken balls. the rice is covered by (very salty) mushrooms and chicken floss. all of us had this set (because it had the greatest variety and we were ravenous) and we almost wanted to order an extra set of salmon lunch set because we saw how huge the slab of salmon was! (the picture was absolutely misleading)

the mushrooms were very succulent and tasty (i think because it absorbed the juices from the stuffed chicken) and very much tastier than the dried out mushroom skewers I tried at Shin Kushiya. the eel was also tasty, with a generous layer of sauce.. i must say the chicken meats were tasty on its own, its not overtly salty such that you must eat it with rice. even the fresh crunchy vegetable sticks -when eaten with the sauce in the aluminium foil - was refreshingly tasty.

And i certainly havent eaten quail eggs in a long time - i don't know why i thought of those easter egg candies that i used to eat when i was younger...its like some chocolate egg thats the same size of the quail =P funny how eating certain foods trigger off seemingly unrelated memories !

this is the very yummy complimentary dessert..an extremely chewy plain mochi in red bean sauce...i love red bean !! oh im thinking of the very yummy red bean milk ice Kels and i had at the nuh kopitiam during our night call..and of cos, the red bean- yam milk ice at ice monster with her too!! oh i miss my best friend i hope she's recovering well =) will return to nanbantei with you as soon as your appetite takes off!

ps it was a blessing in disguise for you cos our tutor was 3 hours late!!anna and i were complaining how much shopping we could have accomplished =((( if not for the fantastic lunch we wouldnt be able to last out the day man!!

oh and when we were there far east was having a food fair too (it was the first day of the 10 day fair) and there was very yummy mini vietnamese pandan cake ( it tasted like a waffle with a crisp outside and extremely chewy inside), fried durian, SLII muffins, portuguese egg tarts... oh it was food galore, if only that *)(&*^(&%^( tutor didnt arrange a tutorial right in the middle of her clinics we'd definitely buy more and shop more!! grrrr!!

Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant
14 Scotts Road #05-132 Far East Plaza

Kyomomoyama

i wouldnt have eaten here (there are so many other places to try out in central!)if M didn't bring this dish to my attention cos i haven't eaten uni before this...and the best thing about this place is that there is a 30 per cent off on wednesdays for all ladies..and they very graciously (or accidentally i dunno? =P) extended this offer to my nonfemale friend as well so this place is indeed worth checking out on wednesdays!

this is my seafood don laden with ++++ uni, scallop, crabmeat and roe. the uni has quite a distinct shellfish taste - pretty much like mushed up blended oyster, which either i cant appreciate or it is not that fresh? there are different grades of uni, each differing in texture, tastes and colour... which i shall learn about when i eat more uni =) the scallops were really really fresh. but not the roe though.

comes as a set with pickles and miso soup...and its very affordable at 26 bucks before the discoount.

this is my friend's dish and it was tuna with mountain yam ($18)(the fake egg like looking thing on the left). the tuna was fresh and the mountain yam was bland - and being so finely grated it really didn't taste or feel like anything. Still, he liked the dish.

we came to the conclusion that the food was very "cheng", very healthy - not very exciting to the point of being slightly boring, like other generic restaurants...maybe thats why the newer ones that have been bursting into the culinary scene recently have specialised to become izakayas etc. indeed with fickle and daring palates like mine, places like these will be a one-try experience for me (unless its a wednesday and i've nowhere to eat before mambo =P

guys, be sure to bring some female friends here and hope the cashier is as blur as they were when i came !

Kyomomoyama (what a very difficult name to pronounce, spell and remember!!!!)
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-87/100/101/110 The Central @ Clarke Quay
Tel: 6534 8001

U.D.D.E.R.S

UDDERS is my favourite local icecream store, simply because the icecream is extremely creamy and thick. My ultimate favourite is the triple sec, which is a super thick chocolate icecream with a hint of orange liquer. Its really thick, and is like a hybrid of frozen thick chocolate milk shake and melted cold orange chocolate. I love to eat the melting parts of my icecream (that boundary of frozen morphing into liquid), quite a peculiar habit.

All the alcoholic flavours are extremely potent, and when you ask to sample the alcoholic icecream flavours, the server will ask you to try the mild ones (like lychee martini) before progressing to the more potent ones (you get alcoholic breath after the rum and raisin one). Of all the alcoholic flavours I like the Rum and raisin, Irish Bailey's Cream (though i still miss the Haagan Daz version alot....bring it back!! i miss the states where each pint was USD $4.95 even in the hotels and they have irish bailey's cream everywhere!) as well as the Amaretto Black one (coffee icecream with almond liquer) the most !

The pinkish one you see above is Strawberry fields, and its my favourite out of all the fruity flavours, as there are bits of strawberry pieces and seeds and is creamy (I hate sorbets). I am not a fan of their Chempedek ice cream though, but Michelle seemed to fancy that alot. The durian ice cream here is very very good, and there are 2 types: the D 24 one and the Mao Shan Wang one. The latter is definitely packs a greater punch, but its the most expensive, it being priced as a Conoisseur flavour.

They also have local flavours like Gula Melaka (which essentially, tastes like a sweetish coconut icecream with bits of red bean) which i think is quite unique!

these poster are hilarious!

being an icecream scientist must be quite fun, translating icecream dreams into reality...some of the suggestions are really whacky man, check them out.

I love the chill out vibe of this shop, and there's even a board games corner. With free wi-fi and lazy lounge music, I am definitely coming back for more......especially to try their waffles!!

U.D.D.E.R.S
155 Thomson Road
Goldhill Shopping Centre
Tel: 6254 6629

Shimbaishi Soba

michelle highly recommend this place for dessert but chong and i decided to drop by to try out their soba ( right after that disappointing seafood platter )&(£^&*$T^*) and this time round we werent unlucky twice.

but we had to queue and chong hates to queue for anything (not even food)

it was a very busy night and extremely packed and luckily we didnt end up sitting right next to the queue (i hate people peering down at what i eat) .. with some very fragrant roasted green tea we were good to order and i ordered the unagi soba.

the noodles were firm to bite and were clearly handmade. the unagi kinda got even soggier inside the soup though..

this is Shokado A - Teriyaki Chicken, Salmon Sashimi, Soft Shell Crab Tempura, Fruit, Choice of Soba or udon (chilled). i don't quite like the idea of cold noodles but chong does as she eats hot soba at home alot. quite a wide variety of meats to go with the (rather bland) noodles. the teriyaki chicken was particularly tasty.

good place to come for a casual, no frills noodle craving but then again i can always get it fuss free and cheaper somewhere else, minus the horrendous queue and insane parking. will be back to try the tea time dessert promotion though.

Shimbaishi Soba

290 Orchard Road #B1-41 The Paragon