Manna Story (Korean), 68 Orchard Road, #B2-22 Plaza Singapura

I am now possibly an expert on all things Plaza Singapura. If I was into one of those 'check-in' things which awarded you stars or diamonds or something when you checked into a place and then opened up some door or something when you've been there enough times, I would've perhaps by now, owned the mall.

So it should be no surprise to you that I've perused every single menu there is on offer here, and with a lot of effort, have zoned in on which ones I like the look of.

We'd eaten here once before - sometime last week - and really enjoyed it, so after a whole afternoon of more Korean drama with my aunt (both of us sat on the couch, gripped to the storyline which we didn't quite understand but which fascinated us anyhow) I was in the mood for some Korean chow-down.



Most restaurants here have menus outside (just like in the UK) for customers to check out the stuff on offer (and most importantly, the price range) before deciding to go in or not.



This one goes one step further with neon signs.



The menu here is definitely not another big menu. Consisting mainly of pictures, and cute little drawings representing which animal you wanna chew on, this menu couldn't have been any more simple than it is.

So, with such an easy-to-use menu, featuring pictures of what you would be served, you would've thought that the diners wouldn't find it too difficult to order what they wanted to eat, right?

Not.

I have a story here which is probably not worth telling, but it irked me so much that all throughout the meal I was just twitching my fingers, wanting to tell someone off, but resisted. So I'll tell it here.

Anyway, so, a little background. As you can probably tell from the first picture above, space in this restaurant is tight. If you're dining with one other person, chances are you'll get seated in a single table located directly next to another single table (with so little room that you'd have to move the other table to get into your seat). Anyhow, I am completely fine with that concept - after all, you try to get as many customers in as you can, so no problems there.

However, this does mean that you're now privy to the entire conversation of your dining neighbours. Again, not much of a problem especially if the conversation is an interesting one.

Not so much.

Back to the story. So sitting next to us (on both sides) were 2 girls at each of the tables. The pair to my right got there after we'd ordered, and made an order of their own quite quickly. Then, our massive pot of a meal arrived (pictures below) followed by their meals.

Lady 1 - tucking into her noodles: "Eh? Why is this noodle cold? It's disgusting, why do they serve cold noodles?" --- Small point to note here, for you readers. She'd ordered the 'Cold Buckwheat Noodles'.

Her dining companion who probably knows how to read a little better said "Oh I've had this before, and yes they usually serve it cold."

Lady 1 again - possibly slightly embarrassed by her lack of ability to read - then asks the waiter to come over and ACTUALLY says "Hey, why didn't you tell me that this noodle would be served cold when I was ordering it? I don't like it, I don't like cold noodles. You should've said something when I was ordering it."

Baffling how sometimes the customer thinks they're always right. Even when they're so wrong. Even when the menu says 'Cold Buckwheat Noodles' and the picture shows no steam, and nothing to indicate that the word 'cold' was put there merely as a joke.

Not content with just blaming the waiter for not telling her that she might not like the food she decided to order, she then ordered some other noodle and proceeded to spend the entire meal doing a running commentary on ours.

Gems spouted included "Oh we should've ordered theirs" while peering across the table into ours.

"The waiter should've told us about the promotion (ours)" (re: neon sign by the entrance).

"Next time we're here, we're definitely ordering theirs. Wonder which one it is." Proceeds to open up the menu, turn around in her seat, and actually compare each picture on the menu to what we had on our table.

All this taking place about 10 inches from our seats.

Remember the other girls sitting to our left? Repeat scene above without the whole cold noodle bit.

Fun times.



Quick drink? Cute little cans at 120 calories a can. Pear-flavoured pop, it was.



This was a side dish from the back section of the menu which I decided to order but I don't reckon I'll be ordering this again. Too little dressing, and a little too much raw carrots for my liking.

But you don't see me asking the waiter why this salad is all veg, do you?

Because that would've been a stupid thing to do, that's why.



Banchan (side dishes)

Oh how I love free banchan!

Clockwise, from top-left: Beansprouts, crunchy sweet anchovies, kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage) and stewed sweet potatoes

This is the first place where I've tried the stewed sweet potatoes (which I assumed were picked radish aka Chinese-style). The sweet anchovies were also similar to what we usually have our Chinese rice-porridge with. Beansprouts were nice, but could've been better if they'd used the big-headed beansprouts instead but that might be a cost or supply issue thing.



Spicy chicken in hotpot (Tak toritang?) Around S$14.80 per person

The promotion meant we could order 3 additional toppings instead of the original 2. Any other addition on top of that is charged at S$2 per topping. We chose glass noodles, rice cakes and squid.

Look at that food mountain that arrived at the table. No wonder the other diners decided to watch us while they were eating.

Taste -wise, it was very good. Very well-flavoured and definitely no where as spicy as it might look. The chicken remained very tender, and the vegetables surprisingly crunchy even as it was bubbling away in the pot. Overall, I enjoyed this very much.

These pictures were taken at half-hour intervals, and as you can see, we didn't do that well in finishing the dish. It seemed like a never-ending pot - we picked and picked and picked at it, but it was still there. Deciding to maybe take on the chicken first, we continued on paving our way through the pot but it was still there. We then moved on to the vegetables, by then feeling quite full - but the mountain remained. I don't know how this is a portion for 2.

So, if you're around Plaza Singapura, are feeling hungry and up for a challenge, perhaps you'd like to sit next to those 2 tables and explain to them how a menu works.

Lack of sunshine = sulk = don’t wanna eat out = Chap Jae

As daylight becomes harder and harder to come by (ie when I go to work it’s dark, when I come back from work it’s dark), all the pictures I take of when I’m out will pretty much mostly be quite rubbish. I know there’s all sort of things you could do with ISO adjustment, aperture, shutter speed, etc. but I’m so rubbish at that, thus the pictures will be rubbish too. 

On that note, however, I came up with an excellent idea yesterday, while trying to digest the large amounts of Korean food I had for dinner. Here it is. Since it’s so cold (some places in the UK were –17 Celcius yesterday. Erm, what?) I’m beginning to dread the whole going-out-in-10-layers-of-clothing thingamajig. It’s seriously tiring, and that’s even before I’ve left the flat. By the time I’ve put all those layers of clothes on, and tried to waddle out the door, the thought of having to remove all of it once I get indoors is just not very exhilarating. Anyhow, this means that I won’t be eating out that much (yes, even less than I have been doing recently, which is quite a feat for a supposed food blogger).

Since I still have to eat, and since the food has to come from somewhere, I thought, why not feature a post each week about where the food comes from? It’s not that exciting really, most of the food comes from supermarkets. Thing is, it’s better than a blank page with just the banner of good food previously eaten, so why not.

Also, if I do enough features of stuff I’ve bought from supermarkets, and then what I’ve made with it, Sainsbury’s / Tesco / M&S / Asda might decide to sponsor my weekly groceries and that would be the main objective of this blog fulfilled. Yes, the main aim of this blog is to one day, enable me to get free food. I’m not fussed which supermarket / mini mart / reduced to clear aisle wants to give that free food to me, so sponsors, if you’re reading this, please feel free to e-mail me.

Sainsbury – if you’re reading, this one’s for you.

I’ve tried to hide the frozen products behind the fresh(er) ones, but because I have so many frozen products, it wasn’t very successful.

Because we had Korean for dinner, and because the smell of kimchi is still lingering on my hair and coat, I had cravings for more Korean food again today. Since we weren’t going out for food, and since the M&S ‘Dine for £10’ range wasn’t too inspiring, we decided to try our hands at making ChapJae, or the Korean version of yam noodles stir fried with meat and vegetables. I Googled for a recipe, found nothing quite believable, and decided to make something up. This is what I made up earlier.

Ingredients – please know that I don’t like measuring things, so every item here should be added as you go along, to the amounts you feel are sufficient (this is why I eat out so much)

• Chicken (something like 300g or something) cut into bite-sized pieces and then marinated in Korean hot pepper sauce, sesame oil, sugar and Maggi seasoning (good for most things)

(the red pepper sauce)

• Courgette (zucchini), red pepper, onions and carrots (all julienned)

And, not pictured because I forgot about them until I’d kept the camera away:

• Garlic
• Yam noodles (possibly found in most good Oriental supermarkets, ask someone for the Korean version)
• Some concept of how it should taste like

Because I did the prep and all that during the day(light) (ie before 4.30pm), and the cooking later on during dinner time, the pictures below look quite different. I told you I don’t know how to do that whole light / aperture thing.

Cooking method – or this is how I did it anyway.

First, I threw the onions into the frying pan. While that was frying away, I chucked in the chicken pieces and that created a sort of sizzle in the pan which made me look for the anti-bacterial spray to wipe it off the hob. A bit of degreasing later, and I was set to then throw in the rest of the vegetables. Little tip here, you might wanna throw the vegetables in maybe only when you’re about to serve the dish, depending on how soft you like the vegetables to be.

While all this throwing and wiping of hob was going on, I was also multi-tasking by soaking the yam noodles in a bowl of hot water. As they get soft quite easily, I wasn’t gonna cook them before throwing them into the pan with the chicken as that would have made them go all mushy.

When everything has been effectively chucked or thrown into the pan, and some frying has been done, it should look something like this.

The transferring of the noodles from the pan to the bowl is another skilful matter. I suggest the use of chopsticks and frying spatula thing.

It tasted surprisingly good, and I’ll be making this again, but without carrots I reckon because that lent a weird taste to it.

Assa (new branch) Korean Restaurant, 23 Romilly Street, Soho, London, W1D 5AQ

The first time we went to Assa was to the original branch located by Centre Point near Tottenham Court Road tube station. I absolutely loved it from the moment we went in (though the whole waiting to be called into the restaurant from the freezing cold bit wasn’t that fun). The interior of the restaurant looks like what I’d imagine a Korean dining room would look like. Shades of brown on the walls with wooden chairs and tables, not much decoration on the walls, and lots of hot pots bubbling merrily on camping stoves on each table. I was so glad I’d found something like this in the middle of London, and because I didn’t have my camera with me, I just HAD to make a return visit to the restaurant.

So, one cold Saturday evening, we decided to do that. We’d just finished watching the new Harry Potter film (bit of a cliffhanger) and decided to have an early dinner to avoid the queues. However, as we had gone to the cinema in Leicester Square (the big one), we were going to walk through Soho to get to Tottenham Court Road.

Whaddya know. We found another branch of Assa in the middle of Soho. Eh? With some hesitation, we thought it was just another Korean restaurant pretending to be the real thing, so we had a quick look at the menu, and asked the waiter if it was the same restaurant as the one we liked. He said yes. That meant … we didn’t have to be in the cold any longer!

Despite this place looking more modern than the first place, I much prefer the look of the original branch as this one just blends into the other modern, chic, slightly pub-looking restaurants dotted around Soho. Instead of feeling quite smug that I’d managed to fit into someone’s sitting room and been served dinner, I just kinda felt quite cramped in this one as the chairs from the tables were pretty much back to back, leaving not much room for coats and bags. Small point, anyway.

After we’d made our orders with the new waiter (that took a while, but it was the dude’s first day) we were served the usual free side dishes – this is why I really like Korean food. All those free side dishes.

I really like this seaweed pickle – slightly sweet, a little tangy, quite fruity. Really good for whetting the appetite, not that it needed any help. A little later, one of those camping stoves were brought to the table, followed shortly by a huge hot pot filled with kimchi broth and meat.

Marinated beef and kimchi stew hotpot £15

This was good stuff – I can still smell it on my hair. While we waited for the soup to boil, it took all the self control I had not to dive in and eat the beef raw (when dining with friends, this kind of behaviour is not acceptable).

As it was sitting right in front of me, I had to keep staring at it. While it boiled. And then it boiled some more. When we could wait no more, I gave it a quick stir and dished it out. If you’ve had kimchi before and like it, then this is the dish for you. A pot like this costs £15, and could definitely be shared between two to three people, if you had it with rice. Warming, spicy, sour soup flavoured by the meaty taste of the beef. Full of vegetables – courgette, mushrooms, mooli, tofu, and yam noodles.

We also ordered beef bulgogi, but when we placed the order with the new waiter, he looked quite confused. Almost as though I’d ordered a Big Mac or something. He then went away and had a chat with someone, came back, and pointed to a page on the menu which described a dish as something like stir fried beef or something. Not knowing what that was, or what bulgogi should be described as except BBQ beef, we agreed with him, and this dish was produced. It tasted like bulgogi but seemed a little more wet compared to the other bulgogis I’d had before. Maybe this is another variation? Does anyone know if this is how it’s meant to be?

This could be – BBQ beef (in which case it would be £8.50 and described on the menu as ‘marinated beef seasoned with sesame oil’), or it could be ‘stir fried marinated beef’ £8.50.

Whatever it was, it was really nice. I really like the taste of Korean food anyway, it manages to be fresh and tangy, yet very meaty at the same time. Not sure if I could have it on a daily basis but it sure is nice once in a while, especially when it’s minus something degrees outside.

Now, when we ordered this the last time at the original branch, the dish that was served was a hot version of a slightly spicy, slightly sweet, stir-fried squid with vegetable and red pepper sauce dish. This time, I pointed at what I thought was the same thing, but it wasn’t, and the dish that was served instead was a cold, salad-like version of the squid dish we had before. Taste-wise, it was pretty similar to the first one we had, but I preferred the hot version – maybe because I felt like eating something hot? The fiance and our friends enjoyed it lots though, really liking the tangy burst of flavour that used the vegetables and squid as base to hold the tastes together. This was the ‘squid and vegetable in spicy sauce’ £10.

My favourite dish of the meal – Chap Jae or ‘stir fried sweet potato noodles with pork and vegetables’ £8.50. There’s something really comforting about this dish. It’s chewy, very slurpable (literally, you gotta slurp it up because it doesn’t break easily when bitten) and the translucent strands of bouncy noodles absorb all the meaty, sweet flavours of the dish. I’m yet to find out if they use anything other than sugar to lend to the sweetness, maybe some fish sauce or something similar, but the recipes I’ve found online don’t mention anything other than sesame oil and sugar. The crunchy vegetables in the dish contrast nicely to the warm, soft, and chewy noodles.

With the smell of kimchi firmly stuck in my clothes and hair, and with the taste of red pepper sauce and onion still kinda lingering on the tastebuds, it’s time to ask the question of ‘Would I recommend this restaurant?’, and the answer would be a resounding yes. Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I didn’t like a restaurant enough to recommend it, but that’s probably because I don’t bother blogging about those that I don’t like.

Pre-CNY dinner – Arang, 9 Golden Square London W1F 9HZ

Chinese New Year was about 2 months ago, so a pre-CNY dinner is probably something I should have blogged about 3 weeks ago.

Thing is, I’ve been very busy, and have not had much time to edit any of the pictures I took, let alone blog about them. So, I do apologise for the break, but I’m sure you’ve had actual, real eating to be getting on with while I was away …

Anyway, about 2 months ago, the bf and I were looking for somewhere to have our pre-CNY dinner. Usually, this dinner is eaten at home but as we didn't feel like cooking, we decided to try somewhere new in town instead. This new place we wanted to try (Bodean’s) had an hour-long queue, so we gave up on that and made our way to Arang; a Korean restaurant we’d tried previously once with our friends.

Hey, with a gold menu thicker than most books, how can we go wrong.

First up, after a short wait, we were led downstairs to the basement level sometimes used for karaoke dining (that’s what someone said to us anyway). Plush red sofas, awesome.

We chose the one facing the wall. Anti-social dining is what it’s all about.

A small serving of warm sake (really nice sake) settled us in all nice and hungry, while we spent about half an hour trying to get through that menu.

Choice made, the pickles started arriving. The thing that excites me most about dining out is free food. It’s not like I don’t pay for my food, but I just find complimentary stuff really, really awesome. I mean, it could taste really crap, but if it’s free, hey, it’s good.

These were some of the FREE pickles which tasted fantastic. Radish (perhaps?), some vegetable salad thing, cabbage (kimchi) and beansprouts. All cold, some slightly spicy, all very nice. And free. Actually, we ordered the kimchi so it wasn’t free, but everything else was.

Kimchi £2

Pickled cabbage which is spicy, slightly sour, and slightly sweet. Kinda like it, but not in vast quantities. Some people I know practically inhale these things, but my tolerance for spicy, sour food ain’t that high.

Pickled diced white radish – free but can also be ordered for £2

How would I describe these. Like little cubes of crunchy, spicy radish. There, that’s a pretty good description. Again, probably not in vast quantities but the portion they gave us was just perfect.

Chap jae £7.50

This is almost like a salad of transparent, yam noodles but is actually stir-fried with beef and vegetables. I absolutely love it, mainly because I like chewy food and you can’t get chewier than transparent noodles (ok so you can but so what), and the taste, oh the taste. It’s nice and sweet and tasty. It has meat. It has chewiness.

How many dishes do you usually order at a Korean restaurant? We clearly haven’t established that bit yet.

Beef bulgogi £7.50

This was awesome. Just awesome. Like bits of fluffy cotton-candy beef strips, all nice and soft and fluffy (OK not fluffy because that would imply mould) and just so tasty. Imagine slightly everything, like slightly salty, slightly sweet, slighty BBQ-ed, and just not enough. It came with a dipping sauce, couldn’t quite make out what sauce it was as it was slightly tea-like, and tasted a little alcoholy? Mirin-based perhaps?

The Bibimbap step-by-step

Bibimbap £7.50

Bibimbap reminds me of Chinese claypot rice. OK so most things remind me of some Chinese dish or another, but that’s because I know and have had more Chinese food than any other type of food so would of course use that as a benchmark. Anyhow, bibimbap is rice cooked in a stone bowl, with julienned vegetables and bits of mince on top of the rice. An egg (half cooked) is usually added on top, before a spicy gochujang sauce (made from soy bean paste and red pepper) is drizzled on top (in our case, poured).

Bibimbap served, sauce-free but we’re getting there.

Sauce-free it’s not. The red sauce is not as spicy as it looks. It has a sweet taste which tends to make it less spicy.

Work that spoon and stir. Keep stirring.

Ready to be served. Would’ve eaten it straight from the stone bowl, but it was too hot (and we were in a restaurant where sometimes people stare if you eat from pots).

Would I recommend this? We’re gonna try and have dinner there again soon, so definitely yes. If you’ve not had Korean food before, this would be a good place to start.

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060509 BBQ Chicken, One Utama, Bandar Utama

My mum had some vouchers for this place, so we decided to try it out. Some people had said that this restaurant was good, which meant that we weren’t going just because of the vouchers, but that they were another good reason. Located in One Utama, which is one of the biggest shopping malls in the country (because they keep expanding it), it is one among the many restaurants which seem to be empty most of the time, yet remain in business.

Going in on a weekday around lunchtime, two tables were occupied, and with us, three. As we sat down on the bright pink sofas and looked at the menu, we decided what to have from the menu, as the promotion meant that for every main dish we ordered, we received one dish free, as specified in the voucher. The 2 vouchers we selected had the BBQ Jerk chicken and grilled boneless chicken burger as the free items.

BBQ Jerk Chicken RM15.90

The BBQ Jerk chicken was the first to get to the table, which meant that all the forks went towards it at the same time. First impressions count, and this was spicy. It’s not the spicy that you find in curries, but the kind which gave you the impression it wasn’t spicy, and then, ping it is. Tender though, and very flavourful, because they used thigh meat and kept the skin on which retained the marinade.

Korean Charbroiled Chicken RM17.90

The next to come to the table was the Korean Charbroiled chicken, which tasted very similar to teriyaki chicken. Two pieces came with coleslaw and a choice of chips, mash potato or fried rice. This was our favourite dish, as it wasn’t too spicy, wasn’t too hard, and wasn’t too deep fried. It was soft, very tasty in that it was salty, sweet and slightly tangy, and again they used the part of the chicken which ensured that the taste absorption was maximised.

Hot Hot Drums RM15.50

The menu described this as hot and spicy sauce over juicy chicken, and it tasted similar to the hot and spicy chicken from KFC, but with a bit more sauce on it. It was certainly hot and spicy, no joke there, and I couldn’t eat more than a few bites without having a drink of water.

Boneless Grilled Chicken Sandwich RM16.90

This was a really tasty burger, a very nice change from the usual fried chicken piece in a bun. Consisting of tender, grilled chicken meat with the skin left on (and slightly crispy), with a sweet sauce similar to the one used in the Korean Charbroiled dish above, this was a very nice burger.

Would we come back to this place? With the promotion, probably because it’s good value for money but if the promotion wasn’t on, it’s a little pricey for chicken.