Riding on the Korean wave, home-grown brand Seoul Garden Group has opened two new Korean F&B concepts at Century Square mall- Seoul in a Sandwich and Two Hana to draw in the young and trendy. The former is a Korea sandwich kiosk, and the latter a Korean cafe, both with Western influences.

Time pressed but don't wanna reach out for instant ramyeon? Well Seoul in a Sandwich provides the warm comfort of Korean food in a convenient sandwich made with Western breads. I'm sure you'd know of the Issac toast craze, well, it's very similar but you get better breads at Seoul in a Sandwich for sure. 

Of course they have a similar Seoul Street Toast ($6.50), a simple buttered sandwich with onion-cabbage omelette, chicken ham, sliced cheese and mayo. It sounds really simple but woah, it's a sandwich that i can have for days. I would love for more mayo on this but apparently everyone feels that it's sufficient. How can there ever be enough mayo?? 

An unsuspecting favorite of mine is the Kimchi Prawn Cocktail ($7.50). I loved the fluffy and fragrant buttered focaccia bun which sandwiches a cold mix of Asian pear, kimchi, and mesclun mix. The kimchi flavor is very subtle in this one, which allows the light sweetness of the pear and prawns to come through. 

Something special is the Army Stew-wich ($8.50) made of a soft Tteokbokki, chicken sausage and spam, sliced cheese, daikon slaw on mayo ciabatta toast. I would say this tastes like what a healthier version of an Army stew. I was expecting punchier flavors but this was more balanced with a bed of refreshing daikon salad. If you love bulgogi, there's a Bulgogi Cheese Steak ($8.50) filled with sauteed peppers, grilled bulgogi beef and cheddar mozzarella mix, all in a buttered baguette. I'm not a huge fan of sweet meats so this wasn't for me. 

If you prefer sweet toast, give their Asian Pear Toast consisting of citron jam bits with cream cheese a try. The Matcha White Chocolate toast was also calling my name. 

If you have more time, head over to Two Hana for a modern Korean meal any time of the day. From 8am to 10pm, Two Hana promises to fill you up any time. What i love is the hearty and generous food served at value-for-money prices.  

Now, i'll just go straight to what i enjoyed. Go for the Korean Cauliflower Fritters ($9 for 6-8pcs) rather than the Kimchi Mac & Cheese or the Drumlets. The tempura battered cauliflowers are coated with a lightly spiced inspired dakkanjung sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds and spring onions. It's light and refreshing. 

The downfall of the Kimchi Mac & Cheese and the Drumlets (Honey Butter and Yangnyeom) is the oily flavor. It could be an opening issue so it could be rectified by the time you try it. I couldn't taste much of the kimchi in the mac & cheese cubes though, but be careful of the extremely spicy chili dip that it comes with. The drumlets had too much batter, some of which soggy and uncooked. Flavor wise, the spicy flavor helped to mask the oily taste but the honey butter sauce unfortunately enhanced it. 

For mains, i absolutely LOVE the Striploin Bap ($13). Kimgarou rice is topped with with generous servings of kimchi, spinach and beansprout namul, caramelised onions and 63 degree poached egg, crowned with perfectly-seared juicy medium-rare striploin slices. I cannot believe how much meat there was on my bowl. SO GOOD!!

For sharing, go for the huge Braised Gochujang Lamb Shank ($24) which if fork tender from being sous vide for 36 hours! There isn't any strong lamb taste to this and the flavors reminded me more of an ox-tail stew. Whatever it is, it's super hearty and perfect for 2-3pax. The lamb is served with a special kimchi-soft rolls, and a side of kimchi mash, which has a distinct butter flavor to it (we hear that it's 40% butter in this mix)! 

For something lighter, the Korean Seafood Ciopinno ($13) takes its inspiration from a soondubu jigae but i thought it was a little more like a tomato-based western soup. Anyhow, lovely creamy tomato flavor in this, with  fresh mussels, clams and prawns in it. Choose to have this with their soft rolls or tofu in this. 

Two Hana is perfect for that coffee break as well. Allpress coffee is used here and the desserts and ice cream are quire spectacular. Do not miss the Apple Caramel Waffles with Doenjang Caramel Ice Cream ($9)! Love the crispy waffles and the salty-sweet fermented soy bean icecream pairs perfectly with the cinnamon spiced apple puree. Their honey citron ice cream is very refreshing as well.

I also had the Cookies and Cream Affogato and that cream balanced the acidity in the espresso perfectly. Their Iced Matcha Latte ($6) isn't a bad choice either as it's not overly sweet. Oh and it comes with a super buttery fish bochubang! 

I need no more reasons to head back to Seoul In A Sandwich and Two Hana for a meal. Missing that Kimchi Prawn Sandwich and Sirloin Bap already!

Seoul In A Sandwich

#B1-23 Century Square 

2 Tampines Central 5 Singapore 529509 

Daily: 10am – 10pm

Two Hana

#01-21 Century Square 

2 Tampines Central 5 Singapore 529509 

Daily: 8am - 10pm

It took me too long to visit Bacchanalia and i'm glad i finally got to have a taste of Chef Luke Armstrong's dishes at this one Michelin-star establishment, after their brand revamp. So yes, expect new menus, which i'm sure is as good, if not better than what it was before. The new menus focuses on using the best seasonal ingredients from around the world such as Australia, Japan, and France, and also Southeast Asian citrus and local spices. 

We went with the 4 course Seasonal Inspiration menu for dinner ($168) and took here is sharing our selection. 

First up, freshly baked chewy sourdough with a lovely crust, served with an airy french butter and seaweed butter. Had to stop myself from finishing the entire loaf!

Next, the Amuse bouche of Majestic Oyster Bavarois. Creamy Ireland oysters, prepared a la minute, served fresh with glistening Schrenki caviar. The cream is whipped with oyster and champagne and it's like having a sip of the ocean in every bite. 

Want that unicorn hair but still want smooth tresses still? I feel ya. It's hard to achieve the vibrant colors without bleaching your hair. After that one time of bleaching my hair say 2 years ago, i've been doing treatments every 1 - 2 months just so that it doesn't get all dry and tangly, especially with all the hot yoga that i do. 

K Gloss is a new hybrid treatment with multi-benefits, which helps to strengthen and smoothen your hair, especially brittle bleached ones. What it does is to rebuild the holes in your hair using proteins, amino acid, hydrolysed collagen. Think of it as a botox for your hair. 

What's awesome is that it's quite a fast treatment and could be done under an hour, or together with other treatments. Trust me when i say it's highly raved by celebrities, influencers, and normal folks like me. 

The treatment starts with a wash and blow dry, before application of the K Gloss treatment. After which, your hair would be blown dry and ironed. And that's it. 90% frizz will be eliminated and the treatment is said to last up to 4 months. That is if you DO NOT wash your hair and avoid sweating for the next 72h. Ok the first 72h is going to be a little unbearable because your hair will feel stiff with the dried up product in your hair.

Private kitchens are all the rage now and we checked out Lucky House Cantonese Private Kitchen, run by Mr Sam Wong from his corner terrace home in Upper East Coast Road. The self-taught chef prepares the traditional home-cooked dishes with local ingredients and also produce from his own garden! 2 lucky groups (8 and 12 pax) could dine at Chef Sam's each night. For $80, we had 8 dishes for sharing. And if you are part of the larger party, you'd be entertained all night by the cooking action out in the backyard. 

Chef Sam developed his repertoire of Cantonese inspired dishes over the years, since learning to cook from his paternal grandparents when he was younger.  

We started dinner with a charcoal boiled soup, boiled for 8 hours over 6 batches of charcoal. Soup for the night was a pork shoulder with arrow root and peanut soup, which is naturally flavored, with no added salt, soy sauce, or pepper. The light sweetness comes from the added sea coconut and honey dates.  

Boy was the soup creamy and delicious. We also had to stop ourselves from gorging on the tender meat.  

Next, Concubine Chicken. This chicken was braised in the claypot with Chinese wine, galangal and rose liqueur. Gosh that light floral perfume of the chicken wafted in from the kitchen and had our drooling before the dish was finally brought to the table. And that sauce would have one finish a bucket of rice, though i must say that the rice available was way mushy. 

Next, juicy Fried Prawns with Rose liqueur, which smelled a lot like cuttlefish or some fermented seafood paste. I suppose that's where the saltiness of the dish came from. I'd advise eating this wrapped up in the sweet lettuce to combat the sodium. 

Fresh fish is best eaten steamed and we had a fatty 1.9kg wild caught red grouper from Batam, drizzled with a fresh batch of shallot oil. 

The simple omelette is taken to the next level with this crayfish version. Chef cracked a whole tray of 10 eggs into this one, fried with the juicy chunks of crayfish (the heads are just for plating) and flavored with fish sauce. 

Then, the signature Lucky House roast duck, which is marinated with five-spice powder, fish sauce, soy sauce, rice wine for two days, then sun-dried for a day before it is roasted in a charcoal oven for slightly over an hour over charcoal. Chef slices the ham-like bird tableside, and we were rewarded with juicy smoked and spiced meat. 

Instead of carbs, we ended with a simple dish of fried sweet potato leaves from Chef Sam's garden.  The vegetables, simply fried with some fish sauce, was fresh, crunchy and sweet, and not at all slimy.

 

For desserts, a simple Shandong peanuts and kidney beans was served.

Is it worth paying the the money for a meal at Lucky House Cantonese Private Kitchen? Well we feel that it is, knowing and seeing the amount of work that goes into the execution of these dishes. The dishes are certainly not as refined as that of a Chinese restaurant but the gu zao wei (taste of nostalgia) would be hard to replicate in a commercial kitchen. Looking forward to the next visit here (the wait list is likely past Sep/Oct 2018 by now) as Chef Sam shared with us his moreish curry dish that doesn't use any coconut milk/cream at all. 

Lucky House Cantonese Private Kitchen

267 Upper East Coast Road Singapore 466413

Tel: +65 9823 7268

Weekdays: 6.30 - 10pm

Bangkok is one city that i'll never be sick of dropping by for a chill weekend of food, massage, and cheap shopping! As we usually do relatively short trips, i've finally accumulated sufficient food content (ones worth sharing) for a proper Bangkok eats post. This post focuses on Thai food but if you're looking for brunch options, check out this other Bangkok brunch post.

Best Bangkok Pad Thai Thip Samai

313-315 Maha Chai Rd

I've heard of Thip Samai for the longest time but i've always been too lazy to travel to just one spot for simple street food. Plus, pad thai is great almost everywhere in Bangkok no? Apparently the locals love this and there is always a queue (that is very fast-moving thank god). 

Charcoal fire is used to produce the scorched smoky flavor of the noodles, which are fried in shrimp oil for that lovely orange appearance. Toppings such as tofu, little shrimps (like sakura ebi), leeks, egg, and bean sprouts are added. We went with the superb Pad Thai wrapped in egg (THB90), which comes topped with 3 chunky deep sea prawns. 

There's another version which has bits of fried egg instead of the egg crepe. They are the same essentially, except for their plating. I really enjoyed the chewy rice noodles. Make sure you add on more crushed peanuts and some chili flakes for texture and flavor!

Truth be told, i wasn't expecting much from The Spot when i first heard about it- multi-concept venue that is café, restaurant, bar, and cigar lounge? Well there's only that much that one can do well. But god it hits the spot and it definitely is one of the best restaurants of 2018. 

Located at Marina One, The Spot provides a seamless wine-and-dine experience together with its strategic partners- 1855 The Bottle Shop and South East Asia’s first and only The Macallan Boutique @1855. It sounds very drink-focused and the decor screams chi-chi bar but dayum the food has fine-dining hidden in every plate. #mindblown

The man behind the dishes is Executive Chef Lee Boon Seng – formerly of Osia and Curate, and he serves a ‘Contemporary European, South East Asian-sauce- centric cuisine.’ The secret is in the sauces, which consists of exotic South East Asian fruits, spices and herbs. Each sauce could take months to develop and you'd be surprised at how luscious they are!

Let's get into the 3 (chefs), 2 (nights), and 1 (Michelin Star) on the Beefbar x Ash & Elm collaboration happening this weekend! S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna has brought together the signatures of Hong Kong's one Michelin star Beefbar Chef Andrea Spagoni, and InterContinental Singapore's Chef Philippe Duc and Chef Ben Goh for a special five-course menu. 

The menu starts with an Amberjack carpaccio with wasabi dressing and coriander cress, followed by a Beef tartare “bistro style”. 

There's no doubt of the quality of the prime beef served by Beefbar Hong Kong, the only star-rated steakhouse in Hong Kong. Within the first year of opening in 2017, they earned their first Michelin star, and have kept it for the second year running. Tenderloin is used in this chunky beef tartare. 

Next, the Pan-seared Hokkaido scallops by Chef Philippe. Chef even gave us a class on how to prepare scallops (that are still in their shell). 

I loved the sweetness in the firm scallop, which had a nice browned crust to it, paired with a tangy brown butter sauce. 

For mains, 2 cuts of beef were served- American prime Black Angus tenderloin, and Australian wagyu-crossbred striploin. The tenderloin slices like butter! For those who prefer a richer flavor, you'd enjoy the striploin for sure. 

Dessert Rouge was prepared by award-winning Chef Ben Goh, and features a lovely Single origin 68% cuvee Bali chocolate crémeux and a yuzu yoghurt sherbet, decorated with strawberry compote and vanilla meringue. THAT CHOCOLATE was amazing! I finished every bit of that dessert! 

Go get a table if you haven't. The five-course dinner is $128/pax and wine pairing is available at an addition $88. Looking forward to more of the Fine Dining Lovers Guest Chef Series by fine dining waters S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.

Ash & Elm InterContinental Singapore

80 Middle Rd, Singapore 188966

Tel: +65 6825 1008

It's been some time since the first MasterChef Asia was crowned and we have waited with anticipation on what winner Woo Wai Leong would come up. Well, Restaurant Ibid was worth the wait as Wai Leong went back to his source, and roots to search for his identity. From these dual inspirations comes Nanyang-style, Contemporary Chinese cuisine which marries his heritage and western kitchen training. 

Dinner is a multi-course affair- 4 course $78, 6 course $88, 8 course $118.

Dinner started with 2 snacks and i must say i enjoyed the Spring onion shao bing a lot more than i did the Skewered escargot skewers. The shao bing took on a stuffed English muffin appearance with a filling of spring onions, mozzarella, black pepper and sesame oil. I couldn't stop eating it with the yeasted butter and laksa leaf oil. The dou bang jiang mayonnaise flavored escargot is not for everyone, unless you're ok with bitter betel leaf. 

If you're expecting a Tea egg, like the dark braised sort, well, there's nothing like that here even though the inspiration came from that. Here we have an organic egg yolk is sous vide at 65 degrees for 1 hour, flavored by a Mandarin pu-erh broth, a creamy sour cream onion puree, and a brown butter fried shiitake mushrooms and gingko nuts.

Woke up late for brunch in Bangkok and haven't done your research on where to go? Well well, my suggestion is to head to theCOMMONS at Thonglor, which is still the hippest district in BKK (i believe). The eco-friendly mall houses artisan cafes and eateries and also cool shops. Plus the architecture is interesting enough for you to just wander about and appreciate it. Oh and it houses Roast, which is BKK's favorite cafe.

The Commons is divided into 4 sections – Market, Village, Play Yard, Top Yard. Most of the food offerings are at the Market, while Roast is at the top level. 

Since this post is about brunch, i'm gonna focus more on the brunchy, wake-me-up kinda food. Do note that there are other heartier, meatier, savory options available at The Commons. 

Roast

Mon-Thu: 10am-11pm / Fri-Sat: 9am-11pm / Sun: 9am-10 pm

Possibly the kick-starter of Bangkok's love affair with brunch, Roast nailed it with their all-day breakfast. The chunky crab cake eggs benedict left us wanting for more. How is one crab cake even enough! Oh and the strawberry waffle is another must order. You could also have burgers, steak frites, roast chicken etc. should you dine later. Coffee here is such as lunch (burgers) and dinner (steak frites B890, roast chicken B480). Thanks to carefully-sourced beans roasted in house, the coffee here is excellent. 02-185-2865, 

Egg My God

Daily: 9.30 am - 10 pm

Egg, egg, egg, and more eggs! I don't know about you but i think egg is a superfood, plus it's so versatile! Egg My God uses eggs on their own, as an ingredient, a side, a main, and in their desserts. Oh and they also have it in its preserved form- think salted egg yolk angel hair pasta with truffle and chive oil, shiitake.

Yàn was one of my considered venue for our Singapore wedding reception since we decided to do something more traditional to cater to our families and i knew the food was gonna be good. Sadly we had to drop it as our guest list turned out to be larger than what the restaurant could accommodate. Well, my disappointment was greater after tasting their enhanced menu by new Executive Chinese Chef Lai Chi Sum. Yàn has been delivering fine Cantonese cuisine and Chef has now included some fine 'home-style' meals or ‘私房菜’ which features traditional recipes cooked slow and long to distil rich, soulful flavors. The hearty dishes would really work well for the communal banquet but oh wells... 

Well let's start with the oldies but goodies. All-time favorites such as the Signature Crispy Roast Suckling Pig served in 3 ways (read about the lovely lemongrass pork fillet here), Peking Roast Duck, Steamed Thousand Layer Beancurd and seafood delicacies such as abalones, lobsters, clams, crabs, and sea cucumbers remain. 

Yàn Peking Roast Duck Served in 2 Ways ($55 for half, $105 for whole). The peking duck wrappers were super yummy and the servers did a marvellous job of wrapping them up quickly for the starving bunch of us. The rest of the meat is typically diced, and stir-fried with diced vegetables and served in lettuce cups. 

We opted to have it served sliced though and the meat was flavorful and juicy on its own!