Food-at-Large

Mincheng serves various types of hotplate dishes such as pork, beef and squid. Each of these comes topped with copious amounts of onions (which we love), chilli and pepper.

You can call me weak sauce but the chilli and pepper is way too spicy for me and the beef tends to get dried out really quickly. Not a big fan of their hot plates to be honest!

Mincheng Bibimbap is a Chinese chain restaurant that serves Chinese-Korean ethnic cuisine from the Yanbian prefecture in China, a rather unique part of China which borders the Korean peninsular and is home to a large number of Chaoxianzu (朝鲜族 or ethnic koreans). Mincheng's food will therefore feature dishes and ingredients that are similar to Korean cuisine.

We are big fans of their Angus marbled beef which reminded me of beef bulgogi stew. Tender and thinly sliced fatty Angus beef is braised in a sweet savoury sauce together with thick slurpy glass noodles and inoki mushroom. It is just perfect over rice and comes with free flow kimchi and miyeok-guk!

Morinaga's signature dish is undoubtedly their truffle somen with ikura.

Thin al dente wheat flour somen noodles are served cold in a truffle soy sauce dip and topped with spring onion and ikura. It is light, refreshing and slurp-worthy! Whilst the ikura and spring onion give this dish bursts of umami and herbaceous flavours, I recommend having it with some wasabi to give it an additional spicy kick.

You don't really find deep fried octopus in most restaurants in Singapore so it's a must order whenever we see it.

I like its addictive chewy texture and mellow sweet flavours. And more importantly, I would like to believe that it is a healthy alternative to deep fried chicken!

Tender juicy pork glazed with sweet miso and chargrilled to perfection is the perfect antidote to a dreary work day. My only complaint though was the small portion!

One of our must-order dishes at any Japanese izakaya is grilled eggplant with miso.

Eggplant is a finicky ingredient to work with as it can be tough when undercooked and mushy if overdone. But I love Moringa's rendition of this dish. It was irresistibly tasty and cooked to perfection, striking a delicious harmony between the silky and creamy texture of the grilled eggplant and the sweet savoury umami flavours of the miso!

Morinaga is a little hole in the wall hidden gem in the basement of Orchard Emerald shopping centre in the heart of Orchard Road.

The little izakaya has a strict drinking policy for dinner and will turn diners away if you do not imbibe. Non-alcoholics like me will just have to make do with checking out their lunch menu instead where they serve set lunches and most but not all of their full izakaya menu.

The quintessential Japanese izakaya starter is the mentai mayo omelette. I personally prefer the classic French omelette but Moringa's tamogoyaki or Japanese rolled omelette was impeccably made with savoury dashi. It is beautifully finished with mentaiko mayonnaise drizzled over it in layer like stripes.

An enjoyble sweet start to lunch I reckon.

I remember checking out Danlao at their OG outlet at Maxwell FC and being impressed by their chicken cutlets but not their scrambled eggs.

They have since grown strength to strength and expanded to various locations around Singapore, including one at Changi Airport itself!

I really enjoyed their chicken cutlet which was crispy, tender and flavourful. Their scrambled egg was also significantly better than when I first tried it! Who says airport food is expensive and meh!

For all the (much warranted) fuss about their noodles, Noodle Star K's gogi mandu (or meat dumplings) is one of their more surprising items.

The dumpling skin is on the thicker side but smooth and holds up well. It is stuffed full of juicy pork filling with the distinctive garlicky flavour of chives.

I really enjoyed it as an appetiser or with the noodles!

If deulkkae kalguksu is the perfect dish for cold and wet days, naengmyeon is the perfect counterpart for warm and sweltering hot days (or pretty much everyday).

Noodle Star K is apparently the first in town to serve handmade naengmyeon with dangmyeon (potato starch noodles) or chikguksu (arrowroot noodles). We prefer the later for its chewy bite and springy bouncy texture.

The noodles are served in a clear refreshing broth made of beef and radish kimchi. It is sweet, tangy and zesty. I personally recommend adding a strong dash of vinegar and mustard (and sesame oil!) to give it an extra flavour boost.

The dish is then topped with julienned pear, radish kimchi, cucumber, hard boiled egg and slices of beef. It is traditional to have these toppings but I never fancied the hard boil egg and beef which don't seem to add much to the dish.

The perfect way to enjoy this dish is simply to slurp the noodles and gulp down the cold broth especially in the dog days of summer!

If you are a fan of carbonara, you will definitely be a fan of deulkkae kalguksu!

Like the Italian staple, this little gem of a Korean dish is rich and creamy. However, the two dishes are very different because deulkkae kalguksu comes in the form of a noodle soup, a thick milky nutty and flavourful broth bomb. The kalguksu are also handcut noodles (instead of hand pulled pasta noodles), giving it a much more chewy and irregular texture.

I personally love the layers of flavours in this dish - the subtle sweetness of the vegetable chicken broth base and the nutty aromatic creamy grounded perilla seeds combine gloriously to create a perfect comforting dish for wet weather days.

I rejoice that there are more and more places serving this wonderful dish and have been a repeat customer since!

Johorkaki also recommended Ji Xian's steamed white eel in black bean sauce.

The steamed white eel is tender and juicy with a nice bite to it. I love the gelatinous layer of fat between the flesh and the skin. The natural sweetness of the eel pairs well with the savoury notes of the black bean soy sauce though it might have worked better if the saltiness of the sauce is tempered a little.

This dish is addictive over rice and on its own!