Yum Tum Tum: Bing Go Jung ♥︎

First post of 2016! There's no better way to start of a new year than with food! So on the first day of 2016, we went to try out a new bingsoo place! Bing Go Jung!

Address: 102 Guillemard Road
#01-01
Singapore 399719
Open Daily: 12pm to 11pm

Bing Go Jung is located beside Ju Shin Jung, a Korean BBQ restaurant. It's also in the same building as a spa. The place wasn't crowded and it had a very cosy cafe set up. It really resembled cafes in Korea! Then again, how different can cafes look... Hehe.

Didn't get a shot of the seating area as the were other customers around.

They have quite a lot on their menu which really does resemble Korean cafes. I'm always surprised by the amount of items Korean cafes had on their menus. The prices for the bingsoo were SGD $11 for a regular bingsoo and SGD $13 for the premium bingsoo.

It didn't take us long to decide what we wanted. We chose the Injeolmi Bingsoo.

Injeolmi is soybean powder and they've also included some ddeok mixed inside with a side of condensed milk. You might be wondering why our bingsoo looks quite bare. Well it's because the almond slices are separated as my sister is slightly allergic to nuts. Otherwise there would be some almond slices sprinkled on the top as well. 

On the whole, we enjoyed the bingsoo! We were pleased with the price and the serving size ☺ It's my dad's first time having bingsoo so if he was impressed means it must have been pretty good. I liked how the served thick condensed milk instead of those runny ones, making it easier for us to drizzle it over our bingsoo without dripping all over.

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I definitely would recommend this cafe! The prices are pretty alright and the bingsoo is delicious! However, it's not easy to get to this cafe and it would be easiest to access it by car. Although I'm sure there are buses that stop outside this place too so if you stay nearby and are looking for a cool treat, do give this cafe a shot! 

Yum Tum Tum: Choo Choo Chicken ♥︎

Hi friends! This is really an overdue post. Hehe. It's another food post on this Korean fried chicken joint I tried out some time ago. It's none other than Choo Choo Chicken. For a period I felt as though I was eating a lot of Korean style fried chicken. But anyway, let's get on with this food post!

Address: 8 Grange Road
#03-06 Cathay Cineleisure Orchard
Singapore 239695
Open Daily: 11:30-23:00

It was my first time hearing of this restaurant. I probably only heard of the more popular Korean chicken joints in Singapore. I went with a group of food bloggers, Janel, Hannah and Luna, so they definitely know a lot more about food places than me!

As seen in the photo above, the restaurant is really quite small. I think it seats only around 20ish people? It's pretty cramped too. Customers had to sit back to back. It wouldn't be a good idea to bring a large group of friends there for dinner.

We didn't take too long deciding what to order since ordering Korean chicken is rather straightforward. You can check out the menu here on their Facebook page. I think it's a different menu from when we went there. Then we ordered a whole chicken and could choose four different flavours. If I'm not wrong, the current menu allows you to choose only two different flavours.

So for our chicken, we had four flavours and there were: Garlic, Soy, Original and Yangnyum (Sweet and spicy). 

Hmm, honestly I wasn't too impressed with how this chicken tasted. The crispy part of the chicken, no doubt it was very crispy, but it had a strong flour taste. Also there wasn't anything special amongst the flavours, there was only a slight difference. To me, it mostly tasted like the original fried chicken but with flavouring. So I wouldn't say that there was anything particularly outstanding or impressive.

Along with our chicken, we ordered some beer as well as Korean rice wine, Makeolli!  

It was my first time ordering alcohol together with a meal and must I say, I can understand why Koreans enjoy drinking beer with their chicken. I can't explain the taste but the feeling is really refreshing! Anyway, that's besides the point. It's quite cool that Choo Choo Chicken actually serves Makgeolli like in the traditional teapot and even the aluminium bowl. According to Janel, the aluminium bowl makes the Makgeolli taste better because of some reaction the drink has with the bowl. Makgeolli is pretty good though. 

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Overall thoughts on this food place. Hmm I'm not impressed with the chicken served at this place. Not to mention, I don't feel that it's worth my money. It's lacking the wow factor. Nonetheless, after eating fried chicken in Korea, my standard has increased a lot. So for people who have not tried authentic Korean chicken, they might enjoy the chicken at this restaurant. 

Food reviews are subjective because it's really based on your own opinion and well, tastebuds. One man's food is another man's poison!

So, hope you've found this food review useful and although I don't write such posts often, I hope you've enjoyed reading this! 

Yum Tum Tum: O'ma Spoon ♥︎

The bingsoo craze has arrived in Singapore! I think last year around this time I was craving for some bingsoo but unfortunately I did not know of any place that sold it. However in 2015, all of a sudden there are many new bingsoo cafes around! Bingsoo's sudden increase in popularity has made me very happy ^^

The first bingsoo I had locally was at Chicken Up and then at another place at Orchard Central. After I tried the bingsoo at O'ma Spoon, I think it's the best bingsoo I've had locally.

Address: 313 Orchard Road
#04-20/32 313@Somerset
Singapore 238895

The cafe is located in the middle part of the 4th floor at 313 Somerset. The main kitchen and the sitting area is divided by a walkway. They use the buzzer just like most Korean cafes. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the buzzer. It buzzes when your order is ready and you just go to the counter to collect it.

I have been to O'ma Spoon twice. The photos above were taken on my first visit there. The first time, we ordered a Green Tea Bingsoo ($13.90) and two Petite Bingsoo with toppings ($5.80).

I enjoyed the Green Tea Bingsoo a lot! It came with a small cup of condensed milk to pour over. So with every scoop there'll be some of everything! However, the Petite Bingsoo was kind of a disappointment. It was the same thing as the bingsoo from Chicken Up. Basically the toppings are only at the top, everything inside is just ice. They didn't layer it unlike the bigger bowl version.

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I would recommend this cafe to my friend that enjoy this Korean dessert as much as I do. I think that it's a really good dessert suitable for the hot local weather. It doesn't taste like the ice kachang as it has much finer ice shavings that just melts when it goes into your mouth. I'm sure those who enjoy sweet desserts would enjoy this too so do drop by O'ma Spoon and give this bingsoo a try!

Yum Tum Tum: Chicken Up ♥︎

Tried out Chicken Up for the first time a few weeks ago! My mum has been going on about this new Korean chicken joint for weeks. She enjoyed their japchae and she kept suggesting that place whenever we went out to eat. So finally one day, we did go there for dinner.

Address: 2 Tampines Central 5, #01-44 to 47,

Chicken Up Tampines, Singapore 529509

Open Everyday: 11:30am-11pm (last order at 10:30pm)

The place was crowded just like what we expected. So we waited for around 20 minutes till we were ushered inside and given a table for 2 but with an extra chair to make it a table for 3. We thought it was pretty ridiculous since I was sitting literally in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't put my legs under the table so I had to cross it awkwardly at the side. Not only that, the table was obviously too small for 3 people to have a comfortable meal.

After bringing it up to the friendly manager, he assured us he would move us to the bigger table that they were currently clearing up. About 10 minutes later, we moved to a table for 4 and the kind waitress (unfortunately I don't remember her name) helped us to move our cups. She even remembered which cup belonged to which person and we thought that was really nice of her.

We ordered 2 different flavours of chicken. One is the original fried chicken and the other would be the yangnyum (seasoned) chicken. We also ordered japchae (not photographed) and the corn salad.

I thought the chicken tasted pretty good. The outer layer of the chicken was crispy and well flavoured which to me is the most important factor in Korean fried chicken. For the yangnyum chicken, I quite enjoyed the sauce as well. It was a pretty good balance between sweet, salty and spicy.

For dessert we ordered...

BINGSOO!

Ever since trying my first bingsoo in Korea last year, it's been at the top of my dessert list along with ice cream. As we were quite full from the main meals, we ordered two cups of mini bingsoo, mango and pat (red bean).

Unfortunately, I wasn't that pleased with this mini bingsoos. The cup is tall so halfway through I was just eating plain ice since the toppings were just at the top. If we ordered a full bingsoo in a bowl, I would think the toppings are more and layered so that every scoop would have some flavour instead of it being just plain ice. I guess that's the difference. So sometimes ordering the full sized one would be more worth it.

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This is my first food blog post or review! Please go easy on me! I would recommend this restaurant to friends and I would visit this place again despite it being on the costly side. They do have pretty decent tasting chicken and since they don't have many outlets in Singapore, you can be assured that the quality is maintain probably quite close to the standard in Korea. Maybe next time I'll just go with my parents again (yay to free meals). Hehehe.