Foodie Friday: Yoogane Chicken Galbi @ Singapore

I should continue my Siem Reap, Cambodia travelogue right after I back from Australia but I was procrastinating to the max. Oh dear! So many backlog travelogues. 

Date Visited: 20th August 2014

Since ever I came back from South Korea end of March this year, I keep craving for the Korea cuisines I had there, especially jjim dalk, budae jjigae and dak-galbi (Refer photo here). Not just me, but even my mom, sister and her boyfriend as well craving for the hot and scrumptious huge Korean cuisines we had there.

Yes, Kota Kinabalu has quite number of Korean restaurants but not all do served of those dishes I want. But so luckily few days before my mom and I flew off to Singapore, we came across that one of my favourite Korean cuisine restaurants have expanded their business and open new international branch right in Singapore. Now, we don't have to fly so far just to satisfy our craving.

#1: Newly opened Yoogane Singapore is located in Bugis Junction, Singapore 

More than 130 branches in South Korea, Yoogane is popular for their Galbi, a pan-grilled marinated meat with an unique sweet and spicy sauce as the main dish and serve with either Tteokbokki (Korean rice cake), sweet potatoes, fresh vegetables, noodles, rice, cheese and even together with seafood and stir-fried all together on the pan.

As it was newly opened few months ago in Singapore, hence we won't be surprised when we saw the long queue. Because our craving for this cuisine were very strong, we're willing to join the long queue and waited for almost 45 minutes. Like my sister said, "Orang Sabah Mesti Sabar!". In Malay translation, it means Sabahan people must be patient.

#2: Overview of Yoogane restaurant

After patiently waited, finally we're being served to a table for 6 people. Honestly to say, comparing to the outlets I went in Seoul, I don't feel comfortable with the seating arrangement here as they are using bench seats instead chair. For comfort purpose, a table can fit up to maximum of 4 people only. 6 of us need to squeeze in and there is no more room for us to move around. Luckily their air-conditioners are working well and services were pretty fast too.

#3: Korean Banana Milk - Taste so-so only

Browsing through their menu, each of the galbi dish must be served for minimum of two person. Means two person can only order one dish, instead of choosing two. Plus, the portion is quite huge for two person. Don't be silly to order two different of galbi dishes for two people cause trust me, you and your partner would definitely couldn't finish all. Since there were 6 of us, we ordered 3 different of galbi dishes.

#4: Yoogane Octopus & Chicken Galbi (S$18.90)

#5: Added with Ramyeon Noodles (Additional of S$3.90)

#6: My favourite: Marinated Chicken Galbi Fried Rice Topped with Cheese (S$14.90)

By the end of the day, we're pretty satisfied with the taste of the galbi served in Singapore and it almost the same as the one we had in Seoul. But somehow, few of my family members can't bear the level of spiciness and it is advisable to inform the staff to reduce the amount of the spicy sauce. 

There even have free flow salad bar serving kimchi, pickles and sliced cabbages and you can take as many as you want. Price wise, like what we expected it was indeed expensive and almost double the price than the one in South Korea. However, we were glad that our craving has finally well-satisfied and if someday I return back to Singapore, I don't mind going back for this once again, only if the queue won't be that long. 

Yoogane Singapore
200 Victoria Street,
Bugis Junction, #02-47/48

Opening Hours: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm

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Foodie Friday: Excapade Sushi @ Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

Date Visited: 17th February 2013

In order to fly to Bangkok directly from Kota Kinabalu, we don't have many choices and all required transit, either in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or Brunei. And since we flew with Royal Brunei Airlines, we had to transit in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei for almost 8 hours before reaching back home. Luckily my relatives are staying there, hence we decided to get out from the airport instead of stuck inside the airport and doing nothing for the whole long 8 hours.

Again, the thing that my family and I love to do in Brunei is definitely to satisfy our crave towards the cheap, huge and fresh sushi in one of the famous Japanese chain restaurant in Brunei. That would be none other than Excapade, which has quite number of outlets all over Brunei and this time around, we went the one in Gadong area, not so far way from the airport.

#1: Ready for the foods?

#2: Kani Maki and California Maki - My favourite kind of sushi

#3: Sushi

#4: Mentai salmon sushi

#5:

#6: Tamago sushi and inari - Another of my favourite

#7: Chicken Katsu Curry

#8: And more sushi

Well, actually we ordered more than the above cause my family and I were separated into two different tables but guess what, the total damages for almost 20 people of us was $170++ (roughly around RM425). Surprisingly cheap, right?

Excapade Sushi (Gadong Branch) 
Abdul Razak Complex, 

Bandar Seri Begawan BE3519, 

Brunei Darussalam.

Couldn't get enough of Excapade's sushi and more? Check out my first post of Excapade Sushi in Kuala Belait Branch.

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Foodie Friday: Nara Thai Cuisine in Erawan Bangkok

Date Visited: 13th February 2013

Whenever I travelled, it's hardly to spot me having my meals at the local fine dining restaurants. Firstly, budget is my main limitation and secondly, I prefer to hunt foods in small eateries or even in the street markets. However, for my latest trip to Bangkok with my family, thanks to my dad's friend for introducing us to one of the best restaurants for an authentic mouth-watering Thai cuisine in Bangkok, Nara Thai Cuisine.

#1: Nara Thai Cuisine

Nara Thai Cuisine is a well-known and notable Thai restaurant in Bangkok for its authentic and richer Thai dishes served with highest quality ingredients. No surprise that this up-scale restaurant has been recognised as one of Thailand's Best Restaurant for 5 consecutive years (2007-2012). There are two branches in Thailand and we went to the one situated in the lower ground floor of Erawan Bangkok.

Because most of the staffs can speak and understand English, hence we didn't have any difficulties when taking the order. Plus, the menu comes with English explanation. Most of the meals we ordered are mainly Thailand's signature dishes and except for Stir Fried Kale (I dislike eating veggies), all are exactly my favourite dishes.

#2: Thai Fish Cake with sweet peanut sauce (THB210)

#3: Stir Fried Kale (THB140)

#4: Tom Yam Kung (THB350) - Contained prawns, squids, and mushrooms.

#5: Green Curry Chicken (THB220)

#6: Pineapple Fried Rice with Cashew Nuts

#7: Chicken Pandan (THB165)

 

#8: Ended our dinner with Coconut Ice-Cream as our dessert

Although the prices seems to be slightly higher comparing to the rest, the foods were simply enough to satisfy our craving towards authentic Thai cuisines. The service portion for most of the dishes were pretty sufficient for 3-4 pax. In the event if my budget is not my biggest obstacle, for sure I will return to this restaurant again. It's absolutely highly recommended for those who is looking and craving for authentic and richer Thai cuisines. After all, "Life Is Too Short To Eat Bad Foods".

Nara Thai Cuisine Branches

1) Lower Ground Floor of Erawan Bangkok

2) 7th Floor of Central World

Opening Hours for both branches: 10am until 10pm daily.        

NOTE: It's non-halal restaurant.

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Foodie Friday: Sunny Hill Ice-Cream @ Kuching

Date of Visited: 08th September 2013

Life is sweet when I have my ice-cream. I can't deny that my favourite dessert of all time would be ice-cream, besides pudding. So when I went back Kuching last few weeks, I kept telling my dad that I can miss out all those famous foods in Kuching but definitely not this one. I had this ice-cream number of times when I was young but ever since I went college, it's been ages I didn't have this and now I'm craving for more. Thank goodness my flight back to Kota Kinabalu was at night, and therefore we had spare time to visit this ice-cream parlour.

#1: This looks alike old school canteen is situated in front of Sunny Hill Secondary School

#2: There are plenty of choices on how you want the sundae to be served; either in cone or with cup, served with pudding or in sandwich style, or even banana split to choose from. However, if you opt for take away, extra 20 cents will be charged.

However, there are only certain of flavours will be served on the specific days and most of the time, only two flavours are served; strawberry flavour on every Monday and Tuesday, pandan or corn flavour on every Wednesday to Friday and chocolate flavour on every Saturday and Sunday. Whereas for vanilla flavour, it will be served on every single day. So, no worry for those who love Vanilla.

#3: Sweet treat for 6 of us and the total damage was less than RM30

#4: Our ordered: Banana split, sandwich sundae, pudding with sundae and the rest were sundae topped with nuts.

#5: One thing I love about this sundae is that it was not that too sweet and the texture was very smooth and soft at the same time. Simply perfect to cool down my body in such scorching hot weather.

This famous and legendary ice-cream parlour has been operated for more than 50 years and my daddy told us that, when he was in his teenage year, he went and had this sundae if he happen to pass by this area. I can see that the local keep coming in to this ice-cream parlour for non-stop and full with crowd especially on weekend. No doubt that this simple but sweet local delight has brings so much joy and happiness to the local especially to those Kuching people who grew up with the companion of this ice-cream shop.

Business Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturday: 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

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Foodie Friday: Foods Around Ho Chi Minh City

Travelling Period: 1st April - 7th April 2012

Whenever I travel abroad, I will not purposely go and hunt for those famous eateries or restaurant of that particular places or cities cause I believe everyone has different preference and taste. What might be best for others but may not suits my liking. Plus, some of those highly recommended seems to be overrated and taste so-so only. What worse was most of those recommended restaurants or eateries only filled with foreign tourist, not the local. One of the travel tips that I came across is discover where the locals eat. Therefore when we were in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), most of the restaurants or eateries we visited were patronized by the local.

#1:Cơm Tấm Cali. This small little restaurant located not far away from our hotel and the plus point, it comes with free WiFi connection. The staffs spoke very little English but no worry, there is English translation in their menu.

#2: Bun Cha Ca Nuoc (Noodle soup with fish paste) - This bowl of noodle is so flavourful with the mixed of tender and soft fish paste.

#3: Nhà Hàng Ngon - One and only grand and fancy restaurant we visited when in HCMC. This two floors open-aired restaurant is recommended in Lonely Planet and almost all the seats occupied by both locals and foreign tourists.

When we browsed through the menu, it was filled with wide selection of foods but then, it was kinda pricey for budget travellers like us. However, it worth every value we paid where not just that we can enjoy the authentic Vietnamese food but the buzzing and delightful atmosphere as well. These were what we ordered from Nhà Hàng Ngon:

#4: "Ngon" special fried rice

#5: Salad roll with shrimp and pork

#6: Steamed banana cake with coconut milk

#7: Grilled pork

#8: Pork porridge

#9: And on the other night, we decided to have our dinner at the open air stall outside the Ben Thanh Market

#10: Crunchy fried spring roll

#11: Fried rice

#12: Scrumptious sweet and sour pork

Last but not least, when in one's country, experience like the local. A visit to HCMC wouldn't be complete without experience Vietnamese local and Asia-Europe fusion foods on the sidewalk of a busy street. This is the real culture of Vietnamese people do everyday - eat streetfoods. 

#13: This is how food vendors prepared the foods on the sidewalks

#14: Crispy rice paper mixed pork

#15: Fried bun - crispy on the outside, delicious on the inside

#16:Crystal clear spring roll with mixed pork and veggies - This one taste kinda weird. Not recommended.

#17: One of Vietnam's famous cuisines - Pho

#18: How can you miss a cup of coffee when in Vietnam? It's a sin if you missed out.

Although I didn't get the chance to try baguette in HCMC but luckily I got to try in other Indo-China countries like Cambodia and Laos. As for exotic foods, I try my best to avoid cause I have a weak stomach to absorb those foods. And I was being asked whether did I try dog meats, hell no I will have those cause I am dog lover. Don't you think it is so cruel to eat dog and cat meats?

P/S: This is another scheduled post cause I'm currently away for another short weekend getaway. It's Cuti-Cuti Malaysia! 

For more of my travel updates, follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

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Foodie Friday: Excapade Sushi @ Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam

Date of Visit: 12th January 2012

Right after I back from my Phuket trip last year, 3 days later I went to Brunei to attend my cousin's wedding with my family. We travelled by road and it was freaking long roadtrip which took more than 7 hours and had to go through 6 different immigration before reach the desired destination. It's kinda troublesome and exhausting journey but on the bright side for a part-time traveller like me, my passport was occupied with 2 pages of passport stamp for just 2 days short trip. I did blog about this before and if you haven't read before, check out this - 7 Hours Road Trip from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei.

Right after meeting up my cousin and the rest of my relatives upon reaching Kuala Belait, my daddy immediately brought us to Excapade Sushi, which is one of the famous Japanese chain restaurant in Brunei. He went before and he can't stop repeating telling that it is the best Japanese restaurant that he ever visited. You will be surprised that most Miri and eventhough KK people willing to cross the border just to satisfy their crave towards this Japanese cuisine in Brunei. Even most of my friends who went before also informed me that I shouldn't miss out Excapade if I have the chance to visit Brunei.

#1: One of Excapade Sushi's outlet in Kuala Belait

I'm not too sure how many of Excapade Sushi outletS around Brunei but the one we visited in Kuala Belait is located just nearby my cousin's house. It always fully occupied especially on weekend and during lunch time but we were kinda lucky mainly because we went on weekday and plus, it was before 6pm, which we arrived earlier for dinner time. Hence, no worry of long queue and long hour of waiting for seats. 

Ok, now let's us have #foodporn session, shall we?

#2: Salmon Sashimi - What can I say more about this? Delicious, thick and most importantly fresh.

#3: A small set of sushi with combination of tamago sushi, salmon sushi, kani maki and mini California maki.

#4: Mini California Maki (top) and Inari Sushi (bottom) - Both are my favourite & it's incredibly huge. Unable to fit into my mouth at one time.

#5: Tamago

#6: Tama Unagi Sushi

#7: Salmon Sashimi again but in smaller slice

#8: Tempura

#9: A bento set of Tori Katsu (fried chicken with breadcrumb)

#10: Vanilla Milk Shake

#11: Dessert to end our late lunch - Mango Pudding with Chocolate Ice-cream

And you know what, we visited Excapade Sushi a year later which was 2 months ago but at the different outlet while waiting for our flight back to KK from Bangkok. We went the one in Gadong area (will blog about this in the future post). Seriously, if any of you ask me what will I recommend if visiting Brunei, I will definitely say "Visit any outlet of Excapade Sushi" cause not just their sushi and other meals which were so huge, fresh and serve in great quality but it's definitely worth every penny you pay. I was kinda forgot how much we paid during the first visit but for the second visit, the total damages was $170++ (roughly around RM425) for almost 20 people of us. Surprisingly cheap, right?

 
Excapade Sushi (Kuala Belait Branch) 
No 2, Block B,
Ground Floor, Bangunan Pg. Hj. Hashim,
Pg. Hj. Mohd. Jadid,
 Lot 7561, Jln. Jaya Negara,
Kuala Belait KA 1931, Brunei.
Opening Hours: Daily from 11am - 2.30pm and 5.30pm - 10pm

And this concluded as my final post for my 2012 Brunei travelogue. We didn't go for any sightseeing cause our main purpose was basically to attend my cousin's wedding. Plus, I stayed and studied in Brunei before when I was kinda very young and went most of the places around Brunei. Hence, my family didn't have the intention for another revisit. However, if you want to know more about Brunei, you can check Jeff's travel blog - click HERE. 

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