BORNGA, Authentic Korean @ Star Vista

BORNGA probably the biggest chain of Korean BBQ restaurants globally has opened in Singapore. Located at Star Vista, it is joins the 33 outlets in Korea and 12 others in China, US and Indonesia.



This was an invitation to try out their cuisine and we were hosted by their PR folks and a Korean lady in charge of BORNGA. If you have not heard, they have patented recipes here that has been created by Korean celebrity chef Jong Won Paik.


What a big long plate of veggies. You think it's a lot? You will finish it with all the delicious meat that you eat here! Read on to see how to wrap the meats and you know these veggies won't be enough!


One of the interesting banchan that you will try is this 'Water Kimchi'. It's very light kimchi and it's a little cold and quite appetising!


Both my parents and parents-in-law have been to South Korea and they were always talking about all kinds of kimchi. I can't remember if they told me they have tried this before, but this was my first time having cold kimchi soup. It's usually hot and spicy kimchi soups that I had.


Quite a selection of banchans and these were quite good too!
Some of these goes well with other dishes too. It's always good to have Koreans eating with us to tell us exactly how to eat things. We have a habit of finishing everything up don't we?


Jap Chae ($23)
For those who have a liking for chewy korean glass noodles, this has been stir fried with beef and vegetables. Nicely flavoured and fragrant. I thought of my cousin who loves korean jap chae!


It was a lunch for 5 of us that day and this was our tables and mess. The grill that you see in the middle of the table had been designed that uses gas to heat up a layer of stones inside. Interesting eh?

The heated stone radiates an even layer of heat. Wonder is it why the grilled stuff here taste so much better?


Ggot Sal (prime cut and very tender unmarinated beef, $38)

There are those who likes marinated meats and those that prefer unmarinated ones. Which do you prefer? Dining at another place and was hosted once by Koreans too, it seems that many Koreans prefer unmarinated ones.



You just need to cook it just nice and not too long. Look at the marbling. It will all melt away when you grill it. All is left will be the tender pieces of beef.


The meats are unmarinated, so if you prefer, you can dip a little of the 3 types of oils and sauces that you will get depending on your orders. The dark one is the patented signature Woo Samgyup sauce that's imported from Korea to maintain consistency.


Turn it over in a while and it's almost ready!


Just the perfect doneness. It's still a little pink inside. Taste it and you will grow to love Korean food even more.  Don't over cook it or you will regret.


Woo Samgyup (thinly sliced beef with BORNGA's special sauce; $22) 

Their signature dish, with their patented recipe! Everyone that goes to BORNGA around the world will order this. Prepared from nicely marbled beef 'short plate' that has been very thinly sliced, it's only seasoned slightly with BORNGA's secret marinade and ready for us to cook. You don't get dark bulgogi meats, but natural colours of the meat.

The Korean lady showed us how she cooks it. Everyone does it differently, but her family does it this way. Put the nicely stacked meats as you see above. Just let it cook for a while, when it gets a bit cooked, it's really easy to take them apart.


Since it's now easy to take them apart, just move it to the sides and grill it till is sizzles. What a brilliant idea. No need to struggle at the beginning. Just a simpler way of cooking!


How do you eat it? Remember the banchans that has leeks? Roll some leaks in between the sliced beef and dip it in the Woo Samgyup sauce. I tell you, it's so delicious! Does that tempt you?


I love the taste of leeks so this was my kind of food. I know some of you hate it, so just skip it!
Just remember to save some of this from your banchans and eat it with your meats.


Another way to make it taste better and healthier is to grab some lettuce and the other darker leave that I forgot what it was (think it was baby bock choy),  some leeks, some radish kimchi and the warm grilled meat.


To eat it, grab it into a 'ball' and then stuff it in your mouth! Our petite korean lady could actually put it into her mouth! Wow! She said please no photo of her stuffing it in. LOL

It's a wonderful way of having the meats. The veggies were so fresh and crunchy. It really makes you eat your veggies! There's no hard and fast rules, just eat it the way you like it and add your banchans in.


BORNGA Naeng Myun (buckwheat noodles with cold broth, $15)

If you like cold noodles,  try the ones here. The cold broth had slurpee like texture. It's so cold, it's so so refreshing.


Moving the top away to let you see the cold buckwheat noodles.


Served with cold refreshing ingredients, if you are those who enjoy cold noodles, you will like it. I can't imagine my mum liking this though. She's the hot food kind of people.

I like it. I love Cold Vietnamese Noodles, Cold Japanese Noodles, so I have found another new love. Cold Korean Noodles! This is different from my usual Vietnamese and Japanese version. This has ice in it!



Something similar to the previous cold noodles, this is the Bibim Naeng Myun (buckwheat noodles in a spicy chilli sauce, $15)

This version is less wet and has very very spicy chilli sauce. Prepare to cry! It's spicy and delicious. Something about cold and spicy noodles just makes you want to try more of it. This is very subjective. Some of you might just not like it. 



Chadol Duenjang Jjigae (a traditional Korean soybean paste stew with beef, $16)

Another of their signature dishes, this is the Chadol Duenjang Jjigae. When you order this, they will cook it at a stove beside your table. It takes time to cook it. A pot with very watery soybean paste mixture and ingredients will be brought to you. It will be boiled until it becomes around half the liquid is left. A stew that's cooked in front of you.


The stew is then poured over a big bowl of rice. Yes the picture above is quite a big bowl!Another use of the banchans, the kimchi radish strips added into it makes it taste better.


The finger at the side will let you gauge how big the bowl is. ;-)
Give it a super good mix, just like how they do it in Korean dramas!

Can you already imagine the taste as you look at the photo above?
Carbo lovers will love it.


Tteokgalbi (ground rib meat patties mixed with a soy sauce seasoning and then grilled, $20)

Meat eaters, this might be something you might want to order!
I was told this is just ground beef with seasoning. No other fillers.


This thin layer of beef is so tasty! I can easily finish the whole lot!
It's soft and yet firm and have a little crisp layer because of the cooking style.

 

At the end of your meal, this unique tasting drink will be served. Complimentary, this is Omija. It's a 5 flavoured tea, so some might not like it at all. It's combination of taste. I thought it was weird on the first mouth, but I boldly took the 2nd and it became better. I did drink a few more mouths but did not finish it.  ;-)

Note: Like all Korean BBQ places, expect to smell (good) with all the food being grilled. So do not plan to have meetings after this meal. 


BORNGA
1 Vista Exchange Green
#02-24, The Star Vista
Singapore 138617

Tel: 6694 4696
Hours: 11:30am to 10pm daily

320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe @ Mackenzie Road

I was chatting with a friend over instant messenger the other day and she asked if making ice cream using liquid nitrogen is popular in Singapore. I thought for a while. I have only see them made at the Singapore Science Centre during the annual Science Week.

Are there such an ice cream place in Singapore? I search online using my favourite search engine and found 2 places in Singapore.  One was a kiosk operator and have it for special order, the other is 320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe at Mackenzie Road.

How interesting. The geek in me thought I must go see it in action. I was picturing mad scientists in white mixing liquid nitrogen into milk and flavourings. The ice cream person in me was craving for some ice cream, so I asked the wife if she's game to try some.



We are working in different parts of Singapore and thought taking the MRT would be the best option since we found that it's just beside Little India Station. Take Exit A and you would see this place.



A very 'kiddy place', but welcoming. First thing you see won't be the menu, but the 4 Kithen Aid mixers! Can't make it too obvious that I just want to see how the ice cream was made.

The other wall is full of paper cups filled with cute drawings.



Here's a zoom in of the menu that's from the top photo. It says introductory prices for a limited period. I am not sure until when though.

It took both KopiKosongGirl and I a full 5 minutes to select the flavours that each of us want. Don't worry. The guys at the counter are too too busy, they won't bother you to hurry up. ;-)

I chose Salted Caramel and KopiKosongGirl chose Peanut Butter.

The ice cream lady finally had a pause after finishing other orders and she took our orders.

(Techies out there,  they are using iPad for the cash register here. Just like a few other new establishments like Carpenter and Cook)



I asked the lady if I could take photos, she said sure, but if I want her face, it's in the newspapers. She said something like that. Shhh... I was just interested to take the machines, but I did not say that to her.


Earlier when I placed my order, I said I wanted Salted Caramel. The lady taking my order suggested I had it with honeycomb. It's a great combi she said.  I said sure. It does sound good!

For Peanut Butter, her partner which is the other guy also busy with the other 2 machines, said Oreo goes well with Peanut Butter. Again, we said: Sure, why not?



We were sitting down waiting for our orders and enjoyed looking at how they make ice cream in front of us. They have containers of probably cream and other stuff already weighted in metal measuring cups. When they are making our ice cream, they mix the pre-measured stuff in, added whatever flavours we want in, measured some fresh milk and added it into the KitchenAid Mixing Bowl.

They turn on the mixer and then turn on the tap for liquid nitrogen to flow into the mixing bowl. A few seconds of it and the whole place fills up with smoke-like cold mist.

Quite clever of them to have changing lights!



After a while, the ice cream is ready! They then had to scrap the ice cream out from the metal bowls. It looks like hard work! They seem quite busy and they must be quite tired with all the scraping and washing of the mixing bowls!



The other two mixing bowls. I wonder why KitchenAid and not Bosch or Kenwood. (I am a fan of Bosch and Kenwood haha)

Probably of the colours of KitchenAid mixers?



Here's my Salted Caramel with Honeycomb.

The ice cream was quite smooth and creamy. It has a nice feel in the mouth, no big crystals and definitely not icy feel. They got the chemistry right and the ice cream taste good in your mouth. The honeycomb gave it a nice sweet crunch. Good recommendation!



This was KopiKosongGirl's Peanut Butter with Oreos.
As KKG is a peanut butter fan, we recognised the peanut butter brand they used. We saw the bottle and the cap and recognise it even thought they have rip off the labels. It's the smooth version of it.

The texture is nice, but not as smooth as the salted caramel I had. It's still quite good. Sweet and a bit salty, it's a nice mix too. A good combination too. The other suggestion was I think tequila with peanut butter.



Some interesting things that you can read while you are waiting for your ice cream.



We thought for $4.50, it's a good price. Most ice cream shops sells it for the same price or more. This is freshly made too. So if you are a ice cream person or some scientist wanna be, this is a nice place to have some ice cream and see the 'science experiment' in action.

I won't say their ice cream is superior to other shops. Ice cream make the old fashion way can be much better if made correctly. I make ice cream at home, so I know that ice cream do need some curing time in the freezer to taste richer.  It all depends on your ingredients, skills and practice.

This is a fun way of having your ice cream. The taste is good and price is quite fair. I will go back again though. The 'fun' factor is there. I want to try their sorbet and frozen yoghurts.

Now, I feel like getting liquid nitrogen at home to make this. If I do, my ice cream machine at home will be in hibernation mode for some time. LOL.


320 Below Nitro Cream Cafe
33 Mackenzie Road
#01-01
Singapore 228686

Epicurean Market @ Marina Bay Sands Singapore

Today's the last day if you would like to enjoy a day out nibbling away food from different stalls, or attending informative workshop and masterclasses at the MBS Epicurean Market.

For most Singaporeans, you would be familiar with IT or PC Shows. Imagine instead of the big banners of Canon, HP, Dell, you have Celebrity Chefs posters and their restaurant names filling the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. The space is big, so you won't get squeezed like in the IT Shows.

First of all, congratulations again to those who the tickets and vouchers to the Epicurean Market Giveaway last month. Hope you enjoy it!



Yesterday, I was excited as I got of the taxi stand at the MBS Convention Centre. I was planning to visit the Brioche class that's presented by the Executive Pastry Chef from CUT, Chef Jen Shen.


Masterclasses and Workshops


Here she is, Chef Jen demonstrating how to make Brioche right in front of us.

After the demo, I know why many people rather buy Brioche rather than make it themselves, it's so tedious to make it, it takes about 2-3 days with the resting of the dough before we get to eat it!

Chef Jen's quite entertaining and quite witty too. It was a good session. If only she would give us the full recipe to their Brioche!



Chef Jen said that they use 2 different type of yeasts in their Brioche recipe, one of it is this wet yeast. Chef Jen's nice that she passes samples of the ingredients around, so that the audience can all smell it. Oh, it smells so 'sour'. Give it time and feed it to the dough, it will turn into something smelling so good!



This was the dough that's to be rested over night before it can be used. It already smells sweeter and it was such a soft dough.



For demo purposes, they had a batch of dough they made they day before and we were shown how this Brioche master recipe can be turned into different yummy stuff.

The above were the doughnuts. The master dough also be made into buns for the sliders and Chef Jen made some Brioche loaves too.



I was secretly excited that we were told we get to try out the Sticky Rolls. The above is  different types of sugar and molasses that was going into the making of the sticky rolls. A very sweet mixtures of 4 different types of sugars and Vietnamese cinnamon that smells so divine. Yes, Americans love it really sweet!



Ooo... what a happy sight! Ready for baking! Doesn't it already look tempting?



Yes, freshly made Sticky Rolls, baked in the ovens behind where Chef Jen was standing.
Yes, I love sweet stuff and this was divine.
(If you don't like sweet stuff, you will cough and choke with the sugar haha)


Celebrity Chefs Area



At the Celebrity Chef Area, huge-bigger than life posters of the Celebrity Chefs who have their restaurants in MBS popping up at the Celebrity Chef area. This seems to be the most packed area of the Convention Centre. We were seeing queues everywhere!


The db Bistro Moderne's 'stall'.


See who's cooking! Chef Daniel Boulud himself. The sous chef on the left was shouting an impromptu dish. "Anyone wants Truffle Scrambled Eggs cooked by Chef Daniel for $30?" Oh.. look at the hands that went up!


I was intrigued by Chef Jen's demo, so this was the CUT stall.


The Wagyu Sliders for $5. Do you want some too?


The "Loius", which is crab meat starter. $3.
It's tasty and refreshing!

I also bought some large cookies, a combination of it for $6.


Other Areas:



There are also many stalls around that usually do not have 'shops' outside, they are the suppliers to many restaurants in Singapore. Giorgio Ferrari is one of them. Camemberu was with me and HungryCow and she recommended that we should try the stuff from this supplier!


They have a quite nice slab of Saga-Gyu for only $10. We earlier bought CUT's version of it with sauces and dips to go with it, but this is for those who likes pure meat.


A delicious slab of Japanese Saga-Gyu for $10 and only with salt and pepper after grilling. It's a nice find in the midst of hundreds of stalls!

Oh, their Italian Gelato is delicious too! A scoop for only $3.




We were walking around and we saw that Swiss Butchery had a stall selling sausages. Oh yummy! $3 for a sausage. We shared 3 different kinds of sausages!



At the other end of the Convention Centre, there are also stalls selling lots of Frozen Goods. You might want to check it out and compare prices if you are cooking at home for the coming Lunar New Year.


If you would like to go, click on to Marina Bay Sands website for more details.

Epicurean Market
Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre
10 Bayfront Ave
Singapore 018956