GYUU+ Yakiniku Grill @ Emporium Shokuhin

We had a choice. Father's Day was on our date day. Should we spend the day with our babies? Or should we enjoy some peace and quiet time by ourselves? After some deliberations, we decided that we shouldn't give up our precious bi-weekly half day off. Hee.. So we dropped off the kids and head off to a sumptuous meal of BBQ meat!

The restaurant was inside the new Emporium Shokuhin at Marina Square. The restaurant, like everything else there, was a little pricey but looks really quality and delicious. Typical to most quality Japanese restaurants. But it was a special occasion. Besides, there was an ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET. Enough said!

The price was $70.50 per adult (weekend price) And you can eat as much want! Honestly we are not very good at buffets. We only managed to eat one plate of each type of meat and already we were so stuffed I couldn't even finish my beer! Sigh.. But the meat was awesome. Moist, tender, with perfect marbling. You know it's good meat when all the seasoning you need was a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. My mouth is currently watering from the memory of the grilled meat!

Definitely a value for money for all you carnivores out there!



Loooove the sizzling sound of grilling meat!

GYUU+ Yakiniku Grill
Emporium Shokuhin
6 Raffles Boulevard
#01-18 Marina Square
Singapore 039594

Jang Won Korean Restaurant

Somehow when you Google "Korean Food", it shows you a gazillion pages and restaurants serving Korean BBQ. Korean food is not just BBQ meat! I love the home style dishes of Korean food like soups and stews with rice and noodles. It's so comforting and hearty! SO one weekend I was craving some good Kimchi Jjigae for lunch, so I managed to find one at Chinatown and gave it a try.

The store was very unassuming, very quiet, simple and low key, which is perfect. Family restaurants are supposed to look like that right?

The staff was Korean too, and they quickly seated us down. The menu looked great with loads of stews and soup. I already know what I wanted, which was their famous Kimchi Jjigae. But when faced with the menu, I can't help but order some Mandu (korean pork dumplings) too. Hubby ordered their Beef bone soup.

Like any Korean restaurants, they serve the banchan first. Which is a variety of side dishes. I love family restaurants banchan better because they seem to have more heart and effort in making the banchan. Many big BBQ restaurants usually just give you some kimchi and anchovies. Look at this!

I'm not an expert on korean banchan, but these little dishes are delicious! I could just eat this with a pint of beer and I'm a happy gal. My expectations for the main meal has gone up from just tasting the side dishes!

Finally our soup came! Doesn't look very fancy, but the taste was amazing!

The soup was very rich and flavourful. Perfect with some chewy korean rice. The kimchi was plentiful and the soup was warm and comforting. I'm salivating from just thinking about it now. :P Usually people would add some pork in the soup, unfortunately I could only find ONE piece. The one piece of pork was really tender and delicious, wish there was more... :(

Hubby's Beef Bone soup was out of the world. The soup was very rich and the beef was very tender. The pieces of meat was huge! So it was a pretty hearty meal.

The mandu was okay, the skin was a little too thick and chewy to our liking.

The menu had a wide variety of dishes that I wish we could try, but there were only 2 of us. By the time I finished the soup and rice, I was quite full. But it was such a satisfying meal. Maybe next time we'll try different dishes. :)

44 Mosque Street
#01-01
Singapore 059522
6532 6949

M-F: 11.30am-2.30pm; 5.30-10pm
Weekend & PH: 5-10pm

Oxtail stew with fettuccine

Was shopping for beef at the supermarket the other day when I came across some beautiful oxtail. I've never cooked it before, but I was suddenly feeling adventurous. "What's the worst that could happen?" I thought, so tonight I finally did it.

It was delicious!!!

Days before, I've been doing my homework and reading up on all sorts of recipe online. Including the original inspiration, Heston Blumenthal's oxtail and kidney pudding recipe. But it's so complex, not very realistic for a busy mommy of 2 kids. So i did a mash up of several different recipes I read and it turned out awesome.

Of course, I'm using my trusty pressure cooker which gives you the melt-in-your-mouth texture in only an hour. If you don't have one, I suggest you go buy one. Meanwhile, you can follow the steps accordingly,  just double the braising time.

500g oxtail
1 stick of celery
1 stick of carrot
1 large onion
1 clove of garlic
4 brown mushrooms
4 tablespoons of traditional pasta sauce from a jar
1 glass of red wine of your liking
2 cups of chicken stock
Thyme and a bay leaf
Salt and pepper

Additional vegetables: (to be added later)
Diced carrots and potatoes, cabbage and mushrooms

1. Season the oxtail with salt and pepper and brown them in hot oil. Set aside.
2. Using a food processor(save time!),  blend all the vegetables finely and stir fry them in the same pot with a pinch of salt.
3. Put the oxtail back on top of the veges and add in all other ingredients except the seasoning. Make sure the oxtail is just covered in liquid.
4. Stew in low heat for one hour, release pressure, add in rest of the vegetables, and stew for another 30mins.
5. Remove oxtail from stew and you should be able to tear the meat off the bone easily! Reduce stock if you like but note that the sauce would thicken further once cooled. Season accordingly.
6. Cook pasta according to instructions and ladle sauce and meat over noodles.

Enjoy!

*my pasta looks watery cause I was carrying my baby in the other arm while trying to get the pasta out of the pot of water :p