Unless you’ve been living off the grid (i.e. away from social media), you would probably have seen Hana Restaurant’s famous flying noodles once or twice on your Instagram feed by now. The sister restaurant of the equally talked about Benjamin Browns Bistro & Bakery, also at Forum the Shopping Mall, recently overhauled their menu to beat the ever growing competition in Japanese fusion cuisine.
I spent the past long weekend – not cafe hopping, but de-cluttering and re-organizing the mess that my desk has become over the years.
You see, I’m a firm believer that your environment affects your efficiency. No one likes halting their creative process just to find an errant notebook or make space on their work space among all the clutter .. which was pretty much my situation until I finally decided: enough is enough!
So here’s what I did with my desk, using one of my favourite brands – Muji.
Update June 2020: 1460 Tteokbokki has closed.
If there’s one thing I miss the most about my summer stint in Korea as a student, it’s got to be walking along the busy, neon lit streets with a piping hot snack in hand – ok, let’s be real here, I always miss the food most in every country I visit.
ANYWAY. I was psyched to hear that a Korean street snack shop had opened in the heart of Orchard Road, at Cineleisure. Helmed by the same team behind Joo Bar, E!ght Korean BBQ and Sticky, 1460 Tteokbooki is a casual takeaway snack shop that specialises in various renditions of tteokbokki, as its name suggests!
I’ve been disappearing to the far east side of Singapore on weekends – Changi, that is. All right, all right, I admit – I’m really chasing rare Pokemon ever since the game was released in Singapore, and some of them happen to congregate in Changi, okay?
Anyhow, whether you’re chasing after that Dragonite that just spawned on the other end of wherever you are, walking kilometre after kilometre to hatch your eggs, or just standing around for hours on end in a lured Pokestop *ahem Changi Civil Service Club*, Changi Village has no shortage of good grub to to fuel up on. And one of them is The Coastal Settlement on Netheravon Road.
Regular travellers to Phuket may be familiar with No 6 Restaurant near Bangla Street. But not many would have heard of its new branch located atop a hill at Soi Phabarami. So reclusive is it, that diners still prefer standing in line for a spot in the cramped premises of the original restaurant.
Having heard of the many tourist-targeted scams in Patong, we were initially wary when a non-uniformed staff member approached us with a flyer advertising No 6 Restaurant’s hill top branch (we had stepped into a different restaurant with the No 6 signboard earlier that day and we were not taking any chances). However, reading up on TripAdvisor reviews convinced us otherwise, and it wasn’t long before we hopped on the shuttle bus for our last meal in Phuket.
Oh, by “shuttle bus”, I mean a sheltered lorry. And by “on top of a hill”, I mean up a steep slope with lots of sharp bends and turns. Hold on tight!
Update 20 Jan 2025: Lhanya BBQ has closed.
I’m back from a whirlwind weekend trip to Patong, Phuket. 3 rejuvenating days of good company, adrenaline pumping activities (think ATV and white water rafting), roadside shopping, and yes – cheap, good food!
And what better way to start the trip than with mookata right in the country where it originated from?
Mookata, which has its roots in Northern Thailand, means “pork skillet”. Think of it as steamboat meets BBQ, with a shallow trough for boiling vegetables, noodles and seafood while strips of meat sizzles away on a dome-shaped skillet lathered with chunky pork lard pieces. Talk about getting the best of both worlds in one meal!
A quick search on TripAdvisor turned up Lhanya BBQ as one of the go-to places for mookata in Patong. As it was monsoon season, we were almost deterred by the heavy downpour – that and the fact that only 2 of us had packed an umbrella for the trip. But as they say, no pain, no gain!
Update 20 Jan 2025: Tok Panjang Cafe has closed in East Coast Road. Visit their other outlets.
Mention Peranakan cuisine and the word “comfort” comes to mind – tables filled to the brim with mom or grandma’s best dishes for the whole family gathered round.
House of Peranakan Group definitely had this vision in mind when they opened their fourth Tok Panjang Cafe branch along East Coast Road, judging by the homely interior and various knick knacks scattered around the dining tables.
The place was relatively quiet and empty when I arrived, almost like your forgotten quaint neighbourhood eatery in a time overtaken by fancy cafes with hipster tableware. But as the evening progressed, the crowd swelled and Tok Panjang transformed into a lively bistro, almost like your typical family reunion!
Chue On It 