Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant (Tanjong Pagar)

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant (oh such a mouthful!) is as its name suggest a restaurant that serves Peranakan-Thai style Vegetarian cuisine - such a unique concept. Their concept includes using healthy and fresh ingredients to bring out the flavours targeting healthy freaks individuals, providing a healthier choice to customers.

Whole Earth first opened its doors for business in 2003 (this year marks its 10th anniversary). The restaurant is located at Peck Seah Street within a minute walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT Exit A. It's hard to miss this place as they used the huge wall to their advantage advertising their restaurant. 

8 Treasure Cooling Tea with Rosehip

The 8 Treasure Cooling Tea with Rosehip was not bad. But to my friends, they mentioned that it smell and tasted like medicine (cough mixture). So a word of caution, not everyone would like this. 

All the dishes that we ordered and ate were their best sellers.

Sambal Kang Kong $12

The Sambal Kang Kong was well cooked and was still crunchy. The unique belachan sauce in this dish stimulated the different senses of taste (sweet, spicy and salty), to its extreme at times. It was very spicy and yet salty at the same time. I suspect that they had added Marmite to it, and if they did, they have added too much of it. If this dish was less salty, it would have been perfect. Interestingly, this dish was incredibly addictive, I wonder if it was the Marmite flavour (salty) or spiciness that made it so addictive. Beats me.. 

Oatmeal Tofu with Curry Leaves $15

The chunks of tofu in the Oatmeal Tofu with Curry Leaves were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. An addition point to note was that it was not oily. However, the oats were a disappointment. They practically tasteless. Somehow the flavours of the curry leaves was not brought out. On a side note, the Oat Tofu with Curry Leaves looks uncanny similar to Cereal Prawns.

Broccoli with Braised Monkeyhead Mushroom $19

As the name of this dish suggests, the Broccoli with Braised Monkeyhead Mushroom was made up of mushroomhead mushrooms (as mock meat). It was then braised together with broccoli, tang gui herbs and wolfberry. It was well executed and quite a decent dish (though not fantastic). 

Penang Rendang $19

Similar, mushroom was used as mockmeat in the Penang Rendang. This was another spicy dish, thought not as spicy as the sambal kangkong. In terms of taste, I thought that it was quite decently executed and similar to those found elsewhere (which uses mockmeat).

Nyonya Curry $19

Leaving the best for the last, the Nyonya Curry was outstanding. 8 hours of preparation and cooking was required for this dish. This dish was made of shiitake mushrooms (as mock meat) and potato in a thick Nyonya style curry sauce. The curry was incredibly flavourful and appetising. The potato and mockmeat tasted wonder in this sauce! Taste as good, if not as even better than other Nyonya Curry found elsewhere. The curry goes well with steamed rice! Yummy!

One of the aim of Whole Earth was to create a place where vegetarians could bring their friends non-vegetarian friends to. I must say that the food was impressive. Some of them not only taste just like the real one, but was even better! You may have noticed by now that mushrooms are commonly used as mockmeat by Whole Earth instead of using soybased or flour mockmeat.

Price wise I would say that it was on the expensive end and the portions were small. The ambiance and environment of the restaurant made it difficult to chat as it amplify and hence cause the place to be very noisy. This was despite the fact that it was only half full. Overall, I would conclude that, the vegetarian food served here are unique and quite good (in terms of taste). 

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant (Tanjong Pagar)

76 Peck Seah Street

Singapore 079331

Tel: 6323 3308

Opening Hours: Daily Lunch 11:30am to 3pm (last order at 2:30pm) 

                                               Dinner: 5:30 to 10pm (last order at 9:15pm)

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Starbucks and Subway Singapore Promotion at NUS

Source: Starbucks Singapore

Starbucks Singapore: 1 For 1 Frappuccino Happy Hour (16, 19 & 20 Aug 2013)
Buy a Venti-size Red Bean Green Tea or Dark Mocha Frappuccino and enjoy another free.

- Valid from 3pm to 7pm on 16, 19 & 20 August 2013
- Valid at Starbucks at NUS (Yusof Ishak House, MD 11 and University Town)
- Limited to 2 redemption per student
- While stocks last

Subway Singapore

Subway Singapore: Free 6" Sub with purchase of a 6" Sub and 22oz drink at Subway NUS-YIH (16 Aug 2013)

- Valid from 8am to 9pm on 16 August 2013
- Maximum order of 1 sub per customer
- Not valid with other promotions or discounts
- Only valid at NUS-YIH (#01-06 Yusof Ishak House, 31 Lower Kent Ridge)
- While stocks last

Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 (Tanjong Pagar)

Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 a Korean restaurant located at Tras Road, is only a stone throw away (i.e. five minutes away) from Tanjong Pagar MRT station. It is located close to the Maxwell Food Centre too. 

Korean Fried Chicken

Kko Kko Nara specialises in Korean cuisine and their signature dish is their Korean Fried Chicken which has been highly raved. 

The restaurant was cozy and air conditioned. They have quite a small sitting capacity. When we visited during lunch time on Saturday, the restaurant was fully packed. I took this photo as we were leaving at 230pm, by then most of the customers had left and the restaurant was closing (230pm). 

Each table has a box of tissue paper utensils and a metal bin for disposal of bones. I like their menu cover. It was artistically and colourful. The fried chicken looks so appetising! 

Ban Chan / Side Dish (반찬) 

The Ban Chan / Side Dish (반찬) were just normal - average. One of the rare occasions where I did not ask for more side dishes. 

Combo Chicken Set (S) $20 (clockwise from top: Sweet, Special Garlic Soy Sauce, Original)

Since we were here, we just had to order the the signature Korean Fried Chicken! The Combo Chicken Set (S) $20 consisted of 9 pieces of chicken - 3 pieces of 3 different flavours chicken. The flavours were namely Original, Sweet and Special Garlic Soy Sauce Chicken. We notice that the price of this dish during dinner time was $25 instead of $20.

Left to right: Special Garlic Soy Sauce, Sweet

Having tried the Fried Chicken, I now understood why it had been so highly raved about. Each piece was crispy, crunchy, well marinated and fried. The meat were tender, and had the right blend of spices and sauces. In addition, the immense flavour had penetrated all the way into the meat. My favourite was the Special Garlic Soy Sauce Fried Chicken which was made of hand-crushed garlic and 41 kinds of ingredient with soy sauce. 

In terms of execution, I thought that they did quite well. It's a common perception that its easyto cook chicken wings. But its hard to make one that's nice, well seasoned (with the flavours penetrating into the meat) and not oily. 

Bu Dae Ji Gae (부대찌개) $35

We also ordered the Bu Dae Jji Gae (부대찌개) to shared. The Bu Dae Jji Gae when translated, literally means The Army Stew. It was named this way as this dish originated during the Korean War. Back then, the Americans who assisted in the war brought their own food such as spam (canned meat), baked beans, sausages and hot dogs which was not introduced in Korea before. As the Koreans were facing a food shortage, they cooked a spicy stew which consisted of kimchi and gochujang (red chili paste) and mixed the American's surplus food into the stew. This was how The Army Stew / Bu Dae Jji Gae came about.

Kko Kko Nara's Bu Dae Jji Gae consisted of noodles, spam, sausages, mushroom, korean rice cake, baked beans, tofu, kimchi, gochujang and a mixture of vegetables. Red and Green Chilli were added to further enhance its taste. 

Bu Dae Ji Gae (부대찌개) $35

Mix the Bu Dae Jji Gae and once it boils, this is how it should looks like. After that you can let it simmer and slowly savour it. The best part is that the longer the stew simmers, the more robust and flavourful it becomes. Kko Kko Nara's Bu Dae Jji Gae was 맛있어요 (delicious)!! We indulged endlessly into it. The more we dig into it, the more we love it. 

Although the Ban Chan / Side Dish were average, the Special Garlic Soy Sauce Fried Chicken and Bu Dae Jji Gae were just simply delicious! I will definitely be back to fulfill my Korean cravings at Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 again. Price wise, although some may feel that its on the expensive end, I thought its quite value for money considering the taste and quality of food. 

Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 (Tanjong Pagar)

#01-0157 

Tras Street

Singapore 078996

Tel:  6224 8186

Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 230pm, 5pm to 3am

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