PappaMia at T1

Changi Airport has more than 20,000 staff working here and it is therefore no surprise that there are several restaurants to cater to all coming here. Today, I feature a Malaysian and Western food restaurant PappaMia.

PappaMia is located in Changi Airport T1 at the Viewing Mall at Level 3 above Counter Row 9. PappaMia serves Malaysian favorites like Ipoh Hor Fun, tahu telor and some western dishes like grilled chicken.

On this occasion, I ordered the chicken hor fun and my friend ordered the Hainanese chicken rice. The hor fun is as silky as it should be but the broth is rather bland.

We also ordered the Hainanese chicken rice set. Comes with traditional steamed chicken, cabbage soup, a small portion of vegetables and the three condiments - ginger, dark soya sauce and chili sauce.

First the rice. Nice whole grain, fragrant but a tad too much minced ginger in the cooking process. But fragrant nonetheless.

Next, the chicken. Succulent enough and tender. I prefer thigh meat to breast meat.

We also tried the ngoh hiang. Rather normal. But when you dip it in the chicken rice chili, taste different altogether.

Yet another ordered the char kway teow. Missing the lard so my verdict is - pedestrian. No lard means less taste.

We also ordered the tabu telor to share. I still like the version by Sanur. This version is passable.

Overall, the restaurant is ok. Prices are reasonable. I have to go back to try other dishes to see if they are any better. Any maybe refresh my tastebuds for the Ipoh hor fun.

Saboten Restaurant - Tonkatsu @ Changi Airport

Saboten Restaurant has been voted on of the Top Restaurants in the world and we have one right here in Changi Airport Terminal One.

Changi Airport is not a traditional airport as one would expect - airports traditionally have passengers and rows and rows of check in counters. But here at Changi Airport, there are also many restaurants to keep Singaporeans happy. Saboten is one such restaurant.

Saboten serves tonkatsu (pork cutlet) and is located at Terminal One - level 3 above Counter Row 8. IMHO, Saboten is probably one of the best tonkatsu restaurants around. When you order a set, it comes with free flow of cabbage, miso soup and rice.

One of the favorite part of my meal there is the cabbage. Shredded very fine and kept chilled, the crunchiness of the cabbage coupled with the sesame sauce is heavenly. I typically polish off three bowls before I tuck in to my main course.

Whenever I am hungry (or greedy), I typically order the Saboten Special Set. Comes with pork tenderloin, pork loin, fried ebi and one crab croquette.

But the rituals started with the cabbage and the wait staff will also provide you a bowl of sesame seeds.

Using the wooden pestle, one grinds the sesame seeds into as fine a powder form as possible. You can immediately smell the aroma of freshly ground sesame seeds.

And then you add the tonkatsu sauce and mix it into a thicken sauce/paste.

The tonkatsu here is the tenderloin. Fried just nice and the moist on the inside, the cutlet does not have an oily feel to the bite.

That is what I like about the tonkatsu at Saboten. The oil they use is fresh and the resulting cutlet is very light.

Some prefer the loin shown above but I still prefer the tenderloin. Again, the loin is fried just nice.

The fried ebi is always my son's favorite and I normally give that to him.

The last portion is the crab croquette. This one I find a little disappointing as I believe they use crab sticks. But the potato is soft and rather tasty by itself.

Always a hearty meal at Saboten, the set also comes with green tea ice cream. But most of the time, I forgo that.

For those going to Changi Airport for whatever reasons other than flying out, give Saboten a try. Saboten is a "must-try" for anyone who loves tonkatsu. They have promotions from time to time and for now (May 2014) they have the Garoupa set.

Lunch at Saboten T1

A lazy Thursday May Day holiday that brought our family to Changi Airport T1 for lunch at Saboten Restaurant.

Saboten is a well known tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant and found in several airports around the world. This is one of my favorite haunts in Changi Airport T1.

I shall be blogging about it some time soon. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of my Roger Dubuis at Changi Airport.

By the way, there are the tulip mini displays at T3. Go check them out.