Bon Gout @ Robertson Quay

Was at Robertson Quay on a Friday. Walked around quite a bit looking for a place to eat. Passed by many restaurants and finally someone recommended Bon Gout. Quaint little place, where half the shop is filled up with comics, magazines and books. It's a Japanese bookstore cum cafe.


bookshelves of comics


There's a daily set meal, and that include a main, a side dish, pickles, rice and miso soup. The set meal of the day on that Friday was beef and eggpplant cooked in miso, with vinegared tako and seaweed.


beef and eggplant cooked in miso


The lady boss recommends the set of the day, as the rest of the set meals are available daily but the set of day is sort of like 'special'. I joked that since most of us were there for the first time, everything is special to us! ;)

But trust the boss, because the beef in miso was very tender and the miso taste was just right. Tasty but not too salty. It really has the homecooked flavor, and I wouldn't mind eating it daily. Egg plant was still firm, and the side dish was mildly flavored, which cleanses the heavier tasting miso.

There were five of us, so we ordered two sets of panfried beef steak set, one unagi set, one tonkatsu and one miso beef set.


table full of set meals!


unagi set (front), panfried beef steak (back)


unagi


tonkatsu set (front), miso beef set (back)


tonkatsu


beef steak (but a little too chewy for us)


tender beef, we liked!


All in all, it was a cosy experience. The shop people are courteous and polite. Enjoyable experience.

Hua Yuen Porridge @Tiong Bahru Market

Wanted to eat porridge and raw fish tonight, so hopped onto SBS bus 123, and about 10 minutes later, voila! Tiong Bahru Market at Seng Poh Road. I thought there will be a couple of stalls selling cantonese porridge, but I was wrong. Most were selling Teochew fish porridge! Hmmmm, I know... it's been ages since I last visited this market :P

The porridge stall was manned by a young chap and a lady. Opted for the value set of century egg with shredded chicken porridge + raw fish slices for $4.50 only. Good right?



value for money



yummylicious


The porridge was thick, and every bite has century egg bits and chicken shreds. Mine has thigh meat, and that's exactly what I liked! Tasty!


I don't know why, but the raw fish slices were whitish in color. Was kinda expecting like pinkish raw colored...


looks like kinda cooked, hor?


The fish slices were quite decent, but some of the meat has tendons so those parts turned out to be rather tough and chewy. Otherwise, the fish was tasty from the drizzling of sesame seed oil, lime juice, soy sauce and eaten with spring onions, ginger and chili padi.

Shin Kushiya @Vivocity

Located at Level 2 of Vivocity, I took a wrong turn and ended up having to search high and low for this restaurant. Haha, bad sense of direction as usual. Reservation was a breeze, and they usually gave me a seat by the window. Can say that it came with a view, but the only downside was that view is currently all construction stuffs!

We're small eaters, us girls, so between the two of us, we ordered the unagi maki, sanshoku don and a mushroom with stuffed minced chicken meat kushiyaki.


unagi maki


Unagi maki (sushi roll with grilled eel, in teriyaki sauce with asparagus and cucumber) was rather dull. Can't taste much of the unagi too. Hardly taste any asparagus too! Perhaps can do with a bigger slice in it. The rice (at least for the maki and the don) tend to harden as the night progresses.


I liked the shansoku don though. The color, the glistening oil from the fish, arrangement of the bowl, simple yet ppeals to the senses and I can't wait to sink my teeth into the fresh fish slices!


sanshoku don (salmon, maguro and kajiki)


fresh fish slices


The item with the 'heaviest' taste, the mushroom kushiyaki was eaten last. Quite an enjoyable snack.


stuffed mushroom with minced chicken


Total bill was $40+ for 2 pax.

Shots @ Ann Siang Hill

Located at Ann Siang Hill enclave, it has a relaxed atmosphere. It has both outdoor and indoor seating areas. Didn't explore the upstairs though. Free seating, so just head on over to that unoccupied table that you saw, and proceed to the counter to order your drinks/food.


On the table, there's a cute plant that acts as a decor.


what's this plant?


real one..



mocha


looks like super diluted choc drink


Was kinda surprised when the mocha arrived. Lots of ice cubes and the drink looked diluted... But it tasted good. Unexpected. So never judge a drink by its density? Hahaa!

My friend ordered a milk chocolate, and it's like a glass of milk with chocolate sauce poured into it. Quite liked the milk that they used here. Mild.


milk chocolate




And of course, need something to bite to go along with the coffee, so we got a tiramisu.


tiramisu


close up view


The tiramisu is very sweet, but it went well with my drink as the coffee has a slight bitterness to it that sort of like offset the sweetness.

All in all, a relaxed place but it gets a little too distracting for reading as the tables are quite near each other, and you are likely able to hear what the other patrons are talking about...

Itacho Sushi @ ION Orchard

Located at B2 of ION Orchard towards Paterson Link. The queue was still ok for a Saturday evening (around 645pm), and we got seated after waiting for about 10-15 minutes. Saying yes to counter seats means shorter waiting time ;)




Had a clear view of the sushi master, who was all smiles and had lively exchanges with his staff (kitchen and service crew). Sushi master spoke some Japanese some Cantonese, while his kitchen crew were mostly speaking in Cantonese.


sushi master at work


colorful bottles of sake


The sushis are priced at per piece and ranges from below $1 to above $6.


plump looking scallop sushi


Was imagining luscious oily texture for the fatty tuna mini rice, but it turned out to be something quite different. The tuna was finely minced, and served in an glass saucer. I think the rice portion was probably 2-2.5 times of the amount of rice on one piece of sushi. Not alot, so it's just for sampling. It is very clean tasting, and eating it with wasabi soy sauce gives it more kick.


fatty tuna mini rice (does the glass saucer look like an ashtray?)


unagi mini rice


foie gras sushi


eel sushi ($6)


The eel (anago?) sushi looked impressive, and it tasted real soft.. but somehow, I didn't quite like it.


As usual, I will always want to try yellow tail sushi in all sushi joints! The sushi looked quite 'thin', but the hamachi meat was plump and has adequate oil to it. The small dollop of greenish thingy on top of it, tasted somewhat like a citrus zest.


hamachi sushi (i like~)


jack mackerel


My dining companion commented that the california maki here didn't taste quite like what he tried in Tokyo. Well, no comments on that since I didn't try any from there. The crunchy tiny egg roe lining the outerside of the maki was a perfect foil to the soft rice.


california maki, with tiny crunchy roe


saury, fatty aburi salmon and ark shell sushi


They're having a 50% discount promotion for salmon in soy sauce (originally was $0.80 per piece).


aburi salmon in soy sauce, must try!


The aburi salmon in soy sauce was cheap and good! It's yummy when eaten together with the raw onion slice. Recommended!

Tokyo Eats

When I was in Tokyo Dec 2009, the weather was cold, and it made one crave for a bowl of steaming hot ramen! We were staying at the Monterey Hanzomon Hotel, and nearby was a soba stall manned by an elderly couple. The joint is self-service, and you buy the ticket from the vending machine outside of the restaurant and then pass the slip of paper with the name of the dish that you ordered to the chef, and he'll prepare it for you. Seating is limited but there were two tables to eat while standing.


yasai soba


The yasai (vegetable) soba was very affordable at 290 yen only ;)

I wanted to try ramen but didn't have the chance till stumbled upon a stall in Asakusa. It was also those vending machine type, so one basic bowl of chashu ramen was just 300 yen or so.


ramen at Asakusa


As we were travelling with kids, we ate alot of fastfood. Macs in Tokyo, do not have plastic bag. Only paper bags are available. And remember to separate the trash before throwing them into the correct bins!


no big breakfast, but got muffins and stuffs


pokemon~!


need no further introduction...


juicy pork patty with peppery taste


at Yoshinoya Harajuku, with kimchi side dish


beef bowl


Tried Gindaco, and it most certainly didn't taste like the one in ION...


yummy tako balls!


with custard fillings


The most expensive dish that I ate was at Tsukiji. Ordered a sushi set that cost 800 yen. Haha, ya.. not THAT expensive ok.


sushi set


maguro


with some fats


lots of these tamago in Tsukiji.. the ones with mentaiko not bad


On most days, we da bao those cheap bento box from our neighbourhood shop.


fried chicken cutlet rice, for only 390 yen!


crispy cutlet!


stir fried beef bowl (chinese style)


think this one is like those new year bento.. but the fish wasn't good...


Maybe next time, can go for those more luxurious eats? Haha!