Spring Hokkaido Fair @ Takashimaya

The fair is happening from 30 March till 8 April 2012, at Food Hall B2 of Takashimaya Department Store. Absolutely loved these fairs! Been to the one last year too! So this year, concentrated on getting stuffs that I didn't manage to try last year. Heh heh.

This year decided to get one of those freshly made bento from Kani Kobo (is it literally translated as crab factory?). Bought the seafood bento (@$24).

Seafood Bento from Kani Kobo

salmon, ikura, uni and shredded crab meat

star of this dish, was the marinated ikura

closer look on the shredded crab meat

uni~

salmon was pretty run of the mill

here's an indication of the 'depth' of the rice

The bento was enjoyable. The rice was soft and sticky, and each mouthful of rice with ikura was just another form of happiness. Pure bliss. The shredded crab meat was rather bland though, and the uni wasn't as creamy.

Next, got myself something from Petite Mervielle. Last year, I've enjoyed the pumpkin pudding, so this year got the Mel Cheese Mix (plain and pumpkin) @$18 per box of 8 pieces.

Mel Cheese Mix (Plain and Pumpkin)

inside the box

mini cheesecakes!

I liked how Japanese confectionary items are always so prettily packaged.

plain

soft and fluffy

pumpkin

slightly denser and sweeter

The Mel Cheese cheesecakes were really tiny. Just two bites and it's gone! Good things don't really last, do they?

Next up, the 'Rare Cheesecake' from Komagatake Gyunyu. It was sold out last year, so this was one of the must get items for this year and went there on Day 2, so lots of bottles left.

the loot from Komagatake Gyunyu

Bokujo Rare Cheesecake (@$6)

after unwrapping

yummy cheesecake!

If you've bought the White Pudding (mascarpone cheese), then it's better if the White Pudding is eaten before having the Rare Cheesecake. The White Pudding has a much milder taste with natural sweetness and texture as bouncy as tofu. The Rare Cheesecake on the other hand, is exactly like a very dense, tasty cheesecake. Cheesecake in a tiny milk bottle is a novelty for me!

Also bought the milk chou by Maoi. Kept the milk chou inside the freezer for about 20 minutes before eating it. The fresh cream was so cold and creamy that it tasted like ice-cream! I like the chou pastry. It's similar to those cream puffs that I ate many years ago when I was still a child. Yums!

milk chou (@$3)

nice skin, nice filling

it's like eating ice-cream~

Currently, there's a sure-win lucky dip if you've spent above $50 at the fair and amongst the first 5000 customers. Not much luck though, so got the default prize of either butter candy or postcard.

butter candy?

Wine Connection Tapas Bar & Bistro @ Robertson Walk

The place was really crowded, even on a weekday evening. The music playing was rather loud, and the atmosphere was boisterous.

table setting and menu

paper coaster

For some odd reason, I'd forgotten to look at the tapas menu. Oops. So for food, we had mushroom risotto and bangers & mash, from their regular menu.

bangers and mash

mushroom risotto

We enjoyed the bangers and mash. It has a somewhat mellowed taste. The cooked onions added sweetness to the dish. Nice.

Mushroom risotto was nicely fragrant, and had a likeable taste. However, the texture of the rice, I didn't quite like. Overall, the risotto wasn't that creamy nor  as soft as I would like. The rice was somewhat 'dry'. Quite generous with the mushrooms though.

Thirsty? There are many types of wines, beers and other drinks to choose from. Prices ranges from $6 onwards for a glass of wine. But as the night progresses, one may find that certain drinks might become unavailable. So if you see something that you like, do order it at once!

We had beer, and because we ordered later, there was only 3 types of beers (on tap) left to choose from. Tried Barbar (@$9++) and Belgien Kriek (@$6++).

Belgian Kriek (front) and Barbar (back)

The Belgian Kriek, a type of sweet fruit beer. Taste of cherry, and so it reminded me of...of all things, cough syrup! Sigh. It wasn't bad, in fact, it was quite alright, if you don't mind the subtle syrup-py flavour.

But Barbar was easily likeable, and a thirst quencher too. Sweet and has hint of honey. Leaves a bitter aftertaste though.

For desserts, we ordered the brownie. But it didn't materialise after quite some time, so we enquired again. Apparently, our friendly service crew did not place that item into our order list. The waiter informed us that the brownie will be served cold. Hmm, we prefered warm brownies with cold ice-cream though, so we ordered the apple crumble instead.

apple crumble with ice cream

The apple crumble was not too sweet, and beneath the crumble, there were lots of apple pieces. Nice end to our meal.

Total bill came up to $66 for 2 pax.

Old Town Coffee @ AEON Cheras Selatan, Malaysia

Located at the ground floor of the shopping mall. Needed a quick lunch before our movie, so this was a fast and easy option.

So, what to order at a coffee joint? Why, it's coffee, of course! Took the normal coffee with milk (@RM3.80++). There's another kopi gao version, aka a thicker coffee option. But, the normal ones are already like soooo thick, I couldn't imagine having thicker ones!

coffee with milk

Wasn't feeling very hungry, so ordered a polo bun with butter (冰沙菠萝包). Ok, I admit. Ordered this because it always seemed to appear in those HK dramas whenever the actors eat at the cha chan teng (茶餐厅). So, was curious as to what it would taste like.

polo bun with butter

close up view

Hmmm... I think I didn't like the bread, just normal tasting, and unlike the polo buns found in Crystal Jade. The butter was dripping and all I could think of, was the amount of calories I'm consuming....

Here're the pictures of other food that we ordered:

chicken hor fun (dry)

chicken hor fun (soup)

The soup from chicken hor fun was tasty. But not sure why it was frothy when served. The other item (but didn't take picture) was the bbq chicken egg noodles (served with wan tons). The noodles was springy and well coated with sauce, and the chicken was very tender. Order the chicken egg noodles to try, if you're not sure what to eat here and don't feel like doing the usual coffee bread combo.

The polo bun costs as much as the coffee, and expect to pay at least double of that for the noodles.

Restoran Kwan Tung @ Sungai Chua

Located at Jalan Berjaya 8, Taman Bahagia, Sungai Chua, Kajang, Malaysia. This is one of the many typical zhi char restaurants in my hometown. Seldom eat at this place, but the one that we wanted to visit was crowded so this was the alternative.

signboard

al-fresco dining, anyone?

Ordered the black black hokkien mee, fried chicken wings, claypot tofu, assam fish and stir-fried sweet potato leaves with preserved beancurd.

have some tea while waiting

loads of minced garlic, chili padi and some soy sauce and ready to go!

Food arrived approximately 15 minutes later. Not bad.

fried chicken wings (front), black black hokkien mee (back)

The hokkien mee here was super tasty, and super dark too. Yums! Can't really tell what's inside but I think I ate some chicken spare parts, fishcake and some vege. The chicken wings were alright, and I think we ordered about 5 chicken wings as the small portion is 3 wings (3 mid-wings and 3 drumlets).

superbly executed

stir-fried sweet potato leaves

We got a shock when the fish arrived. It's been a while since I've seen such a big plate of steamed fish.

assam fish

The assam fish was appetizing. and everyone enjoyed the sauce. Best eaten with plain rice. The fish was nicely steamed and the collageney parts were yummy!

The bill came up to about RM82 and it fed 5 pax.

Kuru Kuru Japanese Restaurant @ Valley Point

Located at Level 1 of Valley Point, this shop is rather small. Lunch option include ala-carte, set meals (teishoku and bento sets) and buffet (@$26++ for adult). Was there to celebrate a friend's birthday, so opted for buffet.

interior

paintings adorning the wall

buffet menu (can be found online as well)

soy sauce

 Ordered hot green tea for drinks, while we pondered over the menu.

green tea

 After eliminating heavy duty carb stuffs like rice, noodles, handrolls, soups etc, our choices became somewhat limited...so we started off with sashimi; small assorted platter (12 pieces) and salmon.

sashimi moriawase (salmon, tuna, swordfish, seabass, octopus)

salmon sashimi

yellow tail sashimi

The sashimi was alright, but the salmon seemed to be sliced rather haphazardly. The wasabi was a little too mild for us, hence, no kick!

Then the deep fried stuffs came.

prawn tempura (1 piece per portion)

tori karaage (about 5-6 small pieces per plate)

The prawn tempura was nicely fried, but rather oily. Was disappointed that all items with unagi were unavailable on our day of visit, otherwise, would've ordered the unagi tempura... Tori karaage was nice but too bad the batter was lacking in flavour. Ordered another portion of prawn and vegetable tempura. The vegetables were just sweet potato and brinjal. Watch out for the brinjal though. It was soaked with oil! Sweet potato was nice though. Mildly sweet.

seasoned squid tentacles

The squid tentacles were quite yummy. The batter flavouring was just nice and the squid tentacles were firm without being too chewy.

From the Yoshoku section of the menu (japanese styled western dishes), ordered the scallops with cod roe and cheese. One order is just one tiny piece. It was prudent of us to order one portion to try. The scallop that I had, didn't taste that fresh.

tiny scallop with cod roe and cheese, it actually looked better than it tasted

Next, we had grilled items.

grilled mackerel with salt

tebasaki (just mid-wing) 1 piece per portion

grilled capelin aka shishamo

chicken meatballs (super duper salty sauce alert!)

grilled mushroom (abit too charred on its outerside)

insides still ok

I kind of liked the tebasaki, though it looked so skinny but then, I liked all kinds of chicken wings. Hmm. Probably I'm biased. The shishamo was nicely tender. But the chicken meatballs was a shocker to our tastebud. The sauce on it was way tooooo salty!

Then somewhere in the middle of our meal, we decided to order some appetisers.

potato salad (single portion)

baby octopus

Baby octopus? Such a misnomer...just look at the size of that thing!

Tried some of the items from its Ippin Mono or popular dishes menu.

beef with special sauce (best dish, hands down)

braised pork belly with soy sauce Tokyo style (too sweet!)

fried beansprouts (because we felt guilt for having so much meat)

My friend commented that the potato salad was too bland. That was until she tasted the extreme saltiness of the chicken meatballs and the extreme sweetness of the braised pork Tokyo style. The 'blandness' of the potato salad was heaven-sent to balance out those two extremes!

The only soft-shell crab in the buffet menu, was categorized under the Makimono  or mat roll items. Means, it had rice. Oh well, just try lor.

soft shell crab with wasabi mayo makimono

The still crunchy bits of the soft shell crab makes a good foil for the soft rice. The wasabi mayo was a tad too salty as well. But overall, it was tasty.

Service was alright and the restaurant seemed to have just two service staff on our day of visit to take care of getting customers' orders, serving, cleaning of plates, and cashiering duties. If you do not appreciate any surprises on the portion being served to you (especially nearing the end of your meal), then remember to tell the waitress because she assumed that we wanted a portion for each of us even when I've indicated that we wanted just one single portion.

Click here to view second visit.