Itacho Sushi

When you are in Singapore do what's the S'poreans do_ que-ue !!! It was the mall day of our recent a week visit of Sg  and we got to Ion in Orchard Road. Lunch time came-up and a long queue infront of this Japanese resto got us (already with depleting wallet)  joined the wagon.

Hmmm, let's see what caused the queue here at Itacho Sushi. . half priced off! good. Also some selected sushi-s were on promo starting price at  50cents . better!



Finally after more than 30 minutes outside we were brought to a table. The place was jam-packed. Nevertheless, the service was quick and efficient.

We had one of the sushi on promo at 50cents per piece_ salmon with soy sauce sushi. It was okey, sweet and soft. We ordered a second plate of this.

Daughter had a bowl of eel on top of rice. She didn't like it. She was irritated with the presence of fish bones. I don't know to her, but the eel looks delish in the photo, agree?



 Bestfriend had a bowl of ramen /udon (not sure if beef or pork) and didn't like it too. This too looks delicious in the photo. Well, you know how photogenic Japanese dishes are, haha.

We enjoyed the salmon lobster salad roll. .



. .and ordered two more plates of it.

Somemore sushi, salmon seemed to be the our sushi of the day.



Well, it was nice that we had tried it. Now we the following are better choice : Sushi Tei and Sakae Sushi, next time the sushi craves hit us in the mall.

Tastes of Singapore

After enjoying the cable car ride, we alighted at Imbiah Lookout. We were an hour earlier for the Songs of the Sea show and decided to have dinner first at Tastes of Singapore.



The restaurant is spacious and cozy. We chose a corner table with the beautiful garden outside as the back draft. Don't be deceived by the bright daylight. It was actually getting near 7pm. I know, here in our country dinner means already dark night sky. There at Sg, the sun sets so much later.



This resto is in Sentosa. Nothing's cheap in a tourist destination. Although the menu serves familiar hawker's dishes, the place is definitely of higher class and touristy pricey. I noticed most of the customers on other tables were whites.

It was bittersweet that this dinner  was packaged with the ride and the show, cos it was an "eat all you can" and we weren't even that hungry.

we got this huge bowl of noodles, plus another huge bowl of seafood soup, plus another bowl of dimsums. .

two plates of this chicken rice. .

a big plate of fish and chips. .

and we had to finish everything then order another set!!! Are you kidding me?

In the end, we hardly finished each plate. Therefore didn't make it to another set of this "eat all you can". tsk.tsk. We left the table feeling guilty for the wasted food.

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice

At last I was able to try the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice during my most recent  (last week)  S'pore trip. At Maxwell Food Centre, I chanced upon a tolerable queue in front of Tian Tian and took it as a sign that it was about time. The reason for the doable queue was the holiday, some stalls were even closed for business. The rare times ( I think this was only the 3rd) that I got to eat at this hawkers center, Tian Tian always got the box office hit queue of customers. As a tourist, of course I don't usually have spare time to linger in a place.

The first photo was actually the queue for placing/paying your order. After which you have to go through another queue to claim your order. That's why there are two stalls occupied by Tian Tian. The two are actually inter connected. Can you spot that girl in the queue with a bowl, scooping iced dessert?

That's my daughter. she had to replace me in the queue cos I had to buy her other meal plate. She had enough of white chicken rice for this trip. The huge white man? We didn't know him, haha. He might be as curious as I was about Anthony Bourdain's claim that this particular chicken rice is the best.

No, this is not the one. It's a duck rice plate. I got it from another stall (forgot the name). This was for daughter. She hadn't tasted duck meat yet so I got it for her. The vendor suggested to add the egg for 50 cents. I did. I bought this meal set for less than sg$4, I think same price as the meal plate at Tian Tian.

This is the one! Compare it to above's duck rice plate. See how fresher and neater it looked. You can also notice the rice obviously of more expensive variant than the other plate above. Both came with soup.



Now we taste!  Compare to the past chicken rice I had tried ( here, here, here, here, here, and in many other eateries at Sg I had been too lazy to shoot) around Singapore, I thought Tian Tian's chicken was meaty, tender and especially fresh. The rice was definitely of quality rising above the others. I couldn't tell much about the chili cos daughter didn't get any. She took the sweet black sauce instead, which when you dip the chicken, it takes away the genuine taste of the dish. Overall, yes so far_ I would prefer Tian Tian's chicken rice than the others.

Bak Kut Teh

I was happy to see a Filipino stall at Rasapura Masters @ Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. I didn't realized that it was a Gerry's Grill (a popular bbq resto here in the Phils.) outlet then. I didn't notice their tiny signage. The stall was carrying Filipino Cuisine as a name. I was glad there's one to represent our own cuisine but I was in no way there to bore myself with my daily home dishes.
It was just another short visit to SG so might as well add more new dishes in my "foodictionary":))

I looked around the classy ( well, it must be. . it's in Marina Bay Sands !! haha ) food court featuring regional street foods and saw a lot of foreign sounding name dishes. Most of them I hadn't tried yet.

Bah Kut Teh was no news to me. But then I realized I haven't tried it yet at all . I only knew it by ears and never yet by tongue. I joined the progressing queue in front of the bah kuh teh stall and got myself a bowl of it for less than $10. I added a small bowl of rice cos the soup looked so bland and boring without anything to go with it.

It's actually a pork ribs soup. Authentic flavors achieved through simmering the ribs with a party of herbs. It looked so bland but actually tasted the opposite. It was so tasty it surprised me. Thu' I thought not strong enough to work well with the rice. Rice in general needs the strength of a flavorful viand to create harmonious flavors. Next time I think I would like it independent of a side dish or maybe I would try noddles with it but never rice again.



I'm definitely unsure if I was in the right place to have bak kut teh initiation, haha. First of all, it was still a food court and we all know how very commercial such place is. By "commercial" I meant we hardly get authenticity of a product. However, it was the best bak kuh teh I ever had. .it was so far the only one I had!! that's why, haha.

Roti Prata

Curry mutton with roti prata_ my brother's default choice of dish. whenever caught in the midst of food choices. He love Indian food and has particular penchant for the roti prata.
Roti prata is so boring, it is dependent on strong tasty dishes like those super hot curries. Nonetheless, I actually shared my brother's penchant on this bread. I also love it. .



.. more so on watching how it is being made.



From a tiny handful of dough, the cook went on the process of pulling and stretching. .



until each turned to a square flat bread and with bare hand_ he slapped each on top of a hot flat grill.



Brown, flat and square_ it's now ready to match anything tasty on the table.

Durian Mpire

Stumbled upon an outlet of Durian Mpire at T3 of Changi Airport. Over and over again, I shout - "I am a duarianholic!!!" For the record, this would be my fourth post on durian. All of which ( here , here and here ) show my addiction to the king of fruit and how often I crave for it but life is unfair_ it's a rare fruit in my city, I hardly get a chance to indulge on it

But in Singapore, everything is available 24/7 in every corner. Lucky citizens!
 Durian, durian. .ohh how I love thee. . let me count the ways. .



I love durian as it is_ raw and simply fruit, but I can't deny the fact that I do enjoy it in its so many forms (pastries, ice cream, candy, etc) especially when  I found out more variations of it when I visited the province where it hails in my country_ Davao. I thought I've seen enough of durian's revolution. But here at Durian Mpire _wow! Look - crepe, puff, mousse, mochi , and the cakes !



I could go on the whole day tasting each of them.. but instead, I was happy to have tried  their signature durian cake. Heaven!

Sushi Tei - Raffles City

Looking at this photo makes me salivate and wants to run to the next Japanese resto in our area, but there's none x two. 1). No near Japanese resto here and 2). no maki like this in my country or I haven't found yet? This is my forever favorite maki from Sushi Tei in Singapore. I tried to look for it at Sakae Sushi, a Japanese resto also from Singapore which luckily we have a chain here in our country but the latter is not serving my fave maki.

Lots of similarities with each other, Sushi Tei has also conveyor belt serving sushi and maki just like Sushi Sakae.

Japanese Kaiten (conveyor belt).

It prides the open kitchen concept which seems to be  a norm to Japanese restos.

I gathered that Sushi Tei chains are all over Singapore, in other neighboring Asian cities and  even some branches in New York and Sydney. In Singapore, we frequent the one in Raffles City.

Popular with reasonably priced assorted Japanese dishes, ambiance here is never a statement of price tags. It even surprised me when girlfriend told me that it was not an upscale resto (although located in a shopping mall, the interior deceived me. Cos in my third world country a restaurant with this interior design is already upscale or is it just me being naive? haha.

After a long queue, we made it to a table right beside the conveyor belt which was ok cos we planned to slurp on sushi and maki.

Apart from the ones from the conveyor, on our table was the freshest sashimi . .

beef teriyaki and some bowls of ramen.



Now I want them all for lunch!! waaah!!

Discovery Food Court

At UStudios, SG, we were at The Lost World area  when the clock stroked near mid noon. Lunch time!



Right across the Jurassic Park with the same theme was the Discovery Food Court which offered  Singapore’s best selection of laksa, chicken rice and other local delights.

The building was exactly like the one featured in the movie Jurassic Park with the giant dino fossil.The fear of anticipation for raptors attacking you was inevitable. haha.

Good thing we went in a tad earlier ( which made a heavenly difference) before the queue became horrible.

It was our 4th day in SG and would you believe, we hadn't eaten a single plate of chicken rice yet. So at this point, we were actually already salivating for it.

I still preferred the one without skin. Loveth!

They want theirs with browned skin.

Each set meal came with a soy pudding. Not my type. I like our taho better, haha.



Gotta get out from here before a velociraptor finds me, hahaha. Yummy lunch!