Day trip to 浅草 Asakusa

2015-11-29 16.09.14After our sumptuous lunch at the Farmer’s Market, we took a train to Asakusa and visited the 浅草文化観光センター Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center observation deck first.

2015-11-29 15.58.48This was a new building and it wasn’t there when we last visited Tokyo individually (but then it was really really long ago that both hubby and I visited Tokyo individually). 🙂

From here we could get a bird’s eye view of the 仲見世通り Nakamise Shopping Street which is a lead-up to 浅草寺 Senso-ji Temple.

Asakusa is a nice area to visit, with an impressive 雷門 Kaminarimon Gate leading to a street of cute, traditional Japanese fares and wares, right up to an equally impressive 浅草寺 Senso-ji Temple which is the oldest temple in Tokyo and one of its most significant.

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Categories: Tokyo, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

ファーマーズマーケット@国連大学前 Farmer’s Market at UNU @Shibuya

2015-11-29 13.53.422015-11-29 14.14.04For this trip, we were searching for special events in Tokyo and found that there was a regular weekend farmer’s market at United Nations University.

Hubby was very excited about this, and so we planned to go there for lunch. We had initially thought that we would be snacking there, but it turned out that there was actually an entire section devoted to food, with food trucks, proper tables and seats 😀

We tried:

  • Tomato Ketchup Omu Rice Set (¥800) from 東京オムレツ: This was a hearty portion of omu rice and vegetables. The omulette was fluffy and the tomato fried rice inside was flavourful.
  • Bacon and Egg Pancake (¥450) from Betty’s Pancake: This was a surprised find! The soft and fluffy pancake covered a huge piece of tender bacon, egg mayo and green vegetable to make a very delicious mouthful!

We were pleasantly surprised by the good quality of the food here! Hope that we will have a chance to re-visit next time to try out the other food trucks 🙂

Contact:

  • Location: 5-53-70 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0001, Japan 〒150-00001 東京都渋谷区神宮前5–53–70 国際連合大学前広場
  • Nearest Station: JR Shibuya Station 渋谷駅
  • Direction: From JR Shibuya Station take the exit towards Aoyama Dori and walk along Aoyam Dori until you reach UNU.
  • Websitewww.farmersmarkets.jp
  • Hrs: 10am – 4pm (Sat-Sun)
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Tokyo | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

なんつッ亭・品達店 Nantsuttei Shinatatsu @Shinagawa

2015-11-28 19.32.14We finally made our last trip of 2015 to the Land of the Rising Sun! And this time we started from Tokyo!

Our first real meal in Tokyo was at Shinagawa. We met JL, who recently started working in Tokyo. Funny that we always meet up when we are out of Singapore… 😛

Anyway, she used the powerful Google Maps to navigate our way to the Shinatatsu Ramen Street 品川駅前「麺達七人衆 品達」. This is an area below the railway tracks of JR Shinagawa Station 品川駅 which has a collection of 7 ramen shops. And Nantsuttei is the first one as you walked into the area (and incidentally one of the only two that were still operating, the others were closed for renovations because of some construction going on at the railway tracks).

Nantsuttei started from Kanagawa and has now quite a number of branches in Tokyo, Thailand and Singapore too (Orchard Central). There is quite a following for its celebrity founder Ichirô Furuya, and judging from the queue that we were seeing at the Shinatatsu branch, this was the ramen for us!

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Categories: Dinner, Tokyo | Tags: , | 2 Comments

The Carvery @Park Hotel Alexandra

2015-11-16 21.24.22I was around the area these few days and hubby decided to travel all the way here to have dinner together 🙂

Park Hotel Alexandra has just opened recently beside IKEA Alexandra (one of the few up and coming hotels located away from the crowded downtown area). He thought that The Carvery looked pretty good, so he booked a table for two and that was where we were headed!

Located on the 7th floor of the hotel, where the pool was, we enjoyed quite a lovely view of the area. It felt very relaxing to be here! The restaurant was spacious and since it was a weekday, there were not many customers around so we felt like we had the entire restaurant to ourselves!

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Phuket 2015 Itinerary

2015-11-08 15.11.35We got off to a great start at Changi Airport, thanks to the complimentary 2-hour airport lounge access by Far East Organisation, after our recent stayacation with them at Orchard Parade Hotel. As we did not have any check-in luggage and had done our online check-in, we were able to go straight to the document check counter to obtain a printed boarding pass (not sure why we were unable to print it ourselves). Anyway, this queue was very short and definitely much faster! With more than 3 hours prior to flight departure, we happily went in search of the lounge!

Located one floor above and opposite gate C1, it was quiet and relatively empty. One could choose the seats near the viewing gallery, a more private rest corner with reclining arm chairs, or even a room to snooze in. There were also shower facilities. We rested a while in the comfortable arm chairs, before moving out for an early lunch, as well as reading of newspapers and magazines. There were plenty of food and drinks available, and we especially enjoyed the ramen, laksa, char kway tiao and cookies.

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Categories: Phuket, Thailand, Travel | Tags: | Leave a comment

Thiwsoen Seafood Restaurant @Mai Khao

2015-11-10 20.50.58Located about 10-minute walk away from Marriott Vacation Club Resort and Spa, we read about its relatively good food in Tripadvisor and decided to go explore!

From the main entrance of the resort, we made a right turn and pretty much just followed the road and then a right turn at the junction and just continued to walk and walk. The sun was setting as we strolled, aand it was all dark by the time we arrived at the rows of stalls. We did not really check out the rest of the stalls, but made our way somewhere just past the middle to Thiwsoen.

We were given seats at a little hut, and a basin of water and insect repellent arrived at our table, how thoughtful! Without the insect repellent, we would have been covered with bites.

Food prices were comparable to Kin Dee, and we decided to sample a few dishes:

  • Shrimp Cake (200B): Soft and slightly fluffy, the fried shrimp cakes were not dense like the crab cakes that we had at Kin Dee. The batter had plenty of shrimp bits and was yummy!
  • Fried Morning Glory (100B): Quite standard stir fry Kang Kong with bean paste, that was abit too salty.
  • Hor Mok Steamed Seafood with Curry Paste in Coconut (280B): A form of Thai curry fish custard, this was the winner of the night. It was super fragrant, and the shrimps, crab claws and squids were very fresh and sweet. Scrapping off the coconut flesh and eating with the slightly sweet and spicy curry was a bonus!

Overall, it was quite a lovely meal, minus the mosquitoes, and the cute little boy running all over taking orders and serving food gave this little family-run eatery a even more welcoming feel, and we left the place happily, with our phone flashlights on, as we made our way back along the now almost-dark roads.

Contact:

  • Location: Mai Khao, Thalang District, Phuket, Thailand
  • Hrs: Dinner hours
Categories: Dinner, Phuket, Thailand, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Kin Dee Restaurant @Mai Khao

So we went on a short vacation (again), after hubby finished his BIG project of the year! This time we went Phuket on accepting an invite from my friend from Marriott Vacation Club!

We took a 25-minute stroll from Marriott Vacation Club to this highly recommended restaurant outside the resort. It was a fairly straight forward route, just turn left upon exiting the main gates, and follow the road till we reached the main road. From there, we turned left again and continue to walk till we past by a tiny local shop. Right across it was an air-conditioned mini-mart, with a small road leading inwards to Kin Dee Restaurant.

We were glad that we made it in time, because barely 10 minutes after we were seated, it started to rain! We enjoyed the food so much that we decided to order in the next day. They deliver directly and free to the resort (we just need to meet them at the gates), and it costs the same as eating in. No additional tax or service charge, making this a cheaper alternative to food within the resort. We did find that food quality dropped for delivery, e.g. fried stuff were no longer as crispy or hot, so a bit of walking is still highly recommended! Or you could pay 500B for a return trip with the local taxi, inclusive of the driver’s waiting time. Not very worth in our opinion, since it was just a 6 minute ride.

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Categories: Dinner, Phuket, Thailand, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Five by Five @Thomson V One

2015-10-24 10.38.21We were here so many times but they always ran out of mains or waffles!!

So finally, on a fine Saturday morning, we decided to try just one last time before giving up (they can’t possible run out of mains or waffles from the morning right?)…

And this time, we managed to get seats and food 😀

We were glad that we made the effort to come here again (and again, and again…), because the food was so yummy!

In fact, we returned 4 days later for dinner 😛

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Categories: Breakfast, Dinner, North | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

THREE by Table Concepts @Seletar Mall

After an early morning movie date on Mars, we popped by THREE for lunch!

With Thai, French and Japanese options available, we were really quite spoilt for choice! Our decisions led us to…

  • Thai Garlic Pork ($9.80++): Served with the refreshing Thai mango salad, the pork was slightly dry but it was quite flavourful and the taste kinda grew on to us as we kept chewing.
  • Penne & Roasted Chicken ($16.80++): The half chicken was really quite huge, and very juicy. The penne was not bad, but it got a little gelat when it cooled off.
  • Signature Duck Leg & Linguine ($23.80++): This was supposed to be the signature, but unfortunately, it was slightly disappointing. The duck confit was quite dry and became really greasy after some time. The Aglio Olio linguine was more spicy than usual, but we liked the texture.
  • Thai Chendol ($6.80++): A rather sweet dessert served with red ruby and jackfruit strips, gula melaka and coconut milk, I really enjoyed the different layers of intense and aromatic flavours. My favourite item of the meal 🙂

Water was self service, and we were seated just next to it, so it was really convenient! There were a few orange slices within the water container, giving the water a slightly refreshing taste.

Overall, some hits and misses, and certainly something different from the usual chain restaurants found in shopping malls.

Contact:

  • Location: 33 Sengkang West Avenue Seletar Mall #03-37, #03-K1,K2,K3 S(797653)
  • Websitewww.facebook.com/ThreeSG
  • Hrs: 11am – 10pm
Categories: East, Lunch | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tendon Ginza Itsuki @Tanjong Pagar

2015-10-24 18.42.23We finally tried it!!

On this not-too-particularly-hungry early evening, we figured that we could probably withstand a bit of queuing 😛 The queue started from around the corner of the shop (it’s located at the end of the building) to almost the end of the building wall when we arrived, only about 30 minutes into dinner service. The shop was very socially responsible and put up the PSI level at the start of the queue to remind customers on the haze situation.

Some time into the queue, a waiter came out and asked for the number of persons in our party, and to take our orders. We couldn’t really remember how long we took to queue for seats. Maybe around 30-45 minutes, judging from the timestamp of our photos. 🙂

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Categories: Dinner, South | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

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