A trip to Kyoto would not be complete without a night out in Pontocho alley, a long and narrow stretch lined with numerous restaurants and bars.
Continue readingKyoto soba three ways
From their menu, you can infer that they get quite a lot of gaijin tourists, because there’s a helpful guide in English on how to eat soba. What’s missing from the guide though, is the most important fourth step: slurp the noodles as loudly as possible.
Continue readingThe complete ryokan experience at Shiraume Kyoto
Tomoko-san is an impeccable host and runs her beautiful inn perfectly. I’ve heard the term omotenashi used many times before, but nowhere is this more evident than at Shiraume.
Continue readingGreen tea pilgrimage to Ippodo Kyoto
I’m addicted to coffee but I do enjoy an occasional cup of tea, especially if it’s from Taiwan or Japan. Since we were spending a few days in Kyoto, it would have been incomplete if we didn’t pay a visit to the Ippodo Tea main store on Teramachi Street.
Continue readingKyo Kaiseki in the heart of Gion
Having a Japanese kaiseki meal is an experience in itself, and there is no better place to enjoy it than in Kyoto, where it originated.
Continue readingSpending an entire day at the Osaka Kaiyukan
The Osaka Kaiyukan (海遊館) is one of the largest aquariums in the world and is a great place to spend an entire day when you’re visiting Osaka. It has dolphins, penguins, sea lions, whale sharks, capybaras and all sorts of marine life from around the world.
Continue readingTeppanyaki at the butcher’s shop
Where do you go for nice but reasonably-priced Kobe beef teppanyaki? First, you take the train to Kobe. Second, you opt for lunch and third, you choose a butcher’s shop that also happens to run a restaurant upstairs.
Continue readingCrab diem, seize the crab!
The Wife and I are huge crab fans and satisfy our cravings at various seafood restaurants in Singapore — chilli crab, black pepper crab, steamed crab, curry crab, crab beehoon, cold crab — you get the idea. So when we found a restaurant in Osaka that served crab kaiseki, we had no choice but to go.
Continue readingThe best chicken rice in Singapore
Let’s say there is one chicken rice shop for every 1,000 people living in Singapore. Given a population of about 5.6 million, there should be around 5,600 places selling chicken rice. And among all these places, Sinn Ji Hainanese Chicken Rice makes the best one in Singapore.
Continue readingMaking Mommy Oh’s Korean tofu pancakes
Tofu is one of our favourite foods and The Wife keeps a ready supply in our fridge. When we saw a recent video from Mina Oh’s Youtube channel sweetandtastyTV showing her mother making Korean tofu pancakes at home, we decided to give it try.
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