Takoyaki @ Tsukiji Gindaco

Takoyaki is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger and green onion. It is then topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi flakes.

Takoyaki Gindaco has come all the way from Japan to Singapore. They has more than 300 stalls all across Japan that served takoyaki ball, yakisoba and macha drinks. So be prepared to wait, as there is always a indefinite queue at the new outlet located in Basement 4, ION Orchard. But lucky today, we managed to get our food in less than 15 minutes despite of the long queue.

Tsukiji Gindaco has many choices of menu in Japan, you can take a look at the link provided (here). We have only one and only favour in Singapore and the Takoyaki are fried till outer crust is golden brown like shown in the picture above.

We ordered the Takoyaki & Macha Drink set which cost S$6.00 rather than the Takoyaki itself which is S$4.80(for 6 dumplings). The cold Japanese Macha drink is great, it's really thick and full of flavour. It is pure green tea without even a hint of sugar. I find that this Macha drink taste best when chill and it's really a great drink to go with these Takoyaki. Do grab a set of this when you drop by ION basement 4.... it's worth queuing if you love Takoyaki.

Modern Peking Duck

Peking Duck is always one of the most popular dish to be ordered in most of the Chinese Restaurant in Singapore. The dish is famous for it's thin, crispy skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners. It is often wrapped with egg crepes, spring onions, and hoisin sauce. But now instead of spending $60+ and above to have 10 over pieces of these Peking Duck parcels served in the restaurants. You can simply get a box of 5 pieces Peking Duck Parcels @ S$6.00 at the ION Basement 4, Food Mall.

Other than the Peking Duck, they also has another Hot item call "The Big Pig" which is the roasted pig cost S$6.00 for 200g and it is served in a box with sweet dark sauce and chilli sauce. Although this is different from the Suckling Pig which taste much better, but it is still worth trying if you love those crispy and crunchy skin........

The store here at ION is owned by the "Toh Family", under the Yan Chuan Roaster brand name whom has been in the roast meats business for more than 30 years. From then news report, the branch can sell up to a maximum of 3 roasted pig a day since opening. Since we are early that day, we managed to capture a photo of the Whole Roasted Pig before being chopped into serving pieces........

And since, it near to lunch hours, the kitchen stuffs are busying slices the Peking Duck skin and wrapped it with the egg crepes and brushed with hoisin sauce.

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

What do you usually have for breakfast? A slice of bread with butter and jam, some fried noodles, or either some cereal with milk? No matter what you have, in Singapore you won't be troubled by food. You can have all kind of choices range from Western to Asian depending on what you prefer for that day.

Most of the Singaporean will like to have this quick and easy breakfast of the half-boiled egg with kaya toasts that served with a cup of freshly brew coffee for their morning breakfast or even afternoon tea-snacks. You can find this type of combination served in local coffee shop or specialized cafe like one of this called "Ya Kun Kaya Toast".

They many branches located in Asian countries like Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and etc. And they have about 30 branches located in different shopping area around Singapore. Their range of Egg & Toast set comes in different combination that you might want to take a closer look in their menu.(click here, check under Ya Kun Menu) Although most of us here have already known and eaten these but just for the interest of some other readers, I will roughly introduce some of the usual orders that most of us will take.

~ 1. Half-boiled Eggs which is freshly made upon ordering and it's usually eaten with some pepper & dark soy sauce. But most of us will like to dip or soak the toast in the egg and eat together with it.

~ 2. Singapore Style Coffee which is rich and full of aroma. This is very different from the western coffee which you really should give it a try. It usually consists of a few combination like, Black Coffee(Kopi O), White Coffee(Kopi - coffee with condensed milk) or Kopi Si(coffee with evaporate milk).

~ 3. French Toast & Kaya which is fried bread with beaten egg and served with some extra Ya Kun Kaya as dipping sauce or spread.

~ 4. Kaya Toast is actually two slices of toasted bread sandwich with butter and Ya Kun very own signature Kaya.

Ban Leong Seafood Restaurant

Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood Restaurant (万隆华和海鲜菜馆) is situated the residential area of Casuarina Road which is near the Upper Thomson Road. They served Great "Seafood Zhe Char" at an incredibly affordable prices. As this stall is extremely occupied during weekends, it is best to call ahead to reserved a table in order to save time on waiting. Other than dine-in, they also provided take-away orders on the phone too.

We arrived at about 7.10pm and almost all the tables were occupied and each of the tables will have at least one crab order which is either their signature Chilli Crab or whatsoever. While waiting for the food to be served, Rey and I went around the restaurant to take some shots on their seafood.

As we are celebrating Mum's Birthday with some friends and relatives, we ordered quite a number of dishes which a few of it I didn't managed to take a clear shot of them due to the poor lighting late in the evening as well as our table position. So I will just leave you with these 8 dishes:-

~ 1: Stir-fry Kai Lan which is not over cook and still remain crunchy and it comes with a special fragrant seems like pepper......

~ 2: Birthday Noodles was actually a plate of Fried Mee Sua with generous amounts of squid, eggs, bean sprouts, prawns and surprised some deep-fried quail eggs(which resemble mini fishball).

~ 3: Xia Zhao(虾枣) which is similar to Wu Xiang but is deep-fried in individual pieces consists of minced meat, prawn, yam, water chestnut and spices. The Xia Zhao here is rather crisp on the outer skin and it goes well with their special sweet dipping sauce. I prefer this more than the shrimp-paste fried chicken.

~ 4: Shrimp-paste Fried Chicken is seasoned with shrimp-paste and some other ingredients then coat with fry and deep-fried until crisp on the outer skin but still the inner meat is still tender and juicy.

We ordered 3 crabs but cooked in two different methods which one is their signature Chilli Crab while the other one is in Butter flavour. Other than the crabs, we also have deep-fried fish with dark soy sauce, sweet and sour pork and hot-plate deer meat(铁板鹿肉).

~ 1. Signature Chili Crabs that served with gorgeous amount of egg sauce gravy and deep-fried mantou. As I am not a great fan of Crab, I only eat the mantou with the gravy. But overall, the taste is great.

~ 2. Butter Crab has a very unique fragrant and taste which covers with a thick layer of crispy fritters which I think is deep-fried egg. It has a very nice butter taste and most of us prefer this than the chilli crab.

~ 3. Deep-fried Fish cooked with dark soy sauce is rather salty on the sauce, but overall the fish is still fresh and not oily even though it had been deep-fried.

~ 4. Sweet & Sour Pork is one of my brother's favourite dish but then I find that their gravy is kind of sour. Maybe they have added too much plum sauce or tomato sauce.