Singapore Food Blog - Sanpoutei Ramen 三宝亭

Location: Holland Village, Singapore

Recommended: W Soup Tonkutsu Ramen (SGD17)

After Hatched, this was the second time I visited Holland Village for lunch, and unlike the last, this was a ramen shop. It was recommended as our destination for a get together, and off we went to visit my latest ramen experience.

It wasn't difficult to locate the Sanpoutei Ramen, its distinctively Japanese shop front gave itself away with bamboo decors, its name in gold emblazoned across carbon black backgrounds. Its interior, though small and packed, was likewise decorated, immersing diners in an atmosphere as close to Japanese as they can muster.

Sanpoutei Ramen, from Niigata since 1967. Quite a history.

Singapore Food Blog - Sakae Teppanyaki @ Plaza Singapura

Location: Dhoby Ghaut, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore

I am familiar with Sakae Sushi (who isn’t?) but not with its teppanyaki offering restaurant. My wife however tried it once with a friend and was absolutely hooked to it. After a few prodding from her, I finally agreed to give it a try, choosing the branch in Plaza Singapura since this is one of the malls which we frequented. For your information, Sakae Teppanyaki has a smaller business footprint compared to Sakae Sushi. There are currently only 7 branches in total in Singapore as opposed to the 35 from its sushi cousin (that’s the count I got from their website). 

Front entrance of Sakae Teppanyaki

Singapore Food Blog - Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King （豚骨王）

Location: Tanjong Pagar, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore

Those familiar with the Tanjong Pagar area may notice a long queue at a corner of Orchid Hotel just near the Tanjong Pagar MRT station. A closer look would reveal a wildly popular ramen restaurant called Ramen Keisuke, which had received rave reviews online. To differentiate this branch with the few others under the same owner, this was suffixed with 'Tonkotsu King'.

I was recommended to this ramen restaurant after our outing at Department of Caffeine, a session which lasted from mid afternoon to late evening. Since Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King was right near Tanjong Pagar MRT station and we were heading that way, we decided that we could try our luck getting fed here. Although it received a mixed review from my gang, I personally like the dish for its broth's superior taste.

The banner carrier

Guest Blogger Edith - Best Sushi at Sushi Zanmai

A special appearance from guest blogger Edith from ApplesOnSticks.com! If you are wondering who Edith is, below is a short introduction to get readers excited! Ever wonder how a Hungarian would feel about sampling sushi in Kuala Lumpur? Read on to get to know her!

She always liked to write and has an opinion about almost anything; therefore, it only occurred naturally that she started up her own blog, with the latest being applesonsticks.com. Here Edith posts about random stuff about her broad interests. Right now, she is working in KL, Malaysia, and therefore has a lot of new thoughts to share, especially about food. Read more below to get to know more about a Hungarian's view of food in Malaysia! Stay tuned in the future for more of her appearance, and definitely should visit her blog to get updated feeds!

I was never really fond of sushi, and where I come from, it’s usually just coupled with some kind of meat like seafood or chicken, which limited my choices by 98%. Before tasting sushi in Asia, I literally only had cucumber and avocado sushi as vegetarian ones, and that got pretty boring at one point. With Sushi Zanmai however, this old experience turned into a completely new amazing experience. Now I love sushi, and I definitely love going to this place!

First of all, the wide choices of sushi they serve is pretty impressive. When I ordered my dishes last time I was there, I over-ordered because I couldn't choose. I ordered four, and ended up with eating a little bit of everything, I was full by the end, and still couldn't finish everything. All four were vegetarian, surprisingly enough, and there were much more choices, if only I could've taken them. Here are some of the sushi me and my friends ordered:

Singapore Food Blog - Element buffet dinner @ Amara Hotel

Location: Tanjong Pagar, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore.

I guess that any search online for Amara Hotel's buffet dinner will result in numerous reviews sharing individual experience of dining there after purchasing online discounted coupons which were available just recently. So here's another piece to add to that growing list.

Welcome to 165 Tanjong Pagar Road!

Malaysia Food Blog - Taipei 101 (台北101)

Location: Bayan Lepas, Penang Isle

No, this is not about that tall building in Taiwan. This is about a shop situated right opposite of Queensbay Mall, with its yellow sign gleaming through day and night. Indeed, the same establishment was originally called Mommy Wang (王妈妈), and after they started operating for a while they switched to this name which you can see across the street from Queensbay Mall's entrance.

Most of the joints near or in Queensbay Mall are not exactly for one with is not on a splurge. If you are one of those with a limited budget, and still would like to get a decent meal that is different from your usual ones, then I would definitely suggest Taipei 101.

Malaysia Food Blog - Tsurukame Shabu-shabu (鶴亀しゃぶしゃぶ)

Location: Bayan Lepas, Penang Isle

I noticed this shop located on the 3rd floor of Queensbay Mall but seldom pay any heed to it. I was slightly aware that this was a Japanese restaurant, but that was the extent of my knowledge of this place, until I paid it a visit during my girlfriend's birthday. We were thinking of trying something different for her birthday and Tsurukame came to my mind, since we never tried Japanese shabu-shabu before, and so there we went.

Tsurukame Shabu-shabu (鶴亀しゃぶしゃぶ) actually reminds me of Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant (鶴屋日本料理), another Japanese restaurant located in I-Avenue; I actually half expected the same thing when I entered. What Tsurukame offered was a buffet style shabu-shabu, not unlike the buffet style hot pot (火锅) in Chinese restaurants which bloomed recently.