It's been long since I write about anything. But let me share something that's close to my heart, Hokkaido.  Ever since I posted daily snippets of the trip on IG story, many have asked about this trip, eg. the budget, the itinerary. So if you are keen to find out more about an autumn trip in Hokkaido, where to go, where to stay, where to eat, please read this. Disclaimer: This trip was completed by my entire family of 8 adults and 2 toddlers. Transport was done via JR trains/metros in Sapporo and a rented mini bus (with a local Japanese driver) for the rest of the places.  DAY 1 ..read more

Having established its popularity in the CBD area for it's robust Sichuan noodles, Sichuan Alley has opened its second outlet recently in Capitol Singapore. With prices starting from $13.50, the noodles are surprisingly reasonably priced, considering that the restaurant is situated in another prime spot of SG. We thoroughly enjoyed the noodles during our visit, with the King Prawns Vine Pepper Rice Noodles leaving a deeper impression in us than the Braised Beef Rice Noodles. The former has a sharper taste profile verging on sour, salty and a numbing spiciness thanks to the vine pepper. The ..read more

I'm not a ramen connoisseur and I usually find that ramen tastes more or less the same. Bib gourmand awarded Iruca Tokyo's signature Porcini Shoyu Ramen (1800 yen) is slightly different - it's a blend of various dashi (seafood, prawns, pork, chicken) -- creating that extra depth and umami. The yuzu shio ramen (1200 yen) is much more straightforward - the broth is lighter, more refreshing thanks to yuzu but it came with more noodles?!?!. The accompanying meat is akin to Italian cold cut. Both bowls are salty (which ramen isn't?) but not an overkill. I think that's partly due to the nood ..read more

I have a weakness for taiyaki and I was stoked to find this shop that sells taiyaki with a fishy twist. The taiyaki comes in 3 different forms: iwashi (sardines) in red bean-cream cheese flavor, aji (horse mackerel) in seasonal flavor and asari (clam) in rum butter sweet potato. Spotted an azuki-butter flavor on the poster and immediately ordered that cos the love for azuki-butter to Japanese is just like kaya-butter to Singaporeans. The pancake batter is not too sweet, grilled to a nice golden brown. And the filling, oh-so-rich but yummy ? one costs about ¥360 which is so reasonable for th ..read more

Run by ex-Salted & Hung chef Drew Nocente, Cenzo is one of the latest additions in Club Street that offers casual Italian flavours with modern Australian influences. We ditched the $35 2-course set lunch and headed straight for the ala carte. No regrets as everything was tasty, some amazing. Menu is concise - appetizers, small plates, pastas, mains, vegetables and desserts. We had 3 small plates and 1 pasta, starting with the raw blue prawns with wakame sauce and sourdough toasts. The prawns didn't taste raw and were extremely fresh, synchronizing perfectly with the sauce. Only gripe wa ..read more

Our first stop in the getaway trip was lunch cum brunch at one of the hottest cafe in Canggu and possibly Bali @sensorium_bali. Was lucky that we got a seat for less than 5 min wait. Saw from reviews that the wait could be up to hours! Hard to put a word to the cuisine here as we get a bit of everything Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Australian. Starting from corn ribs smeared with chili mayo cheese lime, to that Korean scrambled eggs which saw the presence of kimchi and braised beef and seaweed? Quirky combo but it worked! Ditched their dry ramen and went for the award winning pra ..read more

The meal that made me look forward to last weekend. Last visited Artichoke years back and returned on a recent Saturday, only to be pleasantly surprised with a menu that has just been revamped -- 80% are new dishes. For instance, the mushroom babaganoush (pic right, smoked eggplant, 7-spice, chilli) is latest member to the Mezze section. So was the Fish Pastirma (pic left), a cured kingfish dish, which was decent but not as memorable as the babaganoush which kept our hands mopping up the sauce with the Turkish bread. I was glad to know that the fried cauliflower (pic left) and jewelled humm ..read more

The joy of chancing upon good food at unexpected places. That's the feeling after we dig into hearty Beef Pho, Beef Baguette and Broken Rice from Emina. According to Mothership's report, the stall is opened by a Emina Abdullah, a Vietnamese-born Muslim in June 2021. Good thing is that it is still operated by her with her husband's help The food is as authentic as it gets. The soothing beef pho ($6) is not overly salty and yet robust enough that makes you want to slurp it all up. There isn't much meat but you get a variety of beef slices, meatballs and braised beef tendon. And this is n ..read more

Visited on Diwali PH and the place was already quite packed for the 1100 seating (the next seating is at 1230). Food portions are actually bigger than most dimsum places so do order wisely, otherwise you might end up over ordering like us. What's good Baked Pastry with Chinese Ham and Scallion Szechuan Style Wanton with Hot Chili Sauce Steamed beef cheong fun (*contains coriander) Steamed Spare Ribs with Pumpkin and Minced Garlic Deep fried scallop with mango roll Mini egg tart Steamed black glutinous rice with dried scallop Braised beef brisket with radish Braised Sliced Kurobuta Pork wit ..read more

Read the review from 8dayseat about this 3 month old meat joint near my place and decided to head down for Saturday dinner. Two of the chefs used to work at 2-michelin star Zen.  Arrived at 10min past 5pm and was surprised to see that the indoor seats were already 50% taken up. Playing the safe cards, we went for all the dishes that's recommended by 8days eat. Meats were charged by the gram and we had 3 of them, 1 sandwich, 2 sides and 1 dessert to share btw 3 adults.  The meats were generally very well seasoned but on the salty side and could function without the sauce. Beef br ..read more