In this world, not everything that happen will be bad. And I believe some things occur in one way or the other, for a reason. It must be fate that I get to know Cream Puff (C). I remember vividly the first time we met; she was sitting in a corner, dainty, and oh yes, stunning. I hesitated a while, then with the corniest pick up line that I can think of, I approached her:

“Hello, my name is Brad. I couldn’t help but noticed you when I walked by just now, and it will be such a regret if I didn’t say hi. I know this may sound superficial, but you are really pretty, can I get to know you?”

With that, we became lovers. It’s almost like an affair actually, I mean you don’t go around telling everyone about your great love. We are friends, we are lovers, we are soul-mates, we are life companions; she’s the half apple that I have been searching for.

I love you because I know you will always be there, whenever I’m feeling down and unhappy, when we are seeking for some thrill, when I need nobody, nobody, but you. I love you because you never fail to make me smile, our kisses are the best thing ever in this world, there’s nothing so magical, and wonderful. I love you, because I love you.

Give me a cream puff, and I will love you forever.

Forever, till the far side of forever? That was before I met Mont Blanc (M). I’m not sure if this is what you call destiny, but I’m very sure our meeting was a beautiful accident that was always meant to happen. In every way, she was very different from C. If C is summer, M will be winter. The former is full of passion, warmth and love, but the latter is the exact opposite; she’d keep me at an arm’s length and push me away, she’d ignore me whenever I tried to get to know her. Maybe this is why I’m so attracted to her. Man always like to chase, the things that we cannot have – all the more we will try and get it.

I shouldn’t be telling you all this, now it makes me feel guilty to C. I’m sure I told you this before,  C is incredible, like really really incredible. She kissed me lightly on the lips, and before I knew it, I swallowed her in a mouthful. I’m not sure if there’s anything on this world that can make me so happy.

But I like M too. I knew of her existence from a long time back, but somehow, she never interest me even though there were countless of opportunities for us to get acquainted. Her chestnut cream, was surprisingly, not as sweet as I thought, and somehow I’m grateful that the chestnut taste was quite subtle as I have never been a fan of the nut. Oh, the dilemma. I like Mont Blanc dessert too.

In between our love triangle, there’s Matcha Chiffon. I like her, in a platonic way. You don’t believe in platonic friends? Neither do I. But we seem to be able to get along very well, to begin with, she’s light, moist and airy in all the right places, and I did mentioned that she’s matcha right?

With this Matcha chiffon, will you please forgive me?

Restaurant Review
Tampopo Deli
177 River Valley road
#B1-16 Liang Court
Tel: 6338 7386

This is a story of boy meets love, and you should know up front, this is definitely a love story. Boy meets dessert, boy fall in love, oh yes, this is a happily-ever-after ending.

The Tart pudding was highly raved upon by the staff at Tampopo Deli; we decided to get it since there’s no harm trying – I mean how bad can custard and tart be? It’s almost like an egg tart, albeit in an Japanese manner, so lets just call this the Japanese egg tart. I enjoyed every bite of the crispy tart, with the soft eggy custard sitting on top; it was not wow, but pretty good.

Meet Chiffon, she’s terrific, if I may: light, moist and airy in all the right places. The texture of the chiffon is amazingly soft, and it’s one of those things that you have totally no idea of what you are eating, and you just keep putting more into your mouth, until it’s gone. And there’s the shredded cheese which gave the light chiffon an additional distinct taste. This is it.

Cream puff is one of my all-time favourite dessert – they are incredible. Like really really incredible. The sweet Japanese cream within the crispy choux pastry was amazing, I took a bite and I don’t know if there’s any thing else that can make me feel so happy. I swear – Tampopo Deli has one of the best cream puffs!

Apparently, the cream puffs are in such great demand that they get sold out very fast. Either make a call to reserve them, or go on the hourly spot (they baked each batch by the hour). There’s no denying that I have a massive sweet tooth. Cookies, chocolate, fudge cake, cheesecake, give them to me, give them all to me. Can you ever say no to them? In short, I like anything sweet, I’m definitely a dessert-holic! It’s so tempting to just order every single dessert from the shelf, and for now, boy will meet love in the dreams.

Tampopo Deli
177 River Valley road
#B1-16 Liang Court
Tel: 6338 7386

Tampopo Deli is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

The best of everything. The sashimi platter ($120) was the highlight of our meal and we started with a bang; there’s tuna, pink prawns, hirame, uni (sea urchin). Every slice was so fresh, I could see the glitter in my dining companions eyes. While I’m not a big fan of “raw fish”, it’s definitely a feast for the eyes and treat for the palate to have it prepared so exquisitely.

The Sakura set dinner ($58 per set) which included appetiser of assorted braised vegetables Japanese style, spicy dynamic oyster, sushi roll. For sashimi there’s tuna, salmon and oyster, and this was followed by a steamed dish of chawanmushi, with a deep fried tofu from the land behind. The two mains would be grilled chicken and wagyu beef burger, if that’s not enough, there’s hot udon served with kakiage. And finally rounding off the meal with a chef’s special dessert.

The four of us ordered two sets to share because there was so much else to order from the ala carte menu!

Fortunately, the assortment of sashimi from the set menu came early, and an innocent question “more sashimi?” led to the fantastic sashimi platter you saw on the first photo.

I love eggs, all kinds of them; fried, half boiled, scrambled, sunny side-up, poached ones, anything – except steamed eggs. There are bits of chicken, crab stick, boiled prawns, ginko nuts, and shitake mushroom within the Chawanmushi.

The deep fried tofu and cheese wrapped with soy bean skin is up next, at first sight the sticky cheese looked promising, but upon tasting there wasn’t much wow – the cheese’s not enough and the whole taste was subtle, bordering on bland.

Our first main course of the menu came piping hot, the grilled chicken was served on a hot stone which was specially brought back from Mount Fuji, to ensure the meat retained its optimum temperature – while we took photographs!

Umami’s rendition of wagyu beef burger came in the form of two “meatballs”, while there was nothing spectacular of its appearance, the meat was sure tasty!

Hot udon served with kakiage was the last item on the Sakura menu before dessert. The tasting portion of the menu covered a variety and was decent, there’s two other set dinners at $88 and $128.

And now it’s where the real dinner starts, our selections from the ala carte menu.

A simple deep fried dried cuttlefish ($8) brought us back to the appetiser stage, and prepared us for all the food coming.

I enjoyed the Grilled cod wrapped with lettuce ($16) tremendously. The fish was lightly grilled on the outside and tasted good on its own. But it’s when we wrapped it within the lettuce, Korean-style, and the crunchiness of the lettuce supplemented and enhanced the freshness of the cod.

Clearly, the spicy dynamic oyster ($16 for 3) was everyone’s favourite. Befitting of its name, it had us on first bite in the Sakura menu and we ordered again. The tangy sauce was oh my god, so good! We slurped down the delicious oyster, and did not waste a single drop of the sauce. The best oysters in Singapore, and no, it’s not raw.

The comprehensive sushi menu made it difficult for us to choose from, but in the end for the love of salmon, we went for the Avocado salmon roll ($12). An elongated plate with eight pieces of makis, was indeed value for money.

A whole chunk of it, right in front of our eyes. The scared foie gras ($33), grilled with teriyaki sauce. Oh-oh-oh! Lightly grilled on the outside yet retaining a soft pink within, I swallowed it down – gulped, and wish that time stood still at that moment.

We were all excited by the Japanese beef – Umami served top grade wagyu! A sizzling sound signal the arrival of something magnificent, the marbling was so rich & dense that the meat literally melted in our mouth. I looked around and tried to speak, but no words came; I just allowed myself to quietly finish the meat, and inside I was secretly hoping there was more of this. It’s like totally God’s gift to mankind. Our jaws dropped when we heard that it’s a current promotional price of just $38 instead of the usual $60.

My previous encounter with Kurobuta pork was enough to tell me it’s good stuff, so when we browsed through the “from the land” menu, I immediately ordered the Braised kurobuta pork belly ($12).

“Eeekk!” The girls exclaimed when it was served. The fatty layers were enough to scare off the others, but not me. One bite of the braised pork belly, and one sip of beer, what more can you ask for?

The Rolled omelette with truffle oil ($8 for 5 pieces) was also one of Umami’s signature dishes. You like Japanese omelette? You will like this.

Like what the manager Nigel had mentioned, although the US Black Angus beef ($38) is great, but it’s not in the same league as the Japanese wagyu; the former is like human while the latter is god. The Angus tasted ordinary considering we had gone to heaven with the wagyu – the marbling was just not the same. But it’s not that the Angus wasn’t good, but because we had tried the wagyu first.

And finally after a very long and satisfying dinner, desserts came in the form of home made kurogoma brulee ($6), and home made custard pudding ($6). The former was a sesame version of creme brulee that I didn’t quite take to, but I love the home made custard pudding!

Umami has been around at Liang court since April and I have to admit I did not notice their presence previously when I went to Liang court. The very posh and club-like entrance made it rather intimidating for diners to step in, and they are currently making changes to the front decorations. There’s a current DBS 1-for-1 promotion for their $18 and $25 set lunches.

My appreciation to Lynda from DBS, Cherylene & Seema from Eurorscg, and the Nigel & his staff from Umami for the wonderful dinner. My third and final restaurant with DBS Foodster will be at Xin Cuisine, Holiday Inn Atrium, you can find out more information about the DBS Indulge Series here.

177 River Valley Road
#01-26 Liang Court
Tel: 6333 1166

Why is it that Starbucks is able to open a few outlets at a single location, and yet every cafe is still packed fully with customers? They must have some secrets that we don’t know? Anyway, Marutama ra-men seems to get the idea, with their one week old new restaurant at Liang court, it’s only a stone throw away from their original branch at The Central.

Ramen lovers have been raving about Marutama, and with some even proclaiming it as the best in Singapore, the new location, like their first outlet, also has a small interior which at best can seat 30 thereabouts. You can choose to seat at their counter area where you can have the bird’s eye view of the chef at work.

When we chanced upon it during a weekday afternoon, they are closed in between 3.30pm to 4.30pm, we came back just on time for their dinner operation hours, and within ten minutes of opening, the petite restaurant was almost full filled with customers craving for their ramen.

I asked the person-in-charge why didn’t they expand their new outlet since their original one is already a hit with its customers, and she explained that their stove could only cook that many bowl of ramen at one time, so it isn’t feasible to have more seats. And besides, some queue outside does make the restaurant look more popular isn’t it?

The spicy chicken soup ra-men with toppings, or Nama karashi ra-men ($12) is one of the three choices available at Marutama. A lone slice of char siu, seaweed, spring onions with the noodles, that’s it. The char siu was really excellent, thinly sliced, with the fats being just adequate. The meat was tasty and with the fatty portions, it did seem perfect, except for the fact there’s only a single slice of it. You can add the sliced roast pork for an additional $4 though.

The noodles were springy, but the chicken soup base was really salty. A tad heavy on the MSG, we needed to drink lots of water to drench our thirst.

Total bill was $14.04 for a bowl of ramen, a rather hefty price to pay when you consider the fact that the ramen only had a slice of char siu and noodles.The char siu was definitely good, but i’m not really a big fan of Japanese food, so it should take some time before i’m back for another bowl of ramen.

There are obviously fans and critics of Marutama ra-men. Fans whom rave about the authetic noodles, and critics who cite the salty soup and expensive bowl of ra-men. Nonetheless, Marutama must be doing something right with its long queue at the restaurants everyday. So who’s a fan and who’s not? Let me know with your comments!

Marutama ra-men
177 River Valley road
#02-01 Liang court
Tel: 6837 2480

Picola by Nabisco is another Japanese snack that is widely available. The popular flavours like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry are the common ones around, so again, it’s another unique flavour that caught our attention. This time round, it’s lemon flavoured cream wafer sticks!

My partner said that she didn’t fancy lemon flavoured snacks because it reminded her of the lemon washing soup. On the other hand, I liked lemon for its light and airy taste.

Picola’s lemon flavoured cream wafer sticks did pass my partner’s requirement. But like always, having too much of anything, even good stuff, will mean getting sick of it easily. So eat the picola lemon sticks with control.

This is a series of posts on Japanese snack, stay tune for the
Japanese snacks part 5 next time!

With every conservation now contaminated with Melamine, everyone’s paranoid about China-made products. I’m sorry for the parents and families of the babies affected by this man-made disaster. It does brings back unpleasant memories of the mad cow disease, the bird flu saga which made everybody avoided poultry consumption.

Since everybody is shunning away from China-made products, the Japanese wordings on the packaging should made you rest assure of its origins. However, the mini biscuits wasn’t really to my liking, I found it too hard, and a tad dry. While my partner liked it. So like what i always say, different people has different taste buds.

This is a series of posts on Japanese snack, stay tune for the
Japanese snacks part 4!

Another very familiar biscuit that you will surely see before in your childhood days. Collon is virtually present at all leading supermarkets, so you must be wondering, why did i even bother to do a write-up on this? The typical collon is in the standard, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavours. But this one here caught my partner’s attention as there’s a cheesecake picture on the box. Picture does tells a thousand words after all!

However, the small tiny roll with “cheesecake” cream sorely disapointed us. The taste was very subtle, almost non-existance, more like the normal vanilla than cheesecake. So don’t bother buying this when you see it the next time round at Meidi-ya.

This is a series of posts on Japanese snack, stay tune for the
Japanese snacks part 3!

What makes Japanese snacks and biscuit so good, that actually can cause people to go gaga over them? The imprint of Japanese words on the packaging is enough to charge a premium over the normal snacks. The rise of many shops selling Japanese-related products are a phenomenon, yet it isn’t something that just come about and poof!

My partner and i went to Meidi-ya, the Japanese supermarket at the basement of Liang court. She recommended the Choice biscuit by the reputable Morinaga. I was sceptical about how good it can be, since i don’t like munching on just butter biscuit without any cream or fillings in between.

My impression of butter biscuits is dry, distasteful, and hard. But boy i was proved wrong and need to take back my words. Choice biscuit was very fragant, with strong butter taste, and there was no hint of dryness at all. It reminded me of the Languly cookies which i had, the delicate and tantalising biscuit which was so good! My Choice of biscuit!

This is a series of posts on Japanese snack, stay tune for the
Japanese snacks part 2!

I could never forget the encounter.

We had so many tries, that I overlook your existance.

Still, I believe, we should remain separately.

For I have since found my new love, the lovely in pink.

We, Banana and chocolate should never have got together.

For I realise, the lovely in pink watermelon’s better for me.

Now do you remember?

Water melon sorbet and banana chocolate gelato

Haato
177 River Valley Road
#B1-50 Liang Court

ps: this post’s inspired after reading the many excellent writes from
black tie, white lie

You remember when you were a kid, you told your mother “Ma, ma, i dreamt of a pig which was black in colour!”, and your mother chided you for telling ties, since pig is always pinkish in colour, and you shouldn’t spot the colour wrong since pigs in fairy tales and cartoons are always pink. Well, it won’t be a problem next time when you visit Tampopo and tell your mother that the pig there is really black!

Tampopo’s famous for their black pig, or Kurobuta, which is known to rear in Kagoshima prefecture. Kurobuta is to the pig, like what wagyu is to the beef. They are supposed to be stress-free, making the meat more tender and superior to the other form of pork.

Tampopo recently shifted to its new premise on the ground floor on Liang court, a far cry from the old one at the basement within Mei-di-ya supermarket. The new restaurant boost seating capacity of more than 80 (my rough estimates). The use of wooden bamboo forms a good contrast to the contemporary decorations, and the conveyor belt completes the interior.

I had made a reservation for 4 people after doing some research online as people mentioned that they always got a long queue, especially so during meal times. True to the comments, there was a surging line outside Tampopo when we got there at 7.30pm.

The conveyor belt within Tampop isn’t what you see in Japanese chains like Sakae sushi, the one here is special because it can automatically deliver food from the kitchen to your table. And you can’t “pick up” the food on the conveyer belt since the plates are programmed by magnetic fields, which are designated to deliver to the particular tables.

But from what i understands, the conveyor belt is still a experiment in progress, and not all of the dishes can be delivered using the belt, only particular items like sushi and some other smaller dishes can go through the belt for now.

Gyoza ($5.80)

We started off with Gyoza, the Japanese version of our Chinese dumplings or “jiaozi“. The notable difference between the Japanese style Gyoza and the Chinese style “jiaozi” are the rich garlic flavors in the Japanese rendition, and Gyoza is served with soy-based dipping sauce. I’m not too sure whether its just me, but I found that the Japanese version had a thicker skin compared to the chinese style.

The gyoza here was slightly “charred” on the outside, but below the skin, the mixture of minced pork and garlic was very balanced. A good appetizer to share around and start your meal.

Normal grade loin cutlet ($21.80)

I had the normal grade loin cutlet with rice set only because their top grade loin was sold out! I was actually quite frustrated because i had came with the sole purpose of trying their signature top grade loin, and how could a restaurant sold out so quickly by 7.30pm on a Saturday dinner!

Nevertheless, i must say that their normal grade was already very good. Pork cutlet in the hands of less skillful chef would be ruin by over-fried and too oily and dry, but the one here was done just right, the breaded crust was light and had a melt-in-your-mouth effect, and under the crispy exterior was juicy, tender meat.

I’ll say Tampopo’s pork loin is on par with the one that i had at Tetsu, although the one here was smaller and leaner. Tetsu definitely had a more generous cut of the pork loin. But the one that i had here was only the normal grade and i hate to think what will Tampopo’s top grade pork loin be like.

Omelette rice ($10)

The omelette rice was done very nicely, with Japanese pearl rice wrapped within the soft and thick layer of omelette to good effect. As you all know, Japanese pearl rice is very different from the Thai rice very commonly used in Singapore. The pearl rice has a soft and moist texture, which is very light on the palate. Although there’s nothing spectacular with the omelette rice, it’s a simple dish which you couldn’t find fault with.

Pork loin Yanagawa ($16)

We also had the pork loin Yanagawa a la carte, add $4.80 to get a set with rice, miso soup and fruits. I think i’ll prefer my pork loin cutlet to this. The pork loin Yanagawa was literally wet with the egg mixtures, i thought pork cutlet would be nicer dry and crispy than wet and soggy.

Unagi Yanakawa ($12.80)

The reason why my friend chose the Unagi Yanakawa was because she wanted unagi, and within budget. This was the cheapest option for Unagi in the menu. I didn’t mind unagi, but i’m not really a fan of Yanakawa-style.

Unagi and tempura box ($18.80)

The set came with unagi, prawn tempura, tamago, fruits, and miso soup. Nonetheless, I must say it’s rather value given there’s unagi and tempura. Serving size is certainly not comparable to the one we had at Kyomomoyama, but this one was part of a set, and cheaper too.

The tempura was lightly battered and the prawn was decent in size. However my friend found it to be too oily for her liking, and i nearly fainted when she mentioned that Waraku got better ones. Not that i disliked Waraku, but i just don’t think Waraku is that good, price is reasonable, but food-wise average.

Unagi was decent, i didn’t always had unagi so i ain’t too sure how best to describe them.

Tamago, let’s put it this way, i still preferred my eggs to be hot, rather than cold.

Total bill was $102.65 for 4 people. I do not think that prices at Tampopo are expensive, in fact they are actually quite reasonable, in the range of high tens, to twenty for per person. If you visit Tampopo, their Kurobuta pork loin is certainly one dish you must try.

I wanted dessert but the rest were too full, within Tampopo there was limited choice for desserts, but if you would just head to the basement to Tampopo Deli, a standalone shop for their chiffon cakes and other desserts. Tampopo is actually famous for their ramen, while their sister restaurant Tomton at Central focus on kurobuta pork. I’ll definitely go Tampopo Deli for their chiffon cakes, and Tomton for the top-grade pork loin next time!

Tampopo
117 River Valley Road
#01-23 Liang Court
Tel: 6338 3186