Ichiban Boshi @ Esplanade Mall

When we are at Esplanade, we some how gravitate towards ichiban boshi if we crave for Japanese food. We're went there recently and I realised that we have not blogged about our visits there before. So here goes ...

This eatery is one of the five restaurants (others being ichiban sushi, Men-Ichi, Yakiyakibo and Czzar) that has a combined reward card that allows you to get a stamp for every $20 spent. We completed our card so some of the dishes below were 'free' items that we could claim.

One of my favourite snack is the fried salmon skin below served with a generous dollop of mayonaise. With this dish, there might be times when they are out of salmon skin so I have had my disappointed moments. When I was there last, I was abit worried about ordering because previous visit there, instead of telling us they were out of salmon skin, they served what looked more like salmon chips ... salmon sliced thinly and fried. So send it back if it's not to your liking. Thankfully, this time round, they got it right. Yum.

The seasoned baby octopus came as a complimentary dish and it's also something that I like and easily polished it off all by myself *grins*

Another favourite that we usually get is the salmon maru dish below. It's thin sliced salmon wrapped around some rice, topped with generous amount of mayo and fish roe.

You can get a good selection of handrolls here. The seaweed skin could be a lot more crispy but otherwise, am quite happy with the stuffing. I had fried soft shell crab and Słowik had the tuna belly handroll. Don't wait too long to eat this when it's served because the longer you wait, the 'soggier' it will be. I like my handrolls crispy when I munch into it!

Oooh, the dish below is probably sinful in terms of calories but it is finger-licking good. Why? Probably because of the butter that is used in the sauce that coats the corn. And you have to eat this while it's warm *grins* Am drooling just thinking about this dish. If you worry that eating corn might get a little mess, what is helpful is how the corn is chopped to smaller pieces that makes eating much easier. So don't forget to order this when you're there!

Ika tempura or squid coated with tempura batter is also something that we're fond of having. This comes with a wasabi mayo dip that enhances the flavour of the ika. Another dish that has to be eaten warm.

The gyoza below is lovely when made fresh and make sure you eat it with the sauce. I prefer to have it while it's warm (not hot) so that it's still nice and soft on the inside yet crunchy on the outside.

Ice tempura, I have no idea how they do this. Fry the tempura yet the vanilla ice-cream inside is still in its solid state. The drizzling of strawberry sauce adds a nice sourish taste that goes well with the vanilla ice-cream and tempura coating. The two desserts below were complimentary.

The Japanese Cheese Cake is much lighter and less cheesy compared to the American counterpart. But my preference is still the American Cheese Cake because I love the taste of creamy cheese with each bite I take *grins* But if you want something more subtle, than the Japanese Cheese Cake will suit you better.

If you're planning to head to ichiban boshi, I suggest that you go early because during the peak period (especially during dinner), it gets pretty packed and you will have quite a wait. We usually try and be there by 6pm and another later would mean joining the queue. Also be prepared that when the crowd comes in, service will be affected and you would need to keep getting their attention to top up your drink etc. Otherwise, we have been pretty happy with our visits there and will continue to head there when we're in the area and craving for Japanese food!

Address:
8 Raffles Avenue
#02-14 Esplanade Mall

Tel: +65 6423 1151

Post and Photos by Zilla.

Yummy Shepherd's Pie

A colleague at work recommended this company that makes pretty good sheppard's pie, have quite a variety and for our Muslim friends out there, it's also halal - The Shepherd's Pie.

Let me just share with you the menu that I took off their website. For S$23.90 per tray, you can choose from the following:

• The Lamb Special is richly flavoured ground lamb, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
  
• Then there is the Black Pepper Beef (spicy) with ground beef, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
  
• Next is the Black Pepper Chicken (spicy) with chicken chunks, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Classic Beef (traditional) with ground beef, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Classic Chicken (traditional) with chicken chunks, mixed vegetables, topped with cheese & mash potatoes.
• Veggie Lovers' Meatless! Simply baked with a natural mix of vegetables, tomatoes, mushrooms, topped with cheese and mash potatoes.
  

Below is a slice of the Lamb Special that I recently had. Thick layer of minced lamb, potatoes, mixed veggies and cheese oozing out. Yum yum!

Post and photo by Zilla.

Carrot Walnut Cake @ Cedele

Do you know where I can get good carrot cake? This is where it gets a bit tricky because locally, we have our own version of carrot cake (dark or white ya *grins*) which is different from the western version. But equally yummy though!

I have tried slices of carrot cake from different places but I tend to find them either too sweet, too dry, too moist ... there's always something or the other that is not right. However, when I do crave for carrot cake, I usually head to Cedele's cuz they have pretty good Carrot Walnut Cake there and a generous slice (as seen below) is about $6.00.

They have a good spread of cakes, even has a flourless cake for those of you who are staying away from gluten for whatever reason. They also have added ice-cream in their list of desserts which I have not tried myself because I tend to stick to what I like best - the Carrot Walnut Cake! Yum!

Post and photo by Zilla.

Fish Soup with Rice ...

When I have an urge to have something fresh and soupy, I tend to crave for fish soup. There are variations to this dish - either fried fish or just sliced fish, with noodles or rice, with milk or without. Truly spoilt for choice. And this dish is easily available at any hawker centre.

But my favourite has to be with rice. And usually I like to have with the sliced fish and clear soup but recently, I had some yummy ones at a makan place across the road from Bras Basah Complex (next to Allson and Victoria Hotel). I managed to take a photo before I tucked in and all this for $3.00!

There's a nice lady who mans the stall alone and I guess she uses fresh ingredients that makes this soupy dish delicious. And of course, you need to have it with chilli (and she uses hot chilli padi) with soya sauce and this will really make you sweat and clears up your system.

If you want the healthier option, skip the milk but for me, am hooked to the milky soup that she serves up!

Post and Photos by Zilla.

Jang Shou Korean BBQ at Esplanade Mall ...

I've walked passed it many a times, commented that we should try the place some day yet took us a long while before we finally tried it today and am glad we did. We finally stepped into Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ outside Esplanade Mall at Colours on the Bay.

You can choose to sit at the area for the BBQ or if you don't want to be covered with smoke by the time you were done, you could choose to sit in another area away from the BBQ mini pit and have ala carte dishes all cooked for you and ready for you to tuck in.

Photo Below: Charcoal for our BBQ at our table.

We ordered too much because we weren't sure what to have. And because we looked so lost asking what was meant to go with what, the waitresses were around on standby to help us out. We had a nice Filipino girl who helped to BBQ the meat for us. What we had below is Grilled Inside Skirt Meat (Beef) or An Chang Sal. You get a basket of lettuce that you can wrap with the meat once cooked together with the heaps of condiments that came with our meal.

Photo Above: An Chang Sal or Grilled Inside Skirt Beef

We were shocked how many condiments that came with the meal. They had to push it all on a trolley and a few minutes were spent arranging the condiments on the table. Up to you how you want to eat these, either on their own or wrapped with the grilled meat and lettuce.

The photograph above shows the spread of condiments that came with the meal. There were so many that they had to push it out on a tray and took a few minutes to arrange them all. And you get everything from kimchi, pickled bamboo shoots and other yummy side dishes.

We also ordered a portion of Boiled Beef Rib Soup or Galbi Tang which I forgot to take a photograph of. It's very tasty soup, with pieces of beef (waitress helped to cut the meat to bite size pieces and served it into two portions), with glass noodles. It comes with a serving of plain rice.

Photo Below: Grilled Beef Rib Meat or Suwom Neobiani

The Grilled Beef Rib Meat or Suwon Neobiani has to be the best order we made. It is soft meat that's barbequed to your preference and it has a sweet marinate that made it so yummy. It's one of those that's highly recommended by the restaurant too. You can eat this with the lettuce together with anything else you fancy. I had it with plain rice and it was sooooo nice.

We also had Rice Mixed with Assortment in Hot Stone Pot or Dol Sot Bi Bim Bab as seen in the photo below. It's rice mixed with an assortment of veggies and egg. I didn't want the bean sprouts in there so they accomodated and served that separately. It was another tasty dish. I had the chilli added separately because my tummy wasn't behaving properly tonight.

We also ordered two drinks each and dinner came up to S$139.00. Yeah, quite a lot but we ordered too much. I reckon the next time we're there, we'll probably just have one order of the lovely meat and mixed rice and we're done. Would come up to half of what we paid for tonight.

Post and pictures (taken on my Song Ericcson mobile) by Zilla.