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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Day 1 Kyoto: Kyoto Station- Fushimi Inari Shrine-Nishiki Market

After reaching the airport, we took Kansai Airport Express "HARUKA" train to Kyoto using the ICOCO & HARUKA pass. To make our travel convenient, we booked Kyoto hotel that is near to the main station which is near the Kyoto station. Due to early arrival, the hotel unable us to check in but we are allow the leave our luggages in their luggages room.

So, we went to the underground food area-called Porta Dining which is near the Kyoto station for early lunch. Although most of the restaurant start their business around 11.30am, but we saw a lot of people started to queue outside the restaurant around 11.15am. Since we both don't like queueing, we picked a restaurant that has lesser people. Just for your information, all restaurants here will display their food sample in 3D form and price to ease their customers. This help a lot especially tourists that couldn't speak/read Japanese.

We didn't know what name is the shop but it was among the few who serve rice. Most of the shop here serve noodles like ramen. We were warmly greeted by the waitress and very quickly she show us a Japanese menu, no English menu is provided in the restaurant. Luckily my dear still able to dig out his Japanese language and we survived by order two don set.

Tonkatsu (pork cutlet set)- 900 yen
The deep pork cutlet is a bit hard and dry, however overall still fine. The most shocking part is the rice.When we saw the rice bowl, it was like half of our normal portion, we both already thinking to have second round after that but it turn to be the other way round. Although the portion looks small but it is quite filling. The Japanese rice quickly filled our stomach half way eating. We didn't manage to get our second round.

Chicken Katsu rice set-RM 860
The chicken katsu taste much better, however both sets are similar with different type of meat. The taste was quite similar to Ichiriki in The Garden, Midvalley. Overall was good. A good start for our first meal in Japan.

After our lunch, since it is still early from our check in time, we took a train to Fushimi Inari Shrine. From Kyoto station, we took JR Nara line to JR Inari Station (2 station from Kyoto station), approximately 5 mins journey and the shrine is just located outside the station.

Just in case you feel you are lost during searching for the platform of the train, you can ask the train counter or anyone standing. We are at Platform 9 to board the train to JR Inari Station. Here is the map of Kyoto train line

Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, Fushimi Inari Taisha) is said to be an important Shinto shrine of southern Kyoto. It is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, which straddle a network of trails behind its main buildings. The trails lead into the wooded forest of the sacred Mount Inari, which stands at 233 meters and belongs to the shrine grounds. 

Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds.


At the entrance of the shrine, you'll find a water area with ladles that made out of bamboo or wood laid out on it. It's called a temizuya, and the whole point of it is to clean and purify your body by washing your hands and your mouth before entering.
There will be a signboard to teach you how to clean your hand and mouth.

All these torii gates are donations from individuals and companies, donor's name and the date of the donation will be inscribed on the back of each gate. The cost starts from 400,000 yen for a small sized gate and increases to over one million yen for a large gate.

Beautiful scenery with sakura tree. 

You will also see a lot of similar shrine with stairs, a box with a grated opening in front of it and bell with rope hanging down from ceiling. This is to purify yourself from evil spirits. 

Then, we took JR line back to Kyoto station to take subway to Nishiki Market. Since Nishiki Market will  be close at 5pm, we quickly took the Karasuma Line (Subway for Kyoto), 2 station  from Kyoto station to Shijio Station. The station is located in a shopping mall, just walk out from the shopping mall and you will see Nishiki Market.

Nishiki Market is one of the famous and must visit place. Nishiki Market (錦市場, Nishiki Ichiba) is a narrow, five block long shopping street lined by more than one hundred shops and restaurants. It is also known as "Kyoto's Kitchen", where you will find fresh seafood, dried seafood, food shop, tea shop and many more.


We saw this dessert shop, they specialise on using green tea as their main ingredient.  A lady was packing on one of their Matcha Mochi outside the shop that attracted my attention. At the same time, a lot of people was crowding in the small little shop, first thought in my mind is their dessert must be good. So, we went into the crowd as well to order their Mochi.

Matcha Mochi Sesame-500 yen (around RM 16)
It can only keep for maximum 3 days because it doesn't have preservative at all. All their mochi are made freshly everyday. Actually we tested and leave it in the fridge for two day. Second day, the mochi started to become watery, indication of bad condition. Proven no preservative!

This small packet of Mochi isn't cheap at all and the worst part is the taste was horrible. The green tea powder coated on the Mochi was too bitter, we are unable to swallow it. End up we have to throw it away. Lesson of the day: Never buy thing because there is a crowd. It doesn't mean the food will be delicious! :P

While walking through a T-junction, we saw a shop selling ice-cream and hot dog. I was actually craving for hot dog that time and he was looking for ice-cream under 15 degree Celsius of cold weather. This shop is specialise on their soya ice-cream.

I order their hot dog that served in skewed. Taste nice!

Strawberry flavour soya ice-cream

Before we leave the place, we pass by this shop selling Takoyaki. A lot of people were eating and waiting outside for the food. Again, very quickly my mind told me it must be good. We went in to order, however we found that there isn't anyone taking order but a vending machine for you to slot your money and pick your food. Since the vending machine only have Japanese words and people are queueing behind, we quickly click one of it and a receipt came out from the bottom. We passed the receipt to the counter and wait for our number to be call.

We didn't know what flavour of Takoyaki we ordered but it seem to taste like BBQ flavour but at the same time a mixture of different spices in it. The tokoyaki didn't came out as our expectation. It is soggy and salty. Overall didn't taste any better after the mochi. 
Tokoyaki-180 yen

So, we took the train and back to Kyoto station to do some shopping at Isetan. We aren't satisfied for the snack we have in Nishiki Market, hence we continue our search in Isetan for better food instead. We found this 551 Horai shop that sells Chinese Siew Mai and Gyoza, surprisingly it is for take away.  We ordered take away for siew mai and gyoza.
The siew mai isn't what we normally have in the dim sum shop. The filling was glutinous rice and pork meat which I think the taste is still acceptable. I still prefer our siew mai with prawn and meat. On the other hand, the gyoza turned out to be quite delicious. Although, it been awhile before we reached our hotel room, the taste and texture still remained very nice. Food in Isetan actually surprised us as we didn't expect their standard of food can be this high, a lot better than the street food and the price is reasonable too, some even cheaper than the street food.

This is our first day in Kyoto, stay tuned for more coming up soon...


Find out more on my Japan Trip 5/4-12/4:
-Osaka-Kyoto Itinerary 2014
-Travel from Osaka Airport to Kyoto- ICOCO & Haruka Pass
-Kyoto-Day 2: Higashiyama District: Kiyomizu-dera Temple-Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka- Kodaiji Temple-Maruyama Park


Thursday, August 21, 2014

Encore Patisserie Cafe | Taman Bukit Desa

I found this place when going to our usual restaurant for udon noodle. It is a new cafe started since early of the year, located at the corner lot,same row as Sanuki Udon. I wasn't fan of dessert however brother did mentioned about it weeks ago so I decide to have a try on it. We went quite late after our dinner on that day. At the same time, I forgotten to bring my camera and the only camera I have is my iphone. So, the photos aren't standing out during the night.


Encore Patisserie Cafe is actually a franchise from Sydney, Australia. You can view more details on their website. I'm actually putting quite high expectation to my first visit since my brother recommended.

Simple yet very comfortable setting. They used white/cream colour as their theme colour for the cafe, make it look brighter at night.

Iced Dark Chocolate-RM12.00
Apple & Peach Juice-RM9.00
Since we visited at night, no one actually dare to order the coffee, fear we will have insomnia. Instead, we ordered their dark chocolate drink and juice. Highly recommend for the chocolate drink; thick and strong aroma of dark chocolate, indeed the taste that we often seek from chocolate drink. The juice wasn't anything to shout about, it is an important juice from Australia.

Lemon Tart-RM9.00
Brother ordered the tart since it is highly recommended by his friend. However, it turn out to be quite disappointed. The tart is hard, maybe they have make it since morning and left it for quite long period. Lemon filing is a bit sour and soft. When you try to cut it, it goes messy because of the soft filling. The price is at high side too which I don't think it par with the quality.

Cheese Tart-RM9.00
This is the same as the lemon tart except the filling is with cream cheese. The biscuit is still very hard and same price.

Tiramisu-RM14.00
Look at the price, it actually shock a lot of us. But we still decided to give it a try since people said good thing never come in cheap. So we adapted the quote and order it. They displayed the tiramisu in a cup which is exactly the same cup as Tous Les Jours except there isn't J symbol on top of the tiramisu and price is higher too. The taste doesn't turn out as our expectation, no aroma of the coffee powder on the tiramisu, just a normal sweetness taste.

We actually quite disappointed with their dessert, I do not mind paying more if the food is good. But this is definitely will be out from my favourite list. Maybe I will come back for their coffee and dark chocolate drink only.  

Encore Patisserie Cafe
  • 1, Jalan Bukit Desa 5, Taman Bukit Desa,
  • 58100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Phone 03-7972 7988
  • Email encore.malaysia@gmail.com
  • Website http://www.encorepatisseriecafe.com.au

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Wakon Japanese Restaurant | Uptown Damansara

After coming back from Japan, I actually stop taking any Japanese food, fear that the Japanese food in Malaysia will disappoint me. However, after trying out this place, the craving is back again, the taste of the food is quite similar to the taste in Japan. Today,I will share about a restaurant with good Japanese food here and it is located in Damansara Uptown, same row as Fat Spoon.


The interior is simple and comfortable with Japanese styling. The setting very similar to some restaurants in Japan. This restaurant specialises on grilled food which are served like side dishes, and they go well with their range of sake/alcohol beverage. Their concept is very similar to the Japanese bar/pub with the same kind of dishes, except that the setting of the interior is skewed towards proper dining which I find it to be quite contradicting.

The main menu is very unique compared to other Japanese restaurants in Malaysia, only ala carte items are displayed, you won't find any set menu or bento from here. Some may find it difficult to order as we, Malaysians are too used to the Japanese bento or set meals. You can however find set meals during weekdays on a separate menu, starting from RM9.90 that comes with soup and a drink. However, if you come on weekends, you will have to order ala carte dishes.

 Salmon Salada-RM15.90
We ordered their Salmon salad and it came out to be quite delicious. The Salmon slices are really fresh and the dish is mainly a combination of cucumber, crab meat and salmon... simply irresistible!

Crab Roe Salada-RM11.90
On a separate occasion, we also tried out their crab roe salad that was recommended by the waitress. The taste of this salad is similar to the salmon salad above, the difference is just on the ingredients used. I would recommend you to choose either one of according to your own liking. If you are a salmon lover, go with the salmon salad; and if you do not like salmon, I would recommend you to choose crab roe salad. Both tastes equally good.

BBQ Salmon Belly-RM 8.90
When we ordered the Salmon Belly, our first thought was to have it as a main dish for our rice. But when it arrived, we realised we have ordered a salmon belly skewer instead. The portion is very small but the taste was splendid. Although it doesn't look very appetite at first glance (please forgive me for the cut out section shown in the pic, bf was too anxious to eat!), but the texture is smooth and juicy. Must Try!

Minced Chicken Skewer-RM 6.90
Additional side dish that we ordered since most of the portions are small, I really love this minced chicken skewer, taste quite good especially when you dip with the raw egg yolk. It actually brings out the taste stronger with the presence of the yolk. Must Try!

Agedashi Tofu-RM 13.90
We both love this the most. So far we cant find any other restaurant that can serve this dish any better than here. It not only looks different from the standard Agedashi Tofu, but also tastes better. The batter is crispy and it is attached to the tofu firmly; you won't have the problem of the tofu falling apart after the first bite. Of course, the tofu still remain smooth and juicy even after deep frying. The price is a bit on the higher side but it really is worth the price. Super Must Try!

BBQ Salmon Fish Head-RM 12.90
We both love this Salmon Fish Head, the taste is very similar to the Saba fish below except that the Salmon fish texture is smoother. It is always best to go with a bowl of Japanese rice.

BBQ Saba-RM14.90; Rice-RM5
I love this Saba fish, although it is a bit salty but when you eat it with rice, it blends quite well. They barbeque the Saba very well where the outer skin is crispy but the meat is juicy inside. However, if you compare it to the Salmon Fish head, the texture is slightly rougher. I recommend to order either one of it not both, and save the other portion for other dishes. If you come over during weekdays, they have set lunch for this dish with drink, soup, and rice which costs only RM16.90, quite a reasonable price.

I have been to this place many times before I decided to write a review about it. I think good food should always be shared and enjoyed by everyone. 

However, one serious comment that I would like to give to them is: never ever substitute Japanese rice with other normal rice even it is out of stock. I would prefer that the outlet pre-inform the customers about it. I am quite disappointed with their behaviour of getting normal rice from another restaurant nearby and mixing it into the Japanese rice when they are low in stock. By the way, they charge RM5 for a bowl of rice and I'm expecting honesty from the outlet. Hopefully they will change that kind of attitude, if not they will lose their customers soon.


Wakon Japanese
75, Jalan SS2/1A
47400 Damansara Utama,
Petaling Jaya.
03-7733 5996
https://www.facebook.com/wakon.japanese/info

Monday, August 04, 2014

Royale Popcorn @ TGV Cinema

I'm going to introduce a snack that I recently found out during my movie outing. This may not be a new news to some but it is new to me. I always a fan of GSC cinema compare to TGV, however recently I got some free tickets to TGV cinema and here am I as usual will order a drink before I go in.

When I waiting for my turn to order, a small little popcorn ordered by a man in front of me caught my attention. The cup of the popcorn is half of the size of our regular popcorn. I found it cute, so I decided to have a try on it. It is called the Royale Popcorn, a premium type of popcorn sold in TGV.


If you are a fan of popcorn, you will realize that the size of Royale Popcorn is actually bigger than the standard one. The taste of the Royale Popcorn is much more better than the standard caramel popcorn except that it is a bit sweeter because it is 100% coated with caramel. If you munch it carefully, you can actually taste the smoked caramel flavour from the popcorn which I actually like it very much.


The Royale Popcorn combo comes with two small beverage and cost around RM14.90 which is same price as the Popcorn Large Combo. It is a bit expensive but worth to try it. I love the size of the popcorn, just nice for the two of us who want to have something to munch during the movie but not too much.


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