Unagiya Ichinoji

With the parent name as Miyagawa Honten that has a history spans of 125 years is now one of Tokyo's famous Unagi restaurants, operating about 20 outlets just alone in Japan. Not only that, recently they have clinched the Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide in 2018.

Finding the location of this Japanese Restaurants maybe a little tricky as it is located behind some Japanese restaurants or some back passage.

Unagiya Ichinoji

The concept is kind of similar to Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant where you get to see freshwater live eels in the tank and chef preparing the eels in an open concept kitchen separating the restaurant and kitchen with glass panels. To achieve the smoky taste with crispy texture, these eels were grilled over hot charcoal.

Seats

The restaurant has limited seating, about 30 plus seat as the restaurant is not big. If you want to have a greater view of how Unagi is prepared, you can sit by the kitchen counter and watch the process of grilling unagi.

Main Menu

Ala Carte Menu

One of the recommended dishes will be the Hitsumabushi. It comes with different sizes from Small to extra large, suitable for sharing. What you get in Hitsumabushi will be pieces of cut eel placed on a bed of Hokkaido Rice and served with 3 condiments.

Hitsumabushi (M) - $26.80

Sometimes by looking at the delicious smoky grilled eels, I felt like ditching the carbohydrates (rice) away but these are not the usual Japanese rice, they are Hokkaido Rice.

How to eat it? Dont worry, there are instructions you can follow on the table in 3 simple steps.

Yummy 

If you want a more powerful taste, these sauces are yours to add. If you want to add a little more spice, you can topped your food with some spicy sauce as well as pepper. However when I compared the spicy and the original sauce, it was little or no difference to me.

Condiments on Table

Adding on to their main menu, they have this seasonal Unagi Fair menu at discounted price.

Seasonal Menu

With the special menu from the Unagi fair, I had order their Unagi Sushi double roll. It might not look filling to the stomach but this set itself can be as filling as those who is ordering the Hitsumabashi set.

Unagi Sushi Roll Double - $32.80 

One of the sushi roll in the set was cut into 6 pieces and topped with Tobiko. I would say it was quite flavourful. Besides the alluring flavours from the crispy eel coated in the sweet sauce, the marriage with sushi roll wrapped with cucumber, egg and crab stick elevated the dining experience. Definitely no regrets in ordering this set.

Sushi Roll

Unagi Box Set looked complete with sides and desserts. There are tempura, Gyoza in the Bento Box. Dessert are basically some konyaku stuff with half of it topped with peanut powder. Not too bad though. 

Unagi Box Set - $29.80

Chawanmushi was included in both Unagi Fair set that we had ordered. It looked a little different here with ingredients like snow pea and unagi, apart from the usual mushroom and Japanese fish cake.

Chawanmushi

Comparing Unagiya Ichinoji to Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant, I would say that no queue is required here. However, I still prefer the latter as the taste was pretty stronger than Unagiya. Taste is rather subjective and if you prefer a lighter taste, you may like what they are serving here.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Unagiya Ichinoji

Location: 30 Robertson Quay #01-05 Riverside Village Residences Singapore (238251)

Operating Hours: 11.30 - 1500

                               17.30 - 2200   

Restoran Chin Chin

Restoran Chin Chin is raved selling one of the best Wanton Mee in Johor. From the outlook of the Restoran, it looked nothing significant that they are selling Wanton Mee as there are no signboard hanging in the old school place.

Restoran Chin Chin

It was my second time visiting their place and coincidentally, both were during a wet weather and we saw them pouring hot water into the drain beside the eating place with steam evaporating. If you notice, you will get to see noodles in the open drains.

Chrysanthemum Tea

There are only 2 dishes from the Restoran and they are Roasted Pork Wanton Mee and Chicken Feet Wanton Mee.

The Char Siew over here was simple and tender. We did not expect the kind of sweet savoury roasted taste. However it is quite tender and old school to mix in black sauce with onions and oil. The outstanding part of their dishes could be their noodles which were made of egg. The texture was abit rough but springy, lending a nostalgic feel.

Roasted Pork Wanton Mee 叉烧云吞面 - RM 5.00 (Small)

Even the chicken feet noodles, it was simple and down to earth dish. Braised chicken feet coupled with few thick slices of mushroom and I like the part that the braised sauce was not too salty and strike a good balance with black soy sauce. With the braised sauce pairing up with the noodles, it was pretty well executed.

Chicken Feet Wanton Meet  鸡脚云吞面 - RM 5.50 (Small)

Braised Mushroom with chicken Feet

Wantons were served in a bowl of soup. These bite size Wantons are smooth and goes well with plain soup and vegetables.

Wanton

Why are they rated as one of the best in Johor? The egg noodle scores over here and only if you don't mind the simplicity and plainness of basic Wanton Noodles.

Restoran Chin Chin 
Location: 273, Jalan Kaloi, Batu 10, 81300, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Operations Hours: 7.30 am - 4pm  Closed On Every Thursday

Kok Sen Coffeeshop / Restaurant

Talking about quality Cze Char, there is always a queue outside Kok Sen Coffeeshop. They have been serving the usual Cze Char Dishes for about 50 years serving good dishes to family. They are one of those who have been listed under the Michelin Guide months ago.

If you are tourist and going to Kok Sen, be prepared that this is not a upscale Chinese restaurant but a typical Singapore Coffee Shop place. In the event that the restaurant may be full, you might be asked to dine in the backlane, just beside a small road.

Menu Front Page

If you have looked through the Menu, there were quite a number of noodles dishes with big prawns under the recommendation. However, we decided to go for plain bowls of rice at $0.70 per bowl to pair with our Cze Char Dishes.

Menu Back Page

One of the recommended dishes will be the Claypot Yong Tau Foo. It tasted special to me with special gravy and stuffing in the Yong Tau Foo. Stuffing consist of meat and seafood which stands out from the mainstream ones from YTF Stall and these married well with the sweet addictive gravy.

Claypot Yong Tau Foo 巧手三宝煲 - $15 (Small)

Sweet and Sour Pork was better than the average but not the best we had eaten. The general taste of sweet sourness was there and the meat of the pork was significant when we bite down the meat unlike some other places, we were short changed by replacing more fats that meat in the dish.

Sweet & Sour Pork 酸甜咕酪肉 - $13 (Small)

When asked what to order, their staff recommended us to their Sambal Deep Fried Fish Tail. It was the expensive of all our dishes ordered but we had no regrets ordering this for its taste was outstanding and more than our expectations.

Sambal Deep Fried Fish Tail 叁巴油鱼尾 - $53 (Market Price)

The deep fried fish was fragrant. The spiciness neutralized with the sweetness of the fish tail and together with the thickness of the flesh, I would say the dish was very well executed. Besides Chilli, this Sambal dish was elevated with onions and even cut of pineapples.

Fried Fish

They accept reservation for at least 6 pax. Though it is an old school Coffeeshop place, I am quite impressed by their efficiency in serving food. Not only that, prices are friendly if compared to the quality of food.

Rating: 4 / 5

Kok Sen Coffeeshop / Restaurant
Location: 30 Keong Saik Rd, Singapore 089137

Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產

This is my second visit to Addiction Aquatic Development (AAD) and also one of the highlights in the itineraries for someone who enjoys going to a clean fish market. It's worth a return for I remembered the freshness and value for money Sushi.

Sashimi Preparation

Not to mentioned the freshness of seafood that we are going to feed ourselves with! With "Addiction" as their business name, I won't deny such place is truly an addiction for tourist like us.

Skillfully Sliced

As we were going on the weekends, we tried to be early as this place usually pack with crowd during peak hours like this.

At the Standing Sushi Bar

The entire place is more than a seafood market. You get to see the place is an integration of standing sushi bar counters, restaurants and supermarket. The place is quite chilly and you won't get to smell the stink from the seafood unlike the usual seafood market.

Chopsticks of Addiction Aquatic Development

Menu was extensive, filled with variety of Nigiri and Sashimi options. Items here may be considered costly by Taiwanese Standards but to us, comparing these portions, they were definitely much cheaper than we would have in Singapore. Sashimi slices are thicker and portions are bigger.

During peak hours where patrons get to stand closely side by side, the servers may tend to make mistake serving to the wrong customers.

Sushi that were not ours but served by mistake

We ordered half dozen of Oysters and shared among ourselves. Usually I will not have eaten more than 1 raw salmon but this is exceptional. It tasted different from the ones I usually had.

Ireland Majestic 2 Half Dozen 爱雨lan

We had enjoyed the freshly squeeze lemon juice over the raw oyster with some onion, soy sauce as well as Wakame (Seaweed). It gave us another idea of how to pair the raw oysters.

How to eat those oysters

Sea Eel Sushi  穴子寿司 - NT $ 80 / Pcs
Tuna Sushi - NT $80 / Pcs

I'm simply too excited to to see my favourite Swordfish Sashimi on the bed of ice cubes. Freshly prepared Sashimi of Tuna, Swordfish and Tuna., heavenly.

2 Salmon Belly 鲑鱼腹刺身 - NT $ 40 / Pcs
3 Sword Fish 旗鱼刺身 - NT $50 / Pcs
1 Tuna 黑鲔刺身 - NT $30 / Pcs

Thick cut of Mekajiki, Tuna and Salon Sashimi that comes with wasabi. Totally love it!

Thick Cut of Sashimi

The grilled beef ribs did not disappoint. It was succulent and perfectly done with some peppercorns on it, if you want additional flavour, they do provide fried garlic by the side.

Roasted beef short ribs 牛小排长炭烧 - NT $240 

Juicy

Smoky flavour from the grilled king prawn. Though looked dried up on its shell, the flesh still remains tender and juicy. To enhance the taste, squeeze the kaffir lime juice on it.

Grilled King Prawn

Grilled scallops came in a sticks of four with same sweet black sauce. Taste was elevated by squeezing the Kaffir Lime juice on it, lending a citrus fragrant and refreshing taste.

Grilled Scallop skewel 干贝串 - NT $180

The Deluxe Nigiri Sushi Combo comes with 10 pieces of Sushi and we had topped up a few to our liking.

Deluxe Nigiri Sushi Combo (10 Pcs) - 600 NT

Yummy

My first time having sea urchin and the experience was not too bad. At least it didnt scare me off.

Close up

Are You a Sashimi Lover?

How about some Raw Tuna ?

One of the best Miso Soups we ever had with generous chunks of salmon, big prawns and seaweeds. It was served hot and comes free ordering the Deluxe Nigiri Sushi Combo.

Miso Soup （Free with the Nigiri Set)

Simple and no frills. If you like Clams, you won't mind savoring down the bowl of clam soup, naturally sweet, warming up your tummy. Freshness is not question here as everything you order in AAD will be fresh.

Clam Soup 蛤汤- NT $ 150

Though we order 2 kinds of Clam Soup, I would say that this garlic version is more or less similar to the non garlic version just that it has additional ginger strips in reducing the seafood smell.

Clam Soup with Garlic 蛤蒜头汤 - NT $ 150

Remember to bring additional cash to AAD as they do not accept Credit Cards. The standing sushi bar do not accept reservations and base on first come first serve basis.

Addiction Aquatic Development 上引水產

Location: No. 18, Alley 2 Lane 410 Minzu East Road Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Website

Bukit Indah Pasar Malam

When Pasar Malam (Night Market) in Singapore is getting too bored, we decided that the Pasar Malam in our neighbouring country are more interesting. However this night market is at fixed location and open every Wednesday from evening unlike the ones we have, location is fixed for a few days selling the same repeating stuff.

Pasar Malam

For example, we will not get to see sale of breads, vegetables and meat in our own Pasar Malam due to strict regulations.

Some Stalls that you won't get to see in Singapore

Bukit Indah Pasar Malam is a stretch that runs for about 200 metres and parking might be a little limited. You may want to consider hailing Taxi there. Location wise, it is pretty near to AEON Bukit Indah Shopping Centre.

Bread

The first food station that captured our stomach will be this Lobak Goreng (Fried Radish Cake) stall that had a group of patrons queuing up.

Fried Radish Cake Stall

As there was no seats around, we ordered a packet an went somewhere else to share it. Taste was below par for us and if compared to the night Market in JB Meldrum Walk, that was much better.

Fried Radish Cake - RM 5.00 (Small)

This was an interesting stall with Ultra Man in its banner, representing that they are selling Salted Egg Yolk related food.

Salted Egg

It range from Salted Egg Yolk for fries, fish skin, Abalone Mushroom, Chicken etc.

Varieties

Stalls were rather random in the row and you may get to see food with socks stall beside it.

Socks Stall

Another stall that seemed to be in trend recently are these adorable buns with different fillings.

Cute Buns

It can be bought hot for instant consumption or non steamed version for storage. Well, these items are just too cute to be eaten.

Cartoon Characters

Each character buns has different fillings in it. Beside the cute characters, the buns were also represented in Mushroom, Chilli, Sweet Corns, Peaches etc.

Buns

Cute Buns

Other Asia Food Such as Thai Barbecued Pork Meat is also available. Awww... Why did we not have such food allowed here in Singapore.

BBQ

In the Oil Pot

Interestingly, they do have Taiwanese Braised Meat Rice too. Just too bad that we had taken our dinner before visiting the night market. If not we might have a bowl of it.

Baised Meat Rice

We went to a food truck and order Assam Laksa and Chendol. Though there were tables provided for dining. There was inadequate light during dining and we could not really see what we were eating till we shone our torches on it.

The Assam Laksa was mediocre and was totally beyond my expectation. If you are comparing this bowl of food with the chain Assam Laksa Stall like the one in KSL. This is of no comparison.

Assam Laksa

Perhaps, we Singaporeans' taste buds were spoilt for choices and definitely I would not want a second bowl of it.

Chendol

We came back from Taiwan recently and this was something new to us of all the night market stalls we had seen.  Its barbecuing of mushrooms with a choice of 8 flavours. Pretty interesting toppings like Wasabi, lemon, seaweek, curry or rose.

Taiwan Mushroom

There was a long queue as the BBQ pit was limited and it took quite sometime to cook it. Portion was weighed proportionally.

Friendly Staff at Work

We ordered the Seaweed topping version and the taste on the spongy mushroom was both sweet sour. Not too bad!

Mushroom

And that's the last stall we visited before we went back home.

Mixture Stall

Overall, it was great night at the market, given the chance to go again, I will want to visit again.

Location: Jalan Indah 22/2, Taman Bukit Indah 2, Johor Bahru
Operation Hours: Wednesday 5.00 p.m. onwards