Baikohken

I'm still remembering my first bowl of Japanese Ramen and also my first bowl of most expensive noodle in my life was from Baikohken at North Canal Road. During then I was still a schooling kid with limited pocket money but still wish to get a taste of the luscious, long simmered broth with noodles of great texture.

Baikohken

During that time, it was considered as one of the best bowl of Ramen in that area with huge Chashu.
Unfortunately, by the time when I started earning a living, the place was already closed down and my friend who had recommended Baikohken had also no idea where it was shifted to.

We chanced upon Baikohken during shopping for festive goods in Takashimaya and decided to rekindle some of my old memories.Baikohken is located at one corner of Takashimaya Food Hall and narrow aisle in between the tables.

Menu

The promotional topping was an excellent option to share between 2 pax as it consist of a main dish (Regular Ramen), topping and a side dish at $21

We had a regular of Shoyu Ramen (Soy Sauce) with 2 pieces of charshu, topped with additional bamboo shoots and spring onions. Portion was big with savoury stock preparing under the simmering heat for hours. Coupled with the yummy bamboo shoots, it gave the dish an additional flavour and texture. Charshu on the other hand was tender.

Shoyu Ramen (Regular)

Ramen

Charshu don was savoury with chopped Charshu combining well with mayonnaise and short grain rice. Happy.

Charshu Don

With so many Japanese Ramen stalls in the market these days, business are rather competitive. They used to be the better ones but nowadays with the variety of ramen availability in the shopping malls and food courts, I would say you can get better ones else where.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Baikohken
Location: Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road #B2 (Takashimaya Food Hall) Singapore 238872

Aux Pains de Papy

With breakfast all provided by our accommodation we thought we would never have visited Aux Pains de Papy for breakfast even though it was just within minutes of walking distance to their bakery and also around the corner of king cross station.

Aux Pains de Papy

The rustic french bakery offered traditional hand made goods. Begining from Artisan bakers from father to son since 1948. It will never go wrong having their hand made items here even its in London.

In Paper Bag

You can even smell the freshly baked bread as you walked pass the shop, authentic with friendly and efficient service.

Bakery

It was a rainy cold day and we decided to have some food to nibble along the way to some places of interest.

Interior

Crossiant had the light buttery fragrance that lingers around as we munch on those flaky exterior and revealing its beautifully folded layers. Pillow soft and yummy! Worth the pounds spent!

Croissant au beurre - £1.40 (Take Away)

Pain au chocolat tasted similar to the croissant with the difference in its size that was more compact in its shape and had chocolate filling in it.

Pain au chocolat - £1.60 (Take Away)

The area for dining in is limited and do note that you will need to pay a little bit more for dining in. If you are nearby the place, it will be a good try on their bakes.

Rating: 4 / 5

Aux pains de Papy
Location: 279 Gray's Inn Rd, London WC1X 8QF, United Kingdom

Website

Jamie's Italian

After a long walk from sight seeing with our last top at the Tower Bridge, we chanced upon Jamie's Italian and were very excited about it. Having tried Jamie's Italian in Singapore, we were rather curious the taste changes in London taking into consideration that we may not have much British Pounds left after the meal. I guess the experience to try Jamie's Italian in London had ruled over the money at that instance, after all we shared similar sentiments that Jamie was born in UK and it was a good chance that we gave it a try.

Jamie's is housed in Hilton Hotel, in the heart of London and while the weather was shivering cold at about 9 Degree Celsius coupled with rain drizzle, we hurried ourselves into the restaurant and felt the extreme gush of heat and got ourselves immediately warmed up.

Jamie's Italian

The friendly waiter greeted us and asked where we were from. Without much hesitation, we told him our country of origin and our purpose was to do a comparison of food in Singapore and London.

Interior

Menu of Jamie's Italian was more or less similar to what we have in Singapore.

Being Hungry & Cold, we ordered their artisan breads so as we can fill ourselves a little while waiting for our mains. These freshly baked breads were served on wooden board, consisting of focaccia, ciabatta, seeded crackerbread, sourdough & grissini with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic & tapenade.

Artisan Bread -    £ 3.95

Featuring one of Jamie's Favourite ~ Meatball Pappardelle on their Pasta Menu. Their Pasta were made in house daily with quality ingredients. As for meatball, they uses free range pork & fennel meatballs in a fiery 'nduja tomato sauce with breadcrumbs that smell of herbs, rocket and Parmesan cheese. Though it was mentioned by the waiter that their pasta was cooked to Al Dente, the consistency of the texture was not really even but taste was good.

Jamie's Favourite - £7.45 / £12.25

Close up on  Pappardelle

Perhaps using free-range chicken coupled with the right amount of grilling skill sums up Jamie's Favourite ~ Chicken Cacciatore on ther Mains. Chicken was perfectly done in its tenderness and paired in rich, tomato & Chianti sauce on their seasonal vegetables. Rocket, black olives, parmesan, pine nuts had elevated the dish.

Jamie's Favourite - £13.98

If you ever tried their Tiramisu in Singapore, the presentation was totally different. This classic Italian dessert with Vin Santo is definitely much more better than what we had. The soft spongy layers of Tiramisu was lavished by handful of chocolate shavings and orange zest. We were all so contented to have our meal wrapped up with such delectable dessert.

Vin Santo Tiramisu - £5.45

So what's the verdict? In my opinion, Jamie's Italian is better in its home country than in Singapore in terms of taste. Restaurant space is alot bigger of course and packed. Having said so, service was still efficient. Ambience was under a perfect dim orange lightings but the chatters around may not be suitable for some who want to enjoy quietness.

Rating: 4 / 5

Jamie's Italian (Hilton London Tower Bridge)
Location: 5 Tooley St, London SE1 2BY, United Kingdom

Sweet Monster

While everyone is still crazy about Bingsu, the korean shaved ice dessert topped with fruits, nuts, sweet syrup, my friend had recommended some sweet stuff to me in Orchard Road.

Sweet Monster

Ever thought of having popcorns together with soft serve ice cream? Now you can have it from Sweet Monster. There are a range of good serve ice cream with toppings like cookie, caramel and wafer to choose from but if you are keen on the new tryout, you can get their Monster popcorn with ice cream. I got myself a cup of ice cream coupled with mixed popcorns, consisting of Strawberry, milk, caramel and chocolate flavor.

Monster Cakes

Ice cream is made fresh daily and is handmade using milk that is HACCP certificated. Soft serve has a strong milk flavour which I like and was not too sweet even with those non-GMO popcorns added.

Monster Popcorns

I always think that having fries with soft serve was a crazy idea (what i used to do during childhood). I guess having popcorns with ice cream had just brought enjoyment of ice-cream to yet another level right now.

Mixed Monster Ice Cream - $6.80

Assorted Popcorns

Rating: 3 /5

Sweet Monster
Location: Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road #B2-49 Singapore 238839
Website

Dheen's Fish & Chips

Having Fish & Chips in London is a must and it was already our 3rd day in London and we had yet to try any. Thus after our sightseeing at museums and Trafalgar square, we search nearby looking for some recommended English Fish & Chips called "London's Fish & Chips" but ended up in Dheen's. Apparently London's Fish & Chips was replaced by Dheen's.

Dheen's is a small yet welcoming place located in the bustling Bedford Street situated in the heart of Covent Garden next to the Strand.

Dheen's Fish & Chips

The 2 storey high restaurant pride themselves as the providing traditional Fish & Chips experience using quality fresh ingredients, all prepared to order. Besides Fish & Chips, they served an array of seafood that includes prawns and calamari.

Ordering Counter

 There are limited seating at the 1st level with the ordering counter and more seats are available at the upper level.

Upper Level

Environment is pleasant and lively with friendly customers service.

Dining Environment

We went ahead for haddock fish instead of cod fish. Food was served right to our table and the portion was good enough for 2 standard Asian size stomach. With the flaky and tender flesh beneath the golden perfect batter, the first was both crispy and comforting, simply irresistible.

Haddock & Chips - £11

While most additional sauce in European countries require payment, Dheen's tartar sauce was free flow. With lemon juice and tartar sauce, it gave a perfect marriage to the crispy platter without overpowering its taste.

 Haddock & Chips - £11

Though Dheen's may not be the top 10 must eat Fish & Chips in London for tourist, I find their food rather reasonable at its pricing and one thing for sure, they are definitely not a tourist trap.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Dheen's Fish & Chips
Location: 46 Bedford St, London WC2E 9HA, United Kingdom
Website

The Raven

It was such a joy visiting Bath in United Kingdom and we were glad to visit The Raven at Bath as they were one of the top 10 recommendations to dine over there.

The Raven is traditionally owned and unlike most of the pubs in UK, they are not related to any brewery or business.

Drinks Menu on the wall, look around for Wifi Password

 If you are looking for some Ales and pies, they are specialized in that. They have 2 options of bar and in a smoke free environment, best still there isn't any loud music playing in the background.

Bar Counter

Walk up to the 2nd Storey and feel at home at their dining area that comes with plushy seats and even magazine for your readings.

Dining Interior

What we like best is their fantastic selection of choice of chips / mash and gravies. Ordering of pie is easy in 5 steps:

1) Pick your pie,
2) Choose mash or chips,
3) Choose the gravy
4) add on sides if any and lastly,
5) order at the bar.

Menu - Front & Back

Menu - Pies & Not Pies

Having my first mouthful of Raven Ale Pie, I would say that the feeling was great as the Pie was crusty in the exterior and densely packed with meat and vegetables.

Raven's Ale Pie - £9.20

The Ale Pie was specially made by their Pie Minister using their in house Raven Ale with fillings consist of West Country Beef, onion, carrots, Raven Ale, green peppercorns and thyme. The gravy that I had opted was Red Wine and Thyme.

Pie's Fillings

It's hard not to try anything on the menu made in house by the Raven, thus we had the Barlett's Beef & Sausages made using their own Raven Ale. The sausages were awesome and tasted different for from the usual ones. They were served with mashed potatoes and our choice of gravy was sage & onion which goes very well with the dish.

Bartlett's Beef & Raven Ale Sausages - £9.20

The sides comes along with the non-pie dishes and we chose the Honey Roast Vegetables to the homemade slaw. The vegetables was interesting and consist of parnips, carrots and squash slow roasted with honey, herbs and olive oil.

Honey Roast Vegetables

Do not worry about absence of sauce, in fact I'm quite surprised to find a variety of them on the condiments container placed on the table. Do help yourselves.

Do not worry about sauce availability!

Last but not least, if you do not mind drinking beer, do not leave the place without having a glass of their Ale. Their beer was good, soothing and not too dry, giving a perfect match to their savoury pies.

£

Here's an overview of The Raven on Video.

Rating: 4 / 5

Raven
Location: 7 Queen Street Bath BA1 1HE United Kingdom

Website

Food For Thought

4th Anniversary was celebrated "discreetly" at this corner of Singapore's oldest Museum's food for thought. This initiative by the guy was pretty new to me us as we never had dined in the Museum after the visiting hours where surrounding was pretty quiet that you could even hear the pin if it drops.

Food For Thought

Ice Rose Bandung & Ice Lemon Tea - $4.50 & $3

The soup of the day came with a thick cut butter brioche, crispy and totally a stomach filler.

Toast  - $2

However, it's the best pairing for the chunky mushroom soup of the day.

Soup of the Day - $8

While having seen the next table enjoying some sinful delights like these, we decide to join in. The chicken wings were deeply fried in its crispiness form and revealing its juicy pipping hot meat under the coat of batter. If you are game for some snacks, this is one of the better choices.

3 Fried Chicken Wings - $7

Grilled Barramundi with Basil Almond Peso was great and was also one of their chef's recommendation. I had enjoyed the top layer of crisp clinging onto the Barramundi Fillet with assorted stirred fried vegetables stacking up the fillet. The presentation from the colours were soothing and alluring.

Barramundi Fillet - $23

The baby back ribs were heavily coated in its honeyed Hoisin Braised Sauce, paired with salt pepper and cherry tomato salad, yummy!

Baby Back Ribs - $25

Needless to say, the ribs were well whipped from the kitchen and every piece of ribs featured the tenderness and juiciness giving the need for a continuous bite.

Ribs

Ambiance at night in the corner was perfect for a night out if you want to enjoy your couple time. However, I find that the service crews were overly attentive to our movements and I was quite uncomfortable with someone excessively staring at our plates while we were dining. However, in a good sense, our plates were quickly cleared away by the individuating attention the assist had provided.

Rating: 3 / 5

Food For Thought
Location: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road #01-04/05 Singapore 178897