New year's Ramen

First day of 2019 and I had to go to the office to work for half a day. (I was also working the day before). After work, I grabbed lunch with my parents at Ippudo.

Always enjoy a bowl of Ippudo aka maru ramen with gyoza!

While I rarely go for tonkotsu ramen. I think I had Ippudo for a total of 4 time last year, which was more than Ichiran (twice in the past year). 

One thing that I like about Ippudo is that they provide free spiced bean sprouts on their table! They go so well with ramen! <3

We also ordered this mini grilled pork rice bowl, that's topped with mentaiko. It was surprisingly delicious and addictive. Couldn't stop myself from stealing a few more bites.

I guess it was easier for me to visit Ippudo too as I had one nearby my office last year.

Sasuke at Akarenga & dinner at Yokohama China Town

Next stop, Akarenga~

Recently a stall there started selling the Disney princess series. I absolutely love the Ariel one~ it's sooo pretty!

Some shots of the beautiful akarenga before we leave.

From akarenga, it's not too long of a walk to Chinatown. Along the way, you can get some pretty nice pictures of akarenga.

Walk further along the bay and you'll come across an overhead bridge that allow you to snap the entire Minato Mirai area.

In Yamashita Park....

Finally at Chinatown! Because it was so cold, we decided to stop by a cafe for some hot coffee before moving on.

Dad got some hot pork bao in Chinatown and look at his happy face! I gotta say that this taste way better than the pork bao from that famous stall down the street with a super long queue. This was juicy and flavourful.

After some walking around, we found this shop that serves halal food and decided to give it a try. Kudos to Japan for having more and more halal restaurants. Here's how their menu look like.

We ordered some dumplings, noodles and porridge. Nothing too special, but the flavours were ok.

When in Chinatown, also check out the station as there are many interesting historical pictures on the walls of the station.

Lunch at Katsurean & Sasuke in Yokohama

Went shopping with Mum and Dad at Yokohama.

There were many people doing their year end shopping, and the queues for food were super long.

We went to Katsuretsuan (勝烈庵), which is a tonkatsu restaurant that I accidentally found online. Apparently, Katsuretsuan is very popular in the Yokohama area.

Website: http://www.katsuretsuan.com/shop/takashimaya-yokohamaten

I had this katsu set with prawn because I love prawns~

The others all have different cut of katsu.

The tonkatsu were delicious and so was the miso soup!

Lol, huge thumbs up from Dad who really enjoyed his lunch!

After that we walked around towards the bay area.

Slowly making our way towards akarenga. Dad's first time in the area.

It so happened that when we were there, there was a filming set for Sasuke ninja warrior for the countdown that night.

Website: https://www.tbs.co.jp/sasuke_rising/

It was interesting as we got to see a few ppl challenge it and fail.

Little did we know at that time that we will be watching the show on TV that night itself. 

Weekend work date

Back then I had many weekend work and sometimes we’d meet up after work or in between for lunch.

Walked to a nearby mall by Shin-Yokohama station to grab lunch and found this small little shop that serves oyakodon and yakitori with rice.

It’s funny how one would think that they will eat the oyakodon pretty frequently as it’s such a common dish in Japan. But it I counted correctly, I only had it once every 18months. Heehee.....and no, I didn’t get the oyakodon this time. I got the the one on top that’s topped with three different kinds of chicken with egg while J ordered the oyakodon.

The food here is pretty decent except for the fact that it takes a long time to prepare the food.

As I had more work later in the evening, we took a short tea break at Starbucks. When we visited, they were having some sesame products and we ordered some to try. 

We tried the sesame ice blend which was very delicious. I love the crunchy bits of sesame every now and then. 

中国ラーメン揚州商人 & イタリア料理 トラットリア Regalo, 新横浜店

I had work on a weekend and decided to drop by this famous chinese ramen place called Yousyusyonin, that always have a queue outside for lunch.

中国ラーメン揚州商人 新横浜店

Website: http://www.yousyusyonin.com/menu/

We ordered their gyoza and they came out bigger than expected! They are definitely bigger in size compared to the usual gyozas.

This wontons here are delicious and cheap!

I ordered the seafood ramen while J had the one with pork. Both were huge!!!! There were loads of noodles and veg! The flavours were a bit mild compared to the usual ramen, but still good. The only down side was that the noodles were too soft.

For desserts, we went イタリア料理 トラットリア Regalo.

Website: http://www.regalo2014.com/menu.html

We both ordered their cake set. I had the cheese cake with hot tea, while J had coke with blueberry panna cotta.

The dessert were both yummy, but they were sooo tiny! So were the drinks!!!!

Vietnamese food & pancakes

Met up with ST san for lunch at ベトナム料理専門店 サイゴン キムタン 川崎本店.

Website: https://saigon-kimthanh.gorp.jp/

We ordered a few dishes to share and they were all delicious. Unfortunately, I was too busy eating that I only managed to snap pictures of there two dishes here. We had pork, porridge, shrimp and noodles too.

After lunch, we all went for Dutch pancake at Rosie's cafe. 

I think it's the first time I've had Dutch pancakes and I really like the slightly burnt, crispy parts.

I would definitely like to have more Dutch pancakes in the future but I would love to share it and not have the whole thing to myself.

2018 Birthday celebration~!

For dinner after work on a Friday night, we met up with T san for dinner at Hikarie. So thankful to T san for always treating me to yummy food every time I meet him.

As it my Birthday weekend, I got a suprise cake from J. Love this chocolate cake~! I think I ate almost half of it. His aunt makes amazing cakes for sale and he ordered this one here for my birthday.

For lunch, we went to Din tai fung for some super yummy raddish cake~!!

Some delicious wontons and noodles~

For dinner, we went to Il Pinolo Sky Terrace in Yokohama.

Website: http://www.il-pinolo.com/yokohama.html

This was the second surprise by J. 

We had a superb dinner course here.

This restaurant provides a view of the Yokohama Bay at night, which was nice.

Always enjoy a piece of good focaccia. I wonder if I should try to go through the trouble of trying to make one at home.

The appetiser was and pasta was ok. I was sort of hoping for more stuffs in my pasta, but the taste was good.

Grilled fish was delicious.

So was the beef~

And lastly, to end the meal pumpkin creme brulee~!!! It's definitely great to have a super delicious dessert to end the meal on a high~! I need more of this pumpkin creme brulee.