Before the Japan Food Town in Isetan, we always had the small gathering of Japanese food stalls at Takashimaya B2 in trendy Orchard Road.
While they were always there, and I always knew that they were, but back then we were rather tight around the waistline so we always gave it a miss and walk to Lucky Plaza for cheaper food at one of their hawker/food court (Red Glutinous Rice Wine noodles [红槽面线] rocks!).
Back to current time, our belts were slightly looser and with me on chronic binge mode, we went there for our dose of Japanese comfort food every time we were at Takashimaya. First up I wanna say that the stalls were not free sitting even though they adopted a rather casual food court style furniture. You have to go queue at the counter, order and pay before another staff show you to your seat. Unless you enjoy being chased away by the waiting staff. We on the other hand, learnt it the hard way, because I asked my designated seat chope-ing person to go sit at an empty table. I noticed the staff eyeing on my wife as she makes her way over to the table and realized what’s going on in his mind, I tried to stop wifey but the staff already start his ranting.. I think he’s sick and tired from chasing unknowing potential diners away, Takashimaya should consider erecting some sort of fence around the stalls in order to prevent the embarrassment from both the staff and customers… Just a suggestion…
Anyways I brought Claire over to queue at the counter and ordered from there like a obedient child. The few stalls there operates the same way in their own ‘island’. Below is a compilation of the food we ate, we visited 3 of the 5 stalls there, Baikohken Ramen, Tsuru-koshi Udon, and the not so Japanese Fisherios Fish & Chips.
1. Baikohken Ramen
First up is Baikohken Ramen, actually I visited this place 3 times already. Twice with Claire, once… alone. I’m seldom alone when I’m eating food more than 10 bucks, because spending so much on myself seems to lack good value.
We had the Shoyu Ramen + Ajitama because Claire likes eggs and Shio Ramen for me.
Her ramen looks tastier than mine..
Ajitama, can’t go wrong with this…
My Shio Ramen isn’t as appetizing looking as I thought.. While looks can be deceiving, it didn’t deceive me this time.. I should’ve order miso ramen.. My shio ramen as you can see, the soup looks bland and other than the saltiness, its a fair bit on the lighter side. Its like they boiled 5 liters of soup with a couple of pork ribs and no fat. We need the fat in the soup base. Claire’s shoyu ramen on the other hand was quite good. I’m jealous. Next time I’m having the miso-ramen.
2. Tsuru-koshi is an udon house.
Like.. obviously…
Claire had the Atsu Atsu Tan Tan Udon. Its a spicy concoction of saltiness and spiciness with that creamy poached egg. Its awesome, everything with poached egg adds that ‘fullness’ to any dish. I wanna thank all the hens which laid the eggs we eat in our meals, respect.
While I had this Kakiage Tonkotsu Udon. Its just udon in tonkotsu broth and a kakiage on a plate. erm… I wished I’d ordered char siew udon instead. The Tonkotsu broth is a little too light to my tastes and udon are naturally quite mild in taste. So that combi made it a alittle too bland, plus the greasy kakiage.. it calls for a jelat meal. I’m in need of some green tea to wash everything down.
3. Fisherios Fish & Chips
I ordered Seafood Combo, because it offers the best fried value on the menu, I think.. As you can see, everything is deep fried; fish fillet, fries, shrimps and erm.. nuggets because they ran out of calamari.. Well what can go wrong with fried stuff right? All that crispy oily goodness. The fish though, I thought it was quite tasteless after you get through the batter. Well I suppose its like that.
Claire of course would go for the healthier option. I mean, she would’ve get those healthy organic ‘green’ snacks if we can find them. So its no surprise she had the grill fish. We thought it was… rather pathetic.. I mean look at it… Fish, a small bunch of lettuce strips and some tartare sauce.. Its damn greasy as well like the fish absorbed the grease and all you eat is grease and tasteless fish mash… Probably will only have the fried stuff here if we ever come back here again.
Iced lemon tea, probably Season’s.. And some forgotten sauce.
4. Modanyaki
And lastly, some comfort food in the form of Yakisoba omelette. Its tasty in that starchy fatty greasy savoury goodness much like how we crave for potato chips. This is comfort food, heavy on the seasonings and sauces and satisfying to our tummy. Eat it piping hot, because otherwise you would wanna throw it into the next bin you see.
Well thats about it. Nonsensical people talking about food we had. More will come when we actually stop procrastinating and start going out to have more food again. Cheers people.
Simon Tey
https://www.instagram.com/simontey/
