Japanese style teppanyaki dinner at Osaka Kitchen @ J'S Gate Dining, Lot 10 Kuala Lumpur

Osaka Kitchen located at in J'S Dining section on 4th floor of Lot 10 shopping centre in the heart of Bukit Bintang. They serve authentic Japanese style teppanyaki meal such as okonomiyaki, teppanyaki, yakisoba and grilled meat. The food were cooked on an iron griddle in from of diners. They have ala carte and course set meal. Choose set meal if you would like to try multiple items at cheaper price. This restaurant is quite famous as its the only restaurant in J'S Gate dining which has long queue. Plus the open kitchen concept is another attraction as you can see how fast those chefs are cooking your meal.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. Food quality and taste is quite good and food preparation are done by two Japanese chefs. I like all the meal served. Salad were fresh with sesame dressing. I enjoy more of their grilled chicken dish compared to their grilled pork dish. The grilled chicken has more seasoning, softer, crispy skin and tender meat. The grilled avocado with melted cheese is awesome. Japanese omelette with chunks of pork belly is tasty as well. As for okonomiyaki is a bit lacking of ingredients as it only contains cabbage and batter. Dessert comes with 3 choices of vanilla, green tea and yuzu. The best choice would be yuzu as the taste is refreshing).
Price:6/10(Moderate. Price were quite reasonable as I ordered one chicken special course and one pork course set meal. Chicken special course at MYR51.00 and pork course at MYR42.00. Green tea at MYR6.00. The special course come with okonomiyaki, rice and soup).

I recommend to try this shop due to not many such good Japanese style teppanyaki restaurant around in Kuala Lumpur. And the price is quite reasonable.


Grilled chicken dish.

Grilled pork dish.

Grilled avocado with melted cheese.

Salad.

Japanese omelette with pork belly.

Premium ice cream of Haagen Dazs and Godiva in Japan

In most places in the part of the world, the ice cream brand name such as Haagen Dazs or Godiva is only available in huge hypermarkets or premium shopping mall. But in Japan, you can get these premium ice cream at any convenience stores. Not only that, the flavours available are also amazing and some weird taste as well.


Haagen Dazs premium ice cream with variety of flavours which can't be found in other countries.


For example special flavour of Japonais. Thick strawberry sauce with chocolate chips ice-cream.



Special edition Opera ice-cream only available in Dec 2014. Thick chocolate and coffee flavour. The best ice-cream tasted.

Rare cheesecake ice cream.


New chocolate brownie ice-cream.


Godiva imported chocolate chips ice cream.

Mikiya Japanese Curry House @ Bukit Tinggi Klang

Mikiya opened its door on July 2014 offers Japanese curry dishes. There is not many good Japanese restaurant in Klang and none of them specialize in Japanese curry. They have quite a good deal lunch and dinner sets. Since the shop is quite new, I decided to give it a try. The curry were not spicy and the taste is rather good. I took their curry rice for two set which consist of two tonkatsu rice, salad, gyoza, edamame, two ice cream and a pot of green tea.

Taste:7/10(Moderate. Their curry taste were good and tasty. Goes well with the tonkatsu. However, the tonkatsu were a bit soggy and not crispy as I had it in Japan. Of course I can't compare this with the tonkatsu that I had in Japan as the food in Japan have a higher quality standard and made fresh. I ordered one pork tonkatsu curry rice and one chicken tonkatsu which is within their dinner set menu. Mikiya chicken tonkatsu taste better compared to their pork version. The salad is good as using the sesame dressing).
Price:7/10(Moderate. Ordered their curry rice set for two for MYR45.00. Plus tax is less than MYR50.00).


Mikiya Japanese Curry House.


My portion of pork tonkatsu curry rice. Its comes with some carrot and pickles.

5 reasons why Japan convenience stores are so great

When you go to Japan, you can find convenience stores almost everywhere. These convenience stores are known as konbini. The strong competition between 3 major convenience store players (7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart) in Japan have created innovative products and services which makes Japanese convenience stores very convenient and reasonable price. These convenience stores opens 24 hours a day.

1. Premium unique flavour ice cream
When comes to ice-cream and confectionary, Japan have many amazing and unique flavours.

Haagen Dazs premium ice cream with variety of flavours which can't be found in other countries.


For example special flavour of Japonais. Thick strawberry sauce with chocolate chips ice-cream.

Japanese traditional sweet bread from Asakusa Kagetsudo @ Asakusa, Tokyo

Trying Japanese sweet bread was never in my plan. However, we saw many people holding the bread and we are curious on how good the bread actually. As we approached the shop, the queue were quite long and we decided to check it out. Since there were 3 of us, the 500 Yen pricing for 3 buns were just right.

Taste:8/10(Good. The bread is sweet with crispy crust with butter taste. I am in the opinion that Malaysian Roti Boy bread taste better).
Price:6/10(Moderate. One sweet bread for 200 Yen. If you buy 3, its for 500 Yen).


After queueing for almost 15 minutes, I got my sweet bread.

Japanese traditional sweet bread.

Sugary crust. Crispy outside and soft inside.

Long queue outside the Asakusa Kagetsudo shop to buy their melon shaped bread.


Besides bread, this shop also selling ice-cream and noodles.

One bun for 200 Yen and three buns for 500 Yen.

GPS/Coordinate: 35.713363, 139.797014
Address: 2-2-10 Asakusa, Taito 111-0032, Tokyo Prefecture
Public transport: Asakusa station on Toei/Metro line.

Haagen Dazs Opera Special Edition ice cream in Tokyo

During the recent visit to Tokyo, I noticed that there are many US brand items have their special edition in Japan. One of them is Haagen Dazs ice cream. They introduced two luxury flavours on 9th Dec 2014 which are Antoinette and Opera. Antoinette uses red wine and topped with silver. While Opera is a luxurious thick layer of chocolate sauce and consist of layer of butter and coffee ice-creams with bottom of almond cookie. However, I only have the chance to try out Opera. I notice this special edition of Haagen Dazs ice cream from an advertisement inside a train. I can taste a hint of alcohol being added to the ice cream. Opera is decorated with a fancy dash of gold leaf. In Japan, Häagen-Dazs regularly rolls out a variety of seasonal flavors. This special edition ice cream does indeed pricy and double of the price of the normal flavoured Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. Tasty ice cream with thick layer of chocolate. The gold flakes does add the exclusivity of this ice cream. Not overall sweet and taste perfectly nice).
Price:4/10(Near expensive. Opera ice cream is priced double when compared to the normal Haagen Dazs ice cream at 432 Yen).



Haagen Dazs Opera. Special Edition ice cream.

Before removing the seal.

Gold leaf on top of the ice cream.

Delicious mix of chocolate, coffee, butter and almond.

For those who can read Japanese. The list of ingredient.

Where to get it: Convenience stores in Japan. I get this from 7-Eleven in Shibuya.
Price: 432 Yen

Aristocrat @ Manila Bay

Aristocrat which is located at Manila Bay, have the tag line "Home of the best barbecue chicken in town" serve very good barbecue chicken and pork knuckles. This is a lively place and very popular with regular Filipino, we saw lots of large family groups out for dinner. A really friendly, interesting place to eat. However, be prepared to wait as their serving time is quite long (around 30 minutes) if the business is good.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. Great pork knuckles, BBQ chicken & pancit(noodles). Good presentation on their Halo-Halo special as well).
Price:6/10(Moderate. Reasonable price for the good food).


The ever sinful pork knuckles. Its crispy and yummy! Locally known as krispy pata. Price PHP695 ~ USD17.00 ~ MYR53.00

Look at the crispy skin and the fat!

Balance between crispy, lean and fat.

Barbecue chicken with java rice is good as well. Three pieces of chicken with java rice at PHP195 ~ USD4.80 ~ MYR15.00.

Each barbecue chicken stick have 3 pieces of chicken.

Tasty noodles. Pancit canton with chicken liver, meat ball, prawn and vegetables.

Tasty Filipino dessert. Halo-Halo is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and evaporated milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served in a tall glass. In Aristocrat, Halo-Halo special have yam ice-cream on top. Price at PHP125 ~ USD3.10 ~ MYR9.50.

Since 1936. Wow, that's mean this restaurant has a long history.

Address: 432 San Andres Street corner Roxas Boulevard, Malate, Manila, Luzon, Philippines
Coordinate/GPS: 14.568507,120.984149

Try Ice Cream

Tried Baskin Robbin in its Bukit Tinggi Klang outlet. This is my rating.

Baskin Robbin
Taste: 8/10 (Good)
Price: 4/10 (Near expensive)

If compare this with Haagen Dazs, I would say each have its own distintive taste. However it still tastes good. BR have more toppings & more creative. The price for BR is slightly lower than Haagen Dazs.

Gathering at Mid Valley

Its new year today. So I planned to meet up & catch up with each other. Among invited include hostel mates, room mate & course mate. All mates!!!

After walking & chatting for quite a while, we went to try ice cream at Haagen Dazs. This ice cream outlet is indeed have a wide selection of ice cream. There are around 20-25 varieties to choose from & to mixed together. They also offered two alcoholic flavours: rum raisin & tiramisu. We all ordered the two scoops & two toppings each. I judge this dessert as expensive as inclusive of tax, it cost RM23. However, the taste is good & still fullfil the what you pay is what you get concept.

Haagen Dazs
Taste: 8/10 (Good)
Price: 3/10 (Expensive)

After having a nice ice-cream, we have a walk in The Gardens. The Gradens houses many international fashion brands & is designed for high-end shoppers. The decoration is quite different from other shopping malls. In the photo below, they use the stars & projector concept. Currently they project the Gardens on the screen. I think they will use this for advertisement in the future.