Siu~V

Travel Bucket List --Japan (Day 1 : Yokohama)

BOY oh BOY, I finally set foot in the land of the rising sun on May 29th. Thankful to be able to squeeze in this trip before the Tokyo Summer Olympics next year which would likely mean soaring prices then. Kinda a last-minute trip (domo arigatou to Yin Peng and Kristy for being such awesome guides and 'babysitters') which encompasses just a lot of eating and binging in Tokyo. Seriously practically nil sight seeing. :P

My first ANA flight - I must say apart from the demure and ever so polite Japanese flight attendants, the onboard meals were kinda mediocre in quality. Not to mention, I wished there were more English movies (with English subtitles) available for their in-flight entertainment.

Kids Meal

Check out the adult breakfast portion. I probably should not have ordered the meal with rice. The food definitely was served hot but the rice was too soft and mushy. I like the little bottled sauce meant for the soba noodles.

With endless entertainment onboard, there's just no way this kid's gonna nap during the flight. -_-

Upon arrival at Narita airport, we started off our vacay with 2 nights in Yokohama which was only about an hour+ away. Here we stayed in Rose Hotel which was right in the heart of Chinatown. So glad they gave us semi double beds in a room spacious enough for the kids to move about....when they are not glued to the TV.

Their kinda hard mattresses were very quickly compensated with delightful L'occitane toiletries in the bathroom!

During non-peak super-savings season, this room goes for as low as RM 350/night. Eeek, what a steal!

Have I mentioned I loved the location of our hotel as it was right smack in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the colorful streets of Yokohama Chinatown, the largest of 3 Chinatowns in Japan.

As we arrived at Yokohama in the late evening, we decided to head to a random local restaurant. That's when we bumped into this "yakiniku" (grilled meat) place near our hotel.

It's always a relief when you see other locals dining in the same restaurant. Next is to order the same dishes as them. LOL.

Thank God for a menu written in Chinese and hallelujah we had YP who could read it!

Gawking at all the photos of mouth-watering beef pics, our mental arithmetic was put to the test as subconsciously, we started converting everything into MYR. The simplest of conversions being 100 YEN = MYR 4. Now you do the math.

From here on, it's just pictures of beef, pork, beef, beef and beef.

I didn't care the different types of beef we ordered as every single piece was made in heaven!

Being extremely careful not to overcook those precious beef pieces.

We were also proud to be the owners of this A5 marbling Wagyu - 3680 Yen (RM 140)

There's a euphoric sense of freedom as the meat disintegrates inside my mouth. How I miss this feeling!

Damages - 10,497 yen (RM 400). I reckon an astounding and truly satisfying meal!

After dinner, we wandered shortly around our hotel and found this dumpling shop.

It's something like a giant Xiao Long Bao with meat and hot soup in it. So the right way to eat this was to nibble a tiny hole in the dumpling to suck out all its soup, then devour the rest of the bun. Really good too!

It was a short but fruitful first day as this was only the beginning of my eating frenzy in Tokyo!><

Perfect Ten

I'm posting my fine dining experience in Ten, Marc Residence again because it is just too good not to share out.

Chose this place to treat hubby on his birthday. Thank God we both adore Jap cuisine. Luckily we arrived at about noon as it was fully occupied by 1pm! Amazingly, on this Saturday afternoon, the occupants were mostly Japanese and they seemed to know one another as they exchanged greetings and bows. Probably residing in Marc Residence. My instant thought was that for a Jap to dine in this restaurant, i know it must be good.

After a few flips of the lunch menu (dinner menu's priced differently), my choice was their Signature Lunch Box.

The prettiest Bento Box i've ever seen! So pretty i dont even know where to begin eating.

Their selection of sashimi is super fresh!

Hubby chose to indulge in a lunch course set. This is the middle range priced course.

Look, no kids! 😜

First course.

Second course.

Main course of wagyu beef 100g only but cooked to perfection! Even a toothless grandma would enjoy this to the last bit.

And this gets my vote for best garlic fried rice ever! Looks meh here but something about the aroma and texture of the rice made me gobble down the entire bowl even though i was already stuffed from my bento. It was seriously THAT good!

Even hubby was stunned by the first mouthful!

Last but not least, dessert was a generous 2-piece cheesecake served with heavenly yuzu ice cream. Sinfully delicious.

I would so recommend this place again for their wagyu n garlic rice (hahaha). Gotta start coming up with new 'reasons for celebration' to dine here again.

Oh and don't forget your coffee/ tea afterwards, a perfect ending to an absolutely fulfilling Saturday lunch.

parthay for evie, ian, ryan

I always look forward to any kid's birthday party for the food and great fun that makes me feel like a kid all over again. Whatmore when it's a party to celebrate not one, but 3 kiddos!

Meet my brother in law's sister, Jade's twin boys Ian and Ryan who turns 5 and my sweet niece Evie who just turned 1!

At home, my own little monkeys are all dressed up to head to the party.

I recall my last visit to Chili Espresso in Sooka Sentral for Chun Beng's Pierre's 1 yo celebration.. This time around, they've moved to Nexus Bangsar. Not a very spacious restaurant, we had the whole place to ourselves.

One of the main attractions has got to be the picture booth set against a red backdrop of a tree and hanging deco.

It was so fun watching everyone scrambling to take their best poses for the camera, especially when there's a timer involved. May have cost 1k to bring this booth in but at least everyone went home with at least a polaroid memory on print!

Thanks to Jade and Cindy for playing decorator to this entire restaurant. Everything was tip top and perfect!