Whenever Sunshine Plaza is mentioned, I am sure that most of you would be thinking of Victor's Kitchen or Parklane Zha Yun Tun (Wanton) Mee House. Well, if you have missed my earlier post in 2011, there's another hidden gem in Sunshine Plaza and it is Ichi Tei Japanese Bento & Udon aka Ichi Tei!

Oh, since I am on this, I visited Victor's Kitchen 2 months ago. Standard has dropped, and their selection of dim sum and drinks has been decreased (which means several items on the menu are not available). It was a disappointing meal.

Back to Ichi Tei..Ichi Tei located next to the Parklane Wanton Mee is a small eatery specialising in Japanese cuisine such as Bento and Udon set. It is a small shop unit with limited seating capacity and can sit up to a maximum of 22 customers at any one time. Sounds alright? Well, there are just 5 tables with 14 seats inside the shop unit while there are 2 tables with 8 seats outside the shop unit. I would not advise you to visit if you are coming with more than 4 persons.Although Ichi Tei was just a small shop unit, it had a cozy and homely ambience. However, the chairs were not exactly comfortable.The kitchen located at the back was just a small narrow kitchen.

Ichi Tei is managed by two persons; a husband and wife team. The husband takes charge of the back end; the kitchen and cook the food while the wife runs the front end operation and serves the customers (takes the order, serve, collect payment and clear the tables). Disposable chopsticks and spoons are place on every table together with chilli powder. Two years back, I remember that the food used to be served on disposable bento plates for dine-in. I am glad that they have switched to something more environmental friendly.

The post shows a consolidation of food consumed over several occasions.Beef Teriyaki Don $10

The Beef Teriyaki Don served with potato salad and a bowl of miso soup was listed on the menu as a 'Must Try!'. Personally, I thought it was just average with nothing much to shout about. The beef did not strike me as particularly outstanding. In addition, this was one of the most expensive Don set on the menu. Their other Don sets fared better. Beef Teriyaki Don $10 - Potato Salad

The Potato Salad served in the Don sets was delish and left a deeper impression on me compared to the beef. It was essentially mashed potato.Beef Teriyaki Don $10 - Miso Soup

Miso Soup was decent.Chicken Teriyaki Don $7

On another occasion, I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don which was still as good as before. As with all Don set, it was served with potato salad and a bowl of miso soupChicken Teriyaki Don $7Chicken Teriyaki Don $7

The Chicken Teriyaki was grilled in a Japanese styled oven where the heating element comes from the top. The chef had to adjusting the height of the pan to ensure that the chicken teriyaki was cooked. The Chicken Teriyaki was to die for - it was well executed and delish. The top layer where the skin was, was grilled till it was sightly charred resulting in an incredibly crisp texture. Beneath, the meat was tasty and succulent. With each bite, the flavours and juiciness are bound to satisfy your palate.Shishamo Udon $7.50

On a third occasion, I ordered the Shishamo Udon which was not too bad. If you are a Shishamo fan, then this would be fore you.Shishamo Udon $7.50

The Udon was not bad and the soup-base was light and tasty.Shishamo Udon $7.50

The Shishamo were served separately with shredded Japanese cabbage and mayonnaise. The Shishamo were fresh and grilled till the ends were crisp. (Shishamo is capeline or what we commonly know as pregnant fish)

Overall, I would say that their food are not too bad. Ichi Tei would be a place worth checking out. The must try would be the Chicken Teriyaki Don. The Saba Don is also another item to try (based on my past visit 2 years ago). The service at Ichi Tei was prompt as it was just a small unit which can cater to limited number of customers. For such a small operation, you would be surprise that they offer quite an extensive variety of food. Although they have increased the price slightly compared to my visit in 2011, I am still of the opinion that is value for money. I noticed that during lunch time, a significant percentage of their customers prefer to takeaway the food as proper disposable bento plates were provided.

Do note, it can get quite warm if you are choose the table nearest to the kitchen.

Blogpost: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/08/ichi-tei-japanese-bento-udon-sunshine.html

Uncle Tetsu 徹思叔叔起司蛋糕 has opened its first outlet in Singapore!! If you have not heard of this brand, this is a very famous and popular brand - for using premium Japanese dairy ingredients to produce Japanese style cheesecake. Uncle Tetsu originated from Kyushu, Japan and has been in operation since 1990s. It has outlets in Japan, China (e.g. Shanghai) and Taiwan (e.g. Taipei). In Taipei and Shanghai, it is so popular that there are perpetual queues and customers are limited to a purchase of 1 box each. The spongy cheesecake $9.90 was incredibly soft, light and fluffy. It kind of melts in the mouth. In addition, it did not taste too cheesy and was not dry. I am not even a fan of cheesecake and would only take one bite of most cheesecake just to test the flavour. But for Uncle Tetsu's Cheese Cake, I must totally love it! Shiok! A must try!

I wonder if queues will start to form for this too.

Blogpost: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2014/01/uncle-tetsus-cheese-cake-ion-orchard.html

Mei Heong Yuen Dessert 味香园甜品 a well-known traditional dessert stall, also owns the Farmer Brand groundnuts 农夫牌花生. The stall expanded last year and open a branch at ION Orchard.Although Mei Heong Yuen Dessert occupies three units of the ground-floor shop house in Chinatown, the place was full on a Saturday night. Luckily, the staff were efficient and the turnover was fast. We found a table fairly quickly.Look at the menu, Mei Heong Yuen Dessert offers a wide variety of desserts.

I decided to try the Peanut Paste after all they own the Farmer Brand groundnuts. Where else would be a better place to try peanut paste.The Peanut Paste $3 was amazingly fragrant and smooth. There were no peanut bits present. In terms of thickness it was just nice and not overly diluted. Initially I feared that it would be too thick. The perfection of this peanut paste allowed me to polish off the whole bowl without feeling jelak and had me longing for more. What a satisfying bowl of Peanut Paste.On another occasion, I tried the Walnut Paste. It was priced at $3 too. Mei Heong Yuen's Walnut Paste did not disappoint. It had a smooth consistency and thickness. Full of walnut fragrant and flavour, I have to admit that this is one of the best Walnut Paste I have tried. It would be worthwhile to note that not many dessert stalls sells Walnut Paste.On the third occasion, I had the Sesame Paste which was priced at $3. It was a hat trick (3 times) of paste. Similarly, it had the same consistency and smoothness. Quite a decent bowl of sesame paste.

Mei Heong Yuen Dessert is a good bet if you are looking for desserts. They sell a variety of desserts such as paste and shaved ice.

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/08/mei-heong-yuen-dessert-chinatown.html

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant (oh such a mouthful!) is as its name suggest a restaurant that serves Peranakan-Thai style Vegetarian cuisine - such a unique concept. Their concept includes using healthy and fresh ingredients to bring out the flavours targeting healthy freaks individuals, providing a healthier choice to customers.Whole Earth first opened its doors for business in 2003 (this year marks its 10th anniversary). The restaurant is located at Peck Seah Street within a minute walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT Exit A. It's hard to miss this place as they used the huge wall to their advantage advertising their restaurant. The 8 Treasure Cooling Tea with Rosehip was not bad. But to my friends, they mentioned that it smell and tasted like medicine (cough mixture). So a word of caution, not everyone would like this.

All the dishes that we ordered and ate were their best sellers.The Sambal Kang Kong $12 was well cooked and was still crunchy. The unique belachan sauce in this dish stimulated the different senses of taste (sweet, spicy and salty), to its extreme at times. It was very spicy and yet salty at the same time. I suspect that they had added Marmite to it, and if they did, they have added too much of it. If this dish was less salty, it would have been perfect. Interestingly, this dish was incredibly addictive, I wonder if it was the Marmite flavour (salty) or spiciness that made it so addictive. Beats me.. The chunks of tofu in the Oatmeal Tofu with Curry Leaves $15 were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. An addition point to note was that it was not oily. However, the oats were a disappointment. They practically tasteless. Somehow the flavours of the curry leaves was not brought out. On a side note, the Oat Tofu with Curry Leaves looks uncanny similar to Cereal Prawns.As the name of this dish suggests, the Broccoli with Braised Monkeyhead Mushroom $19 was made up of mushroomhead mushrooms (as mock meat). It was then braised together with broccoli, tang gui herbs and wolfberry. It was well executed and quite a decent dish (though not fantastic). Similar, mushroom was used as mockmeat in the Penang Rendang $19. This was another spicy dish, thought not as spicy as the sambal kangkong. In terms of taste, I thought that it was quite decently executed and similar to those found elsewhere (which uses mockmeat).Leaving the best for the last, the Nyonya Curry $19 was outstanding. 8 hours of preparation and cooking was required for this dish. This dish was made of shiitake mushrooms (as mock meat) and potato in a thick Nyonya style curry sauce. The curry was incredibly flavourful and appetising. The potato and mockmeat tasted wonder in this sauce! Taste as good, if not as even better than other Nyonya Curry found elsewhere. The curry goes well with steamed rice! Yummy!

One of the aim of Whole Earth was to create a place where vegetarians could bring their friends non-vegetarian friends to. I must say that the food was impressive. Some of them not only taste just like the real one, but was even better! You may have noticed by now that mushrooms are commonly used as mockmeat by Whole Earth instead of using soybased or flour mockmeat.

Price wise I would say that it was on the expensive end and the portions were small. The ambiance and environment of the restaurant made it difficult to chat as it amplify and hence cause the place to be very noisy. This was despite the fact that it was only half full. Overall, I would conclude that, the vegetarian food served here are unique and quite good (in terms of taste).

Detailed review: http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/08/whole-earth-peranakan-thai-vegetarian.html

Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 a Korean restaurant located at Tras Road, is only a stone throw away (i.e. five minutes away) from Tanjong Pagar MRT station. It is located close to the Maxwell Food Centre too. Kko Kko Nara specialises in Korean cuisine and their signature dish is their Korean Fried Chicken which has been highly raved.

The restaurant was cozy and air conditioned. They have quite a small sitting capacity. When we visited during lunch time on Saturday, the restaurant was fully packed. I took this photo as we were leaving at 230pm, by then most of the customers had left and the restaurant was closing (230pm). Each table has a box of tissue paper utensils and a metal bin for disposal of bones. I like their menu cover. It was artistically and colourful. The fried chicken looks so appetising! The Ban Chan / Side Dish (반찬) were just normal - average. One of the rare occasions where I did not ask for more side dishes. Since we were here, we just had to order the the signature Korean Fried Chicken! The Combo Chicken Set (S) $20 consisted of 9 pieces of chicken - 3 pieces of 3 different flavours chicken. The flavours were namely Original, Sweet and Special Garlic Soy Sauce Chicken. We notice that the price of this dish during dinner time was $25 instead of $20.Having tried the Fried Chicken, I now understood why it had been so highly raved about. Each piece was crispy, crunchy, well marinated and fried. The meat were tender, and had the right blend of spices and sauces. In addition, the immense flavour had penetrated all the way into the meat. My favourite was the Special Garlic Soy Sauce Fried Chicken which was made of hand-crushed garlic and 41 kinds of ingredient with soy sauce.

In terms of execution, I thought that they did quite well. It's a common perception that its easyto cook chicken wings. But its hard to make one that's nice, well seasoned (with the flavours penetrating into the meat) and not oily. We also ordered the Bu Dae Jji Gae (부대찌개) $35 to shared. The Bu Dae Jji Gae when translated, literally means The Army Stew. It was named this way as this dish originated during the Korean War. Back then, the Americans who assisted in the war brought their own food such as spam (canned meat), baked beans, sausages and hot dogs which was not introduced in Korea before. As the Koreans were facing a food shortage, they cooked a spicy stew which consisted of kimchi and gochujang (red chili paste) and mixed the American's surplus food into the stew. This was how The Army Stew / Bu Dae Jji Gae came about.Kko Kko Nara's Bu Dae Jji Gae consisted of noodles, spam, sausages, mushroom, korean rice cake, baked beans, tofu, kimchi, gochujang and a mixture of vegetables. Red and Green Chilli were added to further enhance its taste.

Mix the Bu Dae Jji Gae and once it boils, this is how it should looks like. After that you can let it simmer and slowly savour it. The best part is that the longer the stew simmers, the more robust and flavourful it becomes. Kko Kko Nara's Bu Dae Jji Gae was 맛있어요 (delicious)!! We indulged endlessly into it. The more we dig into it, the more we love it.

Although the Ban Chan / Side Dish were average, the Special Garlic Soy Sauce Fried Chicken and Bu Dae Jji Gae were just simply delicious! I will definitely be back to fulfill my Korean cravings at Kko Kko Nara 꼬꼬나라 again. Price wise, although some may feel that its on the expensive end, I thought its quite value for money considering the taste and quality of food.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://foodiefc.blogspot.sg/2013/08/kko-kko-nara-tanjong-pagar.html