#FoodFri Omurice at Taimeiken in Tokyo

One of my favorite yoshoku (Japanese-style western food) dish is omurice.

It’s a rather strange dish with an equally strange name. Omu + rice = omelet + rice. An omelet covers a serving of fried rice like a snug blanket and garnished with a dash of ketchup.

Good omurice has a tangy taste. Bad omurice is just fried rice topped with a lazy omelette.

I’ve wanted to try Taimeikan’s omurice ever since I read about the Tampopo Omurice on food blog Just Bento. Maki’s photo of a runny omelet on top of rice makes me hungry every time I look at it.

I had the chance to pop into Taimeiken for lunch during my last day in Tokyo. Even though my stomach was still full from my buffet breakfast, I knew that I needed to try the dish or I would fly back with regret.

The restaurant was a bit difficult to find because I couldn’t find the Exit C5 at Nihombashi station. When I did find the exit, I was confused by the street level buildings as the Taimeiken sign was not there that day.

I eventually figured out the place. I was reached the doors slightly before 1 p.m. and it was strange that the queue was not as long as I expected.

Little did I know the queue would snake out when I left the restaurant.

Queue outside of Taimeiken Restaurant for lunch — The queue after I had my meal

I was soon seated in the crowded restaurant. The place was smaller than I imagined. My elbow was almost touching the lady at the next table’s.

Even though there was a 800 yen lunch set, I ordered the omurice. I was informed that my order was for a normal omurice so I changed it to the famous Tampopo omurice.

The deco was vintage. The chair even had what look like animals.

The pattern was repeated on the serviette.

My 50 yen borscht arrived before my omurice. The serving was larger than I expected. (I imagined a small Chinese bowl of tomato-based soup.)

Soon my omurice came, along with a small serving of ketchup. The dish looked beautiful and I took a while to find the best angle to take a photo of it.

Unfortunately, that extra 30 seconds caused my egg to overcook. Instead of a beautiful waterfall of egg flowing over my rice. Mine looked like a the face of Two Face, a character in Batman.

For 1,850 yen, the taste wasn’t exceptional. It felt like it lacked salt. (Or my friend D likes to say: Too little seasoning.)

I ate every grain of rice because it was expensive. But I didn’t feel satisfied. :( I think I will go for the normal omurice, or even the lunch sets next time.

Directions
Take Exit C5 of Tokyo Metro’s Nihombashi station. Once out of the station, turn to the right and another right at the corner of the street. It’s just down the road.

Money saving tips for Tokyo: Food and drink

This post is part of my money saving tips for Tokyo series. Last week, I talked about ways you can save on transportation in Tokyo.

Today, I’ll be talking about my favorite topic: Food.

Eating and drinking (even water, not beer) in Tokyo is not terribly cheap. But here are a few ways you can save those extra 100 yen (to buy more food).

Lunch time fixed menu + combo sets

During week days, some restaurants have prix fixe menu. Taimeiken had 800 yen set lunches. I didn’t get the set lunch because I wanted to try its omurice so I got the 1,890 yen dish instead (but with much regret).

Besides lunch sets, regular menus would have combo sets which allow you to try out smaller portions of two different dishes. The soba restaurant I visited in Kamakura had a combo of tempura don and zarusoba which were both delicious.

Fast food

Yes, McDonalds has a 100 yen menu. But since you’re in Japan, you should try out the Japanese fast food outlets.

Although this menu from Nakau was from last October, you get a taste of how low food prices can go in these outlets.

Another benefit of these outlets which use coupon machines is that you don’t need to speak Japanese to order. Instead, you look at the pictures on the machine and pay it with your bills or coins.

Convenience store food

The onigiri (rice balls) in the photos were 129 yen each. Having two can substitute a meal.

These Japanese takeaway food are available at convenience stores which open 24/7, this means you will never go hungry.

Free drinking water

I tend to forget to hydrate when I’m travelling because it’s too much of a chore to buy water.
Luckily in Japan, there’s quite a lot of free drinking water outlets. I’ve seen some at the platforms of train stations.

Restaurants also have free ice water or tea on the table, I admit that I’ve pour half a pitcher of water into my bottle once. Just once.

Check the rest of money saving tips for Tokyo:

Do you have other tips for saving money on food and drinks in Tokyo?

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#FoodFri Glutton at Tsukiji, Tokyo

Tokyo’s Tsukiji is the famous fish market. Some guidebooks recommend visiting early in the morning at around 5 a.m. to catch the tuna auction.

Being the lazy glutton, I didn’t wake up that early. I did visit Tsukiji, but only for the sushi which was slightly disappointing.

As I didn’t want to walk around with an open guidebook, I roamed the outer stalls of Tsukiji and missed the inner market.

Tamagoyaki

I broke my fast with a tamago-yaki, or grilled egg, on a stick from Yamanaga. It wasn’t the most famous tamago-yaki stall in Tsukiji but the egg tasted yummy.

I ordered the warm tamago-taki which came on a styrofoam plate. There was some shredded white radish with sauce which gave the sweet grilled eggs a balanced flavor.

Sushi at Tsukiji

It is sacrilegious to visit Tsukuji without eating sushi. So after my tamago yaki, I went off to find my breakfast.

I stopped at the main chain of Sushizanmai. I had to wait outside before I was ushered into the restaurant before I was seated at the counter.

I ordered a sushi set which was disappointing. I was not as yummy as I thought it would be. I suspect I ordered a lower quality set.

From my side of the counter, I saw the chefs work. One took a fish out of the tank, sliced the flesh off its bones and served the slices on a plate.

It was a bit horrifying watching the fish die in front of my eyes. But I forgot about it after I bit into my piece of onigiri.

Ramune

When I walked back to the train station, I passed by a stall selling drinks for 100 yen. I picked ramune which tasted like ice cream soda. At the top of the bottle, there is a frustrating marble rolling around which sometimes blocked my from enjoying the drink.

I never figured out how to get the marble out. But some people have videos of how you can do it.

Checkout my other Glutton in Tokyo posts

Day 1: #FoodFri Glutton in Kamakura + Tokyo
Day 2: #FoodFri Glutton in Tokyo 2

#FoodFri Glutton in Tokyo 2

This is a follow up of Glutton in Tokyo part 1 which I posted last week.

On Day 2 of my Tokyo trip, I walked around Shinjuku waiting for the day to end so I can spend the night at Ooedo Onsen Monogatari’s hot springs.

Tsuke-men

I visited the Tokyo Municipal Building around noon. As it was a Sunday, most of the shops under the skyscrapers were closed.

Luckily, the noodle shop was still open.

Tsuke men, or dipping noodles, is another way of eating ramen. Instead of a noodles in a bowl of hot soup, I got cold noodles and a small bowl of thick stock.

Take the noodles, dip into the stock and slurp loudly. I find this way of eating ramen fun because I rarely get this type of noodles back in Singapore

For an extra 100 yen, I added on an iced coffee. yums

Udon

I visited the guidebook-famous Sankoku Ichi at Shinjuku for dinner before heading to the onsen theme park.

The interior had a vintage Japanese restaurant feeling with low ceiling, wooden floor, tables and chairs.

Separately I love tonkatsu (fried, breaded pork cutlets), udon and miso soup so I ordered the Nagoya-style udon which was a combination of all three things.

Unfortunately, the sum was not bigger than the parts.

My pork chop sat on top of my udon in a shallow dish of miso. The crispy fried battered skin was soggy because of the soup. The udon didn’t have much soup to go with. The soup was tainted by the salty tonkatsu sauce. The veggie which I don’t eat was left as decoration.

If I ever go to the restaurant again, I will chose a plain udon.

#FoodFri Glutton in Kamakura + Tokyo

In case you don’t know. I love Japanese food very very much.

During my short work trip to Japan, I had a few days to roam around eating.

Instead of flooding everyone with too many yummy food, I’m splitting the meals into different days.

For today, we’re having meals from Day 1: Lunch at Kamakura and Dinner in Tokyo.

Day 1

Zaru soba at Kamakura Karari

I took a side trip to Kamakura on day 1 because my N’EX and Suica package includes the Kamakura stop.

I was really hungry when I walked on the streets of Kamakura. But I did not dare pop into casual-looking but surely expensive cafes so I wandered around.

I found several people waiting outside Karari. I entered the doors but was asked to wait outside and write my name on a piece of paper.

Kamakura soba restaurant kitchen — Karari restaurant kitchen

It was an open kitchen concept restaurant. The chefs fried tempura while the customers watched. The second floor was for tour groups so I was stuck downstairs.

The meal was great. I loved the free flow of cold tea as well.

Yayoiken at Minami-senju

The restaurant near my hotel at Minami-senjuu had coupon machines at the door (like Nakau!).

I chose a pork chop set because Japanese katsu is delicious! There’s even unlimited refill of rice if you’re hungry.

Unfortunately, my pork smelled in a bad way. At least the miso soup was ok.

#FoodFri Eating in the Nine States

An overdue gallery of the food I met on my December 2011 trip to Negeri Sembilan.

Chicken, my first time eating in a Malay-run Chinese restaurant

I can shout DIMSUM like the guy does SPARTA

Glutinous rice cakes for Chinese New Year

#FoodFri is my weekly food feature where I showcase the food I met while travelling.

#FoodFri My love affair with Japanese food

When I was a kid, having Japanese food was a rare treat.

The Japanese restaurant that my family goes to most often started its business when I was just in high school. The place was different from the usual rowdy Chinese restaurants and had beautiful finished puzzles of Japanese beauties on the wall.

Each university vacation, my parents would take the family to the Japanese restaurant–Miyabi–for dinner. For me, Japanese food signified family.

Before my trip to Japan for summer school at the end of my third year, I read about the variety of Japanese food in my guidebooks. Back then, I didn’t understand why anyone would choose to eat wasabi. For me, Japanese food signified the exotic.

Today, I voluntarily scoop out the green spicy paste and mix a bit of soy sauce to it. I could slurp a bowl of udon/ramen as loudly as the Japanese businessman could. For me, Japanese food signified delicious meals.

Now, I am finishing this post at Changi Airport. In 8 hours, I will be in Tokyo where I will spend the weekend having fun before starting my business trip on Monday.

Even though I have not fully planned out my itinerary, I have made up my mind what I want to eat: sushi at Tsukiji, Monjayaki, udon, ramen, old Edo-styled tempura, rice balls from the convenience store and lots and lots of cheap conveyor belt sushi.

I leave you with this fascinating outdoor advertisement for a udon shop.

Other Japan eats:
What does fugu tastes like?
#FoodFri Silk pudding @ Tokyo, Japan
#FoodFri Breakfast @ Kyoto National Museum
#FoodFri Japanese fast food: Nakau

This blog post was inspired by BootsnAll’s Indie Travel Challenge weekly travel blog project.
Week 35 of the Indie Travel Challenge is all about Food in Asia: You have to pick one country in Asia to eat from for a month. What country do you pick? Why?

#FoodFri Murtabak @ Singapore

It’s very rare that I praise local food in Singapore. By local food, I mean Chinese, Malay, Indian or Peranakan dishes. (I would rather put American food to represent Singapore.)

Why? Because the Malaysian-made version is usually better.

But, I admit that the beef murtabak at Zam Zam Restaurant is up to standard. The dough was fried crispy and they were not stingy with their corned beef.

However, at the price of S$6, it’s really a lot more expensive than what we could get in Malaysia.

Zam Zam is located at the Arab Street area. Address: 697 North Bridge Rd, Singapore 198675

#FoodFri is a post up on each Friday featuring a dish or meals I’ve had when travelling (or staying put). Happy eating!

#FoodFri Glutton in Jakarta

It’s lunchtime here in Singapore so I thought it’s an appropriate time to launch this week’s #FoodFri.

I was in Jakarta last weekend and was quite disappointed by the food there.

But I only have myself to blame. Despite all the research on food in Glodok, I didn’t really jot down the locations nor print out a Google Map of Chinatown.

Well, not everything was terrible so here’s a less hunger-inducing version of the Glutton series.

The Good

The restaurant/cafe at our hotel served quite tasty nasi (rice dishes). Since I’ve never been to Bali, I ordered the Nasi Bali.

The portion that came was quite small but D reminded me that what we have back home are actually supersized.

The whole dish was slightly spicy but tasty. I even had a fish paste on a lemongrass stick which was cute.

Seafood Kempinski Hotel buffet — Cold seafood

We did a very un-budget traveller thing in Jakarta and splurged at the buffet restaurant of a 5-star hotel. Hotel K. Our handbags needed to be checked and we had to pass a metal detector before we could go in.

The main mean spread was alright. The sushi counter a bit too stingy–salmon was gone and never to appear after one hour. The cold seafood was fine, although I would love to have raw oysters instead.

The redeeming feature were the desserts. My favorite was the sticky toffee pudding.

What I enjoyed most at the restaurant was gawking at the lifestyles (and hairdos) of the rich and famous.

Blueberry pancake house — A toast at Blueberry Pancake House

When we were walking in search of the illusive Jalan Jaksa, we passed by this little restaurant. (If it’s in Lonely Planet, I’m not sure how little it is.)

They had a buffet breakfast spread so we got that. They served fried rice, fried eggs, fried chicken, fried potato patty, non-fried fruits. I had a lot of the coffee and tea as well.

Indonesian food stall — Pre-buka puasa set up

While we were at Blok M, the hawkers were preparing to operate after the fasting period. The stuff looked tasty but we had more important food to tend to. Maybe we can come back next time.

Not quite an originally Indonesian dish but I enjoyed my cheaper-than-Singapore Bread Papa creampuff at the airport. The organic strawberries I got from the supermarket were a bit too sour.

Drinks

Teh botol, less sugar — Teh Botol, less sugar

A colleague of mine introduced me to Teh Botol (literally “bottled tea”) before I went to Jogjakarta. The full sugared Teh Botol is too sweet for our liking but the Less Sugar version is like Goldilock’s last porridge. Just right.

Iced coffee at Tomodachi Cafe — Ice coffee

Also from our hotel cafe/restaurant. The ice cream and coffee went really well.

While walking aimlessly after finding Jalan Jaksa, we stumbled upon this faux-vintage kopitiam. It has a 1960’s feel to everything.

The menu was a fake newsletter, telling people the origins of the place. (“No, it did not really exist in olden days. The coffeeshop is a recent creation”.)

I had two coffees there. The kopi jawa was a really “manly” drink with its dark liquid and coffee grounds while the Vietnamese-styled coffee lack the buttery taste.

I had one too many cups of coffes, as I found out an hour later. I was feeling nauseous for a long time after that.

The Ugly: Why is Bakmi GM popular?

I was looking forward to bouncy bakmi and huge meaty siowmay which I had in Jogjakarta. The flavor, the chewiness of everything!

Unfortunately, we visited Bakmi GM. It was the only visible (meaning a HUGE sign) bakmi place around and we thought the quality would be good.

When we reached the first floor of the building, we found ourselves with plenty of other Indonesians. This must mean that the food is good.

Our order was taken and paid on the spot. However, it took a really long time for our change to come back. In fact, our food arrived before the change did.

The avocado juice was incredibly good (as expected of Indonesia). However, the main dishes were not as tasty. D liked her veggie with oyster sauce but the rest were a joke.

My noodles were limp and all stuck together when I poked them with my chopsticks. It was not a good sign. I nibbled on it and discovered it tasted exactly like the terrible noodles I had as a kid.

Flashback of terrible noodles: It was a road trip and mom’s friends drove us to Kinabalu Park. We stopped by a shop for noodles. The dish was too disgusting that we children didn’t have much of it. Mom’s friend (Auntie L) insisted that the noodles were packed and brought along with us to eat later. In the end, I “accidentally” left the gross bad of soggy dough in the changing room. End of flashback.

Our fried siowmay followed. Instead of a fried meatball, it tasted like turnip cake. I felt like sobbing over the meal (mostly caused by caffeine induced overdrive of emotions).

We had to order another glass of avocado juice and pangsit or fried wonton to get the taste of noodles out of our mouths. The pangsit was ok with the meat as sidekick to the fried dough.

Overall, it was not a good meal. I’m sorry for being disappointed.

Can you share locations of good eating places in Jakarta? I promise to write them down when I visit next time.

30 hours in Jakarta

It feels like only yesterday that we took a taxi to the airport [to fly to Jakarta]. Wait a minute… It was yesterday.
-inner monologue

I just came back from a weekend trip in Jakarta. It wasn’t our (D and I) best planned trip but getting out of SIN and smell another country’s air (whether it is fresh or not is up for debate)

I bought the tickets to Jakarta on a whim. AirAsia was having a sale and the tickets to the capital of Indonesia was around S$100 for a return trip.

While we did read up on interesting things to do, we didn’t achieve much. One reason was that there were no tourist maps to figure out where we were. The other was that we didn’t take enough notes. The weather was also too hot.

Enough excuses, here’s a run down of our 30 hours in Jakarta. While I wish it looked like something from the NYT, it’s really just a journal of two people getting lost and eating a lot.

Day 1, Saturday

11.10am Plane arrives on time. Take the airport grounds shuttle to airport. Find counter for pre-booked cab into the city.

11.30am-1pm Stuck in traffic from airport to hotel.

1.30pm Hotel system down so cannot check in. Have lunch at hotel restaurant.

2pm Finished lunch. Check in.

3pm Freshen up. Get out. Take Trans Jakarta bus to Glodok, slightly worried about one hour (according to Google Maps) bus ride.

3.30pm Thanks for bus lane, reach Glodok earlier than expected. Walk aimlessly because of no maps. End up in electronics shopping mall and clothes/phone/lots of stuff mall.

4pm End up in Kota (one bus stop away.) Cannot find entrance to Kota Station, climb like monkeys to get onto platform. Take bus to other end of terminal at Blok M. Stare at Jakarta’s enormous malls while bus zips past. See Pizza Man Statue.

5pm Reach terminal. Lose way at terminal, walking past interesting pre-buka puasa stalls. Find right terminal.

6pm Reach Hotel K for dinner buffet. Food so so but patrons are very interesting. Rich ladies here are dressed to the nines while there husbands look rich (aka well-fed). Children deck out in kid’s wear section of branded clothing lines.

8.30pm Leave restaurant. Spend time at bookstore. Buy two Sharpies, a kid’s guide to Arabic alphabets and some stickers for name card.

10pm Take cab back. Cabbie almost take wrong direction, directed him to right way.

12.15am Sleep.

Day 2 Sunday

~6.30am Wake up, do morning routine.

7:00 am Go in search of a breakfast place. End up at BlueBerry Pancake House, have its buffet breakfast. Load up stomach with fried rice, toast and coffee.

8.30am Take a stroll on Jalan Jaksa, trying to look for the illusive Tourist Information Center to get a map of the city. Find a shack with “Jaksa Tourist Information Center”.
Man at shack does not have maps but asks if we want a city tour in his car. Decline, continue walking.

9.30am Find retro kopitiam. Have two coffees while enjoying its Wi-Fi–Java coffee with grounds and Vietnamese coffee.

10.30am Take cab back to hotel. Finish packing everything.

12noon Leave hotel for lunch and grocery shopping. End up at Bakmi GM which has the most horrible tasting noodles–how on earth can anyone swallow that thing?

Head to McCafe for a Mango Frappe. Read. Head back to hotel before 3pm.

3pm Leave on pre-booked car to airport. Napped on airport, waking up at times to answer driver’s questions.

4pm to 6.50pm Reach the airport with a lot of time to spare. Check in. Ate a cream puff and strawberries. Had a half-hour foot massage which left my feet feeling very light. Fly back

First thoughts of Jakarta

My first thoughts about Jakarata were: OMG why is everything so freaking big here.

I swear, the buildings (except residential areas) are all at least five storeys high! All the shopping malls are like gigantic pyramids (if pyramids were cubes or rectangular-shapes).

The traffic is crazy but if your routes are along the Trans Jogja stops, it’s a literal breeze since the bus company has its exclusive “busway”.

Bakmi GM’s noodles were disgusting. How is it possible when Yogyakarta’s Mie Nusantara was so good we visited twice? Do Jakartarians not know what is good noodles?

Most disgusting noodles — Most disappointing noodles

To end this post on a good note, here’s a photo of a snoozing kitty. <3