Teppei Shokudo (Syokudo) @ Pickering Street

A good kaisendon or chirashidon always makes me happy, and the opening of Teppei Syokudo (or Shokudo) in the Raffles Place / Chinatown area made me even happier.

This is a branch of the famed Teppei Japanese restaurant at Orchid Hotel (minus the crazy wait), and is located in "Five", an upmarket, semi-automated "food court" on Pickering Street (Great Eastern Building), where Hans used to reside. There are five stalls including Teppei Shokudo, a Korean stall, one selling noodles, another selling Western food, and one selling pizza and Tapas. There is also a fruit juice / cut-fruit stall. The ordering and paying is done on machines, and an SMS will be sent to your mobile once the food is ready, for pick-up. All very high-tech for someone who is used to doing direct interaction with the stall-holder.

So on to Teppei Shokudo.

It sells a number of different dishes, but I do believe that the Kaisendon is the most popular among all, judging by the way the chef is preparing bowl after bowl after bowl of it without stopping.

Here's how the finished product looks ($16). You can add extra toppings like uni (sea urchin), scallops, chopped tuna etc for another $8, but personally, I think the base product is more than enough... to the point of me not being able to finish the fish.

Honestly, the bowl of kaisendon looks a little small and "shallow" in the dish when you first get hold of it, but that turns out to be really deceptive.

Look at how lusciously thick the salmon slices are. It's not even a slice... it's a chunk! The amount of fish practically covers the entire bowl of rice - definitely very generous and worth the $16.

It also comes with a bowl of miso soup to help wash it down and add some savoury kick to the meal. You might also want to get extra wasabi (50 cents) to balance the oiliness of the fish.

The seared and sashimi salmon don ($16.80) also seems to be popular, with a generous serving of six very large salmon slices, though by taking a quick look at the plates of diners at Five, the kaisendon seems to be on almost every other table.

Teppei Shokudo is also at Millenia Walk and Takashimaya. I'm not too sure what the average waiting time is elsewhere, but the one at Pickering Street takes about 10 mins during the peak lunch hour.

If you are feeling super full after the meal and need some help to take away the oiliness, I recommend some good, strong green tea after the meal, like this one here from Nakamura Tokichi, which I managed to get from my trip to Uji.

I also read that Nakamura Tokichi has just opened its first overseas branch in Hong Kong, which is great news as it's nearer than Japan!

Speed traveling: Kansai in five days or less!

After a series of "speed traveling" posts, I thought I would attempt to (theoretically) condense our 9-day Kansai trip with toddler in tow, to a much shorter version for the solo traveler (or those traveling without little ones).

Here's how to see the best of Kansai in half the time needed compared with what we did. For the details of each sight, check out the specifics in my "Kid in Kansai" series.

Day 1: Kuromon Market (lunch), Osaka Castle, either Shitennoji or Sumiyoshi Taisha, Dotonbori (dinner). Overnight in Osaka.

Day 2: Himeji and Kobe (or replace with Universal Studios in Osaka). Overnight in Osaka. Check out of Osaka hotel the next morning.

Day 3: Nara half-day (leave luggage at the station locker), then onward to Kyoto (Arashiyama, Tenryuji, Bamboo Grove, Kinkakuji). Overnight in Kyoto.

Day 4: East Kyoto (including Kiyomizudera, Sannenzakai, Ninenzakai, Ishibe Koji, Maruyama Park, Shoren-In, Chion-In, Nanzenji, Path of Philosophy, Ginkakuji). Then Pontocho and Gion in the evening. Overnight in Kyoto.

The lovely Ishibe Koji

Day 5: Fushimi Inari, Uji (if you like green tea), then back to Nijo Castle and some shopping at the Kyoto Station area thereafter. Take a night flight out, or overnight in Kyoto.

It's possible! :)

Kid in Kansai: How to nail Kansai with a toddler in tow (Part 7)

After Day 6, everything else was a breeze. Day 7 was devoted to the Southern area - Fushimi Inari Taisha (shrine) and onward to Uji, the green tea capital of Japan.

Fushimi Inari Taisha is accessible via train, and just a few minutes walk away from the station. This was one of the most beautiful and memorable sights of Kyoto and definitely not to be missed, even if time is short.

Comprising hundreds of orange-red shrine posts, painstakingly mounted one after the other, it's hard to take a bad picture of this beauty. The trick of course, is having to wait for a moment where there is no one standing in the picture. A scene in Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed here too.

Fushimi Inari

Kid alert: Surprisingly, this place is not difficult with a child. Yes, it is a mountain (maybe more of a hill), and there are steps. But these are very gradual and almost hard to notice as you're busy admiring or photographing the site. You also don't need to climb all the way up unless you feel like it (since it's one orange pole after the other).

The city of Uji is a 20-minute train ride away from Inari on the JR line. The main heritage site there is Byodoin Temple, but for us, the green tea cafes were the main draw while the temple was more of a by-the-way.

Byodoin

Once in the temple compound, there is a nice flower garden and landscaped pond which makes the site worth visiting. On the road to Byodoin, you will see tons of green tea shops lining both sides of the road, with the smell of roasted tea in the air. The most famous ones are Nakamura Tokichi (there are two - both with shops and cafes - on that road) and Itoh Kyuemon (the Byodoin branch only has a shop, while the main one near the Keihan station has a shop and cafe). Be prepared to wait for long if you want to eat at the cafe!

Kid alert: Byodoin Temple is about a 15 to 20-minute walk from the JR station. It's even further if you approach from the Keihan station.

After Byodoin, we made our way to the Itoh Kyuemon main outlet (shop + cafe), which is a 15-minute walk, over the bridge near to the Keihan station.

Kid alert: Do not expect much options for mains here - there were only three when we went (hot chasoba, another hot version with some fish, and cold chasoba). The desserts are its main highlight, especially the green tea parfait. Be prepared to wait for long, once again, but you can while away the time by shopping for green tea products (Itoh Kyuemon special edition Kit Kat, daifuku / mochi, cheesecake, Swiss roll, langue de chat biscuits, puddings, and lots more). It's VAT-free for tourists. Itoh Kyuemon was in Singapore briefly for the Rakuten Japan Gourmet Festival.

By the way, there is also an Itoh Kyuemon shop (no cafe) opposite the Kyoto Station. Nakamura Tokichi (shop and cafe) is also in the Kyoto Station Suvaco shopping mall. The queues for Nakamura Tokichi cafe are not any shorter than those at Byodoin.

Itoh Kyuemon

After that, we made our way back to Kyoto to rest as we were going to have kaiseki for dinner!

We chose Kiyamachi Sakuragawa for our first taste of kaiseki in Kyoto as it was just a 3 or 5-minute walk from the hotel. We had asked the hotel concierge to make a reservation for us the day before, and also as part of a kid alert, this is what we would recommend on "how to ace a kaiseki with a toddler in tow":

1. Have the hotel call up to reserve unless you speak fluent Japanese

2. The restaurant will usually ask you to set a budget in advance. In Sakuragawa's case, they had a 10,000 yen and 15,000 yen menu to choose from

3. Ask if the restaurant can accept kids. Sakuragawa said yes, but they do not have a children's menu. They said that the child can share from the parents' meal, meaning we only had to pay for 2 adults set meal. Great!

4. There are unlikely to be high chairs. Sakuragawa has about 10 counter seats (which are high chairs, you could say) and one private room with four chairs. They kindly said they could provide cushions to elevate the child, though in the end, ours was tall enough so it was ok.

5. If your child is picky with food, go somewhere else to fill his tummy first before going to have the adults' kaiseki. Kaiseki takes about 2 hours (about 9 courses), so the kid has to eat before, or eat at the kaiseki. Thankfully, ours is not fussy with food and he liked the green tea tofu, tempura, shrimp rice, fried fish, salmon and soup.

We had a really good time at Sakuragawa. The food was very creative and delicious, and the manager and chef could speak some English to explain what the dishes were. 

Kaiseki at Kiyamachi Sakuragawa

When the hotel concierge called up for a reservation, they said they only had counter seats left, which we thought was okay. But when we got there, the nice lady manager showed us to a private room for four, which was even better considering that it was a two-hour affair and the counter seats were full with Japanese businessmen anyway.

All in all, we enjoyed our first Kyoto kaiseki very much, thanks to Sakuragawa. It's also located on a very atmospheric street, which made for a lovely pre- and post-dinner walk. Highly recommended!


The complete itinerary:
Day 1: Osaka (Kuromon Market, Osaka Castle, Dotonbori)
Day 2: Osaka (Shitennoji, Sumiyoshi Taisha)
Day 3: Kobe, Himeji (Himeji Castle, Mount Rokko, Harbourland)
Day 4: Nara (Todaiji, Kohfukuji, Nara Park)
Day 5: Kyoto (Arashiyama, Tenryuji, Bamboo Grove, Kinkakuji)
Day 6: Kyoto (Kiyomizudera, Sannenzakai, Ninenzakai, Ishibe Koji, Maruyama Park, Shoren-in, Chion-in, Nanzenji, Path of Philosophy, Ginkakuji)
Day 7: Inari, Uji (Fushimi Inari Taisha, Byodoin Temple, Kaiseki)
Day 8 & 9: Kyoto (Nijo Castle, Kyoto Station, Pontocho, Gion)