Its a very popular dish, normally a broth that can be made from pork, chicken, fish… together with noodles.  These vary in thickness and texture dependent on the type of ramen and the shop where you get it.  From what I have read, it is a dish that has existed in Japan for about 100 years.  It came from China, but without a doubt, the Japanese have made it theirs.

The variety in flavour is incredible, and I can not think of many better comfort foods.  On a hot day, you can have a cold variety, on a hot day a nice and warm one.  Do you want spicy? Check.  Less spicy? Check!  With pesto sauce mixed in?  CHECK!  There is something for every occasion and every taste.

As you can see, I am certainly a Ramen enthusiast.  If you want to learn a bit more about it, I would highly recommend the book Rice Noodles Fish by Matt Goulding. It is a fantastic culinary journey though Japan, and its Ramen Matrix is amazing!  You can also find some of the most incredible restaurants in the Roads and Kingdoms Website – the book is also a work of the R&K team. They have a fantastic online guide to Japanese food.

Anyways, back to Ramen.  I will focus on my 2 favourite types… Tonkotsu and Tsukemen.

Tonkotsu is consistently my #1 type of ramen.  It is made with pork broth and has generally thinner, straight noodles.  The types that I like the most are the Hakata type, and some shops serve it relatively spicy, which is good for me!  In Fukuoka we went to an amazing tiny shop that served Tonkotsu with garlic and basil, so basically pesto ramen – Ramen Unari.  It is delicious.  My other favourite Hakata Ramen shop is Ichiran.  This is quite a popular shop, as they now have tens of shops across the country.  Nevertheless, to my taste and liking, this is an amazing experience I have not lived in other restaurants in Japan yet.  You can see a video about the Kobe branch below.

I highly recommend going to the nearest Ichiran or other ramen shop in your vicinity, you will not be dissapointed.

Tsukemen ramen is very very different.  It is a much thicker noodle that is normally covered in a little fat, and the soup comes in a separate plate.  This broth is much thicker and stronger, so you dip the noodles in the broth and slurp them up.  This is also amazing!  If you want to try a different type of ramen, this is one of the ones that should top your list.  There is an amazing shop called Rokurinsha in Tokyo station that serves the best one i have had so far.

Anyways, I will continue my ramen journey and add more info as I taste new ones!  Do not miss having a delicious bowl of ramen when you go to Japan!!

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We have just come back from spending a long weekend in Bangkok, and we really enjoyed it! It was an easy and short trip from Singapore, so we set off early in Saturday morning. We got into BKK airport by 10, and decided to take the train into town. Since we were travelling light, we decided to go for a walk around the train station, in a place called Pratunam and its English neighbour, platinum plaza. Pratunam is a neighbourhood where there are tons of little local shops and restaurants.

We did not know the food didn’t open til later, so we had a bit of an aimless walk without finding the stalls! After a little while, Mariana asked a local seller and she explained where the food shops would pop up in the afternoon. In platinum plaza we had a bit of a look around, and this is certainly the place to buy clothes… They have some pretty good deals, and all kinds of local brands! Most of the stuff they sell seems relatively on the small side, but the selection is huge!

By this time, we were starving (having only had breakfast at the coffee bean in changi airport) so we went to a noodle shop that was quite recommended. When we got there, there was a pretty long queue, but in total we only waited about 15 mins. The guy cooking the noodles outside was really on a roll! The speed at which he churned plates out was amazing. They also had some pretty nice pork stew, so we enjoyed the meal. It would have been nice to get bigger portions, but it was good. In the street we also found some nice pandan cakes (looked like pandan Madeleins) as well as some coconut pancakes… Got them hot off the grill!

After lunch, we started walking towards the hotel, going through a few different areas of town. At the end of the day, we had walked about 12k! Not bad at all for a holiday…

The hotel we stayed at was the Lebua at State Tower. Yes, yes, it IS the one from the Hangover 2. As you walk near the hotel, in a nice area of town called Silom, you can see that it looks a bit run down… This worry was quickly eliminated when we walked into the lobby, as everything looked very new and upscale. We were informed that we were being upgraded (if we accepted a city view instead of a river view) and we promptly accepted, as the new floor was on floor 54 instead of 23. The room was huge and modern, and had a pretty nice view of the city. We had booked dinner for 7, but we quickly changed and asked the concierge for a massage recommendation near the hotel as we did not have too much time. They recommended the Silom Bodyworks one block away as a cheap and clean option. The place was pretty decent and really cheap, and we got a foot massage and a Thai massage, it was nice! After relaxing, off to the hotel for dinner!

The hotel has an area called The Dome, which is a group of restaurants and bars spread across the top floors of the hotel (52 and 67). We went for a drink at the sky bar on level 67, were you get an awesome view of the city at night. They claim this is the highest alfresco bar in the world – but I have heard this claim before from 1Altitude in Singapore, one of our favourite bars – not sure who is right, but will do some research! Anyway, I digress… The view is amazing! After a quick drink we went down to level 52, where we had an absolutely delicious dinner at Breeze. The service was amazing, the food was delicious, it was just a lovely experience!

On our second day in Bangkok we got up early and had a spectacular breakfast at the hotel (on the Mizu floor – apparently the 13th, but they changed the name…), and got ready to set off for a day of boat riding, temple visiting, massage, and more!!

On the way to the dock, we ran into a retired police man that gave us some pointers on getting a cheap boat (it might have, actually probably was, a set up to go to a different boat station, but the price was right, the boat was ok, and everything seemed fine, so we went for it). Then, we were off on our first tuktuk ride of the trip! Once arrived at the boat station, we found we had a few hours of boating ahead of us, which included visiting temples and markets. Getting around by boat was actually quite good, as it avoided lots of traffic on the streets… This is definitely a way to move around!

The boat first took us to a very beautiful temple called Wat Arun. It is across the river from the grand palace, and has a pretty nice view from the top. Definitely recommended! We had about 20 minutes there, and then had to catch the boat to go on to Taling Chan, which is an area further out of town that has a floating market. To get there, we had to get through a lock on the river, which was an interesting experience… Think small scale Panama Canal.

The market only had a handful of boats, but it was still a nice experience! Lots of colours and smells, and some very nice food.

On the way back we were dropped off at Wat Pho, which is a huge Reclining Buddha statue… It was very impressive.

Finally, we were running short on time, so we headed for another quick TukTuk ride to Wat Saket, a small temple on top of a hill which was nice, but not the nicest one that day.

By is time we had to get back to the hotel area as we had booked a massage at a place called Divana Spa, Which was just unbelievable. The place was beautiful and the massage was amazing, definitely recommended.

To end the day, after being completely relaxed, we headed for a very nice dinner at Issaya Siamese Club. This was an incredible local dinner. The food and drinks were delicious, and the place is set in an old house that is full of character. Really very recommended. The chef is recognised as one of Thailands best. A reservation is highly recommended. After dinner, time to go to sleep!

On our last few hours in Bangkok, we went to visit the Grand Palace. This is without a doubt the highlight of the trip, and can not be missed on a visit to the city. The different buildings, both religious and political are incredible, and you truly get to see a very wide range of architecture, culture, and history. They also have a periodic changing of the guard which was quite nice to see. The photos do a much better job about showing this amazing place.

After the palace, we had to go back to the hotel to get our bag and set off to the airport. On the way back we also decided to take the train, which was a completely painless experience. This is definitely a cheap and cheerful way to get to and from the city.

Bangkok is definitely a place to go back to. It has so many things to eat, see and do, and we felt that while we got a good taste, we would like more!

We stayed at Elephant Lodge Park which is of a zoo/ attraction park 2,5 hrs away from Dempasar airport. The drive up there is totally worth it and staying at the Lodge gives you the opportunity to really experience being with elephants. Everyday we would open the window and see them munching their breakfast, we would then go and wash a few of them and go for a dip in the lake/pool. The elephants are mostly free and can pick you up in your room for a little ride.

The Lodge is 30mins away from Ubud which is a lovely little town with restaurants and bars in the midst of temples. It really doesn't feel very touristic and we ate very well – ribs on the side of the road were the absolute best – do not miss going to Naughty Nuri's! Korin even went for the classic ribs and cosmo! But we were also extremely pleased with Fair Warung Bale which raises fund to treat people in Bali. I think it is a trend that good-hearted swiss guy/ couple would open really nice restaurant in the region for a good cause. The other restaurant we went to was a place called Bridges, a beautiful place above a river with a spectacular view, and the food was pretty good too!

Typically dance performances are not very good but we went to see a fire dance which was extremely different from everything we had seen. A group of 100 men chanting along a little play followed by a man kicking dry coconut shells in flames. Strange but it works

Ubud is also famous for the proximity to the volcano that we went to see followed by a bike ride through the villages and rice fields. It was interesting to see a typical home where 3 generations live together and build a temple in the yard to pray. The best part of the ride was that we were able to see a special celebration that decorated the streets and brought people out. Enchanting!

We had a chance to learn how kopi luwak is made and try it. Interesting a little different from normal coffee but there is something about grains out of animal poo that doesn't sit very well with me

At the end of the trip we did a pit stop at a beach close to the airport but I wish we had gone to Nusa Dua or somewhere else in the south. I guess we will be going to Bali again! Want to join us?

I am almost sure that no other place can beat the Peking Duck from Dadong Roast Duck in Beijing but one can only keep on looking. Being in Singapore, we get access to lots of very good Asian dishes and of course Chinese food is the most spread around. Chinese food can be pretty broad but there are a few very typical dishes that are easier for “westerner beginners”. Peking duck is my favourite one of them. Whoever’s been to London and had horror of those restaurants with brown birds hanging on the windows should read on.Those birds are typically duck that are roasted and cut to perfection to bring out the best flavour of each section.The very skilled chefs firstly cut rectangular pieces of the skin and serve it with sugar. Then the more juice meat is served sliced with thin pancakes, cucumber and sweet sauce. The rest then can be cooked as a stir fry with vegetables, rice or noddles. The restaurants in Singapore follow pretty well this recipe but there are better places to have it. Say no more to dry dark shredded duck meat from Chinese take away in the UK and welcome the good stuff!

Cassia at Capella hotel in Sentosa: by far the absolute best experience. The place is beautiful, the hotel amazing and the service terrific. The duck is also fantastic and goes for a very reasonable price. I totally recommend it.

Paradise Pavillion: this is a kitsch looking restaurant inside an office building off Marina Bay. The duck is excellent but the service in English is a little difficult. I would also recommend this one but know that you will have very little assistance. You should be good given that all you need is the Peking duck

Min Jiang @ one North: this restaurant is at Rochester Park so it has a beautiful setting. Problem is that it is pricey and the duck is not very good. The skin is not as crispy and the meat not as tender and has less flavour as the other 2 here. I would definitely not recommend this one.

The journey of finding the best Peking Duck in Singapore will continue on but for now this is it. Enjoy!