Japan Trip 2016: Day 9 Part 5 10 Dec 2016 Sat - Eating Ramen & Drinking Starbucks, Kyoto

We arrived back at Kyoto Station at 5pm. We decided to have an early dinner as we had been snacking since after our heavy breakfast in the morning. We headed straight to Kyoto Ramen Koji over at Isetan side. We were spoilt for choice! We walked one round, browsing at the menus of the 9 ramen restaurants before finally choosing to dine at Araumado for the variety it offers. :)

Top bowl: Miso pork bone broth
Bottom bowl: Chicken broth
Sides: Fried rice and Gyoza

Juliane ordered ramen in pork bone soup while I ordered ramen in chicken broth and our sides of fried rice and gyoza. We FINISHED everything haha. 
We watched the Christmas lights at Kyoto Station for a while before it got too cold for us, only about 7C. As we made our way back to the other side of Kyoto Station through the basement, I saw Starbucks. I was finally able to get my Baked Hot Apple Christmas drink after eyeing it since day 1 in Japan! It was deliciously sweet and a great drink for a cold winter's night. :P

We didn't buy much today as it was mostly postcards and charms from the different temples.

Ippudo Tao

For the second weekend in a row, we were back at Mohamed Sultan area for dinner. :P
We decided to try Ippudo Tao tonight. It was crowded when we arrived at 8pm and had to wait for about 25 minutes before we got a table. But for the ramen, it was worth the wait. :)

We decided to get a couple of dishes to share. We ordered Ippudo Shiro Tamago ($15): tonkotsu soup with chasu, cabbage, black fungus, spring onion and egg; Ippudo Shiro Chasu ($16): same as above and with simmered pork belly instead of egg; Tao Matsuri Meshi ($5): rice with chasu, lettuce, shredded egg omelette and mayo; and Buta Kakuni Onsen Tamago ($12): pork cubes simmered in Japanese soy sauce with hot spring egg. The ramen was great and the soup was really delicious. Flavourful yet light. :)

Tampopo

We had an early dinner at Tampopo, Liang Court. For some reason, the girls and my mother wanted to have ramen lol.

The girls had the kid's set which came with ramen and makizushi. My mother had the Deluxe Hokkaido Ramen and with $2 extra, she upgraded the pork slice to black pork slice. I decided to have the Tonkatsu with Prawn layer Set Meal which came with rice, soup and fruit ($22). The prawn layer within went very well with the tender pork. :)

The girls' ramen

My mother's ramen

My tonkatsu

Before going home at 8pm, we had a browse around Liang Court as we haven't been here for ages. Before I know it, I bought a pair of jade earring for myself lol.

Ramen

When it is a cold and wet day like today, I just crave for a soup dish to warm me up. Juliane and I shared a Ramen set ($14.80) from Hoshigaoka Japanese Restaurant, Shaw Centre. The ramen set which came with a salad and california rolls was reasonably priced and quite delicious, especially the ramen in pork bone soup. :)


PS. I realised both my girls also love ramen.

Tampopo

I took the girls out for lunch at Ngee Ann City and the girls voted for Tampopo. I recalled watching Tampopo in Australia when I was a uni undergrad. It is a cult Japanese comedy movie about food and sex lol. :P

The girls had the Children's Mini Shoyu Chicken Ramen set ($9.80) which included a bottle of Yakult and green tea ice cream with red bean. The girls were soon slurping away enjoying their ramen.



I had the Miso Deluxe Hokkaido Ramen ($14.80) which came with bamboo shoots, corn, egg, seaweed, a slice of pork and a generous dollop of butter. Sinful but the butter made the miso pork and chicken bone broth even more fragrant! Delicious. Yummy too were the pork slice with its fatty parts (although a little too thinly sliced in my opinion lol) and the hanjuku egg (soft-boiled in shoyu with runny yolk inside). :P

Ramen Dinner

Told you, once the parents are away, time for me to fly the coop too, lol. Only joking. We had to bring a fan that was recently bought for repair at Best Denki. So I thought since we would be out, might as well have dinner outside too, right? Makes sense, doesn't it?

We went to the nearest Best Denki which is at Great World City. It took the girls' father about 30 minutes to settle the fan's repair. We went to have dinner around 8pm at this newly opened Japanese Ramen restaurant, Bishamon Sapporo Ramen.

I ordered a Shio Ramen ($12) which came with a piece of Shar Chou, sliced bamboo shoots and sesweed, with additional orders of two soft boiled eggs ($1 each) (to share with the girls). The girls' father ordered a Special Miso Ramen ($13.50) which came with a piece of Shar Chou, sliced bamboo shoots, soft-boiled egg, corn, and seaweed. We also ordered Fried Prawns ($8) and Pork Katsu ($6) for the girls to share.



I think I have tasted better ramen. The soup for both our ramen were too salty for our liking. The shar chou wasn't the kind that would melt in your mouth when you bite into it. The ramen too, just didn't have enough bite to it when you bite into it. I was disappointed with this dinning experience. This is the first time that I wanted to get out of the restaurant as soon as possible.

The saving grace of today's dinner was the Orange Apricot Cake which we had at Cedele. =) I wanted some tea to wash down the saltiness of the ramen. We went to Cedele to have a look and chanced upon the lovely Orange Apricot Cake, lol. The cake was really yummy - the cream cheese frost icing on the cake and the sponge cake was not too moist nor dry. We enjoyed the cake very much and it went well with my peppermint tea. :)




The girls enjoyed themselves on the kiddie ride and "playing" on the XBox console. Future XBox gamers in the making? Lol.