10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Dean & Deluca, Shinjuku Station

I know that we have Dean & Deluca back here in Singapore, but, there is something different about the one that they have in Tokyo. To be honest with you, I was quite surprised when I found out that these pretty pastries are sold by Dean & Deluca. I guess I did not visit Dean & Deluca that often back in Singapore. Hahaha. 

Dean & Deluca is located inside Shinjuku Station and it is super popular with the Japanese customers. I can't blame them because all the breads that Dean & Deluca sells look pretty delightful to my eyes. 

Strawberry Meringue Roll? The name itself has exuded the yummy vibe. 

Dean & Deluca also sells a thank you gift which is filled with homemade jam. 

Gonna end this post with something totally random. We visited 7-11 after we have bought breads at Dean & Deluca and that's when we spotted an edible Gudetama. Will eating them make me as unmotivated as Gudetama? XD

Burgers vs Wings + Bar, Orchard Central

Burgers vs Wings + Bar (BWB) is supposedly a restaurant/ bar adopting fight club concept whereby diners are supposedly competing with each other for a discounted dish. Well, at least, that was I though what's going to happen inside BWB. However, I did not see any placards or signs saying that anything is currently going on a half-price. I wonder if they stop the fight club concept and go for a casual dining concept instead where diners can eat peacefully.

Anyway, it seems that you should either order the burgers or the wings or both. We ordered one of the spicy wings (which I forgot the name but it looks like this) and it tastes pretty good. 

My friend did not want to order a burger so the fight is now between the pizza and the wings instead of burger and the wings. Should I change the title to Pizza vs Wings + Bar? Joke aside, the pizza is pretty big for two of us. The Hawaiian pizza taste not bad but not out-of-the-world either. 

If you are looking for a casual place to go for easygoing dinner with friends, you can visit BwB at level 11 of Orchard Central.

BwB's opening hours: 

12:00 - 23:00 (Mon-Thurs)

12:00 - 00:00 (Fri)

11:00 - 00:00 (Sat)

11:00 - 23:00 (Sun)

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Minion Plaza, Universal Studios Japan

Ever since the movie "Despicable Me" came out, minion has been considered as cute and lovely creature instead of the bad meaning it is used to associate to last time (e.g. the underlings of devil). Universal Studios Japan has added Minion as one of the characters to have their own section in theme park named Minion Plaza. 

Minion Plaza is a fun place to check out because you will be able to see this cute yellow creatures everywhere trying to create mischief and mayhem.

There are a lot of fun things which you can do at Minion Plaza. For a start, you can fuel yourself at Minion Happy Kitchen. The minions are cooking Minion Bun (i.e. Chinese bun which is shaped like minion face and it is yellow!) and Minion-shaped popcorn bucket with movable eyeball and arm. 

There is also street performance and meet-and-greet event in the plaza where you can take picture with your favorite Minion. Bob, Kevin or Stuart anyone?

Of course you cannot leave Minion Plaza without checking out the Minion Mart which sells a lot of variety of merchandises from Minion franchise. Bello!

There is unlimited amount of Minion dolls here with different sizes and sometimes, function. You can also find the laughing Minion plushies (push their hand and they'll laugh) here or the one with voice function (meaning to say your Minion can speak Bello and a lot of other Minion lingo). 

You can also find Despicably Cute cookies. I don't think I have the heart to eat these cookies. LOL.

Despicable Me bag keychains, but, wait, aren't they too big to hang on your bag? Well, the Japanese does hand anything and everything to their bags so this size is probably normal to them. LOL.

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Welcome to the American Waterfront, Tokyo Disneysea

Welcome to America, where people is living the American dream. Hmm, wait, I thought we were still in Tokyo Disneysea. What's with the change in the setting? If you are confused, do not fret as we are still in Tokyo Disneysea in Japan. American Waterfront is a themed area inside the theme park. I totally have no idea the background story of why there is American theme inside Tokyo Disneyland. Well, probably because Disney is after all an American. Haha.

American Waterfront area is divided into two section, the New York harbour and the New England fishing village. We were nearer to the fishing village so we decided to check out the village first. 

The village's name is Cape Cod and the village is pretty much lively and bustling with crowds. There is one particular restaurant which has a long queue at its door. It's probably because of the Cook Off concepts where diners can select who win the battle (?). I'm just guessing though because with that kind of queue, it will be dinner time by the time I come inside the restaurant. XD

Another restaurant spotted nearby with the same length of queue. The Japanese is really admirable in queuing. 

As there seems to be not many places that we could visit without queuing for hours, we proceeded to the harbour section of American Waterfront. This is the view taken from the bridge separating the harbour from the fishing village.

One particular icon lies on the New York Harbour is definitely the SS Columbia, the massive cruise ship from the industrial age. There are some kind of music performances held in the area in front of SS Columbia so if you are interested, you can go watch the show. 

For now, let's pose with the massive boat, the bridge and the Tower of Terror at the background before we proceed further. 

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Hokkaido Bake Cheese Tart, Shinjuku Station

If you have not heard about the latest three-hours queue in ION Orchard in Singapore, maybe you should really come out to town once in a while. This is latest craze in Singapore (apart from salted egg craze I guess) and the high price (SGD 3.50 a piece) does not seem to deter the customers from queuing for that long. If you happen to be in Tokyo or plan to visit Tokyo, you should buy them in Tokyo instead. The same Hokkaido Bake Cheese Tart is situated at Shinjuku Station and despite the need to queue, you can reach the counter within 15 minutes, and not three hours. 

There is a limit of how many cheese tarts each customer can buy though. One person can only buy maximum of 12 pieces I think. My friend wanted to buy 24 pieces so she asked my help. 

But in the middle of our way back to hotel, I saw Starbucks and it seems that they are having limited edition coffee that time. So I asked my friend to try the Coffee & Cream out. 

What is a coffee break without a snack, so I took one tart from my friend's stash. She could not help but doing the same, so she left with 22 pieces. I hope that's enough for her whole family. LOL. 

The cheese tart is really good, I kinda understand why people is willing to queue for three hours for this tart. But, I still don't think I want to do that though. Thankfully I've tried them before in Japan. Hehe. The cheese tart stall in Shinjuku Station is located at the exit near to Tokyo Soup Stock. 

Saturday Morning Brekkie at The Lokal, Singapore

When my friend worked in Outram Park area, she pointed out that Outram Park has become a hip area where a lot of restaurant and cafe are opening up. That's a pretty good news because Outram Park area used to be boring, especially when compared to its vibrant neighbour, Chinatown. So, when our common friend from overseas come, we decided to drag her down to the Lokal, one of the hip cafes in the area. 

Influenced by the German word for "local", the Lokal aims to be more than just a local cafe. It aims to be the place that people come back to, something like neighbourhood cafe? One thing for sure, my friend's boss keep coming back here every morning. Well he's the boss so he can afford >S$10 breakfast everyday I guess. 

The setting of the Lokal kinda reminds you of the decoration of some cafe in Australia. It's set to look something like a mix between vintage and industrial. I should have typed this post in the cafe instead from my own humble room to get the feeling more. Hahaha.

First, let's try out the coffee. The mocha on the bottom left corner is mine while my other two friends choose latte instead. The mocha taste okay, not as fantastic as the coffee that I drink in Sydney.

The Lokal has some fancy dishes which they serve as breakfast items everyday. We ordered three dishes to share with French Toast being the first dish. It consists of sauteed apples, raisins, dry-cured bacon, and maple cream. I love the Lokal's rendition of the French Toast as the whole ingredients work well together on the plate.

The Lokal is one of those places where you can eat sausages for breakfast. The sausages are served with baby potatoes, sauerkraut, and sunny-side-up. I find them so-so though. 

The main star of the Lokal is gotta be the Toasted Banana Bread which is served with homemade vanilla yoghurt and toasted macadamia nuts. This is so good but since the serving is quite big, I think this is a dish to be shared because I think I will be too full if I eat the whole thing. 

The Lokal is situated at: 

136 Neil Road.

The Lokal's opening hours:

Monday: 8AM - 5PM

Tuesday - Friday: 8AM - 10PM

Saturday: 9AM - 10PM

Sunday: 9AM - 4PM

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Popcorn Wonder at Tokyo Disneysea, Japan

There is a unique activity which you can only experience at Tokyo Disneysea in Japan. Other than the rides and the magical Fantasmic, the visitors at Tokyo Disneysea are crazy about popcorn. Yes, the popcorn game at Tokyo Disneysea is pretty strong. It's so popular up to the point that people bring their collectible and rare Tokyo Disneysea popcorn buckets from the past to have them refilled (and hence, buying the popcorn at cheaper price). Each stall at Tokyo Disneysea offers different flavors, it is really fun. Notwithstanding the queue, we decided to join the fun popcorn game by queuing for...strawberry popcorn.

The popcorn bucket being sold when we were there featured Mr Potato Head from Toy Story. You can move around his parts to change his expression. While it's cute, we figured there will be no chance to wear him in other places than Tokyo Disneysea. So with heavy heart, we chose to buy the popcorn in normal paper bucket. 

If you eat this popcorn, your dreams will come true. #wistfulthinking

I couldn't really taste the strawberry though. I wonder if other flavors are better. Too bad we did not really have time to try another flavor. =(

While nom-ing on our popcorns, we decided to wander around the other stall to take a look at what these stalls are selling. They have a lot of hairbands but I found the size of these hairbands seems to be catered for kids. 

I pretty like this cute Stitch hat too but it does not fit my head. Why do I have to grow up? I suddenly feel Peter Pan so much. Hahaha.

Olaf does not melt at Tokyo Disneysea. His dream really comes true here. 

A lot of people is wearing this jacket at Tokyo Disneysea. At some point, I thought this jacket is the official uniform to wear at Tokyo Disneysea. Really. I saw some people wearing them in Singapore inside shopping mall (yep, the air from the air conditioner is the coldest thing you can feel in Singapore). 

Sunday Brunch at Club Street Social, Singapore

Club Street Social is a New York style restaurant and bar which is located on a quiet street named Club street somewhere in Telok Ayer, Singapore. Don't let the quiet ambience fool you though, because Club Street was serving a full house when we reached the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. 

We could not secure any table for two, so we had no choice but waited for a while at the bar seats while ordering our coffee for a start. 

15 minutes later, we finally managed to get a table at the al fresco area. While the idea to have an al-fresco concept is great, it does not work that well in this hot and humid Singapore. Well, stuck with no other choice, we decided to just get the seat anyway because we could not wait to browse the menu and ordered some food. 

For a start, while I expect the coffee art to be fancier, the mocha tastes great and it goes well with the cookie. 

A lot of dishes were already sold out at 2.30-ish on Sunday afternoon. Crazy, I know, but I guess that proves that Club Street Social is really popular here in Singapore. I felt like eating omelette that day so I order a simple omelette which is served on sourdough toasts with a bit of salad at the sides. The egg tastes superb. It's one of the better egg dishes which I have tried in Singapore.

My friend tried out another rendition of egg dish, the Corned Beef. The corned beef are mixed together with bits of potatoes while the egg is poached to perfection. My friend's dish is also served with sourdough toast. I don't really like sourdough but I guess they are supposed to be healthier choice of bread. 

One hour before the restaurant closed, we asked if we could move inside because the weather is unbearably hot and we still wanted to chill here (after all the walk that we have gone through to reach the restaurant from Raffles Place MRT). We ordered tiramisu but dessert does not seem to be the forte of Club Street Social. The tiramisu tastes so so but at least it does not cost a bomb like the one sold by Awfully Chocolate.  

Club Street Social is located at: 

5 Gemmill Lane, Singapore

Club Street Social's opening hours: 

Weekdays: 12PM - 12AM

Saturdays: 11AM - 12AM

Sundays: 11AM - 4PM

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Port of Discovery, Tokyo Disneysea

Okay, we are on back on track in our journey to obtain fast pass. There were not many fast pass available for grab after 12PM, seriously. You can only join the normal queue line for popular attractions like Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania. The waiting time can reach as high as 3 hours. 

Well, we'd rather grab another available fast pass which is located at Port Discovery area of Tokyo Disneysea. 

Say hello to Stormrider. This ride is actually something like simulation ride, whereby visitors can feel like they are riding a plane during a storm. Let's call it a virtual rollercoaster I guess. The queue is way faster with a fast pass. When I say faster, it means 45 minutes instead of 1.5 hours. #thestruggleisrealhere

After braving the storm, it's really time for us to unwind for a little bit. We explored the area of Port of Discovery. The Port of Discovery is like a port which comes as a part of Tomorrowland because the idea here is that you are at the marina of the future. Other than the Stormrider, there is another "way-milder" ride named Aquatopia. Since the queue seems to be milder too (approx 30 minutes), we ended up joining the queue.

Aquatopia lets visitors board the self-guided watercraft that travel between the rocks, fountains and whirlpools. Even though it's self-guided, you cannot force your way to go other than the assigned track for each watercraft. 

That's good enough I guess because otherwise, a lot of watercrafts will end up bumping into one another and get spoiled. You could spray on each other though when your watercraft happens to face others.

There are quite a number of performances near to the train station beside Port of Discovery. I guess, this will be a nice area to take a break after all those running chasing fast pass.