All things Japanese

Ohayo! Goooooooooooooood morning to everyone! Ooo, don't those mochi balls just look so tempting? Their soft, delicate skin wrapped around sweet, savoury red bean paste waiting to melt in your mouth when you bite into them. Ummmmmm... :P



Those cute little brown marbles are mochi balls I got from Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant at $3 for a packet of 6. Up till now, I consider mochi balls from Ichiban one of the best you can find in Singapore. Sure, it comes from a commercial restaurant but the the mochi really has it standards quite high! Unlike other mochi balls which are usually thick and chewy outside, these mochi balls have a very thin skin. Moreover, the skin is very well made resulting in a very soft layer which blends together with the fillings very well and almost melts in your mouth. Yes, I realise that I have a thing for food that melts in the mouth :) There is also a generous portion of filling wrapped up inside unlike some mochi which look large but only 20% of which is the filling. Oh yah, the mochi is also small-sized enough to pop into your mouth and they come in three different fillings; peanut, red bean and green tea . However, I do find that quality of the mochi differs from different branches and I have so far found that those from the Wisma branch are the most well made.



Thats not the end! After having our fill, we popped by Holland Village to check out a Japanese bread shop recommended by a friend. This shop called Provence is located just opposite Holland Village's Nasi Lemak and churns out fresh, piping hot, French-style Japanese bread and French-styled sandwiches. They also serve drinks like hot chocolate and cuppachino etc. to compliment the bread. Tables are also positioned indoors and outdoors to suit your individual prefrences. First look, the variety of bread may look normal. Look closer though, and you wil realise that Japanese ingredients are used; red bean (w/ or w/o skin), mochi, Japanese curry etc.

Brown rice Anpan w/ Skin

We went quite late so most of the bread were already sold out including their best seller Wassant; mini crossaint-like bread with chocolate or custurd fillings. We did however, try their Brown rice Anpan, Cinnamon bread, Milk bread, Chocolate scones, New York Chocolate Bread, Apple bread and mini crossaint. I wouldn't go into detailed description here because there are simply too many of them but I would recommend the Milk bread and Chocolate scones.

Heres what we had:


The milk custurd filling was simply yummy! Not too sweet and very tasty. I'm sure it'll be heavenly when eaten right out of the oven when the filling is warm and soft.



This is the first time I've tried scones and I really love it! Hard as a rock on the outside but when bitten into, it simply crumbles and melt in your mouth. The chocolate bits also add to give a nice chocolatey taste.




There are simply too many types of bread to individually recommend but please do pay the place a visit and try the pastries out yourself. I'll be definately dropping by again to catch the freshly baked bread just out of the oven!