Syun by Celebrity Chef Hal Yamashita

Syun is the first overseas restaurant by Celebrity Chef Hal Yamashita. 

Chef Yamashita has been a representative of Japanese Master Chefs at World Gourmet Summit for both 2010 and 2012. As a creator of the Nouvelle Japanese cuisine, he currently runs nine dining outlets in Japan itself.

His restaurant in Singapore is headed by Japanese chef Norihito Saki, who has spent a month cooking with the chef himself before the grand opening (source).



We made a dinner reservation with the restaurant for a birthday celebration, and we ordered the 7-course Kaiseki set (SGD128++ per pax) with a bottle of sake. 

Upon the service crew's recommendation, we decided on 'Kiss of Fire', a sake brew made from 50% polished Yamada Nishiki rice and matured for three years.

Personally, i thought this sake didn't wow me, but I am no sake expert. If you are looking for sake recommendation, I would recommend getting Kubota Manju instead. 

Img courtesy of Rakuten JP

The first half of the appetiser was a combination of braised kurobuta pork and Japanese marinated egg, served with mustard. 

It was a good start to the kaiseki dinner: Sinking your teeth into the tender, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly, and pairing it with the flavourful marinated egg.



The other half was Chawanmushi (right) and Tsukemono (left). The steamed egg was conservatively done, while the pickles were much stronger in taste. 



This next dish is wildly popular among diners: a cluster of uni (sea urchin) wrapped softly in wagyu beef. I do agree that this bite-size goodness is delicious, but I can't help but also feel that the original taste of wagyu has been overpowered by uni, and all that is left (of the wagyu) to savour was its tenderness.



Assorted sashimi was fresh:



The service staff introduced us to the next item on the menu, which she said was the Chef's signature dish.

While I must rate this signature dish highly for its creativity, the use of strongly flavoured cheese did not bring out the freshness of the cod fish. We were also forewarned that there will be bones in the fillet... which was rather surprising to me. 



The star of the dinner was its wagyu, presented daintily on a decorated slab:



If you do not take beef, you may wish to choose their seabream instead.
After trying both however, I would strongly recommend you to stick with the beef option.



We were then served assorted sushi, with a gigantic maki which the service staff introduced as their Syun special. 

It was basically an assortment of fish as shown below:



Syun's desserts were the highlight of the entire Kaiseki meal, but sadly, I cannot remember their exact titles.

The dark chocolate dessert was sinfully rich, but maintained a good  balance of sweetness:



The next dessert was my absolute favourite! Known as monaka in Japanese, the intensely rich matcha ice cream was clad between two thin wafers and served in a masu (sake wooden box cup). The shiso leaf (perilla leaf) added a minty flavour to this innovation.



If you have not tried a Kaiseki set meal before, I think Syun is a good start. For its pricing, the food served was decent and displayed a variety of Japanese culinary skills.

However, my personal favourite is still Takuma of Gion, Kyoto Prefecture. This hidden gem deserves more recognition for their chef's passion, pride, and dedication toward Japanese cuisine. Do keep a lookout for my review and photos of Takuma (soon, i promise)!

Have you tried Syun yet? Do share your views of this highly acclaimed restaurant with us!

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Syun
Festive Walk
Resorts World Sentosa
8 Sentosa Gateway

Opening hours: Tues to Sun
Lunch: 1200hrs to 1500hrs (last order at 1430hrs)
Dinner: 1800hrs - 2300hrs (last order at 2230hrs)
Reservations: +65-6577-6688 / dining@rwsentosa.com
Official Webpage here

8 Activities you can do in Mother Farm [Part 2]

We explored the various options to get to Mother Farm in the last post. So what exactly can you do when you are at the farm?



According to their official website, there are 8 main activities that you can do.

Image from Mother Farm official Webpage

We didn't manage to experience all of them due to time constraint (we only had 4 hours there because of the shuttle bus pickup timings), so if you would like to do so, perhaps you can consider the farmstay option :)

1. Farm events

Piglet Racing, Image from Mother Farm FB page

There are many farm animals events held at different areas of the farm, for example: sheep shearing, Duck Parade, piglets race, cow milking, horse riding, and many more.

Sheep herding parade, image from Mother Farm FB page

We managed to catch 'The Sheepdog and his Friends' show at the Agrodome, and before the different segments start, these adorable animals were all lined up in the enclosure outside the dome.

 I never knew sheeps are such orderly animals, look at them all lined up along the wooden fence:



It was spring, so they are all really fluffy and woolly. I couldnt resist sinking my hand into their warm coat:



The Alpaca seems to say, 'Look at me! I'm gorgeous!'



I have never seen such a furry cow in my entire life. This may sound like a frog in a well, but hey, in Singapore, where it is summer all year round, cows do not need such thick fur!

 The timeslots for events change every season, so be sure to enquire at the counters or check out the Japanese webpage for details.

2. Fauna Appreciation

The second to-do item in the list is fauna appreciation. There are different flowers to admire during each season such as Rape Flowers during Spring, Hydrangea during Summer, Salvia during Autumn, and Narcissus during Winter. Other flowers include Lavender and Plum blossoms.

Field of Salvia, image from Mother Farm FB page

Armed with the farm map at hand, we walked around the route to explore the theme park.
Being built on a mountain also means that we get to take panorama photos that extends far across into the horizon like this:



Though the trees have yet to start budding, the rape flowers were fast to be in season and blooming:



This is a particularly popular spot for photo-taking. We have seen families carrying their children up into the sea of flowers to get a photo:

We walked past the Lavender field, but it was still bare at that point of time:

3. Fruits Picking

Similar to the fauna collection, there are different seasons for different fruits. For example, you can pick ripe tomatoes and strawberries between January and May each year, blueberries in mid-July and August, and kiwis in November.

Strawberry harvesting, image from Mother Farm FB page

4. Hands-on Workshops

There are several workshops available at the farm, but reservations have to be made prior to the commencement of class. For food classes (such as cheese making, jam making etc), it typically cost JPY800-1000 (~SGD9-12) and each class is typically restricted to 36 pax.

There are craft classes available too.

Do note that the workshops are all conducted in Japanese.

5. Amusement Rides

The Waku-Waku Land Amusement park within the farm has several different rides which ranges from JPY200-500 (~SGD2-6) per ride. You would have to buy the JPY1000 coupons before going for any rides.



6. Restaurants and Food Kiosks

There is a designated area for restaurants but if you are hungry and need a bite, food kiosks are located all over the farm.

Food directory where the random boy decided to park himself there:



We wanted to get some food, but the queues for the restaurants were crazy. This was the shortest queue that day, but it was still at least an hour's wait:



The menu was actually rather impressive, just that with only 4 hours to spare, we really couldn't afford the wait:

Recommended items, image from Mother farm official webpage

Limited edition/ seasonal items, image from Mother farm official webpage

We decided to give up and look for a food kiosk with the shortest line. We can redeem the complimentary soft serve at any food kiosk, so it was rather convenient:



Actually, we were wrong. kinda.
The seemingly manageable queue crawls. No, we were not exaggerating because it took us 45 minutes to reach the counter, and many foodstuff were sold out. By my standards, I don't know how it can take them so long to clear the line when the food sold just required some microwaving to heat up. But at least Japan service crew is always polite.

Finally reaching the start of the line:



After queuing for so long, we decided we should at least get more food to make the lost time worthwhile. A slice of pizza (JPY350), hot coffee (JPY260), 2 yaki-onigiris (JPY100 each), and of course, the complimentary soft serves (original price at JPY330 each).

They pride themselves for using their own farm-produced sausages for the pizza:



Strawberry and mixed (strawberry and vanilla) soft serves:

7. Shopping

There were souvenir stores around the farm, but the most noticeable one is the store right near the bus bay.

They sell a variety of items, ranging from Mother Farm's snacks, to plushies and stationeries, to purikura (photo booths).

Waffle cookies at JPY630 for a box of 20:



Milk cake (JPY740):


Cheese of various flavours and varieties [shiso flavoured (perilla) featured here]. You can try the cheese flavours before deciding which one to get:



We took a purikura shot as a memento:



Giant cow plushie on display, human for scale:



Souvenirs were nicely placed in Mother Farm paper bags:

8. Camping

You can choose to stay in the cottages or campsite within the farm, or check-in to their partner hotels nearby. It is rather complicated to reserve a slot for the cottage, so I personally think that if you want to do so, it will be better for you to get someone who can understand Japanese to help you with it (if you don't understand the language).

Cottages

Reservations start 3 months in advance, and you need to pay extra for meals. Rates are based on number of people for each cottage.

Campsite

Available in July and August, reservations start in April. You would need to pay extra to rent tents, use the shower (per 5 min charge), electricity... etc.

Partner Hotel

You may also wish to skip all the hassle and book a night with Okura Akademia Park hotel, which is a 25 min drive away from the farm.

9. Miscellaneous

Here are some photos i took while walking around the farm.

The famed Alpaca (which has everyone surrounding it to take photos):


Little piglets (randomly, i think teacups piggies are cute! note: cute is not a reason to adopt a life on a whim):



Carrot sticks on sale right outside the stables. You can get a cup to feed the horses:





Sheep barn. This enclosed area has so many sheeps that the bleatings can be deafening. I never thought that a herd of sheeps can be so noisy:



It was a rather pleasant and refreshing trip to the farm. The only thing that could be improved was the food kiosk queue system and serving speed. 

Surprisingly, there wasn't many foreigners when we were there. Most of the farm-goers were Japanese families enjoying a relaxing day-off.


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Mother Farm in Chiba, Japan: Not just another Commercial Tourism Farm (Part 1)

Anyone who knows me relatively well would know that I have developed this crazy love for alpacas. I guess you can say that it is love at first sight when I saw the Alpacasso series:

Image from otakumode.com

Just look at them... I mean, seriously... look at them. How can anyone not fall in love with these fluffy little dearies?!

So that aside, the man decided to plan a day at Mother Farm when we were in Tokyo (<3), because that's the closest we urban dwellers can get to nature and a real Alpaca (in Asia).

Entrance of Mother Farm

Mother Farm, opened in 1962, is a 250-hectare theme park on Mountain Kinada, located in Chiba Prefecture. According to the website, there are eight main activities for farm-goers to enjoy themselves: Farm animals events, seasonal fauna appreciation, fruits picking (strawberries and blueberries), hands-on workshops, amusement rides, restaurants and foodstuff, shopping, camping.

Image from Mother Farm official Webpage

The English section of the Mother Farm official website is rather brief, so it may be rather difficult for tourists to get full information on how to get there and how to buy tickets to the farm.

Ticketing

Option 1:

For us, because we have our JR pass, we decided to purchase the tickets from convenience stores (7-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart) at JPY1480 (~SGD18) for adults. Pre-purchase of tickets came with a soft serve coupon redeemable at the farm itself. If you experience difficulties in purchasing tickets at the convenience store (self service with the ticketing machine), try getting the attention of the service staff and tell them that you want to buy tickets for Mother Farm (マザー牧場 pronounced as maa-zer- bo-ku-joe) or perhaps try showing them a photo of this ticket:

Tickets purchased from Family Mart self-service ticketing machine

But seriously, you may wish to just skip all these hassles and get the tickets from the farm on the day itself.

[Note] I did a check on the official website and the purchase of tickets at convenience stores no longer include a free soft serve. Instead, they are providing a JPY150 discount at JPY1350 (~SGD16) for adults and JPY700 (~SGD8) for children.

Option 2:

For tickets purchased on the day of the visit, it costs JPY1500 (~SGD18) for adults and JPY800 (~SGD10) for children.

Ticketing Counter at Mother Farm Entrance

Option 3:

If you do not have a JR pass, there is also the option of purchasing a JR + farm entry ticket set at JPY5500 (~SGD66) for adults and JPY3800 (~SGD45) for children. You can check out the details at the JR View Plaza (located at Haneda, Narita, and Tokyo Station).

View Plaza, Image taken from JR official website

If you purchase a JR ticket to commute from Tokyo station to Kimitsu station, it will cost you JPY 1490 (according to Hyperdia.com). That means if you purchase the JR ticket and farm entry separately, it would have cost you just JPY2990.

However, what the English webpage didn't mention, was that option 3(ソフトクリーム付きコース) comes with the following items:

- JR (free seating green car!) from either Tokyo, Shinjuku, Kinshicho station
- Transfer bus service from Kimitsu JR station to Mother Farm
- Mother Farm entrance ticket
- Mother Farm tour ticket (bus tour within the farm)
- One Soft Serve

If you top up another JPY1000 (昼食付きコース), it comes with lunch set of half steak and sausages (without soft serve).

Soft Serve coupons

How to get to Mother Farm

Perhaps the easiest way to get to Mother Farm will be to hail a cab or rent a car, but being a sane tourist travelling on a budget (and trying to reach there without having to seek SOS), we decided to do it the locals' way.

You can take the JR to Kimitsu station (takes about 100minutes from Tokyo Station) to transfer to the free shuttle bus service. Do note that there is only one timing to catch the shuttle bus (10.40am), and you have to make reservations before 4pm on the previous day.

What we did then, was to ask the concierge to call them (+81-439-37-3211) once we checked in to the hotel and purchased the tickets from the nearest convenience store.

You can expect to have approximately 4 hours in the farm if you are taking the shuttle bus services to and fro (11.20am - 3.30pm).

Here are some photos from the journey there:

Alighting at Kimitsu JR Station

Following the signboard right outside the station

While waiting for the bus, there is this little shop at the waiting bay that sells these nolstagic little snacks at JPY11 each. That's about SGD 15 cents!

When the bus reached, the bus marshall promptly took out a namelist and started taking attendance. If you decided to cancel the shuttle bus reservation, please remember to contact them so that the other farm-goers will not be stuck waiting for you.

Once we boarded the bus, we took the farm guide:

If I recall correctly, there is an English version of the map:

All that's left then, was to sit back, relax, and wait for the bus to reach the farm! Just remember to report back at the same spot to take the bus back to Kimitsu JR station again!


For part 2 of the Mother Farm experience, please check out our next post! :)

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