I'm a full-time mummy

One of the reasons I love being a blogger is getting to do food review with my family. A few weeks ago, I received an invitation for a food preview session to try out IPPUDO's Parent's Day package. I have been to IPPUDO once in March this year to celebrate my birthday so it was nice to be given the opportunity to try out their food with my family. Without further ado, check out my review below...

About the company:

"IPPUDO was founded in 1985 in Japan’s ramen capital of Hakata by Shigemi Kawahara, the internationally renowned Ramen King and CEO of Chikaranomoto Company, which encompasses some of Japan’s finest restaurants. There are over 65 stores in Japan, and globally in places such as New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Shanghai. IPPUDO has become the most popular ramen restaurant over the years."

We were greeted with an enthusiastic welcome by the restaurant's staff and then directed to our table. The supervisor in-charge, Mr. Alfred promptly introduced the Parent's Day package set to us and helped us along as we ordered our fruit juices (kiwi, orange and tropical) and ramens. I'm happy to know that we can actually request for the ramen's texture (soft, normal, hard to very hard) so we settled on 2 harder texture of ramen for hubby and myself while our kiddos' ramen (Benjamin and Alyson shared a bowl) will be the softer texture. 

The first appetizer arrived shortly - Buta Karaage, which is a set of deep fried juicy pork loin with special homemade sauce was immediately devoured by our kiddos. I am pissed as hubby and I only get to eat 1 of the crispy pork loins each! Our kiddos whacked the rest of them all! The deep fried pork loins are crunchy on the outside and yet remain tender and chewy inside, yummmms... it is delicious to be eaten as it is also!

You can see the pictures below of our 2.5 years old Alyson, she is a really picky eater. I can say she is a food critic hahahaha... if the food is not good, no matter how you bribe or scold her, she will not touch it. At first you can see her apprehensive face as she holds one of the deep fried pork loins with her training chopsticks (I always brought them along for our kiddos to use), then when she took her first bite, she goes on her silent mode... and then she drops her chopsticks and uses her fingers to shove the deep fried pork loins for faster consumption hahahahah...

The Nikumiso tofu salad arrived after that and hubby and I immediately tried it out. It is good! At first hubby's impression was 'Heh... white tofu, what is so special?!' and then he took his first bite and went 'OOoooooooo... this is goooodddddd!!!!!!' The miso paste brings up a nice flavor when blended in with the veggie salad and as a person who does not eat much vegetables (ehem, that's me! Whooopss!) I can honestly say I am happily eating all the veggie salad in the plate! 

Our 3 ramens arrived after that - I am so sorry for not able to show you the pictures of our ramen - I did take them but the pictures does not do justice to the yummy ramens, so I am using the picture from the website instead.

The 3 ramens that came with the package are:

1. Shiromaru Motoaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth served with ultra-thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, kikurage & spring onions. Classic Hakata-style ramen.

2. Akamaru Shinaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, kikurage and spring onions. A refined, modern-style ramen.

3. Karaka-men - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso, cashew nuts & ground pork.

Also I need to share that from this point onwards, our 7 months old girl started her fussy stage (her sleep time) and despite continuous attempts to divert her attention by letting her play with tons of stuff in my diaper bag, she still fuss and make noises, so much that I had to take her out for a brief walk for change of atmosphere. So I missed out on taking pictures of us enjoying the ramens.

Our 5 years old boy said the soup is delicious and even drinks the soup of the ramen! He only says that when he drinks MY homecooked soup so as jealous I was at hearing that, I feel at ease when I know that only rigorously selected ingredients go through the innovative processes of creating the Tonkotsu broth, which is refined over the years. It takes more than 15 hours to extract the essence and to achieve the perfect emulsion. We were also told by Lucas, the Head of Operations that most of the ingredients are imported from Japan if it cannot be sourced locally.

I would like to thank the numerous staff who helped changed the cutleries (spoons and chopsticks) that our 7 months old girl keep dropping to the floor - boy, the staff are so quick that I have not even started sighing at the drop of the cutleries and the staff just swooped right in and changed a new one for me. Embarrassed but totally impressive!

Our honest opinion of IPPUDO's Parent's Day package? The menu selection was good and from the family point of view, the package is value for money instead of ordering separately. I mean, 3 ramen, 3 drinks and 2 big portion appetizers, definitely value! And the best part is the food is delicious, I'm sure anyone would be happy to pay for something as long as the food is delicious and made of the good quality ingredients, so the awesome point of getting to eat delicious food and knowing it is well worth the money spent for is just fantastic!

Hubby's comment aside from the meals being delicious is it would definitely be the icing of the cake if the package comes with a scoop of ice cream or some desserts for the family with young kiddos. As for me, I would say this package is even worth to go as a couple, I know if given the opportunity, hubby and I would be happy to order this same package for ourselves and share the 3rd bowl of ramen together... of course, hopefully minus our 3 kiddos being babysit elsewhere hahahaha...

Thank you Ippudo Malaysia for inviting us to try out your Parent's Day special promotion set.

We enjoy it very very much! Thumbs up from our family!

IPPUDO Parent's Day promotion starts from 9th May and ends on 22nd June and valid in Pavilion KL and The Gardens Mall KL outlets only.

You can find out more at http://www.ippudo.com.my/

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

For this post, I am sharing my next food recipe, Hakka Yong Tau Foo or stuffed tofu, bean curd and okra with fish paste. By the way, you can also use brinjals, bittergourds, mushrooms and red chilis but I omit them because I'm not a fan of them and I'm cooking this dish for the whole family (means including our kiddos) so I have to omit spicy stuff for the moment until they mastered eating spicy stuff. Some yong tau foo recipes calls for fish and pork meat paste but I'm using ready-made fish paste for my recipe today.

I remember my late mum used to do this dish every now and then. She was of Hakka descendants and boy oh boy, I just love eating that dish and it was one of the dishes in my list that I want to replicate and I am very happy to be able to make this dish, though not the same taste but it was quite close. I still remember her buying the fishes (mackerel if not mistaken) from the morning wet market and made the fish paste from scratch.

Without further ado, here is the recipe for Hakka Yong Tau Foo:

Ingredients:
* Ready-made fish paste
* 3 okras (ladies fingers) - quantity up to you actually
* 8 fried tofu puffs - quantity up to you actually
* a sheet of dried Chinese bean curd sheet (rinsed to remove the salt)
* 3 bean curds (square white color) cut half diagonally - quantity up to you actually
* Garlic - 1-2 cloves chopped finely
* Oil - about 2 ~ 3 tbsp

Sauce:
* Water - 2 cups
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp sugar
* 3-4 tbsp of taucheo (fermented yellow bean sauce)


Methods:
* Clean the okras and slit the middle, remove the seeds and pat dry for stuffing later. (You can do the same step if you use red chili)
* For the fried tofu puffs, rinse with water and poke an opening at the top surface with either your finger or knife for stuffing later.
* For the bean curd sheet, I soaked it in water for a few minutes to wash off the salty layer of the sheet.
* For the bean curd squares, slit gently in the middle for stuffing later.
* Stuff the fish paste into the okras, fried tofu puffs and bean curds.
* Put some fish paste into the bean curd sheet and wrapped it - thickness / layers depend on you.
* Place the stuffed ingredients onto a plate and steam for about 5 minutes.
* Fry the garlic next until you smell nice garlic-ky smell from the frying pan. Be careful not to overfry them as it will give bitter taste then.
* Pan fried the steamed yong tau foo for a few minutes.
* Add the ingredients for the sauce and stir in.
* Let the sauce simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
 

Outcome:

My hubby likes the dish very much and our 5 years old boy loves the bean curd ones while I preferred the ones in fried tofu puffs.

This recipe is for keeps!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

For this post, I am sharing my next food recipe, one that I learned from this awesome cooking book I bought (will share one of this days)! My MIL used to make this dish often as hubby's side of family is Hokkien and they love to eat pork dishes. As a Cantonese, I'm not really a fan of pork dishes but I told myself to give this recipe a try and see how it turns out. After all, I promised myself I will learn to cook for the family, so that said, I have to cook whatever dishes that my family likes, not just what I like. Right?

Without further ado, here is the recipe for Simple Braised Pork in Soy Sauce with Hardboiled Eggs:

Ingredients:
* Garlic - 1-2 cloves chopped finely
* Ginger - sliced thinly
* Eggs - quantity up to you
* Pork - cut into bite sized
* Oil - about 2 ~ 3 tbsp

Sauce:
* Water - 2.5 cups
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp sugar
* Sweet soy sauce - 1/2 cup


Methods:
* Boil eggs separately and once done, let it cool.
* Heat oil in frying pan, fry the ginger slices for a minute or two.
* Fry the garlic next until you smell nice garlic-ky smell from the frying pan. Be careful not to overfry them as it will give bitter taste then.
* Fry the pork until brown.
* Pour in the sauce.
* Let the sauce simmer for 1 hour.
* Add eggs about half hour before end.


Outcome:

My hubby likes the dish and being a Hokkien who loves to eat pork dishes, I feel happy to hear that feedback. This recipe is for keeps!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!