Comfort Food with Sapporo Ramen Miharu

29 Dec 2016

It took abit of walking to get to Sapporo Ramen Mihara but once I stepped in, I instantly felt comfortable in this nice and homey place with very warm service staff. The menu offered shio, shoyu, tonkotsu miso, and miso ramen. With a name like Sapporo Ramen Miharu, I think it was safe to assume that they specialised in sapporo style ramen, so definitely have to try the miso ramen!

When the staff asked if I would like a beer, my resistance died on the spot. The Sapporo draft was so super duper refreshing!

Tokusen Miso (Special Blend) 

The springy noodles that I like! 

The ramen smelt really fragrant and I couldn't wait to try it. The broth was hot, buttery and straightforward. The noodles springy, and toppings complementary. The salty after taste was pretty strong, but I still enjoyed this bowl of ramen. It felt like major comfort food!!

Shisho Gyoza

I also decided to try the gyoza with perilla leaves; thought it would taste interesting and I wasn't wrong. They tasted very strongly of perilla which I decided I enjoy after consuming 3 gyozas. Haha, I also liked it that the skin of the gyozas was thin and chewy.

I returned to try its ookara (spicy chilli oil) ramen:

and the Shiro miso shouga (ginger miso) I really liked this one, the ginger taste went well with the miso, and it was very enjoyable.

Thumbs up for this Ramen! Will return to satisfy comfort food crave.

Sapporo Ramen Miharu
9 Raffles Boulevard
#01-06/07/08 Millenia Walk 
(S) 039596
Hours:
Mon to Fri - 11.30am to 2.30pm / 6pm to 10pm
Sat to Sun - 12pm to 3pm / 6pm to 10pm

Menya Sanji Kagoshima Ramen

3 Dec 2016

I've been wanting to try Menya Sanji each time I walk past it / commute past it, so decided to try it today!

The place was pretty cozy, and reminded me of Japan's ramen shops. I got a counter seat and ordered the sesame ramen. The broth was a mix of chicken and pork; super thick, creamy, milky and unfiltered. You can see how thick it is! It was very savory but wasn't too salty which I liked. The sesame also made the broth very 'pang'.

The cha siu was slightly thicker and pretty firm. It was not 'melt in the mouth' type but more chewy. It had substantially less fat than many ramen shops and I liked it.

The noodles were thicker and had a good bite as well.

I rikee

I also got the fried chicken, it was very crispy and altogether satisfying. How do people make chicken so crispy?!

I finished up everything and was getting ready to make payment when I realised that I didnt bring out my wallet.

O. M. G.

I was alone and only had my ezlink card. I considered a few alternatives, like calling friends for help or getting mom to cab over, but there was no way out.

Eventually, I mustered my courage and told the staff I didn't bring out my wallet.. so paisay! I totally felt like a freeloader trying to lie for a free meal.

The shop was about to close (closes between lunch and dinner) and seeing how I wasn't able to rush back before closing time, the staff were nice and allowed me to return after dinner to make payment. I then quickly tried to escaped but! was called back because I left my water bottle at my seat T.T. I grabbed it and almost ran out lol.

After dinner, I made a trip back at around 9.45pm and paid for my meal. And the staff said 'you left this behind', after which he took out a pack of probiotics I had left on the table. T.T there seemed to be no end to my embarrassment. I took the pack, and beat a hasty retreat, concluding the end of my eventful visit to Menya Sanji lol.

Bingiri Ontama - Spicy Sichuan styled Ramen at Ramen Gallery Takumen

15 Nov 2016

After yoga at circular road, I paid Ramen Gallery Takumen a visit. Ramen Gallery Takumen offers Ramen from 6 different shops in Japan. It started out as an online Ramen shop delivering a variety of noodles from popular ramen shops to homes in Japan, eventually establishing a branch in Singapore featuring ramen from 6 selected ramen shops owners.

What they do is, they re-create the taste of the ramen using a soup base from the shop owners and serve them only after an 'OK' from the shop owner.

I decided to get the Katsuura-Styled Tantan men from Bingiri since I was in the mood for a spicy something. The soup is made with meat stock broth, Sichuan peppers, Chillies, onions and a whole lot of oil.

The noodles were thin and wavy and there must have been two whole huge onions and a gazillion spring onions in the bowl.

A holey spoon was provided so that I could drain the oil while trying to eat the meat, onions and spring onions.

The soup was super hot esp with the chilli oil, I burnt my tongue at the first slurp lol. First slurp was salty, spicy with a Mala tinge. I really liked the flavors and richness of the broth. However after about 6 slurps, I had to start a fight with the oil and it got slightly stressful to eat. 

I was looking forward to eating the onsen egg, but I didn't get to enjoy it because the yolk leaked into the oily soup and the taste of the soup overpowered the egg. I concluded that onsen eggs with Tantan Ramen is not my preference. 

As much as I disliked having to pick the ingredients from the oil, I still finished the bowl of ramen. 

The sweetness of the onions paired with the spicy soup was pretty addictive, though I may only order it if I ever am craving spicy oiliness in the future. Will return to try the other types of ramen! 

Ramen Gallery Takumen

66 Circular Road 

#01-01 (S) 049420

Hours:

Mon to Thurs: 11.30am to 3pm, 5.30pm to 10pm

Fri: 11.30am to 3pm, 5.30pm to 12am

Sat to Sun: 11.30am to 3pm, 5.30pm 9pm

Hong Kong Family Trip 20-23 Oct 2016 Day 3 - One Dim Sum / Causeway Bay / Ichiran Ramen

We started off the morning with One Dimsum near the Prince Edward Station. One Dimsum was awarded a michelin 1-star in 2012 and is a popular dim sum spot. When we reached, there was a pretty long queue.

Since we had abit of time, yk n dj stayed to queue while mummy daddy and I went to visit the flower market nearby. 

I'm not sure what kind of bulbs these were but quite interesting. We even saw a mini apple tree! Hope it's real....

We din walk far before we were summoned back to One Dim Sum by the sisters. The queue moved relatively fast that day. After we ordered the food, time to eat!! We were hungry and I couldn't really stop to take photos since I was too busy holding my chopsticks. Here are some random pics of the yums dim sum.

One Dimsum serves high quality dim sum at an affordable price (hk standard). Will always pay a visit to this place when visiting HK.

Today was Causeway Bay Uniqlo day, so we made a move to CWB via the MTR again.

I had planned for us to visit a market via the tram but the idea was shot down, so shopping it was! Daddy got a pair of jeans, and we hung around waiting for it to be altered.

After we collected the jeans, time for eating!!! Since we were at Causeway Bay, we definitely have to eat Ichiran!!

Ichiran!!! Seriously, Ichiran's soup is yummyyy. Mummy and Daddy both agreed Ichiran rocks. 

After Ichiran, it was finally.. My ding ding ride! The tram which I wanted to ride on for a while. But unexpectedly the tram was sooo crowded and the sun was like shining down on us... So we gave up and proceeded towards the MTR. Lol. My ding ding ride ended even before it started. 

We were all tired so we packed some food and made our way back to the apartment. Mum was tired and grouchy and so was I. Think we weren't really polite to each other while packing food back. I got some noodles from Good Hope... I don't think I remember how they tasted like since they were forgettable. After dinner.. Concussion!! 

Hong Kong Family Trip Day 4 - Hong Kong Heritage Museum

Creamy Chicken Ramen by Menya Takeichi at Suntec Eat@7

17 Oct 2016

I got off work pretty on time today and decided to end my day with Menya Takeichi's Special Shio Ramen because I was in the mood for RAMEN. Menya Takeichi is a popular Chicken Paitan (White soup) ramen chain from Tokyo. It is well known for its super rich chicken paitan and I was looking forward to being impressed by it.

I reached close to 9pm and the restaurant was not packed at all. The wait staff took my order of Special Shio Ramen with all the toppings and the bowl materialised in a short moment.

This is a rather pretty bowl! I mean not just the bowl, but the colour of the egg, the toppings and the garnish. The soup looked quite light, but once I pushed my chopsticks in, I realised that things that would normally sink kind of floated, buoyed by the rich, sticky, creamy soup. Ohoh! So excitinggggg. The noodles were straight, slim, smooth and held the soup well. 

First taste of the soup - thick, smooth and ended on a savoury note. I was pleasantly surprised because I had expected it to end on a high sodium note. There was a whitish dollop in the middle of my ramen and I had thought it was radish. But it turned out to be onions. They helped to alleviate the heaviness of the broth and I walked around with onion breath all the way home.

There were quite a few chicken slices which were pretty tender and soft chicken balls. I enjoyed the noodles. They were soft and smooth but had a bit of bite that lasted 3/4 of the bowl which was good, considering that the soup was so hot, i burnt my tongue on it. That reminded me of the beef ramen I gulped down at Matador Kita Senju which got me nursing my burnt tongue for the whole day.

Back to Menya Takeichi, I enjoyed the bowl! The soup was thick with a savoury finish and the onions gave it a slight punch. The egg was ok with a slight taste of salt (if my burnt tongue was right..)

Flasks of clear soup was provided on the table for those who prefer a thinner broth. I added some soup to lighten my broth, but that was a bad move. The soup was not hot and the broth lost its taste. In conclusion, do not add soup to lighten Menya Takeichi's broth, just enjoy it on its own and if you take the onions, keep your mouth closed on the way home.

Menya Takeichi, Eat@7
3 Temasek Boulevard
#03-313 Suntec City Mall
(S) 038983
Hours: 11.30am to 3pm, 5.30pm to 10.30pm

Value for money lunch at Chabuton @ Somerset 313

13 Oct 2016

Chabuton was set up by Michelin-starred Chef Morizumi and arrived in Singapore in 2014. SE and I visited the outlet at Somerset 313 for lunch and they offer a pretty good lunch deal at $13.50 for a junior sized ramen, a side dish, a drink and dessert.

Chabuton serves tonkotsu, shio, miso and shoyu ramen and I chose the Chabuton Tonkotsu ramen. Chabuton's broth is made with pork bone and chicken collagen. There are options of customisation for firmness of the noodles, saltiness and oiliness of the soup. I decided to stray from my usual of medium, and opted for less salty, less oily and medium noodles. The ramen appeared shortly and I really liked how it looked.

My less salty soup was pretty light and ended on a sodium note. I suspect that it was slightly watered down due to my less salty option. I tasted SE's extra salty soup. Hers was packed with a stronger flavour, and prob just a tad saltier. I added some chilli oil and the shallots provided, it really ommphed up the soup! Cha su was tender and flavourful which I liked.
The noodles were slim and straight, and I found them abit too soft for medium firmness. I would have been happier if I had chosen 'Firm'.

The egg was slightly sweet. Yummm! For sides, we got the ika karage and gyoza. 

The gyoza was interestingly shaped like an ingot,  with a tiny dollop of filling. I really liked the taste and texture of the gyoza. The filling and the gyoza skin was smooth with a bit of crunch and I enjoyed the combination of the spring onion and meat. 

The Ika Karaage was pretty yummy, thin batter with chewy squid. Thr mochi that was served for dessert, was a pretty OK mochi lol. 

In conclusion, I found Chabuton's tonkotsu pretty well executed, and definitely of good quality. I liked how its light soup base really responded to added condiments. But it didn't leave a lasting impression. Somehow, it didn't touch my Rahhmen Soul. Its lunch set however, is indeed value for money!

Chabuton

313 Somerset B2-01

313 Orchard Road

(S) 238895

Hours: 11.30am - 10pm daily

Millenia Walk

9 Raffles Boulevard #02-15

(S) 039596

Hours: 11.30am - 10pm daily

Kajiken @ Orchid Hotel

17 Sep 2016.

Kajiken at Orchid Hotel serves abura soba at affordable prices! I walked past it several times and read about it online and finally decided to try it one fine Saturday. It's a small and cozy place with interesting seating angles. I liked it for its slightly quirky vibe.

I glanced quickly at Kajiken's menu and ordered a Sapporo Premium to cool myself down because the weather was just too much. Ok that's a lie, I just wanted to have a Sapporo Premium in a nice cold glass bottle poured into a nice cold glass cup. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

This was just TOO GOOD

I ordered the mazesoba with the biggest picture because the biggest picture means it's yummy! - The Nagoya Style Mazesoba! I noticed the Japanese name for this item was 台湾mazesoba (Taiwan Mazesoba) and just had to research on this.

There are varying explanations available online and here is the aggregated result of my research: Taiwan ramen originated from Nagoya. A chef at a Chinese restaurant created a dish of noodles and spicy soup for his workers and the noodles eventually became a regular item. This restaurant is called Misen @ Nagoya and if I go to Nagoya I will eat there. An additional nugget of information from my fav ramenadventures.com - when Hanabi created their Taiwan mazesoba, long queues formed. If I go to Nagoya, I will eat there after I eat at Misen please.

Anyway, back to the main topic - Kajiken's Nagoya style Mazesoba arrived with a ton of chopped spring onions, slightly spicy minced meat, a beautiful egg and loads of seaweed. Seriously, the egg,the amount of spring onions and seaweed just put me in such a good mood.

I really liked the clear instructions given by Kajiken on the shop wall - You got to mix for 20seconds to get the full flavour! So I mixed and counted under my breath.

Maze maze!!

The noodles were thicker and chewy *heart!* and mix of spring onions, seaweed, egg yolk, oil, vinegar and meat sauce was really addictive! Soul food! I was happily chewing away and away! For a stronger flavour, you can add vinegar and/or sesame oil. I was addicted to the additional vinegar and kept on squeezing it in. Maybe because the bottles were fun to use. Ha. Ha. Ha. 

You can request for a free upsize to 1.5 times the usual size. Definitely satisfying! 

Kajiken
101 Tanjong Pagar Road
Hours:
Mon to Fri - 11.30am to 3pm, 6pm to 9.30pm
Sat to Sun - 11.30am - 9.30pm

Ikkousha Hakata Ramen @ Chijmes

12 Sep 2016.

DJ,  YK and I visited Ikkousha Hakata Ramen on DJ's bday. In the midst of ordering, we noticed a Jpassport promotion whereby members get 50% off their ramen on their bday. We promptly created an account and DJ got her 50% off. Haha.

Ikkousha provides free flow hard boiled eggs and spicy mustard leaves (yummmy and unexpectedly spicy)  Cold water and cups are also placed on the table. We filled up the individual order form and passed them to the staff. I noted that the staff took note to serve DJ's ramen only after she returned from the ladies, and not before. That's quite rare. Thumbs up!

Between DJ, YK and I, we got gyoza and three types of ramen:
1) Tonkotsu Special
2) Tonkotsu Black
3) Bonito

Tonkotsu Special consists of 1 Egg, 4 cha shu slices in creamy milky tonkotsu broth. The soup tasted strongly of pork, was flavourful, thick, collagen rich, but not too salty.

Tonkotsu Black was basically tonkotsu with garlic (oil?). It had 1 chashu slice and creamy milky black garlic tonkotsu broth. I found the soup flavour much enhanced by the addition of garlic and sesame. 

Both tonkotsu ramen were served with thin straight noodles. The noodles went well with the thick soup. I probably would order the noodles extra hard the next time round as I find that they soften fast. 

YK got the Bonito Ramen above. As the name goes, the broth was bonito flavoured. The noodles for the bonito one is a slightly thicker and more springy type and the soup was a lighter soup as compared to the tonkotsu. That was good because I felt just a tiinnnnny bit gelat after the Tonkotsu Black. 

I didn't take any pictures of the gyoza but they were fantastic gyozas that came with a great dipping/chilli sauce. These gyozas are definitely rank as one of my favourite gyozas in Singapore! 

Ikkousha Hakata Ramen @ Chijmes

30 Victoria Street (S) 187996

Hours: 

Mon to Sat - 11.30am to 10pm

Sunday & PH - 11.30am to 9pm

Burosu Honten @ Emporium Shokuhin

3 Sep 2016.

I had wanted to try Burosu Honten's prawn seafood ramen since I love prawn noodle soup (lol). But I changed my mind at the last minute and ordered the Burosu Ehime Super Blend special ramen (it's new!).

In the menu's words,its broth is made from Ehime Sanma, Iwashi Katsuobushi, Aji fishes and pork bone brewed for 12 hours! I googled abit and concluded it's made from three types of fishes and pork bone. Haha.

When ordering, you get to indicate if you want the soup to be thin, thick or super thick, noodles firm, medium or soft, spicy level and if you wanted any other add ons. I chose my standard - medium for all. Some of the seats had screens separating the kitchen so i assumed the ramen could be served from there, like Ichiran. But i didn't like the spot lights shining on me (like so drama) and asked to change seats to one of those bar like seats lining the resturant. Then.. Tada!!

Ok so the photo isn't great, but the soup was reaally yummy with the sweet pork bone and seafoody taste. I liked it! The spiciness of the broth was good as well. The noodles had a pretty good bite but got quite soft towards the end. The egg was OK,  chasu was thick and soft, but I could taste a pretty strong, for lack of better words, porky taste which was abit of a let down. The prawn, however was fresh and very sweet and made me happy again. Hahaha.

I finished the soup (which is not often), and I have to return for the prawn ramen and wagyu gyoza.

Burosu Honten @ Emporium Shokuhin
Marina Square
6 Raffles Boulevard #01-18 (S) 039594
Hours:
Mon to Sun - 11.30am to 10pm