Opening of Michelin 1-Star Ramen, Japanese Soba Noodles Tsuta, in Singapore!

It has been a long time of almost 4 years since I've updated my blog. Bogged down by work and had not much time to update - but this piece of new is something that I had to write about...

Because Tsuta is coming to Singapore!

Michelin Guide Singapore Post & Video of Tsuta 

By now the new should have spread in Singapore - it was on various media such as ChannelNewsAsia, radio and so on. But still I would like to write about it.

I have been following this news since the beginning of the year, when news in Japan revealed that owner Onishi will be opening its first overseas outlet in Singapore. Nothing much can be found online, except that in Onishi's own blog in January, he wrote that he will be going to Singapore for 2 weeks on a business trip.

Back to Tsuta, for those of you thinking of going to his Sugamo store to taste the real thing, supplementing the information on CNA and the Facebook video, you have to take note of a few things as the shop implements a queue ticket system for entry to avoid disappointment.

- You have to line up early. Tsuta will start distributing queue tickets at about 7am plus.

- Each queue ticket specifies a 1-hour time slot from 11am to 5pm that you need to come back for, as the allocated time for you to enter the shop. The opening hours is a 11am, so the earliest that you can start even if you are the first person in the queue is 11am.

- Each queue ticket will need a deposit of 1000 JPY. Seems that they will not give change so please prepare the exact amount.

- They have recently changed the system that someone can actually get multiple queue ticket for their friends. But might be subject to changes, so to be safe it might be better to queue up.

Most of the time the ticket will be wiped out by the fans who queue up, but occasionally there will be free slots or cancellation. Tsuta runs a twitter account broadcasting announcements about the ticketing situation, and if there are some free slots at certain times. You can try your luck to see if you can grab those last minute (Japanese required)

Back to his Singapore store, as per Onishi's video, I'm glad that his offering of Shoyu and Shio ramen will be something different from the many Tonkotsu ramen that is already in Singapore. I do like Tonkotsu very much but I felt that it is a little skewed.

He is currently in Singapore, his fifth day now, training the staff and his team to prepare the ramen, according to his blog. He has also tried our very own Michelin Star soy sauce chicken! You can see that the noodle of Tsuta will be freshly made using using the noodle machine with his own blend of flour (versus buying off-the-shelf noodles made by others). I wish that I can be one of the crew to learn from him how he makes his soup, shoyu tare and char siew!

Looking forward to the opening of Tsuta soon!

(Tsuta Singapore's Facebook Page)

Tokyo Ramen Show 2012

It is the time of the year for the annual mega-event in Tokyo -

The Tokyo Ramen Show!!

As a ramen fan, how can I miss it? 

Patiently queuing up...

This year in 2012, the Tokyo Ramen Show is held over 2 stretches of days - 26-30 Oct and 31 Oct - 4 Nov 2012. Over each period, there are 20 selected ramen stalls gathered from all over Japan serving their best ramen to fans coming from Tokyo and beyond. Some of the stall are special collaboration stalls setup by famous ramen brands, offering ramen that are only available during limited period of the show. By coming to the Tokyo Ramen Show, not only you can try ramen from different parts of Japan, but also menus that are not available usually.

The show was very well-organised. When you arrive at the venue, you first line up to buy your ramen ticket (800 yen each). With that, you can subsequently to exchange for a bowl of ramen. All the stall are lined up horizontally in one row, and a queue extends from each stall, with fans patiently queuing up. The bowl is slightly smaller than a normal bowl, so that you can try more varieties. There are ample seats that you can take your ramen to too after you've collected your bowl. 

For the popular stalls, the queue could be at long at more than an hour. However, there are also shorter queues that you can get your ramen in less than 10 minutes. 

There are too many choices to choose from! Assessing that I can eat at most 3 bowls, I picked 3 types of ramen of different taste (and different lengths of queues) to try for this visit.

The first bowl - White Soy Sauce (白醤油) Ramen, a collaboration by 3 different stalls, Shinka, Bigiya and Nawate, all disciples of a famous ramen brand "Setagaya". The soup of this shoyu ramen is excellent - simple but deep with chicken and seafood flavor. The queue for this store was not too long, about 15 minutes.

The second bowl - Special Sapporo Miso Ramen. This is a collaboration by 3 of the top miso ramen stalls in Hokkaido - Menya Saimi, Ramen Iri and Menya Tsukushi. The soup is jointly blended by the 3 owners. It was rich and creamy! The queue for this stall was one of the longest among the 20 stores.

Last but not least - Combination Tonkotsu Ramen. This is a collaboration between 2 ramen brands that have ventured overseas - Keisuke Tonkotsu King in Singapore and Nagi in Hong Kong. The soup is a blend of the tonkotsu soup from both stores. I think it means something when the organizer chose to feature a brand that expanded to Singapore! However, the queue of this store wasn't that long.

Had an excellent spread of something simple, strong and creamy. Personally I like the White Soy Sauce Ramen best, as the soup was the most delicious among the three.

Shall I visit the show this coming weekend too? 

I'm extremely tempted to do so!

Ikkousha in Fukuoka!

I just wrote about Ikkousha being crowned the Ultimate Ramen Champion in Singapore last week. 

What a coincidence!

Just in the following week, I have a chance to travel Ikkousha's hometown, Fukuoka. While I couldn't write about Singapore's Ikkousha now, of course I should visit the real authentic Ikkousha in Fukuoka.

And here I am, in Ikkousha @ Deitos Hakata, right on top of the JR Hakata Station.

Irasshaiimase!

This Ikkousha outlet is located in the Hakata Noodle Street, a food street with 12 noodles stores from different parts of Kyushu. Besides ramen, it also has shops offering udon, soba and Nagasaki champion.

Maybe I am a little early for lunch

Frankly I was not aware of Ikkousha when I was in Tokyo, but walking around the streets of Fukuoka, I spotted quite a number of them - They are a famous regional brand from Fukuoka!

Checking Ikkousha's homepage, they have 9 outlets in Fukuoka alone, and 1 more in Kyoto. In addition to the Ikkousha brand, there are also other brands such as Gensuke (offering seafood-tonkotsu ramen. unfortunately closed in Singapore), Genkun (offering tsuke-men), Genou (offering tsuke-men too) and Keishi (offering seafood-shoyu ramen). Last but not least, the group also has a noodle manufacturing company, supplying noodles to the group and beyond. 

Overseas and beyond Singapore, they have also expanded to Jakarta, with 2 stores now. 

Outside the Deitos store, there is this board that was created to share with their customers that they are now expanding to the world!

世界進出 - Expanding to the world!

Attracted by the huge pieces of char siew, I tried the Char Siew Ramen (850 yen).

Giant char siew!!

The ramen is topped with spring onion, black fungus and 4 thin slices of char siew that spill over the edge of the bowl. True to the Hakata style tonkotsu ramen, narrow and white noodles are used, and the soup is creamy with the rich smell of pork bones. The soup is boiled over strong fire in a large traditional Japanese pot, thereby giving it its creamy texture. However, this way also introduces the "pork bone smell" that some might not like. The sauce (tare) used is said to have used 4 different types of local soy sauce, a handful of spices and a few types of seafood.

Personally I like this bowl of ramen. While it does not gives a strong impact in a single area, it is tasty and mild that kept me eating on and on. The char siew is soft and compliments the soup and noodles well. Compared to the outlet in Singapore, I felt that the soup is slightly thicker here in Fukuoka. 

There is a direct flight from Singapore to Fukuoka, so to those of you ramen fans out there, you might want to visit Fukuoka and taste Ikkousha and also other famous Hakata ramen!

View Ramen Walker's Ramen Map in a larger map

Ramen Data - Ikkousha @ Hakata Deitos

Address: 1-1 Hakataeki-Chuogai, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka (Inside Hakata Ramen Road, Deitos 2F)
Types: Tonkotsu Ramen
Price: 650 - 1050 yen

Ikkousha - 2011 Ultimate Ramen Champion!

After a year of operation, the winner of the Ramen Champion project is finally decided!

A media event was held on 7 August to announce the winner as well as the next phase of the project. I was invited to the event too, but unfortunately I'm overseas and have to give a miss to this wonderful opportunity to witness the winner and get to know the ramen community in Singapore.

The winner of 2011 Ramen Champion is.... (drum roll)

IKKOUSHA (一幸舎)!!

It was reported that Ikkousha topped the competition, selling 100,531 bowls of ramen in the past year. No. 2 is Bario, who sold 65,529 bowls. The difference is pretty huge. Wonder how were the sales of the rest of the concepts.

(Note: Their normal ramen costs $13, so their sales over the year would be about S$1.3mil just for the small stall! Is that consider a lot?)

I didn't have the time to blog about Ikkousha, but I have eaten it many times. Personally I liked Toyama Black best, but Ikkousha will be my number two. Its tonkontsu soup is tasty but not too heavy, unlike the other stalls in Ramen Champion that people might find them slightly too salty.

The result reinforced the type of ramen that Singaporeans tend to like - Tonkotsu! We already have Santouka and Ippudou that is widely popular in Singapore, and now Ikkousha is crowed the ramen champion.

Where there is a winner there is a loser. Of the first batch of Ramen Champion stalls, 2 of them, Tetsu and Gensuke, and  will not be continuing on for the next year. While the soup of Tetsu was good, I personally does not quite like eat tsukemen because the soup tends to get cold fast. Maybe many Singaporean felt the same. For Gensuke, I have not been there before. It seems that it is supposed to be a Halal ramen concept created by Ikkousha using chicken broth. Perhaps the ramen crazy has not caught up within the Muslim community in Singapore?

The next phase of Ramen Champion will commence from 7 Aug 2012 to 30 Jul 2013 with a total of 8 brands. The 2 new entrants are:

Menya Aoyama (麺屋　青山) - A tonkotsu ramen stall with its specialty being its ajitama egg. The egg seems to be marinated in seasoned fresh cream! 

Taka no Tsume (鷹の爪) - A stall with its specialty in spicy ramen. "Taka no Tsume", or the eagle's claw, is also the name of a type of chili in Japan that is known for its hotness. Something like our chili padi in Southeast Asia.

Seems that they have brought in 2 concepts to suit Singapore's palate - Tonkotsu and Chili ramen.

Another interesting finding is that these 2 ramen stalls seems to be related to a company in Japan called Menya Kouji Group (麺屋こうじ), that is responsible for producing a group of ramen stalls in Japan. The CEO of Menya Kouji Group, Tashiro Koji, seems to be also the COO of Komars Group, the company behind Ramen Champion in Singapore. Mr Tashiro himself have been trained as a ramen chef under Taishoken, and have opened several successful ramen shops in Japan. It is fun when the dots connect!

I will not be able to try these ramen in Singapore, so please share with me your comments if you have tried them? I will also try to make my way to their stall in Japan... although both are a little far in Chiba prefecture.

Kisshokichi - Kobe Beef Ramen (神戸牛らーめん 吉祥吉)

This week's ramen adventure brings me to Kobe, where I happen to be doing some regional visits.

The first thing that come to mind for Kobe is of course, Kobe beef.

And something came to my mind... are there any ramen shops that offers Kobe beef ramen?

I did some search on the internet, and I found one in the Sanchika underground mall, near the Sannomiya station of Kobe!

There is a trend of having "ramen avenues" inside shopping or underground mall over Japan. The Sanchika underground mall opened its "Ramen Road (麺ロード)" in Nov 2011. It is not that big with only 4 shops, but they are said to be the selected ones from Kobe.

Sanchika Men Road

The stall offering Kobe Beef Ramen is called Kisshokichi (吉祥吉). Kisshokichi is a restaurant that offers Kobe beef are reasonable prices. It has 6 restaurants in Kobe serving Kobe beef is different styles such as steak, shabu-shabu and buns, and this ramen concept is a new addition in the group.

I order the Kobe Beef Ramen (850 yen), the standard recommendation of the stall.

So, where are the Kobe beef elements in this ramen? It is used in 3 parts:

- Soup. The soup is made from Kobe beef bones. High-end beef bouillon! 

- Slices of Kobe beef 

- Minced spicy kobe beef miso

The soup and ingredients has relatively strong flavours, so I think spring onions and bean sprouts are added to balance the tastes.

It was an interesting bowl of ramen because the tastes are beef-based, rather than the usual pork, chicken or seafood flavours. However, it is hard to tell that  the grade of the beef or how "kobe beef" made the ramen exceptional. Overall, it is not bad but not exceptionally great.

If you happen to be in Kobe and would like to try something different, this will be something interesting!

Menya Sou (麺屋 宗) - Special Uma Shio Soba + Sakura!

It is the sakura season now in Japan! Personally I think that it is one of the most beautiful moments of the year. I visited the Meguro river and took a stroll along the bank lined by sakura. Beautiful!

Sakura at Meguro river

It was nearly lunchtime and I was looking for something to eat. 

And just when I was looking around, I spotted this signboard of a ramen store! What a coincidence. 

Following the signboard, I reached Menya Sou (麺屋　宗). Situated along Yamate Dori near the Nakameguro station, it is a small ramen joint with only about 10 counter seats. The main outlet of Menya Sou is at Takadanobaba, and this Nakameguro outlet is its 2nd one.

The note on the left of the picture shows the opening hours of the store. But the information that is more important is the number of servings that they serve per session. Over lunch, there is a limit of only 50 servings, and 100 for dinner!

Menya Sou is an award-winning ramen joint - It was selected by the readers of magazine "Tokyo Weekly" as the ramen of the year in 2007 and 2008, among other awards. Its specialties are shio ramen and tsukemen (dipped ramen)

I ordered the shop's recommendation, Special Uma Shio Soba (980 yen)

The ramen is topped with a whole tamago, bamboo shoot, 3 pieces of char siew, mizuna, spring onion and shredded chili. The char siew is grilled over charcoal before it is served, and I guess it is thinly sliced to suit the simple shio soup. The menma is hand-shredded, so it is much longer than the usual menma served. Something special. 

The soup is a combination of clear chicken soup and seafood stock, together with 2 types of salts. It was tasty and light, matching the toppings that are also simple.

Menya Sou also prepared 3 types condiments for us to add to the ramen and play with the flavours - pepper, plum vinegar and its original "sou space". In particular, the plum vinegar (the red one in the center) is for the shio ramen. I added some to my soup - it made the soup more refreshing and even more drinkable. I finished the soup until its last drop!

Pepper, Plum Vinegar and Sou Spice

Another thing that I noticed was the ramen bowl. The bowl used seems to be more sophisticated than those used in other ramen shops.

It was only later that I found out why. The owner of Menya Sou is Yanagi Munenori (柳　宗紀), who is the grand nephew of Yanagi Sori (柳　宗理), one of the iconic industrial designer in Japan and was passionate about promotion of local crafts. The shop uses designs of Yanagi Sori, which include some kitchenware as well. No wonder the bowls look good!

A bowl of ramen that I will recommend for those who like shio ramen. I will try to visit their main store in Takadanobaba next time!

Ramen Data - Menya Sou NakameguroAddress: 3-5-55 Nakameguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

Types: Shio ramen, Tsuke-men

Rating: 9/10

AFURI Harajuku - Yuzu Shoyu Noodle

Visited one of my favourite ramens in Tokyo again for this week's ramen fix.

AFURI has 2 outlets in Tokyo, one in Ebisu and another in Harajuku. I visited the one in Harajuku, which is about 3-4 minutes walk from the JR Harajuku station. There was a short queue outside, and I waited for about 10 mins before managing to get in.

Clean and simple shop

One of the specialty of Afuri is its char siew, which is charcoal grilled before it is served. This gives the char siew a nice smoky fragrance, and some burnt on the surface that makes it look good.

The shop only has counter seats, so I can see my char siew grilling right in front of me. Smells good!

Grilling...

Afuri's standard is its Yuzu Shio Ramen, but I ordered the Yuzu Shoyu Ramen for a change. There are also 2 types of noodle to choose - the normal narrow noodles and a special "shinku hirauchi" noodles. The latter has more texture and is more chewy.

The presentation was mouth-watering. What I like about them is also that its a bowl that is simple yet flavoursome, unlike some others that while it is delicious their richness made you feel full halfway eating them.

Since harajuku is a often-visited tourist area, it will be easy to drop by too. Some ramen shops are really difficult to find!

Ramen Data - AFURI HarajukuAddress: 3-63-1 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Types: Yuzu shio noodle, shoyu shio noodle, tsuke-men
Rating: 9/10

Menya Musashi opening in Singapore!

I was in Singapore for a short visit and happened to walk past Raffle City.

And guess what? 

I just about Menya Musashi Kanzan in my last post, and there I saw near the taxi stand announcement that a Menya Musashi will be opening in Raffles City! What a coincidence.

The opening date is still not clear, and I couldn't find any trace of the news on the internet yet. The website of Menya Musashi is quite basic and it might be the style of the owner to remain low profile.

I would like to share some history about Musashi to prepare everyone for their entry.

Menya Musashi is one of the legendary ramen brand in Japan. Its owner, Yamada Takeshi, together with Ippudo's Kawahara Shigemi and Nanttsutei's Furuya Ichiro are said to be icons of the ramen industry that led to its popularity now.

It is interesting to note that we are going to have all these 3 in Singapore soon! Maybe it is a reflection that we are growing into a culinary capital of the world.

Yamada had an interesting background. According to what others have written about him, he was originally from the apparel industry. After graduating from high school, he started his own apparel company and grew to become an entrepreneur. However, the company went under after the burst of the Japanese economic bubble, and he was debt-ridden. As he was thinking about starting a small push-cart hawker business to earn a living, a conversation with his friend led him to explore using dried saury (秋刀魚 or サンマ, a type of narrow and long fish that is typically in season in autumn) to make ramen soup. This eventually became the signature of Musashi's ramen.

Musashi's flagship outlet is in Shinjuku, about 4 minutes from the JR Shinjuku west exit. In addition, it has 10 more "noren-wake" outlets in Tokyo by Yamada's disciples, each with its own unique characteristics while maintaining the tradition of its roots.


I'm not sure will the Musashi in Singapore be serving what is available in the Shinjuku outlet, but the key characteristics of Musashi are:

Soup: Animal + Seafood Double Soup. The soup is made from a mix of 2 types of soup: Animal-based soup made from chicken and pork bones, and seafood-based soup, made from dried saury and other ingredients such as kelp  and prawn oil.

Noodles: medium-thick flat noodles, which are suitable for shoyu ramen.

Chic Japanese Interior: Attention is paid to the interior of the shop, which is mostly in a strong Japanese theme in dark colors. This might be due to his background in the apparel industry.

Looking forward to see the response of Musashi's opening in Singapore! Meanwhile I'll go and try out a few of its outlets here in Japan.

Menya Musashi Kanzan (麺屋武蔵 神山) - Kanzan Ramen

It has been almost half a year since I have updated this Ramen Walker blog. Sorry for those of you who are looking forward to some updates!

Since late last year, I am fortunate enough to relocate to the land of ramen for work! Rather than reporting on ramen in Singapore, I'll be writing about my ramen adventure in Japan.

My first ramen expedition brings me to Menya Musashi Kanzan (麺屋武蔵　神山) at Kanda, Tokyo.

Menya Musashi is a one of the major families of ramen stores that started in Shinjuku in 1998. Named after a legendary swordsman in the Edo era Miyamoto Musashi, most of the stores have a Japanese styled decor. Disciples of the founder graduates from training at the main outlet, and then set up their own ramen stores in different parts of Japan under the brand Menya Musashi. This is called the Noren Wake (のれん分け) system, a system practiced since the Edo era for various types of businesses. Something like an old franchise system! This store "Kanzan" that I went to is one of those noren wake stores of Musashi.

I ordered the signature Kanzan Ramen (神山らーめん, 1000yen).

The part of this ramen that stands out the most is its char siew. The two large blocks of char siew stood out deliciously, covering almost half of the bowl. The outside is slightly burnt and crispy, and the meaty part is tender and soft. Taking a closer look...

Sitting at the counter, I observed how they prepared it. Pre-cook pork belly blocks are put under a salamander grill (overhead grill) for a few minutes before it is taken out and cut into big blocks. This is how they achieve the effect of the crispy char siew skin. It was good!

The soup is a a mix of fish and animal soups, faithful to its Musashi roots. Other toppings include a whole runny tamago, seaweed, and a handful of menma and leek.

The shop also provides black & white pepper in a grinder, as well as chilli & spice powder as additional seasoning for the noodles. I personally prefers the black & white pepper - the freshly grinded pepper gives the noodle a lovely scent.

The soup was good that I finished until the last drop!

Looking forward to my next bowl of good ramen in Japan!

Ramen Data - Menya Musashi Kanzan
Address: 3-7-8 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Types: Tsuke-men and Ramen in animal/seafood double soup
Rating: 8.5/10

Keisuke Tokyo (けいすけ東京) - Tokyo Shio Ramen

Taking a break from going to Ramen Champion, I visited Keisuke Tokyo today for my ramen fix.

It is one of my favourite ramen places in Singapore, but it is a little off the places that I usually go to so I don't frequent it that much.

Just happened that I was at Suntec, I decided pop by instead.

And they have further made some improvements since my last visit!

After sitting down, the attentive waitress passed me this order form to fill up.

Make your own RAMEN !!

Looking further down the form makes me understand what it exactly is for. After choosing the ramen that you would like to order, you can further customise your ramen using this form by indicating:

- Strength / thickness of the soup (3 levels)

- Amount of oil on the ramen (4 levels)

- Hardness of the noodles (4 levels)

- If you do not want any toppings due to preference (e.g. bamboo shoot, etc.)

Customisation

While it seems to be possible to customise our ramen at some of the other ramen joints in Singapore, this is by far the most structured way in letting customers customise their ramen. I am further impressed by Keisuke's sophistication!

They seem to have added one more type of condiment to the existing ones - bonito flakes.

With this and others like spicy beansprout and chopped onion, there are even more room to play with your ramen.

I ordered the Tokyo Shio Ramen with egg ($13++) today.

Good presentation

Clear Shio Soup

I won't delve too deeply into the ramen today. But in short, it was a good bowl as per the usual Keisuke standard.

Last but not least, there was another surprise for me this visit...

Keisuke is going to open their 2nd outlet named "Tonkotsu King" in Tanjong Pagar on 8 Aug (Monday)!

The new shop is located at Orchid Hotel in Tras Link, near Tanjong Pagar MRT station.

Let's see if I have the time to pop by for lunch on Monday.

Menya Iroha (麺屋いろは) - Negi Ramen, Ramen Champion, Iluma

Visited Ramen Champion today to continue my quest to finish all the 6 ramen brands.

And there I'm, greeted by a queue!

Really? I have to queue to enter?

The advertisements at the MRT station screens sure did work to bring in the crowd. Iluma is usually pretty empty and when I was at Ramen Champion on its opening day it was quiet too. Happy that ramen is creating another storm in Singapore!

Today, my feet bring me to Menya Iroha (麺屋いろは).

Another queue, but I'm happy to wait

Iroha comes from Toyama Prefecture (富山県), a prefecture in central Japan on the side of the Sea of Japan. A place that is little known by people overseas. Some adventurous tourist might have been to the Kurobe dam and Tateyama mountain, which are located in Toyama.

location of Iroha HQ

Iroha seemed to have received many accolades - It achieved top sales for 2 consecutive years in Tokyo Ramen Show 2009 and 2010, selling 13355 bowls of ramen over 5 days. Assuming a bowl of ramen was sold at 700yen, they would have earned about S$150k just in that 5 days. It also received an award from the prefecture governor of Toyama as an outstanding enterprise.

Iroha has several specialties, and one of them is the Toyama Black Soy Sauce Ramen.

I ordered the Negi Tama Ramen (leek & egg ramen, $13) version of this specialty today.

The toppings of char siew (x2), egg, chopped & shredded leek, seaweed, bamboo shoot and a sprinkle of black pepper sit on top of curly noodles and the signature black soup. Presentation was good, and the colors contrast well on top of the black soup.

The soup base is made from a mix of seafood (dried fish, kelp, etc.), chicken and vegetables. The black color is due to its secret black soy sauce, which is said to be made in such a way that it maximises the "umami" of the sauce while keeping salt content low. Together with the seafood and chicken broth, although the soup looks salty, but surprisingly it is light but full of flavour. I think that it goes down very easily and you won't get sick of it.

The egg, I must say that it is so far the most runny among the 6 stores in Ramen champion. Some of them are too well-done.

Runny yolk

Another part that I enjoyed a lot is the char siew. A harmless looking piece, but it was very tender. The fatty part of the char siew literally melted inside my mouth. Was impressed by how well it was done.

Last but not least, the leeks, intentionally hand-shredded to preserve the crunchiness according to Iroha's website, complemented the noodles well. I enjoyed the feeling of chewing the noodles amid the crunchy shreds of leek.

Although shoyu ramen is usually not my top favourites, Iroha's black shoyu ramen scored high in my list. From the immediate reaction of my taste buds, it is so far the best among the 6 ramens in Ramen Champion.

Reading through Iroha's website, there seem to be items that they were not able to bring it to Singapore. Really want to try them...

1) Noodles - The noodles in Japan are made using deep-sea water taken from the Toyama bay, which is supposed to have positive health effects. The flour used are made from the whole grain flour that is more nutritious. Whats more, they have also kneaded lotus roots into the noodles to give it more chewiness.

2) White prawn soup (白エビだしスープ) ramen - An item on Iroha Japan's menu, the ramen's soup is taken from dried shells of white prawn, a premium ingredients even used in sushi. Sounds delicious.

I think that we should count ourselves lucky, because looking for an Iroha is not easy.

They don't even have an outlet in Tokyo yet!

Their 9 stores in Japan are in Toyama, Ishikawa, Hakata, Kyoto and Kanagawa. And there we have it here in Singapore.

Will definitely go back and try their other offerings.

Ramen Data - Menya Iroha @ Ramen Champion, Iluma

Address: 201 Victoria Street, 4F Iluma, Ramen Champion
Types: Shoyu Ramen (Black Soy Sauce), Spicy Miso Ramen
Price: S$11-18
Rating: 9/10

Tsukemen TETSU (つけめんTETSU) - Ramen Champion, Iluma

Following my last visit to Ramen Champion, today's visit brings me to ...

Tsukemen TETSU!

Tetsu is one of the pioneers of tsukemen (dipped noodles) in Japan. While tsukemen was not new in the ramen scene, it used to be served cold - cold noodles served in cold soup - to be eaten in summer when the weather is too hot for a bowl of hot ramen. However, there are people (like me) who doesn't like soup cold. Started in 2005, Tetsu was one of the first ramen brands to serve tsukemen hot. Its popularity soon caused many to follow.

In a short 6 years, it has quickly expanded to about 10 outlets around Japan, including iconic locations such as Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Landmark Tower in Yokohama and the station mall in Kyoto.

I ordered the "Very Rich Special Paitan Tsukemen", the standard item on their menu, plus an addition egg.

In Japan, they are famous for their rich seafood-tonkontsu soup, but I think they have modified their menu to cater to the Singapore crowd who might not like the seafood taste.

The thick dipping soup is made from chicken and tonkotsu soup, and a clear layer of oil coats the surface of the soup. Char siew, bamboo shoot and chopped leeks swimming inside the soup. Noodles used are normal, straight noodles.

I like the taste of the soup and it holds onto the noodles well. The char siew was also tender although I would hope for more. The part that I would hope that it can do better is the egg, which came fully cooked an not runny.

Half way into the noodles, the soup turned a little cold. And it is where you can try the first-of-its-kind service in Singapore, that is unique to Tetsu...

The hot stone! (焼き石)

see the stone in the middle?

You can approach the staff at the TETSU store to give you some "Yaki-ishi", and they will then deliver to you a piping-hot stone into your soup. It sizzles for about 5-10 seconds, transferring the heat into the soup. Your dipping soup is hot again now!

And when you are finished with the noodles, the experience is not done yet.

You can bring the soup to the TETSU counter again, and look for a thermal pot labeled "Dashi Soup". The purpose of the soup (made from bonito flakes I think) is to dilute the thick soup, so that you can down the delicious soup till its last drop. When diluted, the soup has an added seafood taste and the fragrance of katsuo.

Soup for drinking, not dipping

All in all, the overall experience at TETSU was good. It was enjoyable eating the ramen, with the dipping, hot stone, dashi soup and all. It was slightly disappointing that the egg wasn't runny, and I personally think that they could bring in the bowls they use in Tokyo to Singapore too, just like Bario and other stores. It will make the noodle much more appealing, and reinforces their branding too. The shape of their bowl in Tokyo resembles the logo of Tetsu.

Ramen Data - Tsukemen TETSU @ Ramen Champion, Iluma

Address: 201 Victoria Street, 4F Iluma, Ramen Champion
Types: Tsukemen
Rating: 8.5/10

Bario (バリ男) - Ramen Champion, Iluma

The ramen scene in Singapore as been quiet for a while with no new entrants, and I had some trouble looking for what to write.

But all of a sudden, 6 ramen champions descended onto Singapore at one go!

Taking over the previous location of a Japanese theme restaurant park Ebisuboshi-Shotengai, a ramen-only restaurant park called らーめんチャンピオン (Ramen Champion) opened on 1 July 2011, bringing into Singapore 6 renowned ramen stores from Japan. Such concepts are not uncommon in Japan - for example there is Tokyo Ramen Street at the Tokyo station and Ramen Museum in Yokohama. But having one in Singapore is another thing. I'm not sure is this the first of its kind outside of Japan.

The 6 ramen stores in Ramen Champion are Taishoken (大勝軒), Gantetsu (がんてつ), Bario (バリ男), Tetsu, Iroha (いろは) and Ikkousha (一幸舎). They came from different parts of Tokyo and have a good mix of styles, such as shoyu, tonkotsu, miso or dipped-noodles. They have respectively won many accolades in Japan, and I'm really happy that they are here!

The restaurant uses a card system for ordering like some of those in Singapore.

Owner of Bario, Mr Iwasaki

The interior of the restaurant is similar to that of Ebisuboshi Shotengai. The induction cooker on some of the tables reminds me of the shabu-shabu restaurant that was there. I was there on a Saturday lunchtime - considering that it was the 2nd day of operation, the crowd was a bit thin. Its a pity because on this first week of operation, the owner of the respective brands' owners are all present in Singapore.

The next question is - which one should I eat?

As a man (achem...), I've chosen to try Bario, which means "super guy" in Japanese according to the owner. Well this is more of a joke. The real reason is that I've heard a lot of good things about Bario from Japan.

Your ramen is ready

After ordering your ramen, the stores at Ramen Champion hands you a tag that will ring when your ramen is ready. A good way to keep our waiting time down while being able to enjoy it hot.

Bario offers Jiro-style (二郎系) ramen - ramen in ultra large portion that comes with a mountain of vegetables. Another place in Singapore that you can have this in Menya Shinchan.

I ordered the signature ramen ($13) from Bario.

And it does come with a bang!

The ramen is topped with a mountain of bean sprouts and cabbage, with a few blocks of chunky char siew. The bean sprouts have their tips picked off, keeping the more juicy and crunchy part. It is a sign of its attention to details.

The char siew is really chunky, with the surface / skin charred but the inside still soft and juicy. It was good, but the only thing is that it was slightly salty for me.

The noodles are thick, flat and curly, giving the bowl of noodle a chewy and rugged "manly" feel just like its name.

At first I was dreading that I might not be able to finish the big bowl, and I have to leave behind some food to the horror of the owner. But it was good that I had no problem finishing it.

And... you shouldn't stop there and should finish the last drop of soup!

Why??

Because you will be rewarded with this compliment -

Thank you. You are a man

For ladies (or beginners), the portion could be quite big for your to finish. You might want to start with trying the half-sized ramen, unless you are very hungry.

Ramen Data - Bario @ Ramen Champion, Iluma

Address: 201 Victoria Street, 4F Iluma, Ramen Champion
Types: Jiro-style Ramen
Rating: 8.5/10

New York Time's Article on Ramen / Ramen Tour

Found this article on NYTimes that was published last in 2010 about ramen in Tokyo.

The writer went around Tokyo trying various ramen, with an American ramen blogger as a guide!

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/travel/31ramen.html

It is really interesting to see that there are so many non-Japanese raman fans like me. And they are passionate enough to blog about them too. Some of those featured in the article are Ramenate!, Ramenadventures and Ramentokyo.com.

The article featured Ivan Ramen, a ramen shop in suburban Tokyo setup by an American chef that I wanted to try for a long time. He puts it perfectly that -

"A good bowl of ramen is balanced perfectly: the soup, the noodles, the toppings, everything works together. So when you’re eating it, even though it’s all these disparate ingredients together, somehow they feel as if you’re eating one thing.”

Glad that I am aware of and have tried most of the ramen shops mentioned in the article, e.g. Nagi, Ikaruga, Mutekiya, Keisuke, Jiro, etc. Out of all these I personally prefer Ikaruga (I've yet to write about it though...), exactly because of the reason stated in the article that it is a very well-balanced bowl.

I received a link a while ago about a organisation in New York organising a ramen exploration trip to Tokyo.

http://www.newyork-tokyo.com/wp/ramen/

The date of the trip was just shortly after the earthquake so I guess it has been cancelled unfortunately. But this reveals the niche popularity of ramen in the US. Amazing cultural power of food.

Not sure if there are such demand of a ramen tour from Singapore...

Maybe the new survey on my blog will find out?

Happy Good Friday!

Hachiya (蜂屋) Ramen Pack & Making Char Siew!!

When I went to Japan, I received a ramen pack from Hachiya (蜂屋), a renowned shoyu ramen store in Asahikawa with over 60 years of history.

As usual, the pack contains only noodles and the soup.



So, its time for me to try my cooking skill again!
I've attempted to make tamago last time, so its time to try the next key ingredient...

Char Siew!!

Starting with some pork belly, I followed a recipe, tying the chunk of pork up, boiled, pan-fried and stewed it.

And, beyond my expectation, it was quite tasty!

Homemade char siew!

The piece of pork belly that I bought was quite small, so it was hard to slice it up.
The char siew didn't came up as a round piece as I would have wanted.

But, it was actually easier than I thought, compared to making the perfect runny tamago.
Will definitely try it again soon, recording the process in more details.

Well, back to the ramen.
With the homemade char siew and some boiled spinach, here's my dinner...



Itadakimasu!