Menya Shinchan - Vegetable Potage Ramen

Menya Shinchan has a new iten on its menu - Vegetable Potage Ramen!

ベジポタ (Vege-Pota)

Vetegable Potage Ramen, or Vege-Pota (ベジポタ) in short in Japanese, is the new ramen style that is increasingly gaining popularity in Japan. It is made by first mashing up several types of vegetables such as potato, onion etc in a mixer into a paste form, or the "vegetable potage". It is then added into the ramen soup, making the soup thicker so that it will cling better onto the noodle, and at the same time adds more flavour to the soup.

Menya Shinchan is quick to pick up this trend and launched it own Vege-Pota Ramen ($14). I think its the first ramen shop in Singapore to do this. Outstanding!
And indeed true to its motto of ramen being a continuous evolving pursuit.

Menya Shinchan's vege-pota ramen comes with pork bone and seafood soup. In addition to toppings such as char siew, been sprouts, cabbage, onion and aji-tama, there is also topped with a ball of miso paste. You can experience the soup in 2 ways - first sipping the soup by itself, and then mix in the miso paste to add the miso flavour.

A note of caution: this ramen is for those who like it real thick and strong. The noodle picks up quite a lot of the potage soup, so you will feel more of the soup's taste when you eat the noodle. There is an aftertaste of the vegetables after it too. However, I felt that the thickness condenses the taste of the soup too, making it pretty strong and salty, especially after the miso ball is mixed in. So those who don't like it too salty might not like this ramen.

However, so far in Singapore, Menya Shinchan in the only place that you can try this new style of ramen that is getting hot in Japan now. If you are a ramen fan and want to try the latest trend without going to Japan, this is definitely for you.

Hakata Ramen

Does anyone remember where you might have seen the comic strip below?

Bingo! Its from the recently opened Ippudo @ Mandarin Gallery.

Not sure if anyone read what is written on the comic strip. But if you have time to do so, you will be interested to find that it is explaining about what Hakata Ramen (博多らーめん) is.

Ippudo is so kind to have it available in 3 languages (Japanese, English and Chinese)!

Hakata is the name of a city in the Kyushu region of Japan. The name of the city has since been called Fukuoka (福岡), which might be a name more familiar with everyone. Although the city is now called Fukuoka, the name of its Shinkansen station, which happens to be one of the end points of the Sanyo Shinkansen, is still called the Hakata station.

Back to the main topic of Hakata Ramen.

Hakata Ramen is characterised by its soup, noodles, as well as how it is eaten.

Soup - White pork-bone (tonkotsu) soup is used

Noodles- Narrow and straight noodles are used. This is for the noodles to pick up more soup with its larger surface area. It is also faster to cook them too.

How it is eaten -

1) It is common for a ramen shop selling Hakata Ramen to let the customer choose the hardness of the noodles according to one's likings.

2) There is also a practice of Kaedama (替え玉), meaning to order a second serving of noodles into the same bowl of soup. According to the comic, because the narrow noodles are fast to get soggy, the serving is usually kept small so that the noodles can be taken at it optimal hardness. The customer can then order a 2nd serving of noodles, at the right hardness, if he or she is still hungry.

Here is an example of a typical Hakata Ramen, from Sandaime Marusuke in Shinjuku.

Tonkotsu soup, narrow noodles

Ramen places in Singapore serving Hakata Ramen includes Ippudo and Yoshimaru Ramen.

In Japan, the best place to have Hakata Ramen is of course Hakata (Fukuoka) itself! One ramen chain worth mentioning that serves Hakata Ramen is 一蘭(Ichiran). I won't dwell too much into it, but in addition to its tasty ramen, it also has an unique ordering system and atmosphere that aims to keep you focused on the ramen.

There are a lot of ramen shops in Singapore that serves Hokkaido-style Ramen. There are, in fact, many more styles available in Japan. I'm glad that there are more variations, such as Ippudo, entering the Singapore market.

Will continue to introduce various ramens in my next post :)

Jiro Ramen (ラーメン二郎)

Want to write a little about a type of ramen call Jiro ramen that I ate the other day at Menya Shinchan.

I've heard a lot about a style of ramen call Jiro many times when I was studying in Tokyo, but somehow never tried it. My impression then was that...

It has HUGE servings!

Because I'm not a big eater I dare not venture down that path....
But my big-eater classmate loves it! He was telling me fondly about the long queue of hungry guys lining up for it, and how you can skip a meal after eating one.

Back to Jiro, I did some searching over the net about it after having my first encounter...

Jiro Ramen originated from a ramen stall Ramen Jiro that is located in Mita of Tokyo. Its characteristics are:

1) Its GIANT serving!
2) Uses Shoyu-Tonkotsu Soup Base, and comes with a generous layer of lard on top
3) Uses thick noodles
4) Topped with a pile of fried vegetables (cabbage and bean sprout) and char siew
5) Eaten with chopped garlic

Due to its distinct style, Ramen Jiro has built up for itseful a strong following, with its lovers calling themselves "Jiro-rean" (c.f. Singaporean).

Many stalls under the name Ramen Jiro have also been opened in Tokyo, mainly by fans who love it so much that they want to set up a stall by themselves to spread the goodness. Its really a cult following like Apple!

For the benefit of those visiting Tokyo and would like to try out the real thing, here's where it is.
It is actually just outside the main gate of Keio University, the No.1 private university in Japan.

A normal bowl of ramen costs only 600yen, and a large double char-siew ramen is just 850yen. I'm sure we can get our money worth!

Ramen Jiro - Mita (Original Stall)
2-16-3, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Nearest Metro station - Mita (三田) on Toei Mita Line (都営三田線)


View Singapore Ramen Map in a larger map

Asahikawa Ramen

Santouka, Aoba, Baikohken.
What is the similarity between these 3 Japanese ramen shops in Singapore?
The answer is, all of them came from Asahikawa (旭川) in Hokkaido!

Located in northern part of Hokkaido, Asahikawa is a city famous for its ramen.
The characteristics of Asahikawa ramen are:

i) Uses a mix of pork bone and fish soup base with soy sauce tare
This is because Asahikawa city is located in a place that it is easy to obtain both ingredients from the mountains and the sea.

ii) The surface of the soup is coated with a layer of oil / lard
This is because the oil will prevent the soup from getting cold, something that people living the cold climate in Hokkaido will need.

iii) Uses chijire noodles with low water content
This is because the noodles will then better take in the soup.

Just like how culture mixes, Asahikawa ramen takes styles beyond the basic characteristics mentioned. For example, Santouka is famous because they were the shop that started selling ramen using Shio tare.

If you are going to Hokkaido and happen to visit Asahikawa, you can visit the following Ramen Village where you can find all the famous ramen brands under one roof!

Asahikawa Ramen Mura
http://www.ramenmura.com/

There are many more styles of ramen to write about.... but whats more important is eating it! Will be going to try out Aoba soon... :P~~~