Ramen ranks No. 2 in the ranking for the most loved Japanese food by tourists!

Just caught a report released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) about a survey conducted to 15,355 foreign tourists to Japan.

On the question of "Which was the most satisfying food that you've had in Japan", ramen came in as No. 2!! Very interesting results from the perspective of a ramen fan.

Sushi was No.1 with 42.1% of vote. Pretty much expected, as Sushi is usually the first thing that comes to a foreigner's mind when we talk about Japanese food. And the sushi in Japan is definitely good too! Even chains such as Tenka Sushi serves decent sushi.

Ramen is No.2 with 20.8% of the vote, closely followed by sashimi at 19.8%. In 4th place is Tempura, 11.1%, and Udon at 8.9%. This is an encouraging result (for me), as ramen is a much younger cuisine than sashimi, tempura and udon. I doubt many foreigners will know what ramen is 10 years ago, while sashimi, tempura and udon are fairly common.

Isn't it amazing that ramen rose so fast through the ranks of Japanese food?

Some other interesting results are:

- For Taiwanese, Ramen is actually No.1! The ramen culture must have already been widespread there.

- For Singapore, the percentage of the top 3 of Sushi, Sashimi and Ramen are pretty close.

- German loves sushi? About 63% of them answered that it was the most memorable.

I'm sure in years to come, it will become as popular, if not more, than sushi!

Looking forward to the 2010 survey to see how the result will change.

Crab Ramen - Keisuke Tokyo (けいすけ東京)

Visited Keisuke Tokyo a while ago, and found that they have updated their menu with a few new items - the basic-styles of Shio Ramen and Shoyu Ramen.

But what caught my eyes among the new edition is the Crab Ramen (S$15.8)!

This should be the only place in Singapore that is serving this ramen (except for the $30+ ramen at Aoba and Kaiko that has half a crab on top of it... not sure how many bowls of those do they actually sold), so I gotta try it out.

Kani Ramen

Topped with a large piece of char siew, 2 halves of an egg, naruto, menma, onion, shreds of chilli and seaweed, the ramen is arranged in the usual keisuke aesthetics. The aroma of the crab can be smelled immediately when the ramen is dished in front of me. The soup stock is very thick and dense, which I guess was meant for it to serve as more of the sauce of the "dry noodle", for it to hang onto the noodles.

According to an interview that owner-chef Takeda had with Zaobao, the soup is made by first frying the crab. The fried crab is crushed and blended with onion and carrot, and the mixture is again fried. Chicken broth is the mixed with the paste to create the soup.

I also noticed that for the Crab ramen, the flat noodles is used instead of the usual rounded ones.

All in all, its another good bowl of ramen. It will be suitable for those who likes it rich and thick.

In the interview, Takeda-san also shared that he will be releasing new items on his menu every 2-3 months for this Singapore outlet. Looking forward to his new creations for Singapore.

Kusabi (くさび) - Tokumaru Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen

This week's ramen adventure brings me to Kusabi at Central, the latest edition to Singapore's ramen scene.

... taking over Kyoto Sabo’s space

Kusabi (くさび) comes from the Fukushima prefecture of Japan, about 2 prefectures north of Tokyo. It is a relative unknown prefecture in Singapore, but from the ramen world, it is home to one of the famous ramen styles call Kitaka Ramen (喜多方らーめん). But Kusabi does not serve ramen of that style.

The word "Kusabi" means "a wedge" in Japanese, which is a tool that is used to fill up a gap, and it is what the store hopes that its ramen will do. Kusabi was voted as the #5 ramen places in Fukushima prefecture in the 2008 Yahoo Japan ramen ranking. But it seems that it has slipped off the ranking in 2009.

The interior is brightly-lit, clean and neat. The staff were friendly and polite too, most probably trained in the Japanese way by the owner. Something that I found interesting was the chopsticks that it uses. The tip is made in such a way that the noodles doesn't slip by having grooves at the front of the chopsticks.

Spiral groove

Kusabi serves tonkotsu-based ramen with shoyu, miso or fish oil. Its also serves dipped noodles (tsuke-men, or つけめん), which boasts a 1.5 times serving of noodles, as well as a series of ultra-spicy (Gekikara, or 激辛) noodles, with 3 levels of spiciness to choose from.

A key selling point of Kusabi that is different from other ramen places seems to be the use of fish powder (魚粉/魚節, or Gyofun). Made from fish flakes (e.g. bonito flakes) crushed into power form, here in Kusabi it is kneaded into the noodles and concocted into fragrant oil to add a seafood / fish flavour into the noodles. Especially for the noodles, the taste that is kneaded into it is supposed to seep out and enrich the taste of the soup, creating a different taste as you progress in your ramen. It is the only place in Singapore that offers this type of noodles now, but in Japan it seems that several other ramen shops use this technique too.

I tried the first item on the menu, the Marutoku Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen ($19), which is actually a set with a bowl of ramen and an extra set of toppings.

The ramen is topped with a generous amount of shredded leak and chopping onions, as well as char siew, seaweed and bamboo shoot. The extra serving of toppings include 2 halves of aji-tama, 4 large pieces of char siew, seaweed and bamboo shoot.

The tonkotsu shoyu soup is well-made, with the right saltiness and flavour that I like. I slurped in a mouthful of noodles, and indeed there is a slight fish flavour that comes with it. As I progress through the ramen, I tried to sense if the taste of the soup changed ... but I guess my tongue is not sensitive enough!!

I tried its gyoza ($6) too. It was large and juicy with a lot of fillings. Not bad.

All in all I had a good experience at Kusabi and would like to go back again to try the other flavours and some of its signature side dishes such as the Pork-wrapped Rice Ball and the Nita-rice ball. Its a store worth trying, and next time I'm in Central, there is another choice that I can choose from in addition Santouka and Marutama.

View Ramen Walker's Ramen Map in a larger map

Ramen Data - Kusabi @ Central at Clarke Quay
Address: 6 Eu Tong Seng Street, #01-68/69, The Central @ Clarke Quay
Types: Tonkotsu
Price: S$13.5 - S$19
Rating: 8/10

Ramen Walker Feature @ WAttention

Not sure if some of my readers have already caught it....

Ramen Walker has done a ramen feature for the latest edition of the free magazine WAttention, which was released today!

　On one of the racks at JTB

The 4th item on the front page, "Slurping Life" :)

WAttention, a word made from combining "Wa" (= 和, meaning things that are Japanese) and "Attention", is a free magazine that talks about Japanese culture and traditions to the Singapore audience. I was fortunate enough to be contacted by WAttention a few months ago to have me as the guest writer for a feature of 13 ramen places in Singapore. The shops selected by WAttention covers most of the prominent ramen places in town.

Featuring places such as Shinchan, Keisuke, Tampopo, etc

As it is a good opportunity to share with more people about ramen, I took it up, ate my way through many ramen places, and recently completed the feature!

There are limited spaces that I could write for each shop so the description may not be that detailed, but it was fun finding out about the ramen store, speaking to some of the owners, and penning down my observations. For example, I managed to speak to Mr Tajima, the owner of Menya Shinchan, that I wrote about in a previous blog entry, and Mr Tsutsumi, the franchise manager for Sanomaru, who shared with me his challenge during the set-up stage. These encounters would not have been possible if not for this opportunity.

Anyway, an interesting assignment that helped me discover more interesting facts about the Singapore ramen scene. And it is exciting to see it coming out in hardcopy too!

Will continue to slurp away this delicious delicacy of Japan.

Last but not least....

Grab one copy of WAttention!!

2010 1H Unofficial Ramen Ranking

Time flies and June has come to an end...

... and its time to release the results of the unofficial ramen ranking, chosen by all of you ramen fans in Singapore out there, as at 1H 2010!

The top 3 ramen places in Singapore by popular voting are:

1) Marutama Ramen

2) Ippudo & Santouka

3) Nanttsutei

(ref: results for Q1)

Marutama is still holding on the 1st position after another 3 months. However, while they led by a large margin in the Q1 results, the gap between Ippudo and Santouka is closing quick.

Miharu has dropped out of the top 3, and replacing it is the fast-rising Ippudo, that jumped to share the 2nd spot with Santouka.

Another ramen chain that saw a sharp increase in votes is the newly-opened Nanttsutei, at No. 3. I guess it is pretty accurate as I always see a long queue when I go Parco Marina Bay.

Its a close battle for the top 3 spots, and I'm very interested to find out who will emerge No.1 at the next quarter.

There are also new entrants to the market such as Sanomaru and Kusabi too. Will they create ripples in this ranking?!?!

Looking forward to the results 3 months later!

Menya Shinchan - Tonkotsu Seafood Tsuke-men & In Conversation with Tajima-san

This week's ramen adventure brings me back to Menya Shinchan.

Still my favourite store in town so far.

And... I had the privilege to speak with Mr Tajima, the owner-chef of Shinchan!!

More of that later.

I had the Tokotsu Seafood Tsuke-men ($13), one of the dipped noodles served at Shinchan.

It comes with a large bowl of dipping soup, and noodles served in a plain bowl of water.

Most of the tsuke-men that I've eaten so far serve the noodles dry. I guess its Shinchan's way to keep the noodles moist and not stick together.

Closing up on the noodles, for the tsuke-men, it uses thick noodles, which goes well with thick soups. A tiny bit of sesame is sprinkled on top of the noodles too.

The soup is made from a blend of tonkotsu, chicken and seafood soups. It is very creamy and rich if you drink it by itself, but it is just right if you dip the noodles into it.

The lump in the middle that is floating on top of the seaweed is fish powder (魚粉). Usually made from crushed bonito flakes, it directly adds more seafood flavours into the soup. It is intentionally placed on top of the seaweed so that you can add if you want to, or take it away if you don't prefer too strong a seafood taste. I had the ramen half-way before mixing the fish powder in, to taste the ramen in 2 different ways. I think I prefer the taste after the powder is mixed in, making it even more fragrant.

Another topping but it can't be seen on the picture is the chunky char siew that is swimming in the soup. The char siew is intentionally cut into chunks for this tsuke-men to match the rich soup. Char siew here at Shinchan is tender and I like it.

All in all, this is a well-made bowl of ramen that I'll definitely be coming back for.

Back to my encounter with Mr Tajima.

Since Shinchan is my favourite store in Singapore, I was longing for a chance to speak to him

And finally I have done so!

Tajima-san, with me next to him

He shared with me how he started Shinchan about 4 years go, the journey that he has been through, and some of the intricacies of his ramen. Some of the things that I found interesting or that I've learnt are:

- He eats ramen everyday! Might be obvious because he works there, but it still amazes me.

- 3 types of noodles are made daily in-house (not sure if anyone noticed that the room at the end of the stall has a little tag "noodles factory" on it) for its various types of ramen. Thicker noodles need more time to mature, while the thinner ones have to be consumed within the day or it will become too dry to be used.

- 3 types of soup, tonkotsu, chicken and seafood, are made daily and blended at various ways to produce the different flavours.

But of all the sharing that I've heard, the most inspiring story is actually the process of how some of his ramen evolved with the help of his customers.

Mr Tajima said that initially Shinchan's ramen does not really taste good. However, there are several loyal fans and ramen experts among his customers. These customers come back time after time, and sometimes even almost daily, to taste his ramen and give feedback.

"Hmm... today the soup lacks punch"

"For this ramen, you should add more of XXX into it"

etc etc.

Through listening and interacting with his customers as well as improvisation, his ramen improved slowly to the level that he is at now.

2 of the ramens that went to this path are the signature Shinjiro ramen, as well as this Tonkotsu Seafood Tsuke-men that I've just tried. Mr Tajima shared that especially for the latter, it went through the most number of iterations before reaching this stage, and he thinks that it is the most polished bowl of ramen that he has developed.

Because of this little history of Shinchan, he is always thankful of this customers. Without his customers' feedback, he said that Shinchan won't be what it is today.

Thank you Tajima-san for sharing with me this story!

Behind every bowl of ramen, there is a story to be told.

Will definitely be back for more of your ramen.

Ippudo Singapore Video

Found this video on Ippudo Singapore's website.



What I found most interesting is the passionate people behind Ippudo. Which is the one of the reasons that I like about ramen too.

Ippudo's founder, Kawahara Shigemi, shared that he wants to distance Ippudo to be perceived as a type of Japanese fast food. He wants people in Singapore to know that ramen is a cuisine that stems from techniques and traditions, and the beauty of Japanese craftsmanship. He also has a vision to make ramen as famous as sushi and tempura to the world. He is really leading the way as one of the pioneer ramen brands that is stepping out of Japan.

The video also contained short messages from several Japanese staff of Ippudo, which I think were sent to Singapore to setup Ippudo here. I was impressed by their determination - one of them actually said that he will treat it as that he has uprooted himself from Japan to Singapore for this cause.

Last but not least... not sure if they've realised it, but they actually managed to have Eric Khoo for one of the customer comments! The rest of the feedback seem to be from the usual customers, so they might just have caught Eric Khoo to give a comment while he visited the outlet.

Singaporeans like to eat and we are proud of our local food. Hope that someday we will have a team like those in Ippudo that are as passionate about spreading the Singaporean food culture overseas.

Will pop down one day to try their new limited period menu Miso Tonkotsu ramen.