Menya Ihora which comes from Toyama has this black shoyu (soya sauce) broth as well as a more traditional miso based broth. I tried the black shoyu broth and it has a really pleasant taste, and isn't oily. It sort of reminds me of brands chicken essence actually. The noodles are the curly springy yellow kind (the type I like, as opposed to the straight Hakata style noodles which are similar to the kind you'll find in Ding Tai Fung). They also had one of the best half boiled eggs with the nicely runny golden yolks.
Gantetsu - the 'stubborn' chef's recipe from Sapporo has a robust pork bone broth - I like the broth from this place the best and their signature ramen comes with the uslal bamboo shoots, sweet corn and freshly grated ginger. You can also choose to have butter added.
One of the more unique ramen is from Bario - it's superbly oily broth is tasty but slightly too salty for my liking (I suppose they haven't reduced the salt for the local palate). It's like the Menya Shinchuan Ramen style at Gallery Hotel where it's a huge heap of ramen with a equally generous portion of bean sprouts that's guaranteed to make the general population uncomfortably full. The broth is extremely robust and has a strong garlic flavour - you can even add additional garlic if you wish.
The thing I liked about Bario is the noodles which is unique - they're made from bread dough so it's firmer and flourier and they look messy and curly but tastes very good. 
There are days where I eat to live (ie >90% of my time especially since I've started working) and there are the wonderful days I live to eat. I'm so superemely rested and satisfied after having good food for the past 3 days and I'm all prepared to go back to my eating to live days (until my next annual leave, that is...)
The pockmarked lump on that weighing scale is the white truffle I had during lunch. Not the whole thing cos its costs >$1K ;)
Had lunch at Otto (omg it felt >1 yr since my last meal but I've just checked it was just Jan this year!! Feels so long ago!!) I had the truffle creme brulee the last time and it was sooo good I had to go back this year.
Their delicious restaurant bread - the onion bread is my fave - they also have walnut, cranberry and olive but the onion's the tastiest.
Octopus - not my fave seafood unless it's raw...
Shaving the truffle. Truffle is weighed on the electronic weighing scale. The chef then shaves it over the dish of choice (in my case, it's scrambled eggs with crab meat) and reweighs the truffle after shaving. Had 2 grams of truffle with my dish. 1 gram just isn't enough, 2 is just right, since my budget isn't expandable. 3 would be such a luxury!
Chef reweighing truffle in the background - he's wearing those surgical latex gloves! :)
My Red Wine Pappardelle with Guinea foul ragout and crispy bacon ($28++)
Paccheri with Grouper ragout, Pachino tomatoes
Atlantic Cod Tagliata with Porcini mushroom crust and creamed baby spinach with white truffles
Their signature creme brulee with berries marinaded in balsamic vinegar.
But for me, their truffle infused creme brulee is the dessert of choice. 
Otto's creme brulee tastes great already, but when paired with truffle oil, it takes the creme brulee to a whole new playing field. Their creme brulee is excellent - such a pleasure to have creme brulee like this.
I'm superbly satisfied after my annual white truffle meal. Such a joy to eat such great food. Even more so since I've maximised my leave eating my way thru lots of good food. I'm all prepared for suffering for the next 6 months rotting in the east and eating lousy canteen food :D
White truffle season doesn't last forever, and this year, Otto will be serving their white truffle special menu until about mid December. So do go down if you want to get a taste of Chef Michele's delectable cooking.
I haven't been to Millenia Walk for super very many years cos there really isn't very much to do unless you're on a furniture buying spree or something... So after spending quite a bit of time getting waylaid by the many shops having sales at Marina Square, we finally made our way to Nansuttei, just as the lunch time office crowd started streaming in. I couldn't decide between Nantsuttei or Keisuke at first (and spent quite some time agonizing over this decision), but the busy lunch crowd at Nantsuttei (we actually queued for about 15min), compared to the very empty Keisuke was the deciding factor.
The pork bone soup is boiled for many hours, and is a nice creamy emulsion, though, like most Japanese ramen broth which haven't been tweaked for the local palate, it's too salty for my liking. I ordered their full house ramen (no such name but I don't know what it's called cos it's quite a long name), but it has everything including charsiew, seaweed, bean sprouts and leek. The freshly shredded leek partially countered the saltiness and richness of the broth.
I added on an egg to my ramen, but it was not like the nice wobbly half boiled yolks that like - it was overcooked with crumbly yolk. Skip the egg - it's not worth the extra $1 (or is it $1.50?)
Another of their more popular ramen is their Dragon ramen, which is served with a scoop of spicy minced meat. It's a bit too spicy for me since my chilli tolerance is pathetic, so I'm quite glad I didn't get it.
Nantsuttei uses the hakata style ramen, which is straight noodles served in a creamy pork bone broth. I personally like the yellow kind the best, but I eat ramen for the broth and I'd choose tonkotsu (pork bone) broth anytime cos it's richer and more tasty.
Another thing Nantsuttei has is free freshly squeezed garlic juice - being the kaypoh person that I am, I requested for some garlic juice, thinking that they'll provide a bowl of already squeezed garlic juice - but they gave us some garlic cloves and an interesting contraption, which then squeezes all the juice and pulverizes the garlic.
The garlic juice you get is extremely fresh as you can squeeze it straight into your soup. Their soup is already garlicky because of their special garlic oil, but for extreme garlic lovers, you can always request for fresh garlic juice.
Laksa with additional $1 cocklesSometimes when a rare laksa craving hits, I go down to EAT at Railmall to get a nice big bowl of laksa. It's around $4.50 (or is it $5 now?) for a bowl of laksa, but then again, it's open 24h so I really don't mind paying a premium for my laksa. They also add a piece of crispy deep fried stuffed (with fish paste) tau kee, which soakes up the goodness of the laksa broth. The cockles are juicy, clean (no gritty sand) and pretty fresh, though it'll be better if they were bigger and juicier.
The noodles are smooth and translucent, and the laksa broth is spicy (but not overly so), with pounded hae bee (dried prawns) for flavour. It's not as creamy as the katong laksa, but quite flavourful still. Top the whole thing off with aromatic laksa leaves - makes a real satisfying supper.
I still prefer Katong Laksa cos the soup is really creamy and fragrant, but convenience is tops for me.
Eat also sells other noodle dishes such as bak chor mee as well as fish ball noodles. Bak chor mee seems quite popluar but I have yet to try it.
EAT
436 Upper Bukit Timah Road
The Rail Mall
Tel: +65 6462 3034
Daily 24h
(There's another branch at Ion basement)
My very insipid Udon from Toku Toku Udon stall, which serves handmade udon. Had a much better chilled udon set here the last time. Didn't feel like eating tempura or cold udon that day. It's essentially something like oyako don (cooked chicken with egg on top of rice), just that it's served in udon soup. The egg was okay, cos it was flavoured with some sauce, but the pieces of chicken breast were quite hard and tasteless. Then again, it's $6.50 so I shouldn't be complaining too much. 
Saving grace for my lunch - $1 green tea ice cream cone. Not as creamy as I would have liked it, but the green tea taste was distinct. For $1, it's a nice way to end off my meal, since I don't like the fruit tarts at Manpuku.
Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town
Pre Christmas lunch at Otto - and their totally delish bread tray - four different kinds of freshly baked restaurant bread. I think I ate waaaay too much bread cos it was so fragrant and soft. My fave is the onion bread ,which has some cheese and lots of sliced tasty onions. 
They also had walnut bread (too plain for my liking), raisin and the plain version of the onion bread (onion bread was much nicer). 
Pretty swirly butter, though I'm more partial to the extra virgin olive oil.
Salmon and Ricotta Mousse Amuse Bouche - delicate flakey pastry with creamy and salty salmon mousse.
Pan Roasted Foie Gras with poached pear 
I've never realized how they actually measure out white truffles, until I came to Otto. Up to now, I've never seen them serving white truffle shavings by the gram (very sua ku, I know). Above, is the bowl of white truffles sitting happily in a dish of (?) rice (? or is it salt?? maybe it's some desiccating thing in that case it will be rice?) and the electronic weighing scale.
My dessert - the king of all creme brulees - creme brulee with white truffle oil ($16++). I never could imagine how white truffle oil would taste like with desserts, especially since I've always attributed truffle oil with savory dishes instead of sweets and desserts. The dessert completely blew me away - I think vanilla bean creme brulees will never taste as good as this one. 
Aoba ramen has had the most incredibly long queues since Ion opened, and the queues are mad during the peak periods. Finally managed to get a seat (without queueing) on a Sunday evening, and got to try my ramen. Hailing from Hokkaido, it serves 3 different kinds of soup bases namely shoyu, Shio and Miso.©2009 Never Trust a Scrawny Foodie | by TNB | Karjat Resorts
