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. 
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.
The Ramen ($14.80 0r $13.80, can't remember)I had was the hokkaido style ramen, partly also because I felt like having the yellow noodles. However, the broth was too salty for my liking, and I left most of my soup, which is a big no no for me whenever I have good ramen.
The egg was delightfully runny - see how a corner of my yolk's hard already - I actually poked my chopstick into that corner and had the sinking feeling in my heart because I thought that my egg was overcooked. But I was relieved to find that my egg yolk was nice and runny inside. I haven't had a good stewed egg in a long time. Ippudo's disappointed me. 
The Deep Fried Salmon Skin was suprisingly nice, cos it was seasoned and drizzled with some mayo-like and teriyaki sauce. 
The Fish Set ($21++) was totally worth it - cod, skewered scallops (too salty) sashimi (2 pieces each of tuna, white fish and toro, not pictured here), appetiser, soup and flavoured rice was very filling and well worth the price. 
I totally envy that pig. 
Tampopo has a new fangled appliance which served your food via a conveyer belt system, with magnetically labeled plates.
Pretty fun watching the plates travel past on the belt. 
Pork Buns - $3++ per piece
Ippudo serves hakata ramen, so their noodles are off white and thin (think something in between mee sua and yu mian), and comes with a rich and very oily tonkotsu (pork) broth. It's really very oily and I could see fat globules floating in my soup. Taste wise, it's rich and milky, and not to salty. However, I've tasted more robust broths (like Santouka and Tampopo's), so Ippudo's didn't bowl me over. 
I decided to go all out and try the $17++ Akamaru Tamago Ramen. It comes with the full works, which is miso paste (the red stuff), buta bara (pork belly), black fungus, lots of chopped spring onions, and with a generous douse of garlic oil. The stewed egg (can't see in the photo) was pretty much a dissappointment because it was slightly over cooked, and the yolk wasn't runny and soft.
Spicy Ramen
Gyoza - 6 pieces for $6++
Lots of hype and average ramen, nothing to rave about... if the queue's long, just walk over to Tampopo or something. I really don't think it's worth the queue.Ippudo Singapore
Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road
#04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: 6235 2797
Daily: 11am–11pm
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.
It's the end of my long weekend :) I spent lots of time catching up on my sleep! I've been so sleepy lately - on Wed, I slept nearly 12 hrs - lucky I decided to set my alarm clock or I'd have been late for school! But my eyebags aren't any smaller...
Yoshimaru is this new ramen place (<2mths old) at Holland Village. I'm quite happy cos there's finally a ramen place near me! I've been trudging all the way to Liang Court, Central or Orchard Plaza for my ramen fixes. 
A bowl of this Traditional Hakuta Ramen ($11++, $12.50 nett after taxes) comes with 2 pieces of stewed fatty pork, sliced mushroom (the black stuff), lots of spring onion/negi and pork broth. The pork broth isn't as rich as the one from Santouka/Miharu/Noodlehouse Ken and tastes rather thin to me. It's also quite salty and there's millions of tiny globules of oil floating on the surface (if you look closely only. it doesn't form a oil slick on top, probably cos they've been boiling the soup for so many hours it already formed a semi emulsion?)
My stewed-half-boiled egg has twin yolks! Ok, that's beside the point for this picture. Yoshimaru's signature ramen is this Hakuta ramen, which comes with thin ramen noodles. In fact, all the other types of ramen at Yoshimaru use the normal dan dan (sp?I'm not too sure lol! I think it's supposed to be egg noodles??) noodles. The noodles actually remind me vaguely of a thinner version of la mian. I prefer the normal yellow coloured ramen noodles - I will definitely try their normal ramen noodles the next time.
Condiments for your ramen - Chilli oil, white vinegar, soya sauce, ginger, ??, chilli powder, pepper and sesame seeds. I don't usually put anything into my ramen cos I like to taste the broth in it's original state.
The ramen menu - pretty limited choice, like all ramen speciality stores. But then again, who would come to a ramen store to eat things other than ramen? The service here is pretty good, but maybe it's cos they're quite empty? I forsee myself coming back here to satisfy my ramen craving (cos it's really convenient), just not that often since I prefer Noodle House Ken, Santouka and Tampopo's ramen. 
©2009 Never Trust a Scrawny Foodie | by TNB | Karjat Resorts
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