Search for Ramen Part 3: Santouka, The Central, Singapore

The search for the perfect ramen continues. Of course, the holy grail bowl of ramen does not exist, but the search, and the process which involves imbibing bowls of ramen is surely quite satisfying and not only a journey but a destination in itself.

Santouka Ramen in Singapore is a branch of a very famous chain from the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, Japan. They also have several branches in the US, and in a recent roundup by rameniac, the LA store came up No. 1. BTW, Rameniac is a great resource site for ramen maniacs.

Many Singaporean bloggers have also reviewed their ramen, and today I went to see what the fuss was all about. The menu went at lengths about how they prepared the soup, how the temperature of th soup was kept just right...not too hot, never boiled as this destroys the flavours, but right for slurping. Also a "limited edition" ramen attracted two of my watch collecting buddies...supposedly only 60 servings of the Tokusen Toroniku ramen is available each day.



Toroniku - Japanese for choice pork is made from pork from a pig's cheeks...precious little is available, as each pig only yields about 200g to 300g or so of this delicate, melt-in-your-mouth meat. The ramen was available in 3 flavours of soup: Shio (salt), Shoyu, Miso and Kara-Miso. The Shio flavour is the most popular in Singapore and indeed in Japan as well.

So special is this cheek meat toroniku, that it deserved served in its own plate, with some accompanying toppings. As if to announce its superiority over typical chasu in ordinary ramen which is served semi-floating in the broth along with the toppings and noodles.



In the topping plate was Japanese green onions, bamboo shoots, wood ear musroom (kikurage), a slice of fishcake, and a pickled plum (umeboshi). The plum is one of the signatures of the Santouka chain, and a nice touch to balance the rich broth with a tinge of sourness.



As can be seen from the pic, the meat seems to have a rough looking texture with identifiable muscle fibres with what looks like plenty of collagen and probably fat. As I pop one in my mouth, I felt like making one of the expressive "oishi" faces that one sees on Japan Hour on TV...this was really delicious. The meat was truly melt in the mouth, like butter...disintegrating on contact with the tongue and taste sensors...excellent, excellent tenderness. Interestingly it did not taste greasy, but richly satisfying.

The noodles came swimming in a rather smaller bowl than is typical in Tokyo style ramen. The soup looked very thick, creamy, and had a wonderful aroma. Slurping the broth provided a great sense of satisfaction...it was rich, powerful. Perhaps I am a heavy salt eater, but I found the original Tom Ton soup and even run of the mill Ajisen soup to much saltier. Readers are reminded that I had asked for reduced salt Tom Ton, and was richly rewarded. But here, I did not even have to request for less salt. It was perfect.



The noodle served was Asahikawa style - thick and curly, cooked al dente. The egg noodles were specially made to be shorter, and had the qualities of being able to absorb soup well, and prized for this reason. The typical hakata style ramen is thinner, and longer.

Overall, one of the best bowls of ramen I have tasted. Everything was right. The noodle style, done-ness, the rich, satisfying soup, the gorgeous pork. My eating companions, remember those watch collectors, agreed. One of them, a great friend and eating buddy, incidentally a medical doctor who imbibes butter and fat like there's no tomorrow...pronounced it better than Tom Ton in everything except for the kurobuta pork. Makes me wonder if Santouka does the pork cheeks from korubuta if it will meet with his approval.



We also tried the gyoza, and despite looking great, was a quite ordinary to the palate. Especially after such an amazingly delicious, rich bowl of ramen.

Ramen Santouka
6 Eu Tong Sen St
#02-76, The Central
Singapore 059817

The Search for Ramen Part 2: Tom Ton, The Central

Tom Ton is a branch, owned by the same Mr. Takagi who also owns Tampopo. Tom Ton specialises in tonkatsu dishes, while Tampopo specialises in ramen. But both stores have extended their menu to include almost everything Japanese...ranging from simmered dishes to shushi and shashimi.

It takes a brave man to call his ramen shop Tampopo. The Japanese cult movie, Tampopo tells a story of a widow's dream to create the best ramen shop in the world.

The very same Spicy Korubuta Shabu Shabu Ramen, which made its name in Tampopo (now on the ground floor at Liang Court) is available in Tom Ton.



The Kyushu style pork bone soup was prepared over 2 days of constant high heat boiling of pork bones, extracting the marrow, and all the goodies of the bones to produce a superior stock. I asked for reduced salt, and the soup was very tasty, nicely balanced, with a good robust pork flavour. In spite of the liberal and colourful sprinking of chilli, the ramen was not too spicy.



The ramen was on the safe side...thin ramen was used, and cooked just slightly softer than al dente texture I prefer. This contrasts with the much firmer bite and eggy taste of the ramen used by Menya Shinchan.

But the centerpiece is the kurobuta slices. Kurobuta, literally black pig, is the pork equivalent to wagyu. Berkshire pigs, which are black and hence the name, are reared in a stressless environment, causing the meat to be tender, and full of flavour.



The taste is truly testimony to the added care to raise the pigs. thin slices of belly meat is quickly boiled and added to the bowl. The texture certainly is very fine, very tender, and beautiful flavour. The pork was a bit fat, but that's what gives rise to the rich taste and soft, tender texture.

The speciality for restaurant is certainly the katsu pork. We ordered the Black Pork Katsu with pink salt served atop a bowl of rice.



The slice of loin pork used was fat, but oh-so gorgeous taste...rich, satisfying. The meat was tender, and very beautiful flavour. The crust was very crispy, and somehow did not retain the oil despite being deep fried. My personal best is still Katsukura in ANA Building, Tokyo (will blog about this soon), but this was pretty close.



Pink salt, liberally coats the sides of the bowl, and a sprinkling is also on the vegetables supporting the katsu. Pink salt, from Bolivia is a hand harvested rock crystal salt. The characteristic rosy pink hue, and speckled. In addition to its sodium chloride (salt) content, Pink Salt is remarkably rich in other minerals including Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron and an array of other essential and trace minerals.

The taste is subtle...I am not sure in a blind test, if I can correctly identify this from more normal rock salt.

The dish came with one of the most interesting miso soup I have seen. This was rich miso stock, but also brewed with vegetables and herbs and more kurobuta pork. Very fine, rich tasting, and not at all salty like most miso soup. This was a delight.



We also had the kurobuta tofu...see the theme of kurobuta? Many dishes are adorned with this very special, great tasting pork.

The stock was rich, possibly soy with rich pork bone stock...but lighter than the soup of the ramen. The tofu was the rough, cottage style tofu...very delicate soy flavour provided a nice counterpoint to the rough texture and the rich taste of the pork.



As the shop had a beautiful sushi counter, I ordered the namesake Tom Ton Shushi.



This proved to be a mini-disaster. Comprising of a cut roll with 6 different sushi ingredients - I can identify salmon, tuna, another fish, tamago, crab stick, cucumber. The taste is a riot, none of the ingredients was allowed to bloom. The sweet tamago clashed with the mild taste of the salmon and tuna. Wierd.



Other than the misadventure of the sushi, the meal was a great success. The ramen is one of better ones in Singapore, as is the katsu don.

Tom Ton
06 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-88/99
The Central(Above Clarke Quay MRT)
Singapore 059817

Java Dreams, The Central

Peter's comments in italics.

You know how it is with some places (or people) that you find you can just "click"" with at the first encounter? Well, that's what happened for me at Java Dreams Coffee & Roastery (B1-46, The Central) on this rainy Sunday afternoon...



Ok, I'm not a real serious2 coffee afficianado (like me dearest hubby) but I do need my coffee almost daily, and I do like good coffee places with the right feel and of course, the brew itself must live up to expectations. So after a pretty good lunch at Central, hubby, son & I, decided to give Jave Dreams a try.

Hubby ordered his usual Espresso (double shot), I ordered a Cappucino and we also decided to try a piece of their Chocolate Truffle cake.

The espresso came larger than one expects. It was not quite up to hubby's standards. He felt that the coffee beans may have been over-roasted but finished it nonetheless.




For a store who takes the trouble of roasting their own coffee...check out the Die Dietrich roaster in the corner. what a beauty! This raised hopes...unfortunately, too high. I don't know what they use in their blend and who the roastmaster is, but the results are a bit disappointing. The coffee displayed in vats on a wall looked over-roasted...the beans were oily, and very dark. I also spied a vat of green beans on the lower right.

A picture of the gorgeous roaster.



The espresso machine is a high tech, computer controlled 2 group affair by Nuova Simonelli - looks like their Premier Maxi. A machine which should be capable of hammering out excellent espresso all day. Temperature control should be spot on, group pressure perfect, and if barista technique is equal to the task, the espresso should be syrupy, concentrated, with great mouth feel and show an excelelnt head of crema - reddish brown and characterised by some tiger striping. See earlier post on espresso lessons.



This double shot tasted consistent with an over-roasted bean - bitter, bland, lacking body and had poor, thin mouthfeel. Also, the crema was very thin, in a pale colour, indicating over-extraction...also evidenced by the large volume of the shot.

My cappucino,on the other hand, was quite pleasing to the eye and this was because the barista dressed it up with choco-latte art! (see picture, see picture!!).



This ain't excatly truly Ally McBeal-frothing and moustche-making style cappucino, but hey, who caress when its good-looking! After sipping it, chocolate well-stirred in, I found this capp. tasted pretty satisfying and not too bad at all.

A strict cappucinno would not have chocholate syrup added - a traditional Italian barista would freak out (!!...he would also freak out by a customer ordering cappucinno after breakfast time...Italians only drink espresso after breakfast cappucinno...but that's another story)...so I would classify this as a mild latte mocha, rather than cappucinno. The latte art made by the chocholate syrup was quite nice...the spider's web was crisp, and well defined. Nice.

As for the chocolate truffle cake, it was less rich than I had hoped for. But it was good enough to get son, Edward, interested and happy in polishing it all up. It was, rather a bit more moist than the picture suggests.



All in all, it wasn't so much that the coffee and cake were to "die for", but there was something about this small cosy cafe that "clicked" for me today. Perhaps it was the lazy jazzy Norah Jones croonin'away. Or perhaps it was the unpretentious big red coffee roaster placed inconspicously at the corner, not out at the front centre of the shop. And a couple of colorful coffee-themed posters (one had "Whole Latte Love" on it) casually on one wall. Nice. Very casual and unobtrusive, as a real good coffee hang-out should be.



Best part was, it wasn't chock-a-block packed with noisy people like your every other self-service coffee shop in town. That's what probably did it. The place allowed me and my best guys to take our time to sip our cuppa, flip some magazines (as did son after cake was wiped off plate) and basically, just kick back and enjoy the moment. Aptly named "Java Dreams", this place could certainly make one forget the hustle and hurry of life for a while with its quiet ambience and pleasant smiling staff who remained discreetly behind the counter but were there to respond when you needed them. Unlike some haughty local cake and desert places which refuse to serve one water for free, even if you're paying gastronomical prices for its cakes/pastries. Iced water here was given freely and happily when asked for. These were the small things that made for a great relaxing time when hanging out here with family/friends. I hope this place doesn't become another coffee place turned Starbucks later. I hope it remains this casual and cosy enough for one to slip into, hold and sip that cuppa for a while and be lulled away into Java Dreams..zzz.

Java Dreams
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#B1-46, The Central
Singapore

Wakashachiya - Central, Singapore

Lunch today was Japanese. My father thought of going to this place as he wanted to relive his experience of the unagi he had in Tokyo, two weeks ago. He happened into what appeared to be an old, traditional unagi place after an afternoon of shopping at Yodobashi in Akihabara. The huge camera and electronics store - one of the largest in the world had a whole floor dedicated to restaurants. The unagi kabayaki bento he had there was the best in his experience.

We started with teba chicken wings, they offer three different types - original, spicy and some other thing. We had the original one, which was the middle part of the wing.



It was nicely and lightly fried, the skin was crisp and not very oily with a hint of shio (salt). The meat was succulent and juicy. It was very enjoyable.

My mother ordered the set which comprises of curry udon, rice, and a pork katsu.



Frankly, the pork katsu could have been better. The one she had in Tokyo at Katsukura was still the best she has had. This pork was tough and fibrous although the crust was nice, light and crispy. The udon however, was fantastic. It has a nice firm bite and the curry was gorgeous. The curry gravy tasted like it was made of finely ground potatoes and featured leeks and a piece of fried tofu. She gave the rice to me.

I had the ebi tempura udon which came with two huge prawns perched atop a bowl of steaming curry udon. The curry udon had was the same as the one in the set menu.



The prawns were magnificent, large ebi delicately and lovingly tempura-ed. The batter was light and crispy and the crunchiness provided an excellent counter point to the firm but juicy ebi within.

My father had the piece de resistance: Hitsu-mabushi. This was a huge bowl of finely grilled unagi resting on a bed of rice. The Hitsu-mabushi is the speciality of the Nagoya city where Wakashachiya is from.



It came complete with eating instruction which instructed the diner to portion the dish into four equal parts. Serve the first part on the small bowl and eat it as it is. The second portion is then served onto the same small bowl, obviously after you finished your first portion. Sprinkle it with the chives/spring onions/wasabi and dried seaweed with has been finely cut into strips. Proceed to enjoy the second portion. For the third portion, use the dashi soup (fish stocks from bonito flakes) provided, and the same condiments. This was like a rice porridge. And for the final portion, you may consume the Hitsu-mabushi in any of the above that you prefer. Both my father and me preferred the second.



The unagi was very well grilled and served kabayaki style, covered with just the right amount of sweet sauce. It tasted very fresh, and the meat was soft, smooth and creamy without any hint of any bones which may appear in unagi of lower quality. My father felt that it was almost as good as the one he had in Tokyo, and certainly one of the best in Singapore.

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves very much and the bill came out to a total of about $80 for three persons.

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Wakashachiya
The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-92 to 95
Singapore 059817

http://www.wakashachiya.co.jp