Sunday, July 25, 2010

A good bowl of ramen

I think any good bowl of Japanese ramen has got to be somewhat oily.

The fragrant oil from the broth should coat the springy ramen noodles. The broth should also be slightly on the salty side so that it balances the plainer taste of the egg noodles.
 The vegetables should be fresh and crunchy, never overcooked. The seaweed should be still crispy, with some parts of it soaked full of the broth.

The egg should have a watery yolk, and lightly salted. The noodles and soup should be piping hot... but the egg should be cool, never hot or warm, so that it acts as a coolant to your mouth, after slurping in all that hot noodles and soup.

The best ramen, according to me, is still ichiran ramen from Kyushu. My favourite in Singapore is Miharu, a Sapporo-styled ramen at Gallery Hotel although sadly, the standard there has dropped somewhat since the fat Japanese chef left.

Nantsuttei ramen is pretty decent though. The noodles can be slight better.. the egg ought to be much better - it isn't at all liquid in the centre.. but otherwise, they serve a really decent bowl of ramen!

The black oil you see floating on the thick broth is supposedly black garlic oil.. and it is this that lends a distinct flavour to the ramen at Nantsuttei. In case you are worried though... It isn't very garlicky at all.

The basic ramen with an egg. I have problems with the egg.. it was overcooked!

My friend had the char-siew ramen. It had quite a lot of meat..

Very cute instructions on how to eat the Nantsuttei ramen

Nantsuttei Singapore
Add: Parco Marina Bay
#03-02 Millenia Walk
Tel: (65) 6337 7166

2 comments:

Blur Ting said...

I love ramen, especially those spicy one. My lsat bowl of ramen at Sun and Moon at Central was really disappointing. The ramen was soggy, and the miso soup was only so so. I only ate half a bowl. My friend ordered the same thing and also didn't finish.

Open Kitchen Concept said...

yes.. I find ramen at non-specialists (shops that sell a range of stuff) always disappointing.. so I only eat ramen at ramen shops!~