Ramen Champion

Ramen Champion serves a favourite spot for all Japanese Ramen lovers to enjoy high quality and delighting ramen from cities in Japan.

Ramen Champion

Just recently in July, there were 2 more new Ramen restaurants from Japan arrived at Ramen Champion to participate in the next Ultimate ramen champion 2014 Singapore. They were Shodai Koji from Yokohama and Menya Ryu from Hokkaido, each occupying a stall space in Bugis+, competing with other resident ramen restaurants. While Menya Ryu will be seen competing at all 3 Ramen Champion Outlets (Bugis+, T3 Changing Airport, Great World City), Riki Power Ramen has expanded its territory into Bugis+.

Tokyo Riki Ramen by Chef Tetsurou Anzai (Riki) 

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Meaningfully name for its "energy boost" with pork bone broth (Tonkotsu soup) boiled daily for at least 8 hours.

Tokyo Rikki Ramen

Special Power Ramen is packed with a stronger flavor, heavily accentuated with garlic in the white milky broth and topped with a handful of bean sprouts, a dish living up to its name sake. 

Special Power Ramen - $16.80

Wobbly charshu has a springy texture and every bite is full of flavours.

Charshu

Triple Charshu Ramen by Chef Koji Takano (Shodai Koji)

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Simply love its combination of the modern and traditional style from Yokohama. Likewise, in order to achieve such flavour bursting effect, the soup was brought over fire and boiled to more than 8 hours.

Shodai Koji

Besides the usual Pork Charshu consisting of pork belly and collar, the chicken thigh is also part of the success of the dish. Double soup from both chicken and pork with 3 different kinds of meat, this dish is highly recommended. Oiishi!

Triple Charshu Ramen - $16.80

Sapporo Miso Special Ramen by Chef Wang Hu Rong (Menya Ryu)

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Menya Ryu

The stark difference among the other two mentioned was the use of Miso. 3 kinds of Miso (red, white and black) are used, maintaining the authentic and traditional flavor in a bowl of Sapporo Ramen not to mentioned about its long hours of broth boiling time too. Where such special ramen is cooked to its perfection, it is no doubt that it's the MUST TRY at Menya Ryu.

Sapporo Miso Special Ramen - $15.80

Besides having bowls of ramen, Customers get to enjoy a wide spread of Japanese side dishes from the menu. 

With squirts of lemon juice over these bite size tempura Gindara Croquette and dipping mayonnaise sauce, its easily for us to pop them non stop into our mouth. Luckily, the number of croquette are fixed on each plate.

Tempura Gindara Croquette - $6.80 

Enjoy a bowl of yummy lobster salad drench with roasted sesame sauce.

Lobster Salad

Out of all ramen tried, we can feel the passion and hard work the chef had put in in order to reach such high standards. Bowls of ramen were indeed appetizing and competitive with each stall revealing the best in them. Not to mention that the timing and seizing of the right temperature whilst cooking of the ramen are critical,especially when it's noodles are of good elasticity and texture.

Come give your support on Singapore's 2014 Ramen Champion.

Thank you Komars group for the invite.

Ramen Champion
Location: Bugis+, 201 Victoria St #04-08/09/10 Singapore 188067

Teochew Bak Chor Mee

My meals are usually predictable when comes to dining in Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre, it boils down to a few options either its famous Satay Bee Hoon, Carrot Cake, mutton soup or Thai.

However, during one of those nights when I was not following the usual dinner hours, Teochew Bak Chor Mee Stall had caught my attention as it was relatively new to me - I don't remember seeing such stall during my last visit. It was located at the corner, easily spotted if you happen to walk by.

Teochew Bak Chor Mee Stall

Out of curiosity, I ordered its specialty noodle and was very eager to find out what is the difference?  Served in dry version to savour the full flavours from the sauces with chilli added and the choice of "Mee Kia" (Thin Noodle).

Specialty Noodle - $3

Perhaps the reason why it was classified as their specialty was its fried minced meat ball that was not the usual item found in a bowl of BCM (Bak Chor Mee). Deep fried into hardern brown at its exterior and as we bite through, the minced meat loosen and unclassified themselves. The mushroom used was of a thicker cut, thoroughly braised and giving off its full flavours. Additional item like fried Wanton was found in there too.

Cloe up

Besides the uncommon ingredients used, I find that the taste is rather ordinary to me, just another bowl of Bak Chor Mee.
 
Rating: 3 / 5

Teochew Bak Chor Mee
Location: Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, Blk 116 Upper Bukit Timah Road #02-141 Singapore 151115

Top 1 一级棒迷您锅

I could not remember coming across Top 1 mini wok during my last visit in Bukit Timah Plaza Hawker. Perhaps during that time, they were closed for the day.

After going many rounds in the hawker centre, I had finally come to a decision to have a meal from them. Signage of  Top 1 was really big with such an enormous font. They are specialized in mini woks primarily. Though there were only 6 dishes illustrated, there are more available on the menu.

Top 1 Mini Wok

Service was quite prompt and dish was served in less than 10 minutes. Meat was well cook and infused with ginger and spring onion, coated in the sweet brown sauce. Besides that the meat were lean and tasty. The gravy complement the rice quite well, adding wetness to the food which makes swallowing easier.

Ginger and spring onion pork rice - $4.50 with egg

Topped with additional egg at a cost of $0.50, its still not as bad with such homely cooking style of fried egg with dark soy sauce added.

With Egg added

Rating: 3 / 5

Top 1 一级棒迷您锅

Location: Bukit Timah Plaza, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #04-47 Singapore 588177

Ming Hwa Roasted

Missing the authentic cantonese roasted delights but still want to save on the pockets? If you are around the area in West Coast, perhaps you can give Ming Hwa Hong Kong Roasted Delights a try.

Ming Hwa Roasted

Dishes were all served in the striking blue plates, an outstanding colours and perhaps they are the only stall with such a color. Well, I would say it's easiler to identity their own plates. The lady who served us had a very strong Cantonese accent even though she was communicating in Chinese.

Enjoy the plump version of chicken coated with a layer of soy sauce with springy noodles following suit to the Cantonese cuisine. Their version of yellow noodles was thinner and different in texture. Portion is generous and not too oily.

Soy Chicken Noodle - $3

The mixed roasted meat comes with a few stalks for poached vegetables doused with soy sauce. Rice was soft, not too mushy. The plus point was that its a steal to enjoy such a portion of meat at such a reasonable price.

Roasted Meat Rice - $3.50

Another type of dish that we could usually order from a Roasted Stall in Hong Kong is none other than Wanton mee.

Wanton Mee - $3

 Wanton skins looked pretty smooth and well wrapped.



Rating: 3.5 / 5

Ming Hwa Roasted
Location: Ayer Rajah Food Centre, 503 West Coast Drive #01-45 Singapore 120503 

Chew Kee Eating House

Housed along the shop houses of the historical building along cross street of chinatown where one can see the careful repairs were done to retain the details of the traditional building.

Chew Kee Eating House

Environment was rather rowdy but it was rather interesting place to observed how the folks worked. Communications were exchanged across the eating house with the loud vocals of the ladies using mother tounges and dialects. For one moment, she was using Cantonese to speak to one of the fellow workers and the next using Hokkien to instruct, then switched back into Mandarin for her customers.

Interior of Eating House

The noodles were springy and chewy dipped with soy sauce and was rather plain with a few pieces of lettuce. Presentation wise, it could be better.
 

Egg Noodle

The dumplings were nicely wrapped up with crunchy bits from the water chest nuts. The dumplings skin was smooth and thin. The overall taste of the dumplings soup has nothing much to rave about.

Shrimp Dumpling Soup

Though we dined in as 2 pax, the portion was way more than we expected, they gave us half a chicken, I assumed. However, the chance to enjoy such delicious plate of chicken was not many and we had our stomach expanded just for it.

The meat was smooth and succulent. Soy sauce was well absorbed by the chicken and you can see it from its dark brown skin. Despite of that, they are never salty. On the contrary, they were naturally sweet in tenderness. Chew Kee's Soy Chicken is probably one of the best I have eaten so far.

Portion for Two - Soy Chicken - $10

Service received by the uncle was "warm" and friendly. However one thing to take note is that for such traditional eating house, the dining space could be quite limited, moreover such traditional taste of soy chicken are well-liked by people, thus there is always a crowd. Be prepared to wait!

Total Spendings: $17.50 includes:
- 2 glasses of home made barley
- 1 plate of white rice
- 2 plates of egg noodle
- 1 plate of Soy chicken for 2 pax
- 1 bowl of shrimp dumpling soup

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Chew Kee Eating House
Location: 8 Upper Cross Street Singapore 058327

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee 烏岜葉福建炒蝦麺

An update to Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee Stall after months on renovation involved in Ayer Rajah Hawker Centre. The renovation massively involved in a thorough maintenance of their hawker structure in their exhaust system, fans installed and the ceilings. All i can say it was much cleaner now. After a long break for the hawkers, we may find some new faces and relocation of the stalls there. However, there was not much changes from this stall. Hawkers faces are still the same, occupying the exact unit.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee Stall

While my previous post was on their Fried Char Kway Teow and that is one of the secondary dishes.

It's Hokkien Prawn Mee is best advocated for its wetness and flavours. The belachan chilli that was tucked by the side is all good enough. Every plate of Hokkien Mee was cooked by order.

A lime is given by the side for diners to squeeze the juice out and sprinkle on top of the Prawn Mee to add to taste! Served with the "Wu Ba Ye" at the base, adding some fragrance to our meal. The portion may be little for some and you may want to consider a bigger one!

Fried hokkien Prawn Mee - $3.50

While they are just not only the stall selling fried Hokkien Mee,  I would say that their competitor is doing quite well too. In terms of taste and flavour, I would say both of them are of different style of cooking, distinctively. If you like the modern taste with Opal leaf, this stall would most probably fit the bill.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee 烏岜葉福建炒蝦麺
Location: Ayer Rajah Food Centre, 503 West Coast Drive, #01-47 Singapore 120503

Yoshimaru

It had been ages since I last visited Holland Village and I was rather surprised to see a number of new restaurants. One of them was Yoshimaru ramen bar, I thought it would be very nice to experience enjoying a hot slurping bowl of ramen by the bar counters.

Yoshimaru ramen bar

At a closer look into the restaurant, their settings was not the typical Japanese settings which I had seen in the malls, thus it brings more curiosity in me and we decided to give it a try.

Exterior Environment

The walkway into the restaurant was rather narrow, perhaps just enough for a person to walk.

Restaurant

 It was divided into sections, with bars on the right and the normal dining tables on the left. Their walls were all decorated with white bowls.

Bar counter

Yoshimaru is known for its traditional Japanese Hakata Ramen and after ordering from the friendly servers we were given a earthern stick to grind the roasted sesame into powder then add on to the bowl of ramen.

Roasted Sesame

Hakata ramen is a thin and springy type of ramen, served in Tonkotsu (pork bone) soup that has been simmered for 13 hours. Their noodles are made in Singapore using authentic Japanese methods to ensure its quality.

Traditional Hakata Ramen - $11

 The soft char siewslices have a good balance of lean and fat. Yummy!

Char Siew

One can opt for the spicy version of Tonkotsu ramen or the original. We had skipped the spicy version as we wanted to have a taste of the original. Similarly, I would say that the bowl of ramen was "oiishi" (delicious in Japanese). Though it was miso soup base, the taste was not overpowering.

Original Miso Ramen - $12

It was quite interesting to find mini burgers on the menu. In order to try out all flavours, I ordered the freshly toasted mini burgers combination platter. 

Mini Burger Combo - $8.80

All burgers are in mini versions and were halves, though they were mini, the stacks of ingredients that was stuffed inbetween were still too big to have them down into my stomach in a bite.

The Mini chicken burger comes with mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger

Mini Japanese Spicy Brasied Pork Burger tasted sweet and though it was indicated as spicy, I couldnt taste a bit of spice.

Spicy Char Siu Karamiso Burger

Mini Mentaiko  (Salted Pollock ROe)  which consists of mayo prawn with burger.

Mentaiko Ebi Mayo Burger

To enjoy authentic Hataka Ramen, do head down to Yoshimaru and have a taste of it!

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar
Location: 31 Lorong Liput  Holland Village Singapore 277742