What do you eat on a rainy day in Singapore? Something hot and soupy...like Ramen! So off we went to Shin-Sapporo Ramen and although it has 'Sapporo' in the name, they serve 3 types of ramen: Hokkaido, Hakata and Shoyu (mainly associated with Tokyo). With these 3 types of ramens, there are also 3 types of noodles served together with the different soup bases.

One thing that I did notice while waiting for my food is this jar of fried garlic chips! This is one of the few ramen stores that I know that provide this. Mind you...I had a lot of time to check out all their condiments because the food came about 15-20 minutes later and oddly enough, not all at the same time.

Dad ordered the Agedashi Tofu (S$6.80++) and it's everything that you'd expect from an Agedashi Tofu. The waitress had 'warned' us that it would come later than our noodles but it came at the same time as my dad's Chashu Ramen (S$14.80++).

I ordered the value set (S$16.80++) which comes with a choice of a mini-ramen and a mini-don. So, I chose the kara-miso ramen (as seen above), which is the spicy miso soup base with the thicker and harder noodles that originated from Hokkaido. The soup was really thick and rich. I also liked the thicker noodles that have more bite compared to other types of ramen. The restaurant recommends adding butter (S$1.50++) to make it taste even better but honestly, the price of the butter is a turn off and I think that the soup is thick enough to not want to add more fat in it. If you're really hungry, you can top up with S$5++ to change this half-sized ramen to the regular size one. Main gripe would be that the soup could've been served at a higher temperature. In terms of consistent quality, I still prefer Menya Musashi.

As for the choice of rice, I went for the Oyako-don. The egg was too undercooked and I had to send it back to the kitchen to cook it a little more. The onions weren't very cooked either. That said, the flavour of the egg mixture was pretty good and there was enough sauce to soak the rice with. The rice itself isn't very fragrant and it's obvious that it's not top quality Japanese rice but one cannot complain when the whole set is only S$16.80++ (comes with tea).

I have yet to try their Hakata Tonkotsu ramen so I can't comment on how it stacks up against Ippudo but for the price, I think that Shin-Sapporo is really not too bad!

So...Japan Foods Holdings decided to revamp the Champon restaurant at Raffles City Tower basement to "Osaka Ohsho" - the king of gyoza.  Good strategy because it keeps people interested in the place while the parent company brings in yet another 'heavyweight' from Japan. Decided to try the place out since gyoza is supposed to be their specialty.

Ordered their smaller ramen lunch set ($9.90++) which has 3 pieces of gyoza, a bowl of ramen and a choice of hot or cold houcha (tea).  I honestly don't get some of their lunch sets because they're exactly the same price as stated in their 'normal' menu...so what makes them so special?

Don't be fooled by the plastic gyoza on display.  The real thing is about 3/4 the size of those plastic models.  But of course, the taste of them gyoza isn't plastic.  I liked that the gyoza was not fried in tons of oil so it wasn't oily but yet the crispy side was crispy without being dry.  Because of the lack of oil, these morsels of pork dumplings do tend to stick to each other but who cares when you've got a spoon to use as leverage and the whole plate is yours.  Haha!  What I found slightly weird was that the vinegar had soya sauce added and wasn't sour enough.  I like my vinegar sour and pure, thank you very much.

The ramen is quite ok too but it reminded me of the instant ramen that I bought and cooked for myself when I was a poor student in Japan on a summer programme.  The char siew in the ramen was tender and not disappointing.

If you want to just eat gyoza, you can choose from 6pc or 12pc to share.  However, they have A LOT of sets to choose from, most of them having a side of gyoza.  They're not very expensive at $3.90++ for 3 pieces.  The taste is definitely better than buying those frozen gyozas and cooking them at home.

I found it so interesting that the taste of the fare in "Osaka Ohsho" is how Chinese food in Japan is like but to the normal person on the street, this probably tastes Japanese.  Weird that it's being imported back to Singaporeans who are used to a more authentic Chinese taste.  But then "Osaka Ohsho" sells itself as Japanese, with the name proudly stating 「和食処」 (meaning place for Japanese food).  Well, I guess it's the exoticism of Japan which sells, in this case. 

Osaka Ohsho
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-75 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Singapore 179103
Website:  http://www.osakaohsho.com.sg

Lurking in a corner on the 3rd floor of Parco Millenia Walk is a gem of a ramen place called Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo.

 I love bean sprouts! Especially when it comes in a nice tub for you to eat as much as you want! You can also ask for bonito flakes for toppings. これだけ食べ放題。。。

The main draw of Keisuke Tokyo is their famous dish - Crab Soup Ramen ($15.90++ with egg, $13.90++ w/o egg).  I LOVE this ramen so much that I will always order this whenever I'm at Keisuke Tokyo.  Nothing else on their menu is as drool-worthy. There's no crab meat but it comes with 2 slices of really tender Japanese style char siew and bamboo slices.

The stock is thick and is made from lots of prawns and a bit of crab, giving it that lovely lobster bisque-like flavour.  The noodles aren't the usual thin ones but is more like the thicker ones that we associate with lor mee, which adds a certain bite in an otherwise all round 'soft' dish.  This comes with the optional grated ginger for those who think that it's too heavy on the prawn flavour.  I, of course, detest ginger so none of that for me.

Another thing that I love about Keisuke Ramen is that you get to sorta customise your ramen:

• Soup: light/ normal/ salty
• Noodles: hard/ normal/ soft
• NO spring onions/ bamboo/ seaweed

This place is a MUST-TRY for ramen lovers in Singapore and although it is slightly pricey, I think it's on the same level as Ippudou so it's ok to treat yourself to some quality ramen from time to time!  ;)

It's rather crowded during lunch regardless whether it's a weekday or weekend but they're less crowded during dinner on weekdays.  I've yet to go there on a weekend dinner so do let me know if it's crowded!

Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo
9 Raffles Boulevard
#P3-02 Millenia Walk
Tel: 63377919

Went to this new restaurant called "Menya Kaiko" at Marina Bay Financial Centre, Tower 3.  This is a new branch (the other one is at ION Orchard) and my bro and I decided to try it since there weren't a lot of other food places open on a Sunday.  First impression was that this was quite a snazzy place with modern jazz played in the background.  Ramen has definitely moved from being a cheap roadside yadai meal to restaurant status.

They were having a promotion on their set meals so my bro ordered the salmon teriyaki set (S$20++) with red miso half-ramen (half the usual portion).  No complaints from him and he liked the ramen although he couldn't understand why anyone would want to eat noodles AND rice in the same meal.  Very typical Japanese to do so, actually.  I took a bite of his salmon. It was so-so.  The soup was really tasty and thick - Hokkaido style.

I ordered the Tonkatsu set with white miso  set ($25++) and I really liked the soup base which didn't taste as salty as the red miso soup but still had that thick flavour that's distinct of Hokkaido ramen.  I liked that you could order a less salty version of their soups too! The typical Japanese salad dressing was light and refreshing, which was paired nicely with the thick salty ramen.  Ok, now that we've covered the good...lemme get onto the not-so-good.  My tonkatsu was dry and tough. Disappointed.  The rice for the onigiri wasn't fragrant and was not as sticky as it should be.  I know, I know...it's NOT rice from Japan..prolly California rice but...you know...and I would've appreciated it if they wrapped the seaweed just before the onigiri was served so that it doesn't become too soggy.

Go there now if you have a DBS card so that you'll get the $5 return voucher. Go for their ramen (except the tonkatsu) and the char siew is really quite soft so that's another plus point.  Would I go again? Yup, but only for their ramen.

Men-ya Kaiko
2 Marina Boulevard
Ground Floor (it's so new that the address isn't on the web)
Marina Bay Financial Centre, Tower 3

2 Orchard Turn

#B4-52/53 ION Orchard

Tel: 65098150

I'm soooo happy that Ippudou is in Singapore!! The first time that I went to Ippudou was in Fukuoka, Japan which is where Ippudou originated as the noodles are the typical Tonkotsu Hakata ramen. See the words in red next to the black 'Ippudou' kanji? That reads as 'Hakata', which is an area in the Fukuoka prefecture.

My family and I queued for almost 40 minutes before we were seated so I highly recommend going there early.

Below...my Shirotamago ramen, which is the original Hakata ramen with slices of pork, black fungus, egg and a few slices of preserved ginger.


The flavour is as good as I remembered it to be. Thick and you can taste the wonderful pork broth. Solid stuff! Quite unlike most of the crap *cough* Aji *cough* sen *cough* that's out there.
Dad ordered the Akatamago ramen which is similar to mine except that it comes with a dollop of red miso paste. The soup thus is more robust and has a another layer of miso flavour.

We thoroughly enjoyed our ramen! We also ordered a plate of gyoza (6 small pieces) and we gobbled it up as we were sooo hungry (duh...queuing for 40 minutes does that to you). Not very exciting. I wouldn't recommend ordering it. Mel Li texted me and said that the side dishes were disappointing so the conclusion is - order the ramen, skip the side dishes.


I like the wall of manga in the store. On the left is the manga in Japanese while on the right, the manga is in Mandarin! The manga was about the Japanese way of asking for another serving of noodles, called "Kaedama" and of course, it was plugging how delicious Ippudou's ramen were. Haha...cute! Above photo only shows the Mandarin version as I was sitting right in front of it. :)

Something very stupid happened. My bro and father ordered a pot of green tea at $6. When they finished it, my bro asked the waiter for hot water to refill the pot. The waiter then replied, "Sorry, we don't do refills here." -__-; Excuse me...its just HOT WATER. So, I asked another waiter for a glass of hot water (free) to which my bro promptly poured into the pot. Voila! Hot green tea. -__-;; Charging $6 for a pot of tea and not refilling it, is ridiculous. Major turn off to my bro who said that he's not coming back as its not worth queuing for so long and then not having simple service such as tea refill.

As for me...I like Ippudou too much....LOL. I just wished that they didn't try to make it so upmarket and stick to that casual ambience just like in Japan. Perhaps, its posh location is the reason for Ippudou Singapore to be posh as well. Nevertheless, the ramen priced at $15-$17 is still reasonable!!

I say, go there at least once to taste how REAL tonkotsu ramen ought to taste like. :)

Address: 333A Orchard Road
#04-02/03/04
Mandarin Gallery

Website (Japanese): www.ippudou.co.jp

Collagen in coffee? Apparently, that is possible.

Nescafe follows the current collagen fad and adds collagen into its 3-in-1 coffee mix. Managed to get a sample (love this try-vertising concept) and verdict is: not very exciting.

Haha..how can coffee be THAT exciting right? Well...it tastes normal. Do I believe that consumption of collagen is beneficial to the skin? Not really. Its a protein (do correct me if I'm wrong) and over consumption of it will mean that you'll convert it into fat. If your skin gets better from downing collagen pills/ drinks...it might mean that you're not consuming enough proteins. No harm in eating it for sure. Unless you're allergic to seafood. The collagen used in these drinks are normally from fish. What sort? No idea. As such, you better avoid it if you're allergic to particular types of fish.

Another source of collagen that I love is from Tonkotsu ramen! I'm sooo happy that Ippudou is going to open in Singapore in October! YAY. The second time I went to Fukuoka, I made my friends bring me to Ippudou and we reached the restaurant at 11am and there was already a queue. Amazing but yes, it was GOOD.

I think I eat lots of collagen whenever my mum cooks pork trotters babi ponteh style (you Babas and Nonyas will know). Mmm...yumm....