Monday, January 16, 2012

Ramen redux

I have written about eating ramen in Singapore in a previous post. Since then, we have experienced different variations of our favorite noodles from the different regions of Japan from what we take as authentic versions given the way they are prepared and served in Singapore. It is just quite ironic that I can only post on the experiences of eating ramen from the more recent lunches and dinners in Singapore instead of my first-hand experiences more than a decade ago in Japan. The latter experiences are definitely delightful and I was able to sample ramen while dining in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and other cities I have visited particularly during my 3-year studies from 1996-1999. I have none or lost (due to the Ketsana flood) all photos from those times and so try to relive some of the memories with more recent ones that I could associate with those.

The Clairvoyant and I had the chance to dine again at Men-ichi Japanese Ramen restaurant at the NEX mall at Serangoon last Thursday. We decided to have a light dinner prior to our watching "Sherlock Holmes" at the Shaw Theaters at NEX and easily got a table at the restaurant. Instead of going for our usual char siew and wafu soup to go with our ramen, we opted for chicken ramen and katsu set.

Chicken ramen at Men-ichi

Chicken katsu to go with the ramen

The breaded chicken was fried just right and was not at all oily. The katsu sauce (Bulldog?) went very well as may be expected with chicken. Some people will pour their sauce over katsu but I prefer to squeeze the juice out of the slice of lemon over the katsu and use the sauce for dipping instead. The thinly sliced cabbage complemented the ramen and the chicken katsu.

We definitely enjoy our meals at Men-ichi and will be back for more of their ramen. Perhaps we will try another of the items on their menu the next time and we're sure we won't be disappointed.
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