The title of this post was how I stupidly read the sign of the ramen place I visited today. FINALLY HAD SOME FREE TIME TO DO SOMETHING INSTEAD OF JUST WORKING. Yes, my life has been absolutely packed, but boring, because all I've been doing is working - sleeping - working - sleeping - working with nothing in between! I just got home after a harrowing shift and picking up my brother from the airport!
Anyway!! Ramen! So 8 Days has been having this promo coupon in their magazine or something that gives you 1-for-1 ramen at Ramen Santouka's new branch over at Cuppage Terrace (behind Centrepoint - yeah, I didn't really know that area existed until recently either). Being totally Singaporean (hello, discounts!), I jumped at the chance to use the coupon (offer ends tomorrow, so I'd better use it today, yes?). Plus who doesn't love a nice bowl of Hokkaido ramen once in a while?
This is the place! We sat outside because it was so crowded - a 30-45 minute wait for an indoor seat, WHAAAAT.
It's not a bad area. Sitting there kind of felt like we weren't in Singapore anymore because it's pretty much away from the hustle and bustle you normally get when you dine in town. It's so much quieter and surprisingly cool despite it being a generally humid day, as always! Though the weather today wasn't as unforgiving as it's been the past few days, SO THANK YOU GOD. I really hope this hot(ter) spell of weather goes away soon.
The discount was only applicable for the $19.50++ bowl of Tokusen Toroniku (Choice Pork) Ramen, so I ordered the Miso base, while my friend had Shoyu. I don't like Shoyu though, it's normally saltier and I prefer the thicker Miso soup. The description said it was "roasted pork cheeks" and all I could think of was... which cheeks? D: I know, I'm dumb, but hey I don't cook/buy pork at supermarkets, so I really had no idea. I still don't! I added an egg for another dollar, which was kind of ~extravagant for an egg, I think. So that made it $20.50++, and thus I expected a lot. When the dish came, I wasn't too disappointed...
SO MUCH FOOD! At least they're pretty generous.
On the left is a plate of the infamous "roasted pork cheeks" that apparently melt in your mouth, yummy bamboo shoots, some japanese pickles and spring onions. My $1 egg on top and the noodles with miso on the right. My thoughts? The pork was WAYYY salty. Sure, it melted in your mouth, but there was so much fat! And I don't like fat, even though Japanese people seem to LOVE it on their meat, so I'd cut it out, which kind of defeats the purpose. I guess I was supposed to dump all the toppings onto the noodles, but I ate it separately instead. The soup was nice though, but a little oily. The egg was the normal ramen egg.
I kind of felt that it was a little costly for normal-ish ramen though. Everyone was pumping it up to be this AWESOMEOMGOMG ramen place with mindblowingly good pork and whatever, so I guess I was a little disappointed when I ate it and it wasn't that great. My favourite ramen place so far will still be the Yoshimaru Ramen Bar at Holland Village. It was pretty cheap at around $12, and it was SO good, I ate EVERYTHING, even the noodles. And I never finish the noodles. In fact, I only drank the soup and ate the ingredients in Santouka. To each his own, I suppose!!
CASE IN POINT - mine (on the left), my friends' (on the right). I just can't finish the noodles!
One good thing about this place is the relatively cheap side dishes ($4 for a plate of chahan/fried rice!) and the fact that they seem to be very liberal with coupons!! My friends and I got a bunch of free drink/egg 'delicacy' (lol it's just an egg, no matter how fancy you try to make it sound) coupons, so I guess I'll be using that sometime soon! I'd hate to waste a good bargain.