I brought the Lady shopping for a brand new tennis racket one day and we ended up at IMM, more than halfway across the island for her. Now, in IMM is one Cha Chan Ting that I actually don't mind patronising, and that's the Wan Zai located outside Daiso on level 4.
The place has no real shop of its own and as such is just plonked right outside Daiso. It can be pretty crammed when there's many people, and service can be a little slow too depending on your orders, but the menu is extensive and interesting.
I ordered a hot Yuan Yang for myself and a cold one for her. On that day the quality was a little off. There wasn't much coffee richness and was a little too dilute to me. The Lady's cold version was a nice surprise with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top, making it creamier on the whole.
Having had the Portuguese Curry Baked Rice on my previous visit (a must-try), i decided to go for something different, namely the Beef Brisket Noodles. Noodles were of the wanton mee HK noodle variety. The gravy was simple and non pretentious but flavoured the noodles sufficiently. Beef pieces were large and fatty, much to my liking, and the braised beef flavour was strong and tasty. However, some pieces were quite tough which detracted a few points from this dish. The Lady chose and chose and finally ordered the Chicken And Mushroom Baked Rice. The rice was flavoured and savoury, and went well with the brown gravy. Mushrooms were non descript, but it was the chicken that stole the show. One huge chicken leg, baked to a nice crispiness outside, with juicy and tender meat inside. Although some parts were tougher, but overall the chicken really held the dish together. It was really tasty and was further complemented by the brown gravy which had a little BBQ and teriyaki flavours.
Food: A cha chan ting that actually meets my standards. Some dishes may fall short but the baked rices generally do not disappoint
Cost: 8/10 pretty okay for a cha chan ting.
Location: 4/10 IMM is very much out of the way for most people
Ambience: not really suitable for a long meal and chat... feels more like a rushed kopitiam than a cha chan ting actually
Address: Level 4 IMM outside Daiso
食神 twirled chopsticks @ 8/17/2009 01:05:00 AM |
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Gindaco Takoyaki
I love takoyaki, those cute dough balls with a piece of bouncy octopus inside, but Takopachi just can't make the mark. Then I heard that ION basement 4 has a new takoyaki stall drawing the crowds everyday, and so...you know what happened. The queue was long even for a weekday afternoon, and the cashier was darn slow for unknown reasons, but after some 5 mins or so of watching the Japanese dude flipping the takoyaki and twirling the serving plates, I got to place my order. 6 takoyakis come for $4.80, which works out to be around the same as Takopachi. They come really fresh and hot, with takoyaki sauce, a little mayo and katsuoboshi on top. Each one measures about 3.5 to 4cm in diameter and will seriously burn your mouth should you stuff one in immediately.
Biting through the crispy outer layer, I am assaulted by wafting aromas of pickled red ginger and its piquant taste mixed in the gooey dough with pieces of fresh spring onion as well as the occasional poor resistance provided by the tenkasu (small tempura flour fried bits). It was already enjoyable and then came the octopus. Large and chewy, a very nice contrast of texture to the rest of the takoyaki, not to mention the fresh taste of it. Very irresistable and impressive. I'm craving it again just by blogging about this.
Food: Excellent must-try takoyaki. The matcha is really thick bitter and authentic too.
Cost: 9/10 Yes it is rather costly but really worth the money
Location: 10/10 ION orchard, easy enough
Ambience: None to speak of. Do queues count? If you come on weekends, prepare to wait long long
Address: basement 4 ION Orchard
食神 twirled chopsticks @ 8/17/2009 12:39:00 AM |
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Yoshimaru Ramen Bar
Seems like many of the Japanese ramen chains are opening franchises here one by one. Yoshimaru from Hakata, Kyushu, opened one some time ago at Holland Village, piqueing my interest. Ramen has always been a comfort food for me, and on the first day of school reopening, I managed to get two friends to accompany me to check out this new joint.
Yoshimaru's ramen are all based on their tonkotsu soup and thin Hakata style ramen, and offer a variety of standard ramen toppings including chashu, egg, seaweed and the works. The restaurant itself was decorated in a modern style traditional ramen bar manner, with Ayumi Hamasaki's concert DVD playing on a few flat screen TVs in bright lighting. We made our order fast and the food came pretty quickly also, maybe because there was only one other table occupied. Before that however, three cute "bowls" of sesame seeds came, ready for grating and scattering the freshly ground sesame seeds onto our bowls of noodles later. Something new, but i must stress that freshly ground sesame seeds cannot save a poor bowl of ramen.
I got the Pork Shabu Shabu Ramen ($14). Ramen came in a medium sized bowl topped with leek and dou miao and two halves of gooey egg. It looked like a promising meal to me. As usual, I tasted the soup first. The base was salty enough, but what was lacking was the full flavour and creaminess of tonkotsu. I just couldn't get much taste out of it. Noodles was pretty fine with a slightly chewy texture. The pork disappointed me however, with a rather bland taste and stringy texture, a little like overcooked lean pork in steamboats. At least the egg was very tasty. I do not know how Yoshimaru does it but the gooey egg yolk was very flavourful too, an eggy creaminess layered with the savoury taste of its stewing. Egg white was soft and crumbles beautifully with the same tastiness as the yolk.
SP decided on the Beef Shabu Shabu Ramen ($14). Pretty the same as mine, with seaweed for toppings instead of leek and dou miao. Interestingly, her beef was pretty good. It was lean but somewhat tender and tasty, suggesting some cooking in a broth beforehand. I'll take this over mine. I ordered a plate of chicken gyoza ($6) to share as well. Gyoza skin wasn't thick but wasn't thin either, so it was a little chewy which put it very much behind Ohsho's. The fillings were fine but minced chicken just cannot hit the same spot as pork.
Food: Mediocre ramen. For the same price after ++, I'd settle for Ken's noodle house or Miharu.
Cost: 6.5/10 normal ramen pricing, but the food just doesn't make the mark to be of that value
Location: 6.5/10 Holland Village
Ambience: If you don't like Ayumi, you best stay away. Otherwise, the lighting and seats are all rather comfortable, but the place is overrun with PRCs who have trouble with english.