Was recently invited to a tasting session at Marukin Ramen Tokyo located at B1 of Scotts Square. First outlet in Singapore, and Marukin Ramen here favours the chicken broth for its ramen soup over the more typical pork-based ones. Not only that, there are four variations of chicken broth (Shoyu Chicken White Soup, Shio Chicken White Soup, Miso ChickenWhite Soup and the Shoyu Chicken Clear Soup) available for diners to choose from.
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| shop front |
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| typical table setting |
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| noodles menu |
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| side dish menu |
Started the night with a sampling of side-dishes. Hiyayakko, a plate of refreshingly chilled tofu with a hint of mild spicyness (from ginger flakes as well as chilli soy sauce). A light and healthy starter.
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| Hiyayakko (chilled tofu witth chilli soy sauce) |
Then we had the Marukin Potato Salad, which I thought it looked rather cute.
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| Marukin Potato Salad |
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| doesn't this resemble something cute? (imagine broad beans for its ears and cherry tomato for its nose) |
The potato salad is a mixture of texture of mashed and potato cubes. This is a pretty light tasting potato salad.
Then we had the deep fried vegetables in dashi broth. Colourful dish. It has tomatoes, baby potatoes, brinjal, and bell pepper and pumpkin slices.
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| deep fried vegetables in dashi broth |
The bell peppers were soft and absorbed much of the yummy dashi. But the pumpkin slices weren't as soft as I thought it would be.
Another deep fried item was the tori karaage. Small chunks of deep fried chicken, I like! The meat was really juicy and tender.
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| karaage |
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| juicy chicken karaage |
Also sampled the Marukin Gyoza. Small parcels of minced chicken meat wrapped in chewy skin.
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| Marukin Gyoza |
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| small filling of minced chicken meat |
How about the ramen? The chicken broth? First ramen to land on our table (and subsequently in our tummies), was the Tsukemen or dipping noodles.
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| Tsukemen |
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| closer view of the chicken chashu, nitamago and kikurage mushrooms |
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| thick noodles, chewy that's cooked just right |
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| Tsukemen in tasting portion |
Eating the tsukemen was rather fun. The warm collageny dipping broth was thick and coats the noodles with a luscious sheen. The dipping broth really made an impression with its strong rich flavours that reminds you of chicken drippings. Tasty. A few chews of the noodles and off it slids down the throat, almost effortlessly. But beware of the broth flying off in all directions as you slurped it up!
Next, the dish is what most will call the
'what-also-have' dish; the spicy ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen which we sampled in shoyu white based soup. It was nice to have the chilies served separately, so diners could have the option to control the spicyness level of their own bowl. So thoughtful.
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| Shoyu ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen, served with a separate side of chilies |
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| closer look of chilies |
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| Nitamago, chicken meatballs, shrimp wanton, chicken wing, chicken chashu, kikurage mushrooms, seaweed |
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| thick noodles |
Shoyu Chicken White soup was generally soothing and does not overpowers the taste of the rest of the items in this dish.
Next, was the Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen that has generous portions of seaweed, corn, kikurage mushrooms and green onions. Was pretty amazed by the very thin strands of ramen noodles. These ultrafine ramen noodles are produced by Marukin's in-house Soul-Men (somen) Restaurant and noodle factory in Japan.
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| Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen, with thin ramen |
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| closer view |
For the finale, we sampled the (Spicy) Negi-Negi Miso Ramen but somehow that plate of chili was missing, so the only 'spiciness' for this dish came from the onions instead. Liked the comforting taste of miso.
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| Negi-Negi Miso Ramen |
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| close-up |
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| nice thick noodles with a bite |
Thanks to Head Chef Tetsuya Tsuyuki (Marukin Ramen Singapore) who crafted all these wonderful flavours.
Personally, I liked the Tsukemen, thick noodles with egg and miso chicken white soup. For sides, the karaage if you're a meat lover and the deep fried vegetables in dashi for novelty.
On a side note, the Tsukemen's dipping broth has very strong flavours so you may wish to have it last if the intention is to share two bowls of ramen; say for example the Miso ISSAI-GASSAI and the Tsukemen in the same sitting. But of course, it's up to your personal preferrence.Gosh, I do sound naggy!
And since you, my dear reader has managed to sit through this lengthy post, here's a bit of a good news courtesy of Marukin Ramen. For the month of
August 2012, just say "
Marukin Ramen! OISHII!" when you order a main and you'll get a
FREE side of the
Deep Fried Vegetables in Dashi Broth! Hurry!
For other promotions, you may wish to visit their
website.
Thank you Athena and Ashley for the invites.
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