Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen @ Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City

Have you tried Tsukemen (つけ麺) or dipping noodles before? The basic ingredients are pretty similar to ramen; ie. noodles, toppings and hot broth. Probably like a deconstructed version where the noodles are served separate from the now thicker broth, and the way to eat it is to dip the cold noodles into the hot thick broth before slurping it up. Sounds familiar? Yep, much like eating cold soba!

You may have heard of the legendary Mr Kazuo Yamagishi (Taishoken - Higashi Ikebukuro), the inventor of tsukemen. Now, one of his disciples, Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa was recently in town to introduce Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen.

From right to left: Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa and Mr Koji Yahata

Jyoshoken (常勝軒) Seasonal Special Tsukemen, crafted by Chef Hideyuki Nakagawa using freshly made noodles and broth made from pork and fish. Was invited to the tasting session at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and thus, had the opportunity to sample this special dish.

Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen

closer look of the noodles and toppings

hot dipping broth (boiled from pork and fish)

The egg noodles were thick and cooked just right, chewy with bouncy and springy texture. I was seated amongst native Japanese, so the guys were dipping the cold noodles into the hot broth and was slurping them up quickly while making "zuuzuuzuuzuuu" sounds. I tried to do the same and ended up splattering some sauce on my shirt. Ha ha! What was I thinking? -_-'

chewy and springy well cooked noodles

The dipping broth was concentrated, rich and very strongly flavoured. There were lots of menma (or bamboo shoots), spring onions and a slice of narutomaki (fish cake) in the bowl. Be patient for those who wants to drink up the broth. Now is not the time, yet.

The Special Tsukemen char shiu toppings was from three different cuts; Pork loin, pork belly and back of neck. The loin char shiu was far too lean for my liking, hence it didn't have the melt-in-your-mouth texture. The meat from the back of neck was tender but with a little bite at the same time. The roasted sesame added extra fragrance to the clean tasting meat. Nice. Liked the belly part lots, as it was the most tender out of the three. Yums.

pork belly and back of neck

pork loin

The ramen egg or ajitsuke tamago was almost perfect. Somehow, couldn't quite taste the seasoning in the perfectly textured yolk. Ate the egg last, so perhaps it was overshadowed by the strong taste of the dipping broth that lingered on the tastebuds.

ramen egg

After finishing the noodles, do request for the hot dashi (made from clear mushroom stock) to pour into the dipping broth to dilute it before enjoying it as soup. The dashi stock was unseasoned and has moderately strong mushroom fragrance.

dashi to pour into dipping broth

Jyoshoken Seasonal Special Tsukemen will be available at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and Robertson Quay from now onwards till end of December 2012 (or until further notice). Priced at $16.80++ at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City and $14.80++ at Robertson Quay.

Zaseki - tatami styled rooms at Ebisboshi Shotengai Great World City

various sake on display

Here are Jyoshoken locations details:

Ebisboshi Shotengai
1 Kim Seng Promenade, Great World City
#01-22 Singapore 237994
Tel/Fax: 62356190

Daikokuya (Jyoshoken's full menu is available here)
30 Robertson Quay, #01-05 Riverside Village Residences,
Singapore 238251
Tel: 67371521


Special thanks to Prue, Mr Koji Yahata and Darren, from Komars Group for the invitation to this tasting session.

Chong Tian Seafood Restaurant @ Taman Bukit Mewah

Located at Taman Bukit Mewah, we went to this eatery for dinner when we were at Kajang last week. If not wrong, during the day this place has other smaller stalls hawking wanton/pork noodles, perhaps chicken rice or char kway teow.. but come 5pm, the seafood restaurant starts their daily operation. Think Chinese, think red coloured tablecloths.

shop's signboard

dinner time

Staff were pretty friendly, and conversations in Cantonese is predominant here. Our group of 8 pax ordered two plates of noodles, fried chicken wings, a pork dish, a vege dish and a tofu dish. Told the person who took our orders to make the pork dish small while the rest, enough to feed all of us.

iron buddha (铁观音) tea

While waiting for the food, we sipped tea. Then, someone brought us a large bowl of soup. "Free." She smiled. Oooh, free soup. Nice.

dried vegetable (boiled with chicken) soup

 Soup was soothing especially on a cool evening, right after the rain. Drank a couple of small bowls of this!

common to see patrons piling up minced garlic and chili padi for dip

The noodles arrived first. Ying Yong or also known as Cantonese fried noodles. It's a mixture of wok fried kway teow and deep fried bee hoon, generously topped with sauce that has pork slices, sliced fish cakes and vegetables. Sometimes, it has a bit of seafood.

I'm a Hokkien, and according to how my dad has been cooking his stuffs, Hokkien people do seem to have a liking for strong flavours and soy sauce.

ying yong (cantonese char)

black noodles (hokkien char)

The Ying Yong's kway teow has that wok fire taste and the bee hoon was deep fried to a crisp, but the kway teow tend to get stuck together when cold. So, advisable to attack this dish right after its served! The black noodles was well fried but not much of ingredients in this dish. Best eaten with a little sambal belachan but unfortunately, the belachan here was a bit lacking in taste.

sambal belachan

Next, we had the 炸肉 or zhar bak in Hokkien, which literally translated means fried pork?

zhar bak

braised dish of black fungus and deep fried pork

The zhar bak dish was ordered by my dad. His other favourite dish is the braised yam with pork (芋头扣肉). This zhar bak dish was quite nice. The pork was nicely soft, not too fatty with sauce infused in it. Tasty. The black fungus was too soft but still likeable. The sauce goes well with steamed rice.

tofu in thai style

small tofu cubes

egg tofu

The small cubes of egg tofu was dressed in thai style kind of dressing of julienned onions, cucumber and drizzled with sweet sour chili sauce.

fried chicken wings

The chicken wing was alright, with crispy outside and still juicy inside. Could do with a bit more seasoning though.

yums

Didn't capture the vege dish as everyone was busy tucking in to the food.

bill

Paid RM88.50 for this meal.

L'etoile Cafe @ Owen Road

Located somewhere near Farrer Park MRT and Novena, this is a lifestyle cafe, and a quaint place to chill. Saw patrons seated indoors comfortably doing their own thing while enjoying their drinks or snacks.

We opted to sit at the outdoor area instead.

looking from the outside

lunch board, and some old newspaper clippings

outdoor seats

 

The staff will bring you the menu (there's also the cafe menu that one can see at the counter), and one can order from the friendly service crew or right at the counter. Didn't have much time that day, so we had coffee only.

latte

my friend had this

The latte was pleasant. The biscuit that came with it, was pretty yummy.

yummy disc

La Villa @ River Valley Road (Part III)

This place is just 16 minutes from my office via bus #139. Visited again to bade "Bon Voyage" to a friend before she's being posted to Cambodia.

Happy hour from 6-8pm, so we got ourselves a prosecco rizardi (@$12++) 1-for-1. But the bubbly warmed to room temperature pretty fast, so we drank pretty quickly too! Somehow, when all the fizz went flat, the drink became a little sweeter. Hmm.

real plant on the table

As usual, there'll be complimentary bread basket while we waited for the food. The foccacia was rather compact and more dense than other places. Too bad they didn't have that lovely white roll that day.

foccacia, nutty roll and flat bread

For starters, we ordered the calamari from the Bar Bites menu. It's actually the same stuff from the main menu but in smaller portion, so the pricing is slightly lower.

deep fried calamari (@$12++)

skinny sotong, yummy sauce, appetizing greens

The calamari was not rubbery but a little skinny. The sauce was piquant and whets the appetite, with very very mild spice. Nice to have that small mound of greens along with this dish.

Our mains for the night was the La Villa Antipasto. Was too stuffed from this alone! Why? Because, it has parma ham, salami, bresaola (beef), cooked ham, duck rilletes and pickles. Think this would've made a good starter for four pax, and great to have along with wine. If only, there were some cheese on this platter...

La Villa Antipasto (@$25++)

beautiful meats

My friend doesn't take beef, so all of the bresaola went into my tummy. Not too salty, and has a distinct beefy taste.

paper thin bresaola, air dried salted beef

The duck rilletes here was interesting. Tasted pepperish, and slightly luncheon meatish kind of flavour. My friend said, probably the seasoning.

duck rilletes

duck rilletes on bread, savoury

The parma ham was good. Tender slivers, and yummy with bubbly.

parma ham goodness

Ate the antipasto with bread, so between the two of us, we polished off two bread baskets. That's like at least six pieces of bread each. Wow. If the taste got too heavy after a while, alternate it with the pickled items; the black olives, pearl onions and gherkins. The olives was quite salty, but tasted nice with a sip of wine.

pitted black olives

pearl onions and gherkins

Already feeling full after breads and antipasto, but we ordered a dessert to try. Ordered the pannacotta, and my friend had the earl grey tea (by cup only).

earl grey tea (@$6++)

pannacotta with strawberry coulis (@$14++)

(trying to be) arty shot

The pannacotta was pretty looking. The texture of the pannacotta was smooth and creamy, but denser than tau-huay (not as wobbly). Tangy and not too sweet.

with passionfruit sauce

denser than tofu

Service, as usual, was courteous and friendly.

The $2.50 parking rebate and 15% discount when paying via Standard Chartered credit card promotion, is still on-going.

Here are the links to visit1, and visit2.