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2013-01-12
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Two of my friends wanted to take the Ramen Monster Challenge where they would have to polish off all the ramen & soup in a giant bowl in double quick time to be refunded the price paid in the form of vouchers for the next visit. It took some effort to locate this nondescript shop on the ground floor of Novena Square & the limited/poor signposting was not much help. The restaurant is quite small with an open concept, small tables & rather uncomfortable seating designed to discourage lingering aft
after the meal. Here is a Japanese restaurant where nobody greets you when you step in or leave after your meal. There is no wall menu or anything on the tables & we figured we had to order at the counter which was staffed by a dour obasan with shoulder length wavy hair. When enquiring about the ramen challenge she pointed to a big empty bowl above an ice cream counter and said "equal to three normal bowls". The two guys went for the huge bowl ($20.90 nett) while the rest of us ordered regular portions which were priced between $8.90 and $12.90 each. Ok we can accept the nonchalant service if there's no service charge & GST on the listed menu prices ;-). Add $2 for self service free flow of iced lemon tea or hot green tea.
The colourful wall mural made up for the rather expressionless staff & we oogled at the wall of fame featuring glossy polaroid shots of those who proved themselves to be ramen monsters, grinning cheesily witheir vouchers & empty bowls.
Our ramen took about 15 minutes to arrive. Their regular portions are smaller than the bowls served at Ajisen, Menya or Kazokutei, so if you're able to eat fast, slurp soup quickly & coming with a growling stomach, the ramen challenge is perfectly doable, as the happy faces on the wall of fame have proven. So who says there is no free lunch in SG for non-China nationals ;-). My two friends did it, while the rest of us took our time to do justice to the ramen which was very delicious. The ramen here is less Q & chewy than that served at Ajisen, it was nice that we had a choice of regular fatty chasiu or lean chasiu, both versions were void of any awful colouring & were meaty without any porky aftertaste. The soup was creamy without being greasy and the
fact that I slurped up every drop is proof of its tastiness - as I usually eat the noodles, have only a few spoonfuls of soup (unless it is laksa gravy) & abandon the rest. The only other place where I finish till the last drop the soup that comes with the noodles is at a beef noodle hawker stall (Hainan Xing Zhou Beef Noodles). Even some of the tasty prawn osup at Beach Road Prawn Noodles Shop gets left behind. While all of us did not waste a single drop.of Ramen Monster's soup, the real test came after the meal: none of us felt thirsty indicating that the soup was free of any MSG & it was pure goodness without any short cuts.I am seriously considering doing the ramen monster during my next visit; I can easily pack the ramen soup if If I fail the challenge.
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