Visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/10/tonkotsu-itto-undeserving-heir-to.html for full review with photos!

Upon receiving my bowl of ramen, I took a deep breath and immediately liked the heavy pork smell wafting from it –a harbinger of a thick, flavoursome broth. Never mind the shallow, concave bowl with its paltrier than usual serving size, I thought, it wouldn’t matter if the broth was as good as I hoped it’d be.

As per my ramen-eating routine, the egg was the first to go. To call it mediocre would be an insult to stalls with really mediocre eggs –this was worse than that. Just take a look at the yolk, which was almost venturing into Ajisen’s territory in providing hard-boiled egg yolks. While its somewhat adequate seasoning made it still some way from matching Ajisen’s eggs, I was still deeply disappointed in the clear lack of effort. The other stalls here may be degrading themselves and offering almost hard-boiled eggs, but the successor to the best stall to emerge from Ramen Champion shouldn’t follow suit! In any case, Tonkotsu Itto’s eggs are worse than the rest.

Although calling the noodles beehoon-thin would have been an exaggeration (albeit not a major one), I was tempted to label it as such. Its near strawlike width provided the broth with too little surface area to cling to, causing the unsurprising end result to be noodles that didn’t retain the broth’s taste. In addition, I felt that the noodles had too little bite to them and were slightly overcooked...

Go to http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/09/muso-ramen-burdensome-expectations.html for full review with photos of our trip!

Muso's broth is soy-based and made from pork bones, which is essentially the same genre as Buta God's. I admit to having felt rather skeptical at Ramen Champion's decision to bring in two stalls that bear so many similarities to each other (at least superficially). Having two shops that're so identical, thereby not adding much to the variation of Ramen Champion, this basically defeats the purpose of its main selling points -exposing Singaporeans to vastly differing styles of ramen (or so I felt).

Upon sampling the broth though, I was relieved that it didn't taste much like Buta God's. Their similar genres notwithstanding, Buta God's was predominantly sweet, while Muso's had a much clearer and heavier pork taste. It did have a hint of sweetness too, courtesy of the onions, but this had a sharp tinge to it, adding another dimension to the broth and resulting in one that had a nice mix of flavours. This coupled with the thinner broth bears another similarity to Buta God, as it doesn't try to overpower its eaters with one intense flavour alone, but instead coerces them into indulging with its subtler, lighter-tasting flavours. Unfortunately though, the broth lost some steam towards the end of the meal as it started tasting increasingly of its individual ingredients, and less a unified product of them. Consistency is an issue that many eateries struggle with, and a truly great bowl of ramen would be thoroughly enjoyable from the first sip right down to the last, instead of growing more subdued as it's consumed...

The appetizers chosen were Texas Cheese poppers, chicken crispers and southwestern egg rolls. The cheese poppers are full of flavour, but that's the thing, it's just flavour, not flavours, which makes it rather unsophisticated. It's basically just a mix of different cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) fried into a ball. For cheese lovers like myself, it's great, but taken critically as a foodie, it's mostly just cheese done right.

The egg rolls on the other hand had a mixture of ingredients, capsicums, onions, beans and the like. It was pretty good but could have been better controlled. The deep-fry paired with the dominance of black beans resulted in a mostly salty flavour. This is compensated though by its semi-thick and tasteful skin which packs a greasy-sweet and chewy flavour.

The chicken crispers were not so good. It's very reliant on the concept of tasting the original flavour as with most U.S-styled cooking, but the frozen chicken that's most probably used is unsuccessful in providing that. Instead you get a bland, mostly oil-tasting dish.

For my main dish, I ordered a classic fajita combo. That was the first time I was eating fajitas so I didn't really know what to expect. What I experienced was pretty good, but nothing too great. The dish came with chicken and beef strips that had been grilled and placed on the serving hot-plate. They are accompanied by capsicums, onions and a dash of pepper for seasoning. There was a side plate with sour-cream, guacamole dip, cheese gratings and the like to add to the mix. These are then placed by your own choice of ratio onto a flour tortilla (they provided 4).


For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/09/chilis-grill-and-barthe-central-not-as.html

The French beans used in this dish were evidently of good quality. They had a good crunch to them and tasted especially fresh. Sadly, they were put to a waste as they were a little undercooked and began to taste raw after some time in my mouth, resulting in a salad like feeling which could have been masked with more sauce and minced meat. In the end, the stingy use of minced meat made the dish feel a little cheap.Portion is not very good, making it's $9.90 price tag a little inappropriate.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/shin-yeh-bistro-taiwanese-by-word-not.html

When the ramen first arrived, I was prematurely disappointed. It was topped with the standard array of wood ear fungus, finely chopped spring onions and strands of pickled ginger, but what caused my disappointment was the broth which appeared bland and diluted. My rash judgement was quickly dispelled when I took in my first spoonful of the broth. It had a creamy flavour that was much heavier than it looked, carrying a strong and promising taste. This was unfortunate because it only took a few slurps before the abundant use of ginger became apparent.

The dense flavour of ginger tries to add a fresh, stimulating spice to each scoop and was particularly effective at masking the strong smell-the uninitiated might call stench-which is common with pork based Ramen stock. However, the feeling of freshness quickly wears off and it became too overwhelming for the broth’s basic flavour to be properly enjoyed. The broth also came with a dessertspoon-sized serving of their ‘special sauce’ which added a nice zing to the broth but was again quickly overwhelmed by the taste of ginger which proved more a distraction than a complementary item. Overall though, the broth was definitely above average and worth a try.

The noodles were nothing to be excited about. Whether they were over-boiled in water or prepared with too little strength is unknown, but it was clear that they lacked the tension and resilience which defined a good serving of Tonkotsu Ramen noodles. They were brittle and weak, giving in to bites easily and doing little to complement the broth. The noodles were nowhere near what can be described as Al-dente and overall not very appetising. These were paired with a considerably overcooked half-boiled egg and unimpressive chashu.

For full review and more photos, please visit http://freshffm.blogspot.sg/2013/08/ramen-bar-suzuki-more-bar-than-ramen_17.html