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| Classic Shoyu Ramen |
Having been twice to this Ramen pop up events, you would think that I'd had enough of ramen and would rather see the back of it now, won't you? But no, I still get the same frisson of longing as I did the first time round as the day approaches and that led me to think, is this an addiction? Could I be truly addicted to Ramen?
A good bowl of Ramen is indeed rather addictive. If you look at the Japanese food culture, this is something which they are very proud of and hold a high respect for any Ramen-ya which produce bowls and bowls of delectable ramen. People will queue for hours at a time outside their favourite ramen-ya in order to get a private 10 minutes time with their umami bursting ramen. Slurping as quickly as they can when it arrived so as not to let the bouncy noodles soften too much in the hot broth. Even the rain won't stop them from hanging around outside these ramen-ya. Now that's dedication!
Of course, going to the Tonkotsu Classic Shoyu ramen event is not as laborious as that, but this is my form of dedication in the pursuit of a good bowl of ramen.
Arriving at a 6 o'clock sitting, it was less busy than normal (although there were two sittings before this). As before, there were a sense of excitement in the room. Some of the diners, like me, has been here before so they must agree with me in saying that so far, Tonkotsu has been doing a tremendous job at bringing out remarkably authentic ramen.
We ordered every starter on the menu, prawn gyoza, pork gyoza, chicken karaage and the cucumber and wakame salad. As with the previous time, the gyoza were delicious. Each one were served piping hot and inverted onto the plate which retained all their crispiness. The karaage, tender and well-marinated morsels in a light and flaky batter, truly scrumptious. The salad, first time we ordered it, were refreshing, with it's crunchy cucumber and wakame in a sweet and tangy rice vinegar dressing.
The Classic Shoyu ramen arrived not long after. As it landed on my table, there is definitely a stronger whiff of porkiness in this broth. A beauty to look at; the usual soft, cottony half-boiled egg is there; some menma, wakame seaweed and spring onions; two generous slices of slow-cooked pork, which literally fall into shreds just by picking them up with a pair of chopsticks. The noodles, curly and bouncy just as they should be were a joy to slurp, I meant eat, with the rich, amber-brown broth full of mystifying depth of flavours. I would happily queue up for a bowl of this if needs be.
For more info on the development of Tonkotsu - Bar and Ramen, please follow their adventure on twitter here
Review of the Tokyo Spicy Ramen can be view here
Review of the Seafood Ramen can be view here
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