the ramen challenge – contender #1 baikohken

thanks to YH dear, i’m suddenly obsessed with hunting down the best ramen in sg i’ve been eating quite a fair bit of ramen over the past few mths, and i’m convinced that baikohken @ boat quay, where she brought me to ytd cld be pretty near the top.

the ramen at baikohken is asahikawa style, in either miso, shoyu or shio flavours and they come in two sizes – half (great for ladies or pple who want multiple toppings) and regular. we ordered 2 flavours to share, before K joined us. a half-sized shio ramen and a half-sized shoyu ramen ($9 each). we each added extra butter and corn ($2) and ajitama ($1) toppings – that’s the half boiled egg.

the noodles were short and curly (easy to eat!). they’re not springy as some other food bloggers have pointed out, but that’s not my #1 criteria in ramen. to me, it’s all about the soup and the shio soup here rocks my socks!! it’s not too porkish in taste but light yet flavourful. they probably used a mixture of pork and fish bones (but not boiled until tonkotsu-milky consistency). while the shio soup was significantly saltier than the shoyu soup, i didn’t really enjoy the shoyu one as it pretty much masked the flavour of the original stock and just tasted like…diluted shoyu. i felt tt the butter didn’t do much for the soup except make it oilier, so i reccomend tt you skip that topping.

shio

shoyu

the proof here however, is in the charsiew. i don’t usually eat the charsiew in my ramen but i assure you that the charsiew here is show-stoppin’! it has just the right tenderness and amount of fat (not too much) and melted in my mouth, piece after piece

we also ordered a plate of gyozas ($5.5) but i don’t have much of an impression of it, other than the skin was quite crispy.

i didn’t have enough of the shio ramen so i actually came back here tdy for more with the bf in town. he ordered a half-sized miso ramen ($9)with extra char siew ($2.3) and while the miso soup was the heaviest of the lot, it’s actually still very light compared to misos elsewhere. they added some minced meat which i felt cut through the nuttiness and creaminess of the soup. interesting.

the ramen also comes loaded with a heap of negi (scallions) – almost too sharp for me, and menma (bamboo shoots) – which were tough. i usually gobble up my menma but this was a let-down.

the other thing i adore abt this place is the free flow of mugicha (roasted barley tea), served in a huge jug on your table. it actually tasts like coffee-water, except tt it has no caffeine. the bittersweet aftertaste is so thirst quenching although i’m sure this is an acquired taste i think i probably drank like half a jug myself (loved it since i first tried it in TO)! in a country where prices are gg up faster than wages, and where asking for tap water is unheard of at some f&b outlets, this gesture comes as a breath of fresh air

don’t expect much for ambience, and if you come during peak hrs you probably can’t linger and talk with friends. but come for the ramen and its affordable prices!

overall:8/10

*
baikohken
7 north canal road
tel: 6534 3808

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bubbly makes the world go round

i bought a lot of bubbly and wine today! of which, the highlights include a Dom Pérignon Vintage 1999, a Krug Grand Cuvee (the grand daddy of champers!), two Moet & Chandon Magnum (1.5L bottle), a Moet & Chandon Rose and two Cloudy Bay Sauvingon Blanc (the wine tt the bf and i bonded over). this is in preparation for the festive season and other upcoming special occasions. i can’t wait to land my hands on them!

reviews of the 2 premium champers look good

“Dom Pérignon, the brand’s flagship product, is inarguably great. For many consumers, it’s the benchmark against which they evaluate all other bubbly — and for good reason. Dom Pérignon is a refined, feminine champagne, with a soft, creamy mousse and a fine, delicate bead. It’s quite approachable upon release, but, as with most top-flight luxury champagnes, aging will yield great rewards.

One of my favorite champagnes is Krug Grand Cuvée, the flagship bottling from one of the most prestigious Grand Marque houses in France. Krug’s uncompromising commitment to quality winemaking is evident year after year. Krug’s Grand Cuvée reminds me of full-bodied white Burgundy but with bubbles. The flavor completely fills your mouth, and the opulent gold color and signature toasty, nutty bouquet are unmistakably Krug. A half-bottle of Grand Cuvée and a chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano is, for me, the ideal al fresco lunch. “

- Joseph Nase, The Bubbly Buyer’s Guide, nymag.com

saving the Krug for a very, special occasion.

contrary to popular belief, i’m no alcoholic (those days are long over!) but I just like to appreciate fine wine, and there’s no better one than a sparkling for happy times!

i also absolutely dig sparkling wine cocktails like Kir Royale – sparkling wine with a dash of cream de cassis or the perennial favourite Bellini – sparking wine with a dash of peach nectar. You can never have a bad night out with these 2 drinks

let them eat cake

pâtisserie glacé, a japanese french-styled cake shop has been making headwaves in sg, garnering a steady stream of media coverage ever since its inception in 2008. i had been wanting to try it, but its former location was so ulu that i never got round to it.

recently in the office i was able to lay my hands on a rin rin blueberry cheesetart ($3) that was so lipsmackingly good! the cookie base was complemented by a smooth, fluffy cheese filling – kissed by a tinge of blueberry fruit. i’ve since tried other flavours (the rock melon and earl grey) and they’re all SO good!

i was quite pleased when the bf surprised me with a slice of la france ($5) on my bday, which was essentially a tart made with with pear, creme brulee finish and apricot jam! that combination surprisingly worked…and there was a generous serving of pear that made the tart feel less-sinful he also got me a fruit crepe cake that day but my family devoured it before i got to try!

last fri, i also had the chance to sample almost every cake there was at PG as my colleagues and i had bought one slice of each available flavour tt day for a farewell tea party. particularly worth mentioning though simple was the banaan chocolat ($4), a chocolate sponge cake layered with fresh cream and a banana enclosed in the middle.

their signature strawberry shortcake ($4.80) was also one of the better ones i had in sg, not surprisingly. however i wasn’t too big a fan of the chocolate de noeh (too dry), the double rare cheese mango (too light on both the cheese and the mango taste) and the emerald isle (too dry). it’s a pity that the cakes are not consistent, though the tarts are fantastic. i think i still prefer tampopo deli’s cakes on the whole.

pâtisserie glacé
12 gopeng street #01-33/34
icon village
singapore 078877
tel: 64000247
url and picture credits: http://www.cakeglace.com

first flea

today marked my first time participating in a flea market – albeit a very unsuccessful one considering i cld count with 2 hands the number of pple who came to visit. do not ever look to SCAPE youth park if you’re serious abt making much sales. nevertheless it was quite an experience and M and i had a pretty fun time doing up our stall and spying on our fellow flea-ers we barely made enough to recoup the rent + dinner but we’re certain it was probably the hidden location and the rain. we reckon we wld have better luck next time at a more popular flea market!

hokkaido fair @ isetan scotts

i spent a late sunday afternoon at isetan scotts elbowing aunties at isetan’s qnnual hokkaido fair and bought freshly made warabi mochi, a box of milk and white hokkaido caramel fudge, and a huge pack of bonito flakes (for tofu toppings and dashi broth). I had to exercise much self-restraint from not buying everything i wanted since i don’t snack and there was no special occasion to buy for.

like any true blue singaporean, i sampled the many offerings at the fair including mentaiko salads, hokkaido cheesecake and the potato curry bun that tan hseuh yun raved abt in URBAN. as E wld say, you can never starve in singapore even if you’re broke! while in my state of disarray, I could not locate the famous pullman’s salted caramel crossaint which was apparently to-die-for, i hope it comes next yr again!

japanese food is probably singaporeans’ favourite cuisine interest/fad and i seriously wld like to thank the good folks at isetan for blessing us with this highlight of the year. even though i got trampled on by said aunties, this annual pilgrimage is a must for any japanese food lover in sg, even if it’s just to participate in the mass hysteria.

edited: and if you can, don’t bother abt the tampines one, it smells very fishy and feels doubly cramped because of the layout.

Hokkaido Fair
19-29 June Isetan Scotts Supermarket Basement
3-12 July Isetan Tampines, Tampines Mall Atrium Level 1

hitting the sweet spot

i first read about pichet ong, a famous dessert chef who helmed the now defunct P*ONG restaurant in nyc right before my trip there last year. P*ONG was featured in my timeout nyc as one of city’s best eats (i only use timeout btw). despite being enamoured by pichet ong’s vision of fusion desserts (asian + western as he grew up in sg, thailand and msia) and mix of savoury and sweet – i didn’t get a chance to try P*ONG out due to time constraint. it’s unfortunate that it’s now since defunct, just like how WD-50 was defunct when i was there!

hence, you can imagine my excitement when i popped by bras basah last friday afternoon to run an errand for work, and i saw the sweet spot by pichet ong selling at a dingy 2nd hand bookshop for only 20$. and the best thing of all? it wasn’t even 2nd hand the owner told me he had gotten it from a bookstore that had gone bust. i was literally singing my way back to work since i managed to shave off $33 savings and the book was worth every penny because of the gorgeous recipes, visuals and vision. of course, now i get to recreate a taste of P*ONG from the comfort of my own home.

the sweet spot eschews the standard dessert recipes for entries like passionfruit dahn taht (egg tart), chocolate and vietnamese coffee tart, poached pears in oolong tea, ovaltine and milk chocolate kulfi with caramelised banana and grand marnier tofu cheesecake – are you drooling yet? it’s really refreshing compared to the jelat western desserts i’m sick of seeing on all my cookbooks. some of the more classic asian recipes e.g. mango pudding and steamed pandan layer cake are still included in this gorgeous tome, which is perfectly fine with me since i love them for everyday affairs. after devouring all the recipes in a span of 3 hours i felt a pang of asian pride, since asian desserts have always been marginalised, despite the incredible variety across the many asian cultures.

what i really like is that i have easy access to almost all the ingredients he listed from tropical fruits to indian/japanese/thai etc ingredients being in singapore, contrary to many other cookbooks