Author: sleepy

Sapporo Ramen Miharu

One of my recent cravings is Ramen. Visited Sapporo Ramen Miharu at Gallery Hotel.  Heard this is one of the few authentic Japanese Ramen set up in Singapore. The shop is pretty small.  Inside can only occupy 4 groups of people and some counter seats. For smokers, there are non-aircon seats outside. Gallery Hotel seems to be populated with Japanese dining, there are other Japanese dining tenants open too.

I find the noodle is more like  Santouka, the thicker noodle type. Generally the ramen portion is quite big. Sapporo’s ramen has a few more different soup bases to choose from:

  • Tokusen Miso (Special Blended Miso)
  • Miso Tonkotsu (Special Bleneded Miso Pork Flavored)
  • Ohkara Miso (Hot Spicy Miso)
  • Miso Tsukemen (Miso Cold Noodle)
  • Wabusi Shoyu (Fish Based Shoyu)
  • Tokusen Shoyu (Special Soy Sauce)
  • Tokusen Tonshio (Special Pork Flavored Blended with Salt)
  • Koumi Tsukemen (Soy Sauce Cold Noodle)
  • Dsshi-shio
  • Miso
  • Shoyu

Each ramen comes with half a shoyu egg, char siew, corn, bamboo shoots, spring onion and seaweed. However, most of us did not finish the soup because we find it too saltish to our tasting. Shoyu eggs here are almost thoroughly cooked to the yolk. I will prefer a little runny inside. There are also more different sides dishes to choose from compared to Maratama Ramen and Santouka Ramen. Char Siew Don comes in a small bowl but it’s nice. Leek omelette reminds me of the Guo Tie (锅贴) and pork gyoza is juicy, thumbs up! Tokusen Shoyu soup base is soya sauce taste with no miso i think, that explains the color of the soup. Leroy’s Miso Tonkotsu tastes like peppery mild Bak Kuh Teh. Tokusen Miso soup base tastes a little nutty.

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Sapporo Ramen Miharu Ramen
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Char Siew Don
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Char Siew
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MenuIMG_8067Tokusen Shoyu (Special Soy Sauce)IMG_8065Miso Tonkotsu (Special Bleneded Miso Pork Flavored)IMG_8068Tokusen Miso (Special Blended Miso)
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Leek OmeletteIMG_8066Leek Omelette (Close Up)
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Hokkaido Fried Pork GyozaIMG_8064Hokkaido Fried Pork Gyoza (Close Up)IMG_8056Yellow capped is vinegar and they have special blend pepperIMG_8055Special Blend PepperIMG_8070Tokusen Shoyu (Special Soy Sauce) Remaining
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Miso Tonkotsu (Special Bleneded Miso Pork Flavored) RemainingIMG_8069Tokusen Miso (Special Blended Miso) Remaining

Desaru Trip + Long Tongue

Lester is always ahead of me, he has blogged about the Desaru trip we spent over the weekends. It is relaxing in a way, the Gan Clan Association has kept the itinerary simple and we are well taken care of by the organisers.

As usual, you spend most of the time sleeping on the coach when travelling to Malaysia. I get bored easily and started playing with my tongue. My tongue is long and pointed but Lester’s one is like short and bui bui~ Maybe that’s why he speaks faster while mine is too long and i always drip my saliva when asleep.

IMG_7552Caught.IMG_7623Lester has short and fat tongue.IMG_7746Diao me~IMG_7778Starwars shit~IMG_7899Loves table cloth.IMG_7917Durains~ Yum~

Shoyu Eggs 3

I have made a total of 6 eggs previously. I eat 1 myself, brought 2 to Lester and the rest are gobbled by my family. Anyway, i told my sister to take pictures of these eggs before eating, just want to know the outcome of the yolks.

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So the rest of the eggs are so cooked too.

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Wah~ Why she eats so 补? 1 shoyu egg and 1 put into the soup.

Shoyu Eggs 2

The judgment day, after soaking my shoyu eggs overnight. Exterior has that brown appetizing color, inside still too cooked. !@#$% First bite, the sauce is too saltish. On the other hand, i am more relieved as they do not have weird soya sauce taste just because i can’t find Kikkoman and replace it with 李锦记. The yolks are still not in the centre.

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Looks nice?

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The egg really absorb in all the sauce. See the color gradation in the cross section.

IMG_7491We decided to throw away the yolks.

Some improvements to make:

  • Maybe buy those ang-mo’s white shell large eggs, i believe the yolks will be nicer.
  • Need to re-gauge the cooking time. Probably set it before the water boils.
  • Shoyu sauce must be less saltish.

Shoyu Eggs

Suddenly have a craving for shoyu eggs after Sunday’s ramen. I remembered Ken knows how to prepare them so i ask him for the recipe.

The process is tedious as you may still not be able to keep the yolk perfectly in the centre of the egg to prevent it from overcooking. Anyway, i think my 6 out of 6 eggs are all failure.

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Trying to support the eggs so that they are vertically upright instead of lying down.

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Looks fine right?

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Noooo~ The egg yolk looks cooked and it is on top.

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The rest of the likely to fail eggs.

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“What are you doing? Anything for me to eat?”

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Shoyu sauce: Soya Sauce, rice wine, sugar and some sesame oil. But my soya sauce taste weird… I don’t like.

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Soak them overnight in fridge.

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Read of another way of cooking the egg. So i tried putting it normally, keep turning the eggs hoping that the white on the side will harden first, shield the yolk inside.

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This is the likely to success one. But i forgot to put salt into the water. Now the egg shell has a difficult time to be separated from its flesh.

DSC09108Still fails…

Man & Woman In Toilet

Lester pasted a HWZ link about man and woman in the toilet. They commented that woman’s urinal system is more advance than man. Below is extracted from the thread:

Woman

  1. Open panties
  2. Sit
  3. Pee wee
  4. Wear panties

Man

  1. Open zip
  2. Open underwear
  3. Search for kkj in the black forest
  4. Remove strain of kkj hair that got stuck
  5. Open toilet seat
  6. Aim
  7. Aim again
  8. Shoot pee
  9. Shake kkj
  10. Double shake to confirm all pee drop liao
  11. Put back in underwear
  12. Zip up

However i disagree with them leh. We never finish all these in 4 steps. We are also very busy in the toilet. Here is my version of woman in the toilet cubical:

  1. Check toilet clean anot, flush again if it is unsightly
  2. Hook our bag
  3. Clean the seats thoroughly
    Some clean liao still lay toilet paper around the seats
  4. Open panties
  5. Sit
  6. Pee wee
  7. Fart also, coz chio bu dun fart in public
  8. Scratch scratch
  9. Meantime, take some toilet paper
  10. Period season: take out pad ready to change
  11. Some sit for a while then clean after pee
  12. Wear panties
  13. Before leaving the cubical  must check there is no obvious stains left by you, coz it leaves an impression about yourself when the next person comes in.

Photographers Are Not Easy

Realise photographer needs a lot of stamina to carry out their tasks. They hardly sit comfortably in front of their computer, unless they are are post-production these beautiful pictures. They run around, carry stuff, endless adjustment to the lights, the angles of perspective, their subjects and infinite test shots to make sure it just come out right. I’ve tried product shoots for my intern company, it is really tired~ I can’t remember how i fall asleep and i wake up this morning as though i had an extreme exercise yesterday.

I am excited about the new tripod, Vanguard Alta 203AP. With super cool functions like:

  • You can hinge your camera vertical down to take portfolio type of photographs. No more slanting sides and books tilted at angle difficult for cropping.
  • You can also further open the legs, get ultimate close to products on the table, with 2 legs on the table and camera still supported by 1 leg on the ground. Good for really small objects when you want details and not just zoom zoom zoom.

    • Anyway, i just want to show my messy desk.

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    Ramen Santouka

    Lester has been talking about this Ramen store ever since he tasted, Ramen Santouka, located at Central just below Ma Maison. This is a slightly different style of ramen compared to Ma-Rutama. The noodle is thicker, eggier, starchier.

    Entrance

    Thicker noodle + clear soup base + spring onion + bamboo shoot

    If you eat char siew (pork), there are a few different soup bases to choose from. However, if you don’t eat pork (like me), the chicken ramen only comes in clear soup base. Pork ramen’s soup base tastes nicer~ No matter what soup bases you choose from, it is less saltish than Ma-Rutama, I find. However, Lester is complaining about the fats around the meat while chicken ramen has all the lean chicken breast meat (I can’t be sure it is breast but Lester says so). I would say the chicken meat is very well marinated, you can taste it even though it is soaked in the soup. The texture of the meat is really different, probably the way they cut or the part they choose, it is very firm when you bite, not like western food chicken breast meat where you basically “shred” the meat.

    Pork Ramen

    Chicken Ramen

    Not all ramen comes with the shoyu egg. My chicken ramen comes with half of it, pork one has none. You can order the shoyu eggs separately from the side dish menu section. In terms of taste, Ma-Rutama beats this shop. This shop is a bit bland, but tenderness is there.

    Shoyu eggs

    I forgot to say that each bowl is super duper hot on the outside, wonder did they oven it or what, so that your noodle still maintain that temperature till you finish your last strand of noodle.

    I believe everyone has encounter instances when your spoon slips into your bowl of soup. This ramen store has an interesting spoon with a slit cut so that it can lean on the circumference of the bowl to prevent such things to happen. But the bowl isn’t that big nor does it has a steep slope on the side, maybe this invention is not really useful here.

    Shouyu eggs

    Actually we saw a couple of Japanese customers patronizing the store, then we realise they have many many branches in Japan. I believe they have a certain standing in this ramen market. Some may love Ma-Rutama others prefer Ramen Santouka but they are similar yet strictly speaking different. Maybe you guys can give it a try, this is really individual.

    Last but not least, Lester’s favourite: 1 whole flask of water for us to self service.

    1 flask of water on the table

    It’s been 5 years, I still don’t understand why he can’t start his food without drinks. This is especially true when it comes to eating in food court as we need to take turns to buy our food. Standard procedure will be: I buy my food, then his turn, he will eat half way or even before he starts, he will queue for drinks. If the queue is long, his cooked food is left to “chill”. I really can’t do this leh. I cannot afford my food to turn cold. I will usually say “Buy later lah…” He will say “Cannot lah… Thirsty~” But he could be eating fishball noodle, got soup what~

    Throughout his meal, he will drink at least 2 glasses of water (or equivalent up to 2 cans of ice lemon tea if we are at food courts) while I will only sip at the start of my meal and drink again only after my meal. Wha~ Like that stomach won’t get bloated meh?

    But he also “fast-in fast-out” type, very fast want to go toilet liao~ So want to watch any long hours movies or concerts with him, you must make sure he empties his bladder cleanly.

    Doggie Picnic

    Today bring Pipi to Botanical Garden for the very first time. There are a lot of considerations and worries initially. Afraid that he won’t go out with me, afraid that he won’t behave when he is outside, afraid that he will disturb other children or dogs. But seems like my worries are never a problem anymore. My big boy has really mature. 🙂

    Pipi is a little panic in the car ride, that is like usual and normal. And i also realise he likes to look out of the window, see the zoom-zoom cars. The picnic started with an heavy downpour. But soon, the sky gets clear.

    I think i will bring my dog out more often. Will be a little busy though, keeping a look out on Pipi, make sure no insects bite, make sure the children don’t ga-jiao him by pulling his tails. But i still think it worth it.