I do like ramen, but I tend to like Tsukemen even more.
Tsukemen is similar to a ramen, but the noodles and soup come separately.
The soup tend to be thicker, and the noodles as well. I like this about Tsukemen because I feel you can enjoy the taste of the soup and noodles better this way.
At the end of the meal, you also get the "Soup-wari" to mix with your remaining soup so that you can make it thin and drink it too.
It changes the taste, and in a sense, you get to enjoy 2 types of flavors.
I just feel Tsukemen is the better deal :)
Anyways,
Ippudo is obviously very well known for it's ramen. It's interesting to know that they have Tsukemen as well, and that it's a Singapore exclusive dish! Let's try it out.
Ippudo at Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road #04-22 /23 Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/pzeiW3csnNKSR1Zh6
Homepage: https://www.ippudo.com.sg/
Everyone knows about Ippudo already. So let's jump right into the dishes.
I should've taken the pictures of the menu. I forgot the prices. I'll try to update the price information again in the future. These are the dishes I tried.
Gyoza
Katsuo-no-tataki
Tsukemen
The Gyoza
These are really small, bite-size pot stickers. Chicken dumplings - according to their website.
This is a good gyoza dish. Nice and small and light. Juicy. You can taste the sweetness of the Gyoza. Finishes in an instant.
If you're one for volume, then this is not the dish for you. They're really small.
These Gyoza actually taste like "Hitokuchi-Gyozas" in that sense. Small, light, very tasty and sweet.
The Katsuo-no-tataki
I sensed that this would be a bit of a risk, but I like Katsuo-no-tataki. So I went for this anyways.
Katsuo-no-tataki is semi-baked bonito sashimi. It's a dish that is usually in that in-between between being a raw and a cooked dish.
It's usually served with sliced onion, ginger, spring onions, and garlic (or garlic chips). Then dipped in a light soy-sauce with either vinegar or citric blend.
It's a nice dish to enjoy the taste of bonito fish. I felt it was right to order because it's an autumn dish.
However the taste - was not right.
It was cooked and smoked perhaps more than a usual Katsuo-no-tataki. The rawness of the sashimi is pretty much gone, and instead there is a very strong smokiness to the taste. Too dry.
Definitely TOO smoky. It takes the whole focus off the taste of the bonito fish.
However, this might actually be by design. The taste of the bonito itself might not be the freshest fish after all. I guess that Ippudo smokes the bonito well so they can take time to finish their stock of this slow-moving dish.
One glaring omission was the garlic. If they want to take the attention off the taste of the bonito, the garlic chips work the best. I'm not sure why, but they didn't have that either.
Not really nice this dish here.
I wouldn't go for it again at ippudo.
Tsukemen
The noodles part of the dish look like this.
As you can see, the noodles are very thick. According to their homepage, they use whole grains for their noodle. That explains their brownish color.
Char-shew pork belly, seaweed, bamboo shoot, and a hanjuku-tamago (soft-broiled egg).
Anyways, here's the soup.
Very rich looking soup.
Strong aroma of the bonito flakes - which I absolutely love in my Tsukemen. You can see the pile of brown powder on the top side of the bowl.
The naruto fish cake and spring onions included here as well.
The taste of the tsukemen is really good.
The noodles are thick and strong enough to appreciate and enjoy the taste of the noodles themselves.
The noodles catches the soup very well. They mesh and mingle and mixes the taste in the mouth. The pork belly is soft and juicy and sinks into the soup too.
Very nice solid tsukemen I would say. Pretty satisfied with this dish.
I asked for the "soup-wari" afterwards. Some clear soup was added to my remaining soup, and then it looked like this.
The "soup-wari" experience was unfortunately sub-par for me.
I like "soup-wari" that alters the taste a little bit. Whether it be with tomato, ginger, or even critical flavors, I enjoy changing the taste and enjoying that as well.
Unfortunately, the soup-wari at Ippudo didn't change the taste. It was just adding clear soup. No surprise at all.
To me, that's a little bit of a shocker. A bit of a disappointing end to an otherwise solid dish.
I'd say a mixed bag. Some dishes are nice, some not as nice.
Guru Rating
for the Tsukemen: 8.1/10
The Tsukemen itself was pretty nice. It's just that "soup-wari" that I always enjoy so much was a sub-par experience. I wouldn't mind ordering again. I wouldn't mind recommending this to others either - but might have better recommendations elsewhere.
for the Katsuo-no-tataki: 3.5/10
No I wouldn't order it again. Too smoky. Missing garlic. Too dry.
As a Gyoza: 8.0/10
This would be one of the gyozas I would recommend. Small, juicy, light, sweet, tasty.
It would be better if you added a video tutorial instead of photos and text. It makes cooking much easier. My wife cannot cook recipes from books, she only uses videos. I advise you to try it. You can use https://www.movavi.com/learning-portal/free-video-editing-software-for-mac.html. Completely free, simple and multifunctional. I make my own videos here.