Eating in Hong Kong: language barrier, chain restos, and Tim Ho Wan

When you’re traveling and you encounter a menu where you can’t understand single thing, do you a) make an attempt to communicate with the server with only four words you know of the local language , b) point at something in the menu and hope you don’t order something heinous, or c) try your luck in another restaurant with English translations in the menu? I’ve done all three: a) if I am feeling adventurous and , b) if I’m feeling extremely adventurous and c) when exhaustion dictates the need for something familiar and the the only adventure I want to have that day is figuring out the train route.

Golden roasted goodness in one of the windows of a restaurant in TST in Hong Kong

In the trip to Hong Kong, a place where good food is abundant, I found myself making all three decisions. In the mornings, when P and I are eager to start our day and before we meet with our friends, we wake up early and explore the nearby streets on our own from where we were staying.

Ramen love

Family, friends and regular readers of this blog know that I love ramen. Even if I live in a tropical country where summers can get unbearably hot and monsoon seasons get unbelievably humid, I still won’t pass up on a hot bowl of ramen. (Yes, I know there’s cold ramen, but haven’t tried one here in the Philippines just yet.)

Folks at Hack College (fellow ramen lovers I assume?) created a cool graphic on ramen. It’s really more about instant ramen–its history, quite a few interesting facts, and a couple of recipes that make use of the surprisingly versatile instant ramen noodles.

I got an email from the team who made this awesome graphic last month (yes, this is an overdue post) and thought it would be great to share it with all ramen lovers who visit this blog if you still haven’t seen it. Now, let’s eat some ramen!

Created by: HackCollege.com

Ramen in Manila

I have declared my love for ramen in this blog a number of times. Last year’s trip to Japan sealed my devotion to the Japanese noodle dish with my very first authentic ramen encounter in Tokyo. Because of this love for ramen, my husband and I find ourselves trying a different ramen restaurant every time we can manage to squeeze it in during the weekend, when we feel like indulging a bit (ramen is not really the healthiest dish out there), or when we have the budget for it (most good bowls of ramen go for PHP200 to PHP300, around 400 to 600 Yen, cheap in Japan standards, not that cheap here in the Philippines).

The past two weekends, P and I were able to try two new ramen restaurants in Metro Manila. One in Makati and the other in our neighborhood in Quezon City.

Nomama Artisanal Ramen. Ever since I tasted Chef Him Uy de Baron’s food in one magazine event (he’s also a consultant for popular Pinoy restaurant Max’s), I knew I liked the way the man cooked. There are always layers of flavors and something pleasantly unexpected about his food. When I interviewed him for Yummy magazine back in February and he mentioned that he wanted to open a ramen restaurant, I made a mental note. Another bowl of ramen to look forward to in Manila.

Pretty, minimalist interiors

It finally opened this month; right across Max’s Restaurant and parallel to busy Tomas Morato. Immediately, I loved the interiors. Bare cement walls, simple black and white furniture, and a wooden bar facing the open kitchen (look up at the ceiling for the clever hooks and lights). But enough about the interiors, we came for the food.

Craving for ramen

One of the things I love about my job is when I get asked to do food or restaurant stories. Today, I spent the whole day just tasting and eating. First, was in a fine-dining Italian restaurant in Makati and then in a new ramen-ya in Quezon City. Being a big fan of the Japanese noodle soup, I was particularly excited for the visit in the ramen restaurant. One of my favorite varieties of ramen is the miso ramen of Ukokkei Ramen Ron, which I finally got to taste a few months ago. I wasn’t too happy with my first taste of Ukokkei’s shoyu chasu ramen, but its miso ramen is just a boldly-flavored soup (slightly sweet and salty with oh-so-good fatty sheen to it) that is just one of the best you’ll ever taste in this part of the Philippines. Just looking at the photo below triggers my taste memory and my mouth starts to water.

Ukokkei's Miso Ramen

Aside from memories of Ukokkei’s ramen, to prepare for the ramen tasting today, I decided to look at some Tampopo videos on YouTube. (Our copy of this Japanese film classic, which revolves around a ramen restaurant  and making ramen, got lost. Somebody borrowed it and never returned it. Boo.) The clip below shows a young Ken Wattanabe finding out ‘the right way to eat ramen’ from a ramen master. “First observe the whole bowl, appreciate its gestalt, savor the aromas/ Jewels of fat glistening on the surface/ Shinachiku roots shining./ Seaweed slowly sinking. Spring onions floating. Concentrate on the three pork slices…They play the key role, but stay modestly hidden…”

Who knew there were so many details that go into eating ramen? So yes, when I got my bowl of ramen this afternoon, I caressed the surface with the chopstick sticks. Poked the pork. Whispered that I would see it soon… But then I got excited and sipped the soup first then happily slurped the noodles. Slurped some more and sipped, sipped, sipped. Joy! I did lightly tap the pork on the side of the bowl to drain it before taking a hefty bite. Thank you God for ramen!
(So was it a good miso ramen? Was it as good or better than Ukokkei’s miso ramen? I’ll post the restaurant and ramen review when it comes out in the magazine.) Now, go out and have some ramen.

Follow that Japanese

Last Saturday for lunch, P and I were going down along Arnaiz Ave. in Makati City looking for Ukokkei Ramen Ron, a Japanese ramen restaurant that’s been hailed by many to have the best ramen in Metro Manila. We only knew it was along Arnaiz Ave. so we were both on the lookout for it. On a stoplight, I then saw a Japanese guy walking on the curb and joked that maybe we should just follow him. A hundred or so meters later we saw Ukokkei and who should be walking inside in front of us, the same Japanese guy I pointed out to P a few minutes earlier. (Hee!)

The place was almost full, mostly with Japanese, expats, and (judging from the amount of SUVs and luxury vehicles parked in front at the time) a number of well-heeled Filipino families. When we got our seats, we immediately scanned the menu. As other Ukokkei fans have told us, the ramen comes in three different kinds of broth–shoyu (soy), shio (salt) and miso. Mostly everyone we’ve talked to recommends getting one of the miso variants. But P and I had agreed we would get two different kinds of ramen. He ordered the miso butter corn (PHP360) and I ordered the shoyu chashu (PHP380).

Miso butter corn ramen

The miso butter corn certainly lived up to the hype. The broth had a rich, buttery and salty flavor that went well with the sweetness of the miso, corn and slice of pork. For P, the broth was just as just good as the broth of the ramen we had in Tokyo on our first night.

Shoyu Chashu Ramen

While the shoyu chashu ramen I got was also good, I didn’t think it was just as good as the Tokyo ramen. The broth seemed one note and the menma was a bit tough. The thin slices of chashu (char siu or barbecued pork) were excellent though. As for the noodles, they were firm, toothsome and flavorful on their own.

Because “when there’s ramen, there’s gyoza” (credit to my favorite manga, Oishinbo!), after P finished off his bowl of ramen (and mine) and he was still hungry, we ordered some of the Japanese potstickers (PHP120). Ukokkei’s gyoza was soft, succulent and satisfying. I would easily order it again for my next visit. That along with a bowl of miso ramen.

G/F Tesoro Bldg., 822 A. Arnaiz Ave., San Lorenzo Village, Makati City

Oishinbo is a manga on the “fascinating, addictive journey through the world of cooking and food culture”