Ramen is one of the most popular staples in Japan. It comes with various soup flavours, the most common being soy, miso, or pork. One of our favourite ramen joint in Malaysia would be Ippudo!
As you might have known, Ippudo at Bangsar Shopping Centre, that specialized in tonkotsu ramen & with bowls filled with bouncy noodles, has expanded their menu widely with a rather different concept compared to their Pavilion & The Gardens Mall outlet. Besides the normal dining area, they have also accommodated a bar area where patrons love to hang out for happy hour especially after work for some booze and yummy Japanese snacks or even a hot bowl of ramen. This is love!
They may be specializing in Hakata-style tonkotsu made with long-simmered rich, milky, pork-bone broth, to simple soy sauce based soup, Ippudo will keep introducing new flavours, new types of Ramen from different regions of Japan to their patrons every quarter! And for the month of July till September, let’s say hi to:
Tokushima Ramen!
Tokushima is the capital city of Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku island in Japan. Since Tokushima is known for its pig farming, they have access to lots of pork bones and thus they can easily prepare very rich & savoury soup base. There are a few selections of Tokushima Ramen’s soup base: pork bone broth, some made with chicken or vegetable broth & their soup are more salty and sweet than the other ramen noodles you will find in Japan.
It includes Butabara (stir-fried pork belly) as a topping and they offer the option of adding a raw egg for those who would like the additional complexity to the soup.
Tokushima Ramen – RM25++
Here at Ippudo the chef have prepared a mixture of chicken and pork broth together with dark soy sauce to create a rich and savoury flavour. Served with Ippudo straight noodles and topped with generous slices of pork belly known as Butabara simmered in onion fused soy sauce, green onions (Negi) and bamboo shoots (Menma). A raw egg on top adds complexity to the broth.
Take a sip of the soup before mixing the egg, you will find a clear distinctive taste of sweetness with hints of saltiness. Next, scramble the egg all over, we find it more flavoursome and this adds the smoothness to the noodles. After that, you may add condiments such as garlic to tone up the soup base, making it saltier if your palate prefers stronger flavours 🙂
We enjoyed every bite from the noodles, flavoursome pork slices with soy-ed onion and delicious soup.
Another 3 special side dishes that are available from July – September are:
Marinated Cream Cheese with Crispy Seaweed – RM21
Salty cream cheese served with leek, seaweed and wasabi.
The cubes of cream cheese served were dipped in shoyu. Ways to savour it?
Place a cube on the seaweed, add wasabi, leek slices, some chilli flakes and pop ’em into your mouth. So good! The creaminess, gosh! Best to savour them with beer! Must order this cold dish when you’re at Ippudo BSC!
Jumbo Ebi Tempura – RM38
Golden brown and crispy tiger prawn tempura. Fresh bouncy prawns with crispy batter 🙂
IPPUDO Ocean Roll – RM18
Grilled salmon rolled up in avocado, crabstick and seaweed served with fish roe and drizzled with special teriyaki sauce. It may looked like a cheeseball but it’s not! it is topped with mayonnaise being torched. The combination of these ingredients creates the creamy texture and bursting taste that you’ll adore!
We would always tend to settle for their smoothie whenever we’re here!
Pomegranate Smoothie – RM18
Kiwi Smoothie – RM18
A special recommendation of dessert from the staff. It’s like Cookies & Cream!
That hot cookie base topped with ice cream. Take my money! (next time I’ll order again for sure lol)
Available from 6 July – 30 September 2015
- Tokushima Ramen
- Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce
- Jumbo Ebi Tempura
- Grilled fish roll
***These side dishes are only available at Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC) outlet
NON-HALAL
Ippudo
Lot G110 Ground Floor,
Bangsar Shopping Centre,
Jalan Maarof,
59100 Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Tel: +603 2011 6238
