Waxing lyrical about ramen
When it comes to Japanese Ramen, we are spoilt with a huge variety of choices. The scene has exploded since the craze started in the Klang Valley close to two decades ago.

In recent years, this particular segment of Japanese cuisine seems to have somewhat stabilised, with only a few newcomers popping up now and then.

One of the latest to hit the noodle scene was Ramen Hitoyoshi, an outlet that caught my attention while we were walking around looking for a lunch spot in Paradigm Mall in Petaling Jaya, a couple of weeks ago.

Love the thin ramen noodles that did a great job soaking up the flavour from the pork broth.

Ramen Hitoyoshi originated from Singapore, and while many may find the idea of Japanese ramen not being from a Japanese franchise a deal breaker, I usually prefer to judge the food by its taste rather than by the narrative it spews.

After all, haven’t most of us heard the glowing stories revolving around the food of a restaurant before, only to be disappointed later?

The menu here is not entirely different from a typical ramen restaurant – there’s tonkotsu (pork broth ramen) with a variety of ingredients to choose from, including chasiu, aburi chasiu, special chasiu, ajitamago (egg), seaweed, spring onion, black fungus and so forth.

Sake chahan or fried salmon rice dish. The hot stone rice dish was unfortunately not nearly as good as the ramen. While it looked appealing, the taste profile was just overpowered by the abundance of mayo. In hindsight, we should have scooped most of it out before stirring everything together in the bowl, but I think we’ll just order another bowl of noodles next time. — Photos: KYSPEAKS

Additionally, it also offers some rice dishes and sides such as gyoza, takoyaki, unagi and ebi fry (fried shrimps).

We ordered a bowl of their Garlic Tonkotsu with All Toppings, and taking advantage of their promo for the period, a bowl of the sake chahan (fried salmon rice dish). You also have an option of getting the ramen with its original flavour, or make it spicy.

We also had a portion of deep-fried pork gyoza to share and I’m happy to report that it turned out to be one of the better gyozas we’ve tried. Someone once said that if you want to make anything taste better, just deep-fry it. Can’t say I disagree in this instance.

Opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and food at his own expense.

KY Teoh has been trying to influence your food cravings since 2005.

He was NTV7 Foodie Blogger 2014, R.A.GE Food Fight Judge 2015 and Versus 1001 Rasa Baba’s Guest Judge 2018.

Read more about his food jaunts at KYspeaks.com
When it comes to Japanese Ramen, we are spoilt with a huge variety of choices. The scene has exploded since the craze started in the Klang Valley close to two decades ago.