I spotted this new ramen shop in JEM recently. They are specialized in Volcano ramen, which was really new to me, so I decided to give them a try.
The shop is really just a hole in the wall kind of operation, although it is a much more 'luxury' hole in the mid-scale JEM shopping center. The dining environment is very intimate (read 'cramped'), just like those ramen shops in Japan.
On the table, you are given a 1-min timer and the instructions to handle the 'volcano'. However, later on I found out that neither is useful. The staff will handle almost everything for you, you can put your timer aside, and forget about the instructions.
I ordered the Kazan Shoyu. My ramen came in a pre-heated stone bowl, like those used in Korean bimbimban. Then the staff poured about 1/4 of the soup base into the stone bowl, and put on the lid. Hot stream gushed out of the inverted funnel furiously, just like an erupting volcano. Haha...Now you know how it got its name, volcano ramen.
A minute later, the staff removed the lid. The ramen was piping hot, and the steam was still quite furious. At this time, you were supposed to stir the ramen just as furiously.
If you would like to know how strong the stream was, look at this photo. My phone's camera lens was completely fogged up in less than a minute. If you have kids with you, it is advisable for you to keep you kids in some safe distance.
Next step is to scoop out some portions of the content to a small bowl for your consumption. Now let's look at what we got in that 'volcano'. Char siew, plenty of vegetables, including cabbage, bean sprouts, some slices of carrot and green pepper and onions.
Their char siew is big and thick, unlike other ramen whose char siew are just very thin slices. However, the texture of the char siew is quite uneven. Some pieces were really nice. It was tender soft although it was thick, easy to bite, pleasant to eat. Some other pieces tended to be very tough and dry, reminding me of sugar canes that had been squeezed out all of its juice. Eating those pieces was like a tug of war between your teeth and the char siew.
The ramen is pretty thick and strong, like a samurai. The portion of ramen was quite small though, a few scoops later all the ramen was gone. More than 50% of the content of that stone bowl were cabbage and bean sprouts. If you like plenty of vegetables, it is a good choice.
To judge whether a ramen is good, the first thing to test is the soup. The soup here is very thick. When the staff poured only 1/4 of the soup into the bowl, the taste was good, probably diluted by all the vegetables. Later, the staff poured all the soup into the bowl, and that was the beginning of my misery. The soup was TOO salty! I think 50% or less will be good for me.
My order also came with a bowl of plain rice. You were supposed to pour the rice into the remaining reman soup and eat it together. In my case, as I found the soup was way way too salty, I decided to eat the rice separately, with the vegetables, to lessen the saltiness.
On the table, they also gave me some eggs. At first, I thought they were raw eggs for me to add into the ramen, but then I found out they were actually cooked eggs. What are the eggs for? No idea.
Overall, I find it a pleasant experience. In total, I spent $22.13, including service charge and GST.
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