By Kiana Koh

I love trying new cuisines from different cultures and one of my favourites is Japanese. I especially love ramen, and the spicier it is, the better. Recently, a stall named Ramen Taisho opened up in Clementi Mall Foodfare, which is a huge air conditioned hawker centre that has a lot of food stalls inside.

Ramen Taisho’s owner, Hock Soon travelled to and from Japan for 3 years, to learn the ropes from chefs, and to perfect his skills before opening up Ramen Taisho in Singapore. All noodles are lovingly handmade by Hock Soon, and ingredients used are from Japan, which are known to be very fresh. The chashu pork and tamago (eggs in Japanese) are also made in house! Yes the creamy half solid, half runny yolk that is crucial for a ramen dish, is made in house!

There are 3 different ways the ramen is served: soup, dry and dipping ramen.

The soup and dry ramen are pretty straightforward, but the dipping ramen is pretty interesting as you get to choose a dipping sauce, and then you just dip the ramen inside and eat it!

My mum and I ordered the soup Tonkotsu Ramen. Tonkotsu is pork/chashu in Japanese, so it is just pork/chashu ramen.

The noodles were made to just the right thickness, (too thin would not have been nice in my opinion) and they were light and springy. The broth was creamy and slightly milkier than other ramen broths, and it did take a bit of getting used to. However, once you get used to the flavour, one bowl is simply not enough!

The pork/chashu slices were cut pretty thick, and they were pretty generous with the portions. The meat was tender and juicy, with quite a bit of fatty parts to it as well!

Normally, I stay clear of meat with a lot of fat because I think the taste of the meat fat is weird. But for some reason, the pork/chashu slices were actually surprisingly tasty!

The egg was alright; it was not that mind blowing.

At the side where you take your cutleries, there is a condiment area, and you can get as much chilli or spring onions as you want!

For the price of less than SGD 10, you get a big bowl of good ramen, which is as authentic as it can get. I think it really is worth it!