Learning to eat ramen

So J and I went to Illuma for another round of ramen. If you haven't heard, there are 6 ramen chefs from Japan currently competing and the winner gets to set up a stall permanently in the shopping mall or something. I don't know the competition details, I care only for the ramen. Weeks back, the two of us tried out 2 stalls, Bario and Gantetsu, and were sorely disappointed. So over the weekend, we rounded up 2 friends and tried out the other 4.

Guess what?! I found the ramen I like!

Tai-Sho-Ken!



Apparently, this is the ramen stall that created dipping ramen in hot broth. I never knew and didn't eat it that way. I was served a bowl noodles and a separate bowl of broth so naturally I poured the noodles into the bowl of broth and picked up my chopsticks. Out came the chef from his ramen stall and in a mixture of Japanese and English exclaimed, 'No! NO! XXX!' I got the idea that I had made a mistake but haven't a clue where I went wrong. In the end, J figured I was to dip the dry ramen into the broth as I eat and not dump ALL the ramen into the broth at the start!

In any case, it was not just the ramen that was delicious, it was also the soup! When I was done with the noodles, the chef came around again and poured hot water into my broth. He made a gesture that I was to drink it up from the bowl so I meekly followed his instructions. And boy was it good! When diluted, the thick broth becomes great soup! It was so good, all the others wanted a spoonful of it. Every one has nothing but praises for it.


(The card that captures your order, the pager that beeps and vibrates when your food is ready to be collected)

At the end of the meal, the chef came out again to thank us and shake hands. Because I cannot speak a word of Japanese, I got J's buddy who speaks fluent Japanese to tell the chef that his service was fantastic and we hope he wins the competition!

I really hope Tai-Sho-Ken wins. And seriously, we can learn a thing or two about service and pride in our work from this man.

Read the touching/sad/inspiring Tai-Sho-Ken story here.


Photo from http://www.tai-sho-ken.com/about/index.html

The man in the top left corner is the chef sent to Singapore for the competition. The one who made my meal a wonderful experience! :) The man seated in the centre is Mr Yamagishi, the owner and chef of Tai-Sho-Ken.