Asian Food Adventures at Tampopo and Ichiban Boshi

This month has been a foody month of sorts for me – I’ve eaten at a few good eateries and enjoyed them so much that I thought I’d share here. I hadn’t been out for meals for a while prior to these gastro-jaunts, so this enhanced the epicurean delight. :)

Tampopo is a favourite restaurant of mine, thanks to the black pig tonkatsu spicy ramen. To be honest, while many go to this establishment for its black pig pork cuts, I could do without the meat and have this dish mainly for the soup. Not that the meat’s bad – it’s actually really crispy and succulent – but I’m addicted to the full-bodied spicy soup.

The broth is almost-creamy, and well-seasoned with chilli; the delicious oil clinging perfectly to the chewy noodles. I don’t know what goes into it but am certainly it’s made with pork bones, given the nature of this eatery. If you love ramen in rich and spicy broths, do try this dish. I can’t remember its price but it’s definitely under S$17 (S$16.80, perhaps).

Ichiban Boshi has some interesting sushi creations for those leery of raw sushi. Their cooked lobster salad gunkan has a tasty dressing (I think it’s Japanese mayo) that permeates through each morsel, while the crispy spicy tuna mayo maki has a spicy and sour kick, its thinly-coated tempura batter giving it a little oomph.

There’s also a kids-friendly tuna and cucumber maki coated with floss (pork or chicken, I’m not sure). Floss-anything is super yummy!

The hand-rolls are pretty good too – I especially enjoy the yakiniku hand roll filled with well-seasoned and tender black pepper beef fillet, together with fresh greens.

The prices of the sushi are distinguished by their plates. All the ones mentioned above are S$2.40 per plate, except for the lobster salad sushi which sits on a plate with a swirly design that indicates its higher S$4.20 price-tag.

What really stole my heart recently at this eatery is the potato mentai, a baked delight of potato chunks, crabstick, hard-boiled egg, cream and cheese; as well as that most important ingredient – delicious salty-sweet mentaiko (marinated pollock/cod roe). The incredible blend of flavours exemplifies umami, that hard-to-define 5th taste.

For S$5.90, the quantity is generous; I also appreciate how it’s served in a cast iron pan which retains the heat of the savoury treat.

Though they never have credit card promotions, they do have a frequent-visit/rewards card that lets you accumulate stamps (1 stamp for every S$20 spent) to redeem free dishes and vouchers to spend at the restaurant or others under their parent company. Do give this establishment a try, if you haven’t already. :)