of mojitos and other madness: oishii!

with posts on both of the foodie blogs i religiously read, i thought it would be cool to have a post of my own about the food at marutama-ramen.

we took a calculated gamble and headed over to central yesterday (sunday) right smack during lunch time. with much anticipation, we took the escalator down to the third floor and were greeted by a long queue outside of marutama. the small restaurant was busy and the queue continued to grow so we decided that we would come back another time. guess it was a blessing in disguise as we discovered that the entire floor was full of japanese joints, so we didn't have to look too far for another place for food to satisfy my craving for japanese food.

it was a toss up between good old waraku, kyomomoyama, tom ton and sho-u. i immediately said no to sho-u just because it looked like they spent all their effort on making the place look swanky that somehow i didn't get much of a japanese vibe. since we've been to waraku and wanted to try something new, tom ton edged over kyomomoyama just because my gut feel was that tom ton would better fit the bill...and it did indeed hit the spot!

the menu didn't look too impressive and i remember commenting to g that it was actually quite limited. but i was quickly proven wrong by the exquisiteness of each dish that was served. what seemed like simple traditional japanese fare turned out to be truly exquisite. just one bite of each dish would make you immediately realise that each and every dish was prepared with an immense amount of pride and care.

sashimi moriwase. outstanding cuts of hamachi, salmon (belly i suspect!) and toro...close to perfect slices of fish, extremely fresh and yes they ALL melt in your mouth! to top it all off, the wasabi was ground fresh off the root! it was truly a japan hour moment as g aptly pointed out, one bite and both of us were like....ahhh! oishii!

mains consisted of a katsudon set and a 'black pig' soba set with yuzu pepper. i was a little puzzled with the black pig bit but i guess its like the grade of pork similar to the black angus type for beef. the katsudon was breaded with yummy batter, covered with yummy sauce that didn't seem to soak through the fillet, allowing it to maintain its tenderness within its crispy outershell. the miso soup too was extraordinary, tasting like a blend of traditional miso and niku jaga.
(check out http://www.cfc.com.sg/images/Berkshire.gif for more!)

the most outstanding part of the soba set was in the sauce - warm soya based sauce with slivers of black pig bacon and yummy onion bits. the yuzu pepper added a really nice and different twist to the whole dish. think cross between wasabi and mustard, adding a little tang to the fiery nature of the wasabi and really complementing the richness of the sauce. it was so good, i insisted g have a try and in my haste to further enjoy the meal, i spilt the entire bowl of sauce! yes, bacon and all! but the restaurant was great and got me another bowl of sauce (minus the bacon) but it was still all good. while waiting, i enjoyed the ebi tempura that came with the set. again, delicious batter and really fresh prawns cooked just right. the tartare sauce was a perfect complement to the tempura, (think japanese mayo used instead of the standard) and i wished i had more tempura to dip into the yummy mayo!

despite my little display of klutziness, we left feeling truly satisfied and i made the mental note that the next time we visit, i was going to have more tempura and tonkatsu!