Everybody Loves Ramen

I've always been a fan of Hiyashi Chuka or cold ramen. A nice summer dish of cold noodles, with julienned cucumber, crabstick, ham, egg and bamboo shoot. It's a cool yet filling dish and I suppose, somewhat healthy?

But yesterday was the first time I had spicy cold ramen, at Beppu Menkan at Far East Square. It's known for its five levels of spiciness - one-, two-, four-, six- and eight-chilli!

It was such a hot day, made worse by the fact we had to sit outside, so four out of the five of us had the Hiyashi Chuka - three spicy, one not.

The noodles came with a gigantic mound of spring onions, which put me off and which I had to scrape to one side of the bowl, but otherwise was pretty tasty and with a decent amount of spiciness to it - spicy yet not overpowering. Not bad indeed. They could've been a bit more generous with the bamboo shoots, which I love. And unfortunately chose not to put the slices of omelette. So there was carrots, crabmeat, seaweed and cucumber. Oh and sprinkles of fried garlic - an interesting accompaniment.

Place was packed with the area's office crowd, which made me glad I don't work in the area, yet at the same time, wouldn't mind working in the area cos at least there's a better variety of food than the kopitiams around here. (ok so there's TP central and J8 but it's really not that interesting - all shopping malls are quite the same - Sakae Sushi, fast food, Delifrance.... boring lousy food).

Beppu Menkan
134 Amoy Street, Far East Square
Tel: 6438-0328