More items from Tampopo again!

I found myself back at Tampopo again. I credit the draw back to the place to their seasonal menu which features things items on rotation. I'm a sucker for it.

I was pretty excited after having discovered that they actually had a wagyu ribeye katsu on the katsu section of their menu a few weeks back and had been trying to return to try it. It was out of supplies for a while and this week, they've managed to get their meat back again. Despite being a little wary, I was still bent on trying them out. My only recollection of deep fried beef was from a country fried steak from Seah Street Deli quite a few years back. 

The katsu was sadly unexciting. Flavour from the batter contented with the thin slice of beef inside resulting in a very lacklustre flavour from the meat. While it did arrive pink and filled with rendered fat from the marbling, the flavour of wagyu were almost imperceptible, dashing my hopes of a good discovery.

Stick to the wafu steak I shall.

Another item from their specials menu was an anago temdon - which was a tempura donburi that featured a generous piece of fried congo eel. It was actually quite decent if not spectacular. Didn't give me the same kind of satisfaction from the anago don from Kaiho Sushi. There was a deep fried mushroom, sweet potato and pumpkin in the bowl as well.

Craving ramen, I inquired about their black pig spare rib ramen. It happened to be made with my favourite tonkotsu broth and the Hakata styled noodles. Tasted to me like a sort of Chinese inspired creation as the braised spare rib was much like a sweeter version of the dark soy sauce braised pork that my grandmother cooks every new year. There was even a few stalks of vegetables on the side that helped deepen the impression. The meat was well cooked, firm yet fell off the bone with ease. Interestingly, a good pairing with that smidgeon of mustard. The noodles were as expected, firm in the milky savoury pork bone broth that for some odd reasons, seemed to intermittently exude a very faint aroma of yuzu.

And for dessert, we passed on the usual orders of cream cakes for their delicious negitoro don. Another item in danger of getting into the regular order option.