Sawagani from Tampopo

Tampopo often has affordable seasonal items on their menu. So far, they've been doing a pretty good job of luring us back again and again. Lately, it seems that they have brought in some sawagani and so there we were again!

These little river crabs here tasted a little bit more greasy than the ones I remember having at Chikuwa Tei. They were also handled with a little less finesse as seen from a broken claw and some legs. Otherwise, these lightly salted deep fried river crabs tastes pretty much the same everywhere. The squeeze of lemon was a good idea even though the juice pretty much flowed off the crabs.

Seeing numerous orders of their tonkatsu ramen from various neighbouring tables, we decided to give it a go. The tonkotsu broth was heavily masked by the chilli oil. Wasn't bad at all if rather non indicative of tonkotsu broths. The fried tonkatsu however was disappointing. The battered surface was laden with oil. It was a greasy fried piece of pork but not in a way that I would have liked.

We had cake. Their matcha chiffon cake wasn't bad. I guess the appeal for me was the light milky cream that they use. That same cream that makes me want to get their scoop cake every time.