Ramen Makotoya, Zhongshan North Road @ Zhongshan District, Taipei

Came across Ramen Makotoya (No. 142, Minsheng West Road, Datong District, Taipei) by chance and was intrigued by their gyukotsu ramen which appeared to be a specialty. From what I gathered, the ramen-ya originates from Fukushima, Osaka.

Kaki frys had a nice crispy crust which wasn't excessively oily. Oysters were pretty good quality. Wished they were bigger though. 😬 

Gyozas were ordinary and had the textbook flavours. While it meant on one hand that they were competently done, they were also kinda boring. 😅

The milky broth of their gyukotsu was intriguing. There was a discernible beefiness and butteriness in it with undertones of mushrooms. Yeah, that mushroom-y element was pretty integral to the flavour. 

Overall, nicely done bowl. Wished the noodles were harder but otherwise, enjoyed it. If anyone was wondering, those charshu disintegrated in the mouth.

Not a fan of their shoyu bowl which I found to be too sweet. All that sweetness from the cabbage made it taste Chinese.

Their charshu don looked pretty ordinary. It was delicious in that ordinary sense with the sweet caramelized cubes of tender charshu, a richness from the molten yolk of the egg and the negi to cut through all of those. 

Once you've mixed in the grated garlic (which you can request for) and a splash of gyoza white vinegar, this became addictively moreish. Outstanding. 👍🏼

Tsujihan (つじ半), Breeze Xinyi, Taipei

Tsujihan originates from Tokyo. They're apparently a "viral" cash only and no reservations restaurant. This branch in Taipei (No. 68, Section 5, Zhongxiao East Road B1, Xinyi District, Taipei) takes reservations so we were able to get seats without having to queue. Also accepts credit cards.

What many people seem to be getting here are their kaisendon sets. 

Ankimo ponzu which wasn't part of the sets. Nice.

Saw quite a number of pictures of this tai sashimi with sesame sauce online. It was ok.

This was their 特上 kaisendon bowl. Seafood quality was just passable. I was expecting them to be exceptional. The uni was sweet but there was pretty strong taste to the point that it wasn't pleasant anymore. Crab meat was shredded and doesn't have much to go with mouthfeel. This felt like a glorified kaisendon.

One can get chazuke by requesting for their tai broth to be added to the rice. Other than the fish, I'm guessing dashi and miso. Not bad but it would cook whatever bits of fish that's still left in the bowl. 

Some milky pudding with matcha and an anko ball at the end.

Grilled Fish Keisuke, Tanjong Pagar Road

 

Nice! Keisuke has opened up a (mostly) grilled fish teishoku shop on the unit (101 Tanjong Pagar Road) that used to house his tendon-ya Ginza Tendon Itsuki which ended business earlier in the month. We (also read as 'I') needed this in between bridging the crazy queue at Nakajima Suisan and the pricey Suju.

They've stepped up with the condiments in this shop featuring a briny mentaiko ika, a beefy savoury gyu shigure ni and a salty spicy karashi tanaka.

Teishoku comes with rice, miso soup and a fried egg. They're bottomless along with the condiments except for that fried egg and the protein of choice.

Which made it dangerous because the condiments were intensely flavoured and well salted to pair with rice. I had seconds.

Gratuitous molten yolk porn.

We had the gindara and akauo misozuke yaki. Grilled black cod and Pacific Ocean perch that's been marinated with miso in English. Both fishes were nicely done with crisp skin and a layer of light smoky sweetness from the marinate. I look forward to coming back - I spied gyutan and kinmedai.

Kinki, Japanese unagi and yellow croaker at Nakajima Suisan

Another satisfying breakfast at Nakajima Suisan (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二, 二十三).

Pretty surprised that they have kinki. Seems like they're also pushing the envelop with that since kinki isn't cheap and this was the most expensive set we've ever gotten at $49.90. That being said, I recognise that this was a lot less expensive than what most places charges for a fish like this. If you didn't know, there's a prawny flavour to the fish and it was delicious.

There's also a limited quantity unagi kabayaki teishoku featuring Japanese eels. Equally as pricey as the kinki but sadly not great. Meat was a little mushy. Don't expect the standards that one gets from Man Man/Unagi Tei. Or even Uya and Unatoto for that matter. Won't be getting this again.

Their yellow croaker is still available and still huge. Great value for quantity and the fish, though leaner and less flavourful, wasn't bad at all.

Natto, shoyu and rice.

So...back at Suju @ Mandarin Gallery

We found ourselves back at the Mandarin Gallery branch of Suju ( 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二, 二十三).

Miso cream cheese without white corn. Without the distraction from the corn, the miso marination along with the rich creaminess was put into focus. Love this. Love this with the wasabi as well where the sweet sharpness turned out to be a great pairing.

Nasu dengaku - or eggplant topped with their house miso. Nice and that's mostly because of that miso.

Got myself a kanpanchi shioyaki teishoku today.

Delicious fish with moderate oil richness layered with flavour from the browning and salt.

Miching Omurice Co. (米青蛋包飯公司), D2 Place One, Lai Chi Kok

Lunch at Miching Omurice Co.(Shop 303, 3/F, D2 Place One, 9 Cheung Yee Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong). The menu's mostly omurice paired with various protein choices and carbs. There's also wagyu steak.

Pretty impressed with their thick cut ox tongue which was arguably tender. Tongue was beefy tasting. Curry was lightweight and savoury without being overly sweet like Japanese curries tend to be.

This was a serving of their hanging tender (a.k.a. onglet). Steak came with a small hill of fries and underneath those fries, were chopped up romaine tossed in vinegar that was piled on top of mashed potatoes. This plate was loaded.

Special mention goes to the corn soup and that yellow stuff with the ketchup which I had initially mistook for mustard. It's garlic butter and it kicked ass with the steak and the fries.

Pretty nice onglet.

Because of the garlic butter, I kinda overlooked these other condiments that came with the onglet. That paste-y stuff on the right was yuzu kosho.

Revisiting the mazesoba from Ramen Hitoyoshi (ラーメン人吉)

Been a while since we last had the mazesoba here. The bowl's the same. Didn't change and I certainly didn't expect it to be any different. What's changed here was that the sesame seeds are now in pepper mills and not sesame seed grinders which made it a huge...I mean huge pain in the ass grinding because those pepper mills just don't work well for sesame seeds. 😓 

Japanese bak chor mee some say. Not gonna disagree with that.

More aji katsu from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison

 

Everytime I have one of these from Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, I wonder why they don't bring the sanma katsu back.

Royal Host, Takashimaya/Ngee Ann City

Been curious about Royal Host since they opened at Jewel. These guys are retro styled Japanese western food...not unlike Ma Maison. This branch in town (#B2-25/26 Takashimaya Shopping Centre, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6908 1339) was a lot more accessible.

Royal paradise tropical iced tea - tasted a little herbal. 

Lobster bisque's decent. Portion was pretty small.

This was an odd one; albeit an odd one which we enjoyed. A Genovese styled kale pesto spaghetti that's sprinkled with candied pecans and bits of biscuit which tasted like Marie biscuits. 😯 So amidst that pesto and creamy cheese, there's sweetness from those. I'd come back for this.

Sparkling water is available free flow for two bucks.

Their hamburg seemed to be a signature dish so we got one with brown butter sauce. Said sauce didn't exactly taste buttery - pretty sure there was beef stock with tomato and/or vinegar in it. Not bad tasting but we prefer the hambagu sans sauce because the meat tasted beefy. No fillers. Not bad. I like it more than the A5 omigyu one at Steak Sukadu.

Hot fudge sundae was pretty awesome. Never had something like this since I was a kid at Swenson's. Style's pretty nostalgic. Though it even had the same candied pecan and bits of Marie biscuit like the kale pesto spaghetti. 😬