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2012-05-30
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Recommended: Yasai (Vegetable Ramen). 鎮店之寶 - 招牌"野菜拉麵" 幾抵食It's such a convenient lunch option that I've tried it two days after my first visit! This time I arrived a bit later after bringing a few old photographs to one of the numerous galleries in the area for framing (btw, the prices in that area are reasonable). It was 1:40 p.m. and there were plenty of seats available.Again, I've placed my order before I entered the shop. This time I wanted to try "Yasai Ramen" (Vegetable Ramen). Yasai ramen
鎮店之寶 - 招牌"野菜拉麵" 幾抵食
It's such a convenient lunch option that I've tried it two days after my first visit!
This time I arrived a bit later after bringing a few old photographs to one of the numerous galleries in the area for framing (btw, the prices in that area are reasonable). It was 1:40 p.m. and there were plenty of seats available.
Again, I've placed my order before I entered the shop. This time I wanted to try "Yasai Ramen" (Vegetable Ramen).
Yasai ramen is actually their signature ramen. As far as I'm aware, this is the only ramen chain in Hong Kong which specialized in this type of ramen. Although the name "vegetable ramen", might seem like a rather bland vegetarian option, it's in fact stir fried vegetables with sliced pork, "Chuka style , i.e. the Japanese interpretation of Chinese cooking methods. The whole stir-fry is then placed directly on top of the bowl of ramen.Broth & Okinawa sea salt:
Although in Japan, you could choose from a number of soup bases, i.e. Miso, Tonkotsu, Shio and Shoyu, they didn't appear to provide such options here. (I never really had a lot of time to look at the menu while standing). The broth here was quite interesting. It appears to me to be a clear chicken broth combined with pork meat soup - I have to stress, not pork bone - soup, perhaps also with a Shio (salt) soup base? The taste was mainly pork meat soup like those home-made ones in Cantonese families.
It's almost pointless to compare it with shops that specializes in the much thicker Tonkotsu broth, i.e. ButaO or Tamashii, as the broth provided here was a light pork meat/bone soup combined with clear chicken soup (that is "Tori Gara" soup - a clear chicken broth usually used in Chuka style cuisines and broths for dumplings in Japan, which used the chicken carcass only, without the skin, as opposed to the thick chicken broth like those in the ramen shop "Tori Hana", which is broiled with the whole chicken, including the meat, bones and skin like the Korean Sam Gye Tang.)
A more similar comparison might be with "Ryo Tei" which I tried a reviewed recently. They also provide ramen with "tori gara" soup base. The tori gara soup base I tried was there was mixed with Shoyu, Japanese soy sauce, which was very good by the way. On the other hand, the tori gara soup base here appeared to have no shoyu but used a Shio soup base. Again, Hachiban stated that they used sea salt harvested near the sea at Okinawa.
The sea salt probably accounted for the interesting aftertaste which I initially thought might be a slight hint of "Aji no Moto" i.e. Japanese MSG (MSG was invented in Japan by the way - so I suppose it's still authentic Japanese). However, I did not feel thirsty afterwards. I also managed to finish most of the broth without feeling thirsty afterwards. Good!
Noodles and lettuce:According to Hachiban's website (the essential parts about the ramen were only in Japanese), they used their own brand of lettuce grown in their own farms in Japan. The noodles were also made by their own factory. They had four different types of noodles, thick, medium, thin and very thin. They used the thick ones for their Yasai ramen and I believe the medium one for their chuka soba. I don't think they do the thin and very thin version in Hong Kong.
This thick noodle had an interesting wheat aftertaste. It's quite different from Hokkaido ramen. The noodles were less oily (you can distinguish that as the no-oil version doesn't look as transparent as the Hokkaido one) but nevertheless still quite chewy. I enjoyed the texture as well as the portion. Quite a filling lunch. Definitely more filling than the Kimchi Chuka Soba I had here two days ago.
The stir-fry consisted of:
A lot of beans-sprouts, which is a favorite amongst many Japanese diners (like those provided in "Hachiyo", also a favorite amongst many Japanese diners), which were also quite big and tasty.
so chopped carrots. Those were also fresh and quite sweet.
some black fungi. Those were probably marinated in salted water overnight. So they got rid of the grassy taste and were very crispy. It's delicious.
some menma, which were more sour than salty. Average quality.
a few slices of pork, which were nothing special and were a bit dried and
one thin piece of char siu, which was thin but rather tasty but definitely not a crowd-drawer. It's nothing special.
and a lot of very fresh and crisp home grown lettuce.
So all in all, the vegetable stir-fry was pretty good. It was fried with some garlic and a hint of black pepper as well, which added complexity to the broth. Good.
I was allocated a seat right at the very end of the small shop. I felt like sitting at a balcony as I was facing directly at the footbridge and overlooking Queens Road. It's quite relaxing because of the natural light outside and comfortable air-conditioning, but at the same time, very dynamic, as you are directly facing the people walking on the foot bridge. Infinity ramen pool:
I almost forgot to mention the fried prawns. It's +HK$7 and you get two fried prawns. +HK$5 for a beverage of your choice.
The two fried prawns (not to be confused with tempura) were a bit oily but not bad. The size of the prawns were decent and the flavour was quite strong. The prawns were OK. The freshness was acceptable. It's probably marinated before being fried as the flavour was quite strong. All in all, can't complaint for HK$7. However, I prefer the cuttlefish tempura a little bit more.
The lemon tea was average stuff. Again, no complaints.
The whole set plus the drink came down to HK$64 which I find quite reasonable.
If you just order the noodle, it's HK$52 for a very decent bowl of Yasai Ramen.
All in all, a very comfortable and positive dining experience!
Recommended for lunch or tea time!
總評:
由於很方便及幾好味所以兩日後又一試!
今次叫了鎮店之寶 - 招牌"野菜拉麵"：
中華風〔爆〕炒野菜．
日本自家農場種植的椰菜確新鮮爽脆又清甜！
大量豆芽，紅蘿蔔絲，黑木耳：爽口！
醋腌的竹筍質素可以．
有小量肉片及一片薄叉燒．只是綠葉．
肉類麻麻，但勝在野菜確係新鮮爽口．
材料與大蒜，黑椒爆炒後相當惹味！
材料之後蓋在"太麵"上。太麵亦是〔八番〕自設廠房製造的．沒有像北海道的粗麵般用油製過，所以較乾身但亦有嚼勁．份量亦足夠．
湯頭應是豬肉湯（或很淡的豬骨湯）加雞清湯內熬的．偏向清淡．加上沖繩鹽提味．令湯頭更有層次．我差不多喝完整碗湯！
加７元有吉列蝦．ｏｋ．再加５元有飲品．
價錢合理．味道唔錯．
午市，下午茶可以一試！
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