Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen at Novena

Every Sunday, rain or shine, there is one thing that Dear must do. He must go for his soccer session with his friends in the afternoon. The whole bunch of guys have been playing soccer since their teenage years and still think of themselves as that teenage boy kicking the ball around the school field.

The effects of aging, or of playing contact sports, came earlier than expected for them. One of the soccer mates, the most fanatic one of them all, suffered a slip disc and had to go for an operation in the post Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital. Apparently, he is advised not to play such rough sports even after he gets well or risk paralysing himself.

May I add here that Dear always get himself injured after a game. A cut here, a bruise there, without fail. Yesterday, he came home with a sprained ankle. Sigh.

Back to my story, the guys went to visit the poor dude last Tuesday night after his operation, bringing a soccer ball with all their signatures. That's probably not a very good gift, in my opinion. I mean, give the guy a ball and tell him that he cannot play with it?

Dear met me for dinner at Novena Square 2 after the visit and we walked around the mall before deciding to try this ramen place that was packed.

I love the feel of the place. Don't you feel like you are in Japan?

The specialty here is the Kazan Ramen which is served in a stone bowl covered with an inverted cone. A set of instructions is placed at each table to inform what is the correct way of eating it. 

 

Here's our shoyu flavoured Kazan Ramen. Basically, you have to turn over the hour glass, which is on the table and is timed for one minute, when the pot is served. After one minute and when you see the steam shooting out of the cone, remove it and eat!

This is why the shop's logo alludes to a volcano. Don't worry about having to move the heavy cone lid for yourself and being vulnerable to the hot steam, the kind waitress helped us with everything that night.

Bubbly boil and boil. Lots of cabbage and beansprouts in the pot, with chucks of char siew. The noodles are thicker than the usual ramen noodles so that they will not burn from the heat. 

Each Kazen Ramen comes with a bowl of white rice which you are supposed to add into the soup after finishing the noodles. The set feeds two comfortably for around $18. So the overall bill is pretty cheap for two persons.

Taste wise: The soup is a tad salty and goes well with the rice. We don't like bean sprouts and cabbages so that leaves us with just the pieces of char siew to share between us.

 So, of cos I wanted to get the gyoza to share between us. Nothing to shout about and nothing bad about it as well.

It's been some time since I found a place where the dining concept is fun. I also saw a Japanese man dining along at the restaurant with ear phones plugged in.

Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen

10 Sinaran Drive

#02-68/69 Square 2