Easy peasy Japanesy

If there is one thing the Japanese are impossibly good at, it is exporting their food. Japanese, I believe, is as ubiquitous around the world as Italian or French cuisine – and the words “sushi” or “ramen” have become as well-known as “pasta”, or “confit”. The assault takes place on many fronts – first it comes in the form of products: Japanese crackers, or instant ramen, etc. Then the food service wave starts – first the “locally-adapted” restaurants start popping up. At the onset these are typically modified to suit the local palate, and will make concessions in taste or any other component to secure a local following. At the same time, if there are any Japanese expatriates at all in the area, you’ll also see the smaller, sole-proprietor shops popping up – with food that is typically more authentic – to cater to the Japanese diaspora. But once Japanese cuisine has entered the consciousness of the locals, the mainstream quest for authenticity starts. At this point the Japanese chains come in, and since they already have the brand equity they can afford to insist on product quality and consistency of the experience they sell. So you’ll see ramen chains abroad insisting on bringing the noodles, or even other ingredients, in from Japan; and refusing to use local substitutes. More Japanese food products get imported, people get more and more exposed to Japanese food, they get more and more curious about it, and it becomes a virtuous cycle.

It is interesting to appreciate this phenomenon in Singapore – from the point of view of someone who was away for a long time. To me, it seems that there are thousands more Japanese restaurants in Singapore these days as compared to before I left for the States. And the palate of Singaporeans is changing. There has always been a local fascination with Japanese food – and indeed, all things Japanese – aided no doubt by that bastion of television programming, Japan Hour. But while before, that fascination stemmed from a curiosity for the foreign and exotic, these days there is a subtle shift beginning. Locals no longer view Japanese as an exotic “other” but increasingly accept it as part and parcel of the local dining scene. How you can tell this is very simple. When you are planning a dinner out for a sizeable group, it is invariably difficult to pick a cuisine, much less a restaurant, that satisfies everyone. Someone might not like the spice of Indian food, for example. Or another might shun the carbo-rich Italian diet. Others view even more exotic cuisines like Mediterranean or Greek with a healthy dollop of mistrust. Yet almost nobody will complain when you suggest Japanese – and while that may be a result of this wonderfully diverse and amazingly agreeable cuisine, it is also testament to how assimilated it has become.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with all of this, of course, and I will be the first to raise my hand and say that I am quite the fool for Japanese myself. This past week I went on a bender of sorts – four days of Japanese food in a row – and lived to tell the tale.

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Tuesday – Aoba Hokkaido Ramen
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-25 ION Orchard
Te: +65 6509 9394

Nowhere is this proliferation of Japanese cuisine more evident than in the spread of ramen. If you mentioned ramen to anyone ten years ago, they’d probably be able to tell you what they knew – that it was noodles in broth, typically served with a slice of belly pork and an egg, and sometimes topped with seaweed or other garnishing. Some might even be able to describe that famous scene in the movie ‘Tampopo’. But these days, mention ramen to the man on the street and more likely than not he or she will be able to expound on the various types of broth – shio, shoyu, miso or tonkotsu – and the various regional noodle variants. He or she will be able to tell you that tonkotsu broth is made at a rolling boil for up to 10 hours or more, because the vigorous boil helps to emulsify the fat and water, creating an ultra-tasty, milky-looking broth. Knowledge of ramen has increased exponentially, as has the availability of different styles in Singapore.

Aoba is a franchise from the northern island of Hokkaido, supposedly where ramen is most revered. I believe this is due to the suitability of a hot bowl of noodles and broth to the harsh winters there. They have opened a couple of franchises here in Singapore – one of them at Ion Orchard – and after seeing the queue at Watami we decided to come here instead.

There are people who may not understand what all the fuss about ramen is. After all – it is just noodles in broth. These are the people that do not truly understand the Japanese approach to food and life. To the Japanese, simplicity is sacred, and perfection is a goal to be accomplished at all costs. When the Japanese put out a product, every single component of that product must be perfect. The Japanese do not subscribe to the 80/20 rule. They do not cut corners. To them, everything is a craft, and mastery of that craft is the highest ideal. Each product that they put out should be a work of art – so even if they are doing something simple, they do it well and they do it with pride. That is why ramen holds so much allure to the Japanese. It is simple, sure, but to take something simple and make it into a life-changing experience is anything but. And to be able to replicate that process over and over again is also far from simple. That is what the Japanese live for, and that is why they are obsessed with ramen.

By those lofty standards, Aoba falls a little short. I had the Shoyu ramen and while the broth had good flavour – the chashu was limp and uninspiring. The noodles were good taste-wise but lacked a little springiness. I did like the egg though – it had that mushy quality of the not-quite-hard-boiled eggs you typically get in ramen. As an overall product the ramen was above average, but a long way short of life-changing.

Wednesday – Itacho Sushi
2 Orchard Turn
#B2-18 ION Orchard
Tel: +65 6509 8911

By some quirk of fate, I found myself back at Ion Orchard the next day, and we decided on sushi this time. What’s odd about Itacho is that it is not a Japanese franchise, but instead originated in Hong Kong. The chain has since expanded to China, Taiwan and Singapore (they probably know better than to enter the Japanese market). Itacho @ Ion exhibits many of what is bad about chain restaurants – cookie-cutter décor being one of them – and some other faults not specific to chain restaurants. In an effort to maximize revenue, tables are jam-packed into the restaurant space – at times I almost felt as though the table next to us was participating in our conversation. Service is rushed and impersonal – understandably given the crowds and the turnover during the dinner rush – and when I cracked a joke to our waitress she seemed a little taken aback and did not know how to respond.

But it also exhibits what is so good about chain restaurants. They clearly have their processes in place – and have a very interesting cha chaan teng style of noting the table’s orders on a mini clipboard, which is kept on the back of one of the chairs at the table. More importantly, they must have great purchasing power, for their product is pitched at a very affordable price given its quality. The sushi is fresh enough, the quality surprisingly good, and each piece goes for around $2 or $3. It is not cheap, seeing as how I need about 20 of the little buggers to feel full, and some of the more expensive pieces can go up to $7 or more; but it is not ridiculous either. I’m not sure how they pull this off – especially since they only have the one Singapore outlet (for now), so there are less economies of scale compared to their network in Hong Kong.

Itacho smartly stays away from sashimi because the truly transcendent sashimi demands absolute freshness, which is often difficult and expensive. The focus here is on sushi, and the results of that focus are clear to see. The sushi with cooked seafood at Itacho is actually very good – what they do is they roast the piece of seafood gently so that only one side is cooked through, and when you do eat the piece of sushi you get the contrasting textures of cooked and raw at the same time. Overall the restaurant’s offering is far from exquisite stuff, and it is clearly a product for the masses. But the people at Itacho do not see the need to dumb down that product. A restaurant with lesser ambition would limit the menu to the cheaper products, or those easy to source, and wind up with the same six types of sushi you could get anywhere else. But Itacho understands that the average consumer demands much more than that. That’s why the wagyu beef is on the menu. That’s why you can get three grades of fatty salmon – with more or less tendon. Itacho cuts the right corners in order to strike a good balance between quality and cost, and the result is an impressive selection of decent sushi at affordable prices.

Thursday – Saboten
9 Raffles Boulevard
#P3-01 Parco Marina Bay, Millenia Walk
Tel: +65 6333 3432

Laura had told me earlier about this hidden enclave of Japanese restaurants at Parco Millenia Walk, and I had been meaning to try it out. So when the crowd consensus – not for the first time – fell to Japanese, I suggested going to this place to check it out. It is really hidden away, on the third floor of the department store, and since the shopping crowd had thinned by the time we got there, it was eerily quiet. But it gave us a chance to view the several Japanese restaurants – and one lone Italian place. Each of them had a different focus – there was a sushi place, two ramen places and of course, Saboten, which specializes in tonkatsu.

On hindsight I felt this was the standout meal of the week. Saboten does one thing and does it very well. The panko was crispy and flavourful, and the pork cutlet inside tender and juicy. The other breaded meats were uniformly excellent. You could gripe about the miso soup (standard-issue) or the rice (plain, when I expected vinegared) but both of those items are free flow, so it is hard to gripe about them.

But the most enjoyable thing about Saboten is the hand-chopped cabbage that they serve before the meal. They provide two dressings to eat the cabbage with – one a yuzu-flavoured soy sauce, and the other a sesame oil vinaigrette – the latter of which was quite amazing. ZJ commented that she had never been so eager to eat cabbage, and it was a sentiment echoed by everyone at the table.

What I also liked about Saboten was its attention to the little things. The salad bowls that they gave us came chilled. The tonkatsu came on a mini-grill, which meant that any residual oil would drip onto the plate below rather than cling to the pieces of meat. (For the record the tonkatsu at Saboten wasn’t very oily in the first place.) It’s the little things that separate the great from the good, and it was pleasing to see a restaurant take the time to give all things their due.

Friday – Waraku
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-89/97/98 The Central @ Clarke Quay
Tel: +65 6327 8860

There are three so-called enclaves of Japanese food in Singapore that I can think of. First and foremost is the Cuppage Plaza area – the original Japanese expatriate hangout and the most authentic. Then you have the Parco Millenia Walk space where Saboten is. Finally you have the Central, right next to Clarke Quay. Here you have the generalist chain restaurants Ma Maison, Sun With Moon, Waraku and the ramen-yas Marutama and Santouka.

The Japanese chain restaurants all have the same formula: a little bit of everything food-wise, oversized bowls, glitzy menus with many photos and generally a greater emphasis on presentation. You’re not really going to these places for the quality, so it’s really a crapshoot picking between them. Waraku has booths with a nice quayside view, so that was where we headed. (Unfortunately the group wound up too big to sit at the booths, so we wound up without a view after all.)

It was a good thing I had already eaten ramen, sushi and tonkatsu earlier in the week because these aren’t very good at Waraku. I had a curry chicken udon which, I have to say, made me very happy. Unfortunately nothing else I tasted that night was impressive, or even any good. Michelle’s tuna tartare came smothered in an overly salty soy sauce, which destroyed the dish. The smoked salmon, avocado and asparagus roll had too little avocado, and the salmon wasn’t smoked, but raw. The soft-shell crab roll came in a tamago wrap which was rubbery to the bite. The agedashi tofu was bland and uninspiring. After a while I gave up trying to sample other people’s food. What was the point? It was all bad. I must have lucked out with the only decent dish on the menu.

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If there was one thing consistent about the Japanese places that I went to this week, it was that they were all doing brisk business. Singaporeans, it seems, just cannot get enough of Japanese food. It is all very well and good, but the day after my Japanese bender I ate some good old mee pok tar, and realized that when the rubber meets the road I would really rather eat Singaporean hawker food. Call me crazy, but it looks like I won't be moving to Japan anytime soon.