Ramen at Sanpachi

Looking to expand my ramen horizon, I invited @Maurice and @bennettchin to join me at Sanpachi for lunch back in December. Maurice had been there once, but was willing to join us to give it a second whirl.

Those familiar with this blog know that I like my food spicy. So of course, I ordered their Spicy Ramen. Maurice suggested I add an egg...so there it is. The ramen wasn't as bright red as it was shown in the menu (thank goodness) and it was spicy, but not overly so.

B ordered the mini combo of Nori Mayo and the Shio Ramen. His soup was quite tasty and probably better than mine overall. The chasu pieces of both noodles were really thin...papery slices. I'm not saying I want chunks like the kind you would get at Kintaro, but something I can't see through would be nice.

The Nori Mayo was interesting...reminded of me of Onigiri. Just a chunk of rice with some minced pork marinating with mayo, and wrapped with crispy nori. I really liked it, something about eating with your hands and the tiny bite-sizedness of the dish.

As part of the combo, you can actually order a half-sized portion of the ramen to go along with this. Or, if there are three of you...just share, which is exactly what we did!

Here is a closeup of my noodles...the chasu looks a little thicker here than B's Shio, but what I want to draw your attention to is the egg. It's an $1 add-on, and they call it the "tasty egg", as opposed to a bland egg, I suppose. What struck M is weird is that they serve you the egg whole, as in unsliced (is that a word?). It makes it a little weird to eat...as good as I am with chopsticks, I was having problems picking it up and slicing it open. But alas, success!

The yolk perfect...soft-boiled and as you can see, the marinade does permeate throughout the egg white, right through to the yolk. I would order this again, but perhaps would ask them to slice it in half for me...better presentation, wouldn't you say?

And you have to love the Japanese for their innovative way of saying 1am. I had no idea time 25 o'clock was...