At level four in Bugis+, six Japanese chefs are fighting for the title as Ramen Champion 2012. It seems like there is one or two fighting for the same thing at Changi Airport as well, but I'm not too sure. Anyhow, this is known as The Ultimate Ramen Champion 2012, and as far as I understand this event started last year (crowning the 2011 champion in July 2012), and it was such a big success that they are going for it one more year. And common, if an event is brand new and has food, Japan, competition and a low price to it all, it could really not be anything but a success here in Singland.
Ramen is a really nice Japanese dish that contains noodles in a brothy soup with a salty or miso flavoured touch to it. As toppings you may find sliced pork, dried seaweed, egg halves, kamaboko (some sort of compressed seafood puree that is sliced up, Swedish people may refer to sliced fiskbulle), green onions, strange stuff that I have no clue what it is and with a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top.
As it was our first time at Ramen Champion, we decided to go for last years winner, Ikkousha, which seemed like a safe choice. We ordered their number one hakata ramen and fried dumplings, making sure nothing was spicy to the level of "denger". Unfortunately we were not super impressed. It was definitely better than any food court - but not even close to our number one favourite Yoshimaru Ramen Bar in Holland Village. Now that's a proper ramen experience, it's a real restaurant and more or less the same price, with outstanding ramen (way too salty for many locals, but oh so heavenly for a salt craving Swede). Plus you get to ground your sesame seeds yourself in a mortar before sprinkling it over your beautifully prepared bowl of ramen. Yum!
