Nakiryu means “Screaming Dragon” in Japanese and they’re the second ramen shop to get a Michelin star after Tsuta. The ramen they do is very different from the light tasting Tsuta – Nakiryu’s tantanmen is unapologetically heavy, spicy and rich. I’ve eaten a previous version of their instant noodles (also by Nissin) in 2016. This was before they’ve won their Michelin star and the Nissin version then was in cup noodle format with all the seasoning and dehydrated protein bits inside the noodles. There was a sachet of hot oil to finish the ramen with and it tasted really good and nutty.
Their latest is a collaboration with 7Eleven Premium Japan. The
recipe has been refined and inside the bowl ramen is a packet of powdered soup
and dehydrated meat, a sachet of hot oil and a pack of finishing oil. You’re
only supposed to put the powdered soup + dehydrated meat inside with the
noodles when hot water is added. The other two goes on top of the lid to absorb
residual heat and they’re only added when the noodles are done.
Nakiryu’s broth is so thick and creamy it’s almost like a starchy
stew! There’s also bits of dehydrated meat inside to add texture. This is a
type of ramen called tantanmen which is a Szechuan inspired ramen dish. It’s
spicy and flavorful and there’s nutty undertones in the soup base. This isn’t a
refined and gentlemanly ramen like Tsuta – the Nakiryu instant ramen is
overpoweringly in-your-face.
I liked it but the previous discontinued cup version had a better ratio of dehydrated meat to noodles. The portion in this variation seems miserly in comparison. The powdered soup base also didn’t fare as well as Tsuta’s liquid soup base. I must compare these two as they’re both Michelin starred ramen outlets that produced an instant ramen version by 7Eleven Premium. I’m glad I tried it but both Mandy and I felt it’s overshadowed by it’s much superior and delicious tasting Tsuta instant ramen sister product. Or maybe I just don’t know how to appreciate these Japanese-Szechuan flavors – I was also decidedly unimpressed by 2 Michelin star Shisen Hanten.
Tsuta is the first ever ramen shop to get a Michelin star in 2015 and they’ve retained that star every year since. They recently did a collaboration with Nissin and the 7-Eleven Premium line of instant ramen to produce a ready-to-eat version of their famous noodles, sold exclusively at 7-Eleven Japan. As a Michelin star chaser, I owed it to myself to taste this interesting instant ramen. I shipped a few bowls in via personal shopper at a cost of around RM 400, which works out to RM 45 per bowl. Spoiler: It was damn worth it!
As the name suggests, Tsuta doesn’t serve typical ramen – they do soba noodles in ramen style. The broth they use is a chicken and clam combination, which is a lot less heavy than the typical pork stock. They’re also famous for finishing all their ramen with truffle, and this holds true for their faithful instant ramen adaptation too! This isn’t just a meagre drop of truffle you can barely taste – the broth is richly infused with truffle flavor and it shines through with every slurp of the ramen.
There are 4 packets of inside the bowl – a vacuum packed sachet of
bamboo shoots, a piece of dehydrated pork belly with green onions, a sauce soup
base and a foil of truffle oil. There are no powdered flavorings here. The
thin, curly noodles look different from most ramen too. You’re supposed to put
the dehydrated chasiu + green onion into the noodles and add hot water for 3
minutes. All the other packets go on top so it gets indirect heat and they’re
only added after the noodles are cooked.
I love the light tasting broth that’s packed with umami flavor. You can really taste the seafood and chicken in it and there’s yummy notes of truffle in every mouthful that elevates this instant ramen head-and-shoulders above all its peers. This is truly the best instant ramen I’ve ever eaten – no contest. My housemate Mandy loved it too. Nothing comes close, not even its sister 7Eleven Premium instant ramen by 1 Michelin star Nakiryu. Tsuta’s instant ramen is breathtakingly delicious! 🤤
I’ve recently refined my mac and cheese recipe to product a thick,
gooey sauce that sticks to each macaroni piece like delicious glue. My cheese
sauce not only has cheddar, but also chicken stock, fish sauce, Shaoxing wine
and sucralose, so it packs a real punch. I would not be remiss to say that
anyone who’s tasted this is instantly transported to FlavorTown. Since then, I’ve
worked more on the sides to find out the best pairing for this decadent treat.
This time I’m testing out fried chicken drumsticks with BBQ sauce
as the side. I never bought cooking oil until my housemate Mandy moved in. I
finally caved and purchased a small bottle of corn oil since not everyone likes
the healthy no-oil taste. I poured in a measure and fried a couple of chicken
drumsticks inside. I use a Happy Call Pan – a type of flappable pressure pan.
It browns the skin and cooks the interior very well.
I served my mac and cheese with plain, unseasoned prawns the last
round and I wanted to experiment with a heavier flavor profile this time. I
tossed the cooked and rested fried chicken legs in some hickory smoke BBQ
sauce. I really liked how well this tasted but unfortunately Mandy isn’t a fan
of BBQ sauce. I had to wipe away the sauce for her portions of the drums.
The secret to my cheese sauce is flour. A lot of people omit this
step but it’s essential to making a thick cheese sauce. You first melt butter
in a saucepan then stir in the flour slowly to make a roux. Milk or cream is
added next, stirring all the time so it combines well. I also add Shaoxing
wine, fish sauce and chicken stock at this point. Cheese is added last and as
soon as it melts, you pour the entire saucepan over the cooked macaroni.
I also had a side of broccoli to cut down on the heavy flavors. It’s
simply microwaved with a bit of water so it’s still crunchy – the way Mandy likes
it. It’s delicious! I like how the BBQ chicken drums go together with the
creamy mac and cheese. Mac and cheese is another recipe that I’ve mastered and
I can say with confidence tastes good.
I went to check out Nuromen Cafe with my housemate Mandy last night. I saw a video on Facebook and told her about it. To my surprise, she said she’s been there many times! I was puzzled coz she just arrived in KL 3 weeks ago and I’ve been out with her almost every time. I know I haven’t been here. It turns out that Nuromen Café in Uptown PJ is the official branch of Nuromen in Kuching. It serves Sarawak style beef noodles and Mandy’s a regular at the Kuching outlet.
As an illustration of how small the Sarawakian community is, a
friend tagged the artist who drew this mural (also from Kuching) when I posted
it on Facebook yesterday. Both Mandy and I are from Sarawak too. I guess
Sarawakians just have an incestuous tendency to stick together.
I miss Kuching style beef noodles. I believe Open Air Central
Market in Kuching serves one of the more definitive versions. That was my first
experience back when I was living in Kuching as a kid. My sister was actually
born in Kuching and our family lived there for the first 7 years of my life. I
was born in Sibu due to an accident – my mom went into labor when they came to
Sibu for Ching Ming. That’s also why my birthday is in Ching Ming. Haha.
Nuromen Café also serves a few Sarawak classic drinks like Teh C Special (RM 4.50) and Teh C Pandan Special (RM 4.50). This drink was created by a coffee shop in 7th Mile, Kuching. We got both to try. It was diluted, not the best representation of Teh C Special.
The interesting thing about Nuromen is the way they do hot pot
style beef noodles. You’re given a simmering bowl of beef soup a la hot pot and
you cook your own beef slices inside. It’s a cross between hot pot and beef
noodles. Mandy told me she usually orders this to eat with rice. You can also
pair it with noodles.
We ordered their signature Premium Sirloin Beef Platter Special (RM 42) – it’s a set for 2 pax with 160 gram premium sirloin beef slices, stewed beef, assorted vegetables and beef stock. Nuromen claims all their beef is sourced from Australia and NZ. It’s not local beef or Indian buffalo. This set comes with the more premium marbled sirloin cut. The beef slices are ultra thin so it cooks in just a few seconds.
There’s a separate bowl of cooked stewed beef. We didn’t quite
like this. I think my buffalo stew is way better.
I also made a separate a la carte order for 100 grams beef slices (RM 11.50). This is a leaner cut of beef. I wanted to see the difference between the sirloin and regular beef. We preferred the sirloin.
Of course, it’s not beef noodles unless you have noodles. You can order their garlic tossed kolo noodles for RM 3. This is the classic beef noodle pairing. I love the strong scent of garlic and the familiar smells and aromas. This is my kind of comfort food. The noodles are the proper kind we use in Sarawak too.
The staff gave us free ice cream when they saw we’re finished with
our meal. This happens in Kuching too according to Mandy. It’s a nice touch.
The food at Nuromen Cafe is pretty good – some misses on the drinks and stewed beef but their signature noodles and beef slices are legit. The bill came up to RM 68.50 for two with drinks. It’s an authentic Sarawakian taste that we’ve both missed. We’ll be back for sure.
I am a huge fan of chicken rice. I had a dark (?) period in my life where I ate poached chicken rice every single day for lunch for almost a year. And I enjoyed it! Haha. There was a really good chicken rice place at Pusat Bandar Damansara back then. I’ve also eaten Michelin Bib Gourmand award winners in Singapore like Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice and Tiong Bahru Boneless Chicken Rice. I consider myself a bit of a chicken rice connoisseur.
Restaurant Kar Heong in SS14 is one of my favorite chicken rice places around my condo (the other being Kong Sai). It has a stellar reputation among Subang-ites and their white chicken is very tender and juicy! The best benchmark for great poached chicken lies in the breast – it should be soft and succulent instead of dry and stringy. Kar Heong does perfect white chicken with moist meat and slippery skin. We shared ½ chicken between the two of us.
The chicken rice here is also extremely flavorful. There’s so much
taste packed into every grain that it’s almost like an umami bomb. This is the
1% of chicken rice – rich, superior and piquant. A lot of people drizzle black
sauce or their chicken gravy on top. I prefer the latter – I adore the
combination of soy sauce, sugar and coriander stalks that makes up the sauce
you see at the bottom of poached chicken. It’s perfect with rice. Kar Heong has
good garlicky chilli sauce too.
Mandy also ordered a side of roasted pork. The roast pork here is
decent but not the best I’ve had. I feel like the fat to meat ratio is a bit
off. I don’t enjoy overly fatty pieces of pork belly. It’s not the worst, but
doesn’t rank among the best siu yuk I’ve had in Klang Valley.
Kar Heong is my favorite place to have chicken rice in Subang. I
can’t vouch for their roasted chicken though coz I only like poached chicken so
that’s what I always order. I also enjoy Restoran Kong Sai in Puchong (their
original shop is in PJ). This place has the edge in the chicken rice while Kong
Sai’s dipping sauce is better. I haven’t found a better place, but if you know
of one, please leave a comment below.
I sometimes (not often) get the motivation to cook something other than my usual chicken rice – buffalo stew meal prep. Yesterday was such a day. I was driving my housemate Mandy to her workplace when we saw a morning market. I seldom wake up early enough for these things and she wanted to eat fish so I went to check out their offerings.
I got ikan bulus – a tubular type of white fish which is delicious
when fried and a small broccoli. She wanted the small, flat kind of white
pompfret but all the stalls there didn’t sell it. I managed to get some from
the Jaya Grocer under my condo though.
I remember why I don’t cook fish often – it’s troublesome to remove
the guts and descale the fish. I also don’t like how the scales fly everywhere
and get my cat all excited. She’ll pounce and pat the scales and distribute
them to the furthest corners of the kitchen, necessitating a good mop after.
I didn’t do much to the ikan bulus and small pompfret – just
salted them liberally and fried them in hot oil. I bought a small bottle of
maize oil cooking oil for this occasion. I don’t use oil in my regular cooking.
I even skim off the buffalo fat the next day!
I also scalded the broccoli and pan-fried it with oyster sauce. If
you’re wondering where the stem of the broccoli went, I blended it with cold
water and drank it. I consume a lot of raw vegetables each night as a source of
fiber and nutrients.
The fish kemek (lost structural integrity) during the frying
process. I’m not sure what went wrong. It just started disintegrating. Maybe I
should have battered it with tapioca starch so it’ll maintain its form. It
still tastes good though. Half of the fish is ikan bulus and half is small
white pomfret, served with Thai chilli sauce.
I also fried two duck eggs with a crispy bottom a la Chinese
style. I’ve been buying duck eggs instead of chicken eggs lately coz I prefer
the creamier yolk. It’s about 50% more expensive than chicken eggs but worth
it.
This is the broccoli pan-fried with oyster sauce as a source of
greens. I cooked fresh basmati rice to go with dinner and I also served my tom
yam buffalo stew with beer.
It was almost 10 pm when I finished cooking. It tasted pretty good
despite the simple execution. The fish was really fresh!
Pulau Ketam isn’t very big but it might take you a while to walk around the island. Most people get by on electric bikes or regular bicycles. Electric bicycles usually go for RM 20/hour but our homestay rented them to us at RM 15/hour, so off we went to explore the habitated areas. There are 2 primary schools and a secondary school on the island so there’s a good amount of younger folks still here.
The main commercial area by the jetty is sleepy on the weekends though. It has a very familiar small town vibe. Both Mandy and I are from Sarawak so we felt very comfortable here. You can hear snippets of Teochow and Heng Hua, old ladies with curly hair smoking cigarettes, and men with Buddhist tattoos undergoing traditional Chinese cupping while seated on low stools. This can be any rural town in Sarawak – Serian, Lundu, Batang Ai.
Most of the shops serve some kind of noodle dish in the mornings so
we went to a random one. Interestingly, all the coffee shops had their shutters
half closed and lights off to save electricity but they’re actually open.
Mandy ordered a kueh tiaw soup dish with several different types of fishballs. This tasted peppery and mild. She didn’t like it and ended up eating my noodles.
I went for a dry tossed noodle with pork, shrimp, and boiled eggs. This tasted good but unfortunately I didn’t get to eat much of it. Mandy swapped her noodles with mine after tasting my superior order. I don’t really enjoy soup noodles but I’m a nice guy so I exchanged with her.
We also ordered 3 coffees from the next coffee shop. This one only
had canned drinks and they asked us to order from their neighboring shop if we wanted
brewed drinks. You can only do this in small towns where the competition is
less and the spirit of cooperation is higher.
Thus satiated and fueled with caffeine, we went to Lover’s Bridge. This was marked as a tourist attraction on official Pulau Ketam maps but in reality, it’s just a rickety arch bridge. It’s good for photos though.
Mandy is pointing at the richest person in Pulau Ketam. Haha. This
house is so different from the wooden structures surrounding it. Modern, sleek
and tall, it’s the highest point on the island.
There’s also an old cinema beside the Lover’s Bridge. It’s amazing to think that at one point, the population of Pulau Ketam was large and vibrant enough to support a theatre as big as this one. 👏
Mandy randomly asked me what my IC number was and we found out
that our last 4 digits were in sequence! What a coincidence! These checksum
numbers are always odd if you’re male and even if you’re female so we can’t be
the same but having ours in order is serendipitous.
It was an extremely hot day so we went to get some ABC (shaved ice dessert) to cool down. Our homestay told us about this stall, which he says has the best ABC on the island.
It was pretty good! There’s peanuts, nata de coco, jellies, cendol
and all the trimmings underneath a mound of shaved ice and gula Melaka.
We sat with the owner, who told us many tales about the history
and origin of the people who’re now at Pulau Ketam. He had a stroke a few years
ago so his daughters run the stall, which is actually a shaved ice machine in
front of their home.
We also went to the temple opposite which has very old tortoises
and a huge, long python. Their toilets are very interesting too – little more
than a carved rectangle on the floor. There’s no sewage system in Pulau Ketam.
All human waste goes into the sea and it’s washed out by the tides.
We decided to cycle to the furthest end of the island until we
couldn’t go any further. All the paths here are made of wooden boards on top of
stilts. Only the main jetty and commercial area has concrete roads. It’s very
exciting.
The view on the bridges that connects the island is nice towards
the further regions of Pulau Ketam. You can see fishing boats moored to the
individual jetties connected to houses. This is a less commercialized area of
the island.
There was a very friendly woman running a drinks and snacks stand
near the end of the island. We stopped there for a couple of beers. She told us
she’s from Klang and come down during weekends to stay with her mom and run the
stand. It’s a good place to refuel. She’s one of those people with natural PR
skills.
We found an abandoned wooden house with creaking, rickety
floorboards that would make a perfect photo op. The floorboards were so rotten
we nearly fell through into the sea a few times.
I did a cool pose (or so I thought) and I ended up looking like such a sissy we couldn’t stop laughing for a good 3 minutes. In my defense, this looked manly and casual when conceived in my mind. The execution and angle could have been better though. 😄
Here’s a proper one so you can get rid of the previous mental
image.
This is my favorite photo of us. I love the emo vibe. I told her
to do a sad pose. #emoforever
We went back to Remember Me Restaurant to have o chien (oyster omelet) and a beer. This isn’t as good as the ones you’ll get in Penang or Kuching but edible. Especially on vacation since everything tastes better when you’re having fun.
It was a good overnight trip! Pulau Ketam is a chill and relaxing place that’s perfect for a weekend getaway. It’s not too far from KL or PJ either – just a 40 min drive and a 30 min boat trip away. I can see why people like it here. I’ll definitely be back someday.
Goodbye Pulau Ketam! We made great memories here and we’ll miss you. 🦀
My housemate Mandy and I decided to make an impromptu trip to Pulau Ketam over the weekend. She’ll be moving out this week so it’ll be a fun thing to do together. I’ve never been here but I’ve heard a lot about the idyllic small town vibe and I really enjoy places like these. I come from a smaller town myself and I like visiting even more rural places like Kapit or Sarikei.
Pulau Ketam is only accessible by boat. It’s a 20-30 minute trip from Port Klang and the ferries and boats usually charge around RM 9-10 per pax. I saw a few souvenir Pulau Ketam tee shirts at the jetty and assumed they’ll be more at the island itself but surprisingly, no one sells them at the island. Haha. I actually wanted to get one.
The boats are the same express boats that we have in Sarawak. A lot of our rural towns are only reachable via the river so boats are a major mode of transportation there.
These boats are air-conditioned and leaves every 45 minutes. There’s another type that’s open to the elements but much faster for RM 1 more. We took the other kind back.
This is the view from the Pulau Ketam jetty. It’s not a very big island and most of the commercial areas are concentrated in the middle.
It was an exceedingly hot day and I have gotten more sun in the past weekend than the previous 10 years of my life. I’m sunburnt and peeling right now despite applying liberal amounts of SPF 50+ sunscreen.
We stayed at a homestay called Little Happiness Family. Little Happiness and Happiness Family is owned by the same people who runs Pulau Ketam Mini Market. They’re a friendly mother and son duo who gave me a RM 50 discount when they heard about the price I’m paying via Agoda. Agoda charged me RM 174 per night and they said it was more than they charge if you book direct so they refunded me RM 50. I thought that was nice of them.
The room we booked had a large double bed and two singles in a double decker bed format. I think it’s meant for families. All the units have their own shower/toilet as well as air-conditioning. Ours had a window with a view of the back too!
Our hosts recommended a place called Jia Jia for seafood but it was closed for Winter Solstice Festival. We went to the most famous one in Pulau Ketam instead – Remember Me Restaurant.
Crabs are a must! This is Kam Heong Crabs. It’s RM 68 per kg. This is slightly more than 1 kg for RM 78. It’s not bad but I’m actually not a huge fan of crabs, mostly coz I don’t enjoy deshelling them. I like huge crabs like Alaskan King Crab though. To clarify, I love the taste of crab, I just don’t like picking at them and getting bits of shell in my mouth.
We also had Nestum Prawns (RM 38). These are pretty good and they’re fried to a crisp so you can eat the whole prawn without peeling, even the head!
I had someone to peel the prawns for me though. Hehe.
Best!
I also added on Kung Pow Mantis Prawn (RM 26). This are not fresh ones, obviously. It’s the frozen and pre-battered type that’s mass produced and sold everywhere from Langkawi to KL. Not my favorite.
There’s also an obligatory vegetables dish – cabbage stir fried with belacan for RM 16.
The bill came up to RM 180 for 2 pax including drinks and beer, which is around the price you’ll expect to pay in PJ too. Not bad, but I’m keen to try Jia Jia next time since it was not only recommended by our homestay, a random aunty selling snacks in the furthest habituated edges of Pulau Ketam also told us about it.
The nightlife at Pulau Ketam is pretty sparse, although we spotted an 80’s style karaoke pub and an uncle told us about a feng tau joint. Most people seem to congregate at the jetty to hang out and relax and that’s what we did too.
The jetty had a psychedelic strobing light which was a little out of place but kinda nice.
Our homestay provided bicycles but there was a huge family staying there who was about to take the last two. Mandy convinced them to let us have one of the bicycles. I should add that these are two little kids of around 6 years old or so. Hahahaha. I think their grandpa gave Mandy a look of mild disapproval. I didn’t dare to ask even though I wanted a bicycle coz they’re so small, so I’m glad she did. 😌
There was a cool breeze coming in from the sea and the night was bright courtesy of the full new moon. I put on some tunes on Spotify and we ended up talking and singing and riding bicycles till midnight. Good clean fun.
I brought along a bottle of JW Black Label and we ended up playing drunken Chinese chess in the room. We had to Google the rules and made up many of our own so it wasn’t much of a structured game but still a lot of fun. I really enjoyed myself despite being a man who prefers my own company most of the time.
I have a new housemate. She’s 24 and staying here for 3 weeks. I have lived most of my adult life alone, so I was a bit hesitant to have someone stay over. I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t mind paying a bit more for the entire unit instead of having to share rooms. That’s not to say that I’ve never had roommates. In various stages of my life, I’ve had female companions (I hesitate to use the word girlfriend) stay over at my place long term.
The most memorable (though not for the reasons you think) was this wild girl who stayed in my room when I was 17. She was 19 and hung out with this lesbian crew of motorcyclists. No need to fantasize coz they’re all very dismal looking. Hideous, rough and stocky. Except her though, she was slim, feminine and quite good looking! A friend of mine who joined the 3rd Mile gang in Kuching introduced her to me. “Eh tang chiau eh,” he whispered conspiratorially. You can play with this one. God knows where he found/met her.
I had to go back to Sibu for Chinese New Year and she convinced me to let her stay on while I was away. Bad decision. She ran up a RM 200+ phone bill, threw parties with her lesbian biker friends, got into a fight with the neighbor who told her to keep the noise down, police were called, my landlord was called, they were all kicked out. She even wanted my landlord’s address so she can go kick her ass! I was almost evicted for letting an unauthorized person stay over.
Needless to say, that experience did not endear me to housemates. The sex wasn’t great either, mostly coz she had a serious BO problem. Her armpits were very funky! I’ve had other roommates since but none I remember as vividly as that first one. She gave me PTSD about people staying over. Hahaha.
Thus, when my friend asked if his girlfriend can stay over, I was exceedingly reluctant. My roommate from hell 20 years ago was still fresh in my mind. Also, I’ve seen her photos and she’s very attractive. I thought it best to not expose myself to such enticement. Flee from temptation, the bible extorts us. Flee! I grudgingly said okay.
She came on Saturday and we’ve had a chance to hang out and talk. She’s grown on me. This one is a college psychology graduate – a nice, soft spoken girl miles apart from my first ever roommate. I was secretly pleased when she asked if I’ve eaten when she arrived at KL Sentral – she wanted to tapao for me. Gam sek zou! She also likes Mi Sedaap so bonus points for that. Haha.
I found myself enjoying her company. It’s nice to have people around. Like a cat, but more interactive. 😄
There’s really no point to this post. I just remembered my terrible housemate from 20 years ago and wanted to share the story. Here comes the abrupt ending.
I know my first housemate was a rare outlier and she’s on one extreme of the negative-experience-with-roommates scale. This one is on the other end – the positive-experience-with-housemates end. Both are rare and most people fall somewhere in the middle. I don’t mind nice housemates. Sekian, terima kasih.
