Ippudo - The Come Back Champion Kiwami Shinaji Ramen!

Price: $

Cravingness: ★★★★★

Great news for Ippudo fans! To celebrate Ippudo's second anniversary in Hong Kong, Ippudo is bringing back again the famous Kiwami Shinaji Ramen (極新味麵王拉麵) to Hong Kong! The Kiwami Shinaji Ramen once won the championship on a reputable Japanese Television "TV Champion Ramen Chef" and crowned Ippudo's founder Shigemi kawahara Ramen King.

I was invited to Ippudo Silvercord tonight to try the delicious Kiwami Shinaji Ramen as well as some of the seasonal appetisers that are available as well. Once again I met Ippudo Ramen Chef, Kudo San (工藤先生) where he explains the history of Ippudo and introduce the Kiwami Shinaji Ramen to us. Side topic, his work clothes is very nice.

Mix Salad with Crispy Chicken

This salad is fully loaded with coriander, so big warning to all the coriander lovers and haters! There was also red and yellow tomatoes for taste and colour, but they were unfortunately not sweet. When I saw crispy chicken in the description, I thought of meaty deep fried chicken, but it was actually deep fried chicken skin!
The deep fried chicken skin was flavourful and is a great beer snack. There was also walnuts in the salad but they weren't roasted, so they were not aromatic at all. The pomelo dressing was delicious and refreshing with the salad!

Samura Ribs

The samura ribs was a popular dish originated from the Ippudo New York Branch. They named the dish Samura Ribs because the grabbing bone of the ribs looks like samura's blade! How cute! The original flavour was soy sauce with orange sauce a.k.a. sweet and sour, all I can say is very Western-Chinese flavoured. The culinary team in Ippudo Hong Kong twisted the recipe of Samura Ribs and used black vinegar instead to give an intense sweet and sour taste to the ribs. The sourness from the special black vinegar totally whet my appetite, I had three of them tonight. The ribs were very tender but was kind of lean.

The Kiwami Shinaji Ramen

And back to the Champian Ramen. The Kiwami Shinaji Ramen proves novelty and excellency by combining different elements to introduce four different layers of flavour, creating much depth into one single ramen bowl. But how? Keep reading and I will explain it now!

First Taste: Original

It is upmost important to try the original taste of anything, so Ippuddo recommends us to taste the original broth and the ramen before mixing or adding anything into the bowl. The white broth combines the essence of both of their tonkotsu and chicken broth, slow cook for hours to create this savoury and intense flavour but not too rich on the palate.

Ippudo uses whole wheat ramen here to bring out the wheat aroma and taste to the bowl. The whole wheat ramen was in medium thickness which I love. It was chewy and had an extremely smooth surface which could be easily slurp into your mouth! How could they achieve that? Would it be possible that the ramen is coated by a layer of oil?

Second Taste: Japanese

After tasting the original broth, it is time to break apart the steamed egg custard sat in the middle of bowl, so the yellow essence of the unique Japanese flavour of fried kelp and bonito can infuse into the broth. Once the custard broke, an immediate flow of bonito aroma burst out and the broth instantly filled with bonito taste in it. The crumbled steamed egg was very smooth with an eggy aroma and taste. The egg custard did make an interesting twist to the bowl.

Third Taste - Health and Beauty

The most exciting part of the ramen is this part where you melt the collagen into the ramen! With its beauty giving properties to your skin, the collagen ball is the gift for all women (and men of course lol). The yuzu tasted collagen does not seem to make any taste different to the bowl, but as a girl, psychologically it feels better to take in collagen directly from the broth. :P

Fourth Taste - Transform

Lastly drop the yuzu pepper into the broth to spice the broth up with its mildly chili flavour. The little yuzu pepper does not really gave much taste different, I would recommend tasting it separately with some broth instead.

Despite the flavourful broth, the Kiwanmi Shinaji Ramen is also fully loaded with Barbecue pork, pork shoulder, soft boiled egg, black mushroom and green onions. I particularly like the pork shoulder, where it had a soft fatty layer on top of lean cha siu. The soft boiled egg was very nice too where the yolk was running and sweet.

Available from 12 August 2013 until 8 September 2013, the delicious Kiwanmi Shinaji Ramen is limited to only 100 bowls per day, weekdays from 5pm, weekends and public holidays from 11:30am. Remember the Kiwami Shinaji Ramen is only available at the Ippudo at Silvercord, Tsim Sha Tsui! So don't go to the wrong place and get disappointed!

Okinawa Style Donuts with Ice-cream

The donut had a flakey crust but was a bit stiff in texture. It had to be taken with the vanilla ice-cream in order to soft the inner down.

Almond Pudding with Green Tea Sauce

The almond pudding was quite disappointing, it had a mild taste of almond but the texture was very watery and not pudding enough. This is a bland dessert.

Assorted Ice-cream

I didn't order this dessert but I had a few spoon. If I remember correctly, they are lemon sorbet and cookies and cream ice-cream.

Sunshine Splash

The beautiful sunset coloured mocktail, Sunshine Splash is a mix of pineapple juice and orange juice. It was too sweet for my liking, the Ippudo Pina Colada tasted much better.

A happy photo collection of all the bloggers attended tonight :)

Rating
Food - ★★★★★
Service - ★★★★☆
Ambience - ★★★☆☆
Overall - ★★★★★


Hakkata Ippudo

Address (E) Shop 210, Silvercord Tower, 30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Address (C) 香港尖沙咀廣東道30號新港中心210號舖
☏ 2957 8893
Opening Hours: Mon - Sat: 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 11pm, Closed on Sun
Reservation Available? Yes
Walk In Possible? Yes
Website: http://www.ippudo.com.hk/en/hakata.html

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