Yummy Chocolate Banana Tart
Omu-Raisu from Hokkyokusei
These days, we have been swamped by many Japanese food franchises from all over Japan. And this is certainly good news. I have been wondering if Japanese food will replace Chicken rice or Chili crab as Singaporeans’ favorite food one day. Judging from the rate of new Japanese eateries sprouting up on our tiny island, I think is not long before the number of Japanese restaurant surpasses the number of all other restaurants combined. And recently, we are seeing not only the very active big Japanese food conglomerates and the occasional industry newbie; we are also witnessing restaurateurs from other cuisines jumping onto the Japanese food band-wagon, fighting for a slice of this lucrative, ever-growing Japanese food market.
One of them is Jumbo Seafood, who recently set up Yoshimaru Ramen Bar from Hakata region in Holland Village, serving up one of the better Tonkotsu ramen I have tasted in Singapore. The place is almost like ramen-ya in Japan with “squeezey” narrow shop space and long counter-seating area where you can slurp your noodles while catching the chefs in action.
And another trend that has emerged over the past year or so is the concept of Japanese food court. Following the foot-step of Shokudo Food Bazaar (by Thai Express Group) and Shokutsu-10 (by RE&S), is the week-old Manpuku at the newly-opened Tampines One. Manpuku was set up by the same people behind Ajisen Ramen and has again brought in several Japanese food franchises like Aoba Hokkaido Ramen and Asakusatei after their successful attempts with Botejyu Osaka Okonomiyaki and Yoshimi Sapporo Curry.
When I popped by Manpuku for lunch on Monday, I was least expecting big crowd but I totally taken aback. The 500-seater food hall serving 10 different Japanese food concepts was jam-packed with customers, nothing that I have ever seen before. All the food counters were swamped with eager-diners, it was way too over. I managed to try a couple of dishes though, like the Curry Udon from Toku Toku, and Omu-rice from Hokkyokusei. Both are established brand-name in Japan. I have previously dined at Hokkyokusei in Osaka so I was extremely excited to see it in Singapore. But it was really the colorful array of fruit tarts from Fruit Paradise that attracted me the most. The glass showcase, the tarts and the dainty Japanese female pastry chefs reminds me so much of Japan. The tart was delicious too.
All these new additions of Japanese food choices is beyond doubt that our palate for Japanese food has matured over the years, prompting all these new concepts. This is certainly something that I’m glad to witness, having been teaching Japanese food for over 6 years. And not only that –I think the best thing is, a total hard-core Japanese food citizen like me, will never get “home-sick” again.
