Savoured to the last spoonful
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A new ramen restaurant is proving a hit with shoppers
When Hitoshi Hatanaka opened his Ramen Santouka eatery in Hokkaido’s second city Asahikawa back in 1988, all he really wanted was to offer a decent bowl of ramen.
The restaurant was simple and small – just nine seats – and the menu even smaller, featuring one dish, Shio Ramen in aromatic tonkotsu soup, topped with slices of smooth charsu and pickled plum.
His ramen was based on a family recipe and so delicious that the small eatery was constantly packed. He’d be up at the crack of dawn to supervise the pork bones that had been simmering for 16 hours and adding kelp, vegetable, dried fish and other special ingredients.
Today Ramen Santouka has 29 branches in Japan and 20 franchised outlets in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Bangkok’s own Santouka opened just last month on the sixth floor of Isetan and is being operated by lawyer Pornpawan Chamriangrit and her sister Nijaporn. Like the original eatery, it’s small – seating 32 – and simply furnished with plain wood furniture.
“I first discovered Ramen Santouka while studying in Los Angeles three years ago,” says Pornpawan. “I went with some friends to try the ramen in tonkotsu soup and loved it. When I came back home, I looked into the franchise possibilities.”
The menu offers five original ramen dishes served in different soups and sizes. You can try the signature shio ramen in a creamy salt soup topped with a Japanese pickled plum as well as miso ramen in soybean soup made with pork broth.
Shoyu ramen in soy sauce is topped with dried seaweed, char siu ramen comes with sliced pork belly and kara-miso ramen is served in spicy soybean soup. Prices range from Bt190 to Bt270.
Pornpawan recommends we sample tokusen toroniku ramen in the salt shio soup with sliced roasted pork cheek (Bt300) and curry and rice with crispy fried chicken and salad (Bt250) on the side. She says that juicy sliced roasted pork cheek served on a stone grill (Bt160) and pork dumpling (Bt120) are also proving popular with Thai customers.
The restaurant does exceptionally well on weekends, with families grabbing tables to enjoy the parent-child set (Bt280) of regular-size ramen for the adults and a small portion with a toy for the child. Another set worth ordering is a small size spicy kara miso ramen & grilled salmon and salmon roe rice bowl served with very smooth steamed egg pudding, salad and hot Hojicha tea for Bt340.
>>SLURPINGLY GOOD!
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka is located on the sixth floor of Isetan. It’s open daily from 10am to 10pm.
