Ramen Taifu, 拉麵台風

19 August 2014

 

It has been some time since I learnt about Ramen Taifu from Open Rice.  In fact, I was looking for it once but went passed it and ended up not finding it.  Today I made it.  It is a small shop on Tai Ho Road in Tsuen Wan, just next to the elevator of the footbridge heading to Tsuen Wan West MTR.  If without the eye catching signage, I would have probably missed it out.   It is a tiny shop with maximum capacity of around 20 guests.  So, be there early or expect to wait.

I was first impressed by the enthusiasm and excellent service attitude of the waiter. Without too much thought I picked the original flavor, the base that evolves into other noodles, pork soup noodle.  The soup was cooked with pork bones, chicken, pork knuckle, etc. for over 20 hours.  The flavor was intensive and tasty.  It's close to jelly which reflects that collagen from the ingredients have assimilated into the soup. 

Fish powder was placed on a seaweed.  It was advised to taste the soup first.  After the appreciation, you might add 1/3 of the fish powder to the soup to enjoy the double flavours: pork and fish.   It was nice too.   I saw that one cook got rid of the hot water warming the noodle bowls.  Wow, very attentive.  Hot water optimizes the taste of the noodle.  Like I warm up coffee glasses with hot water prior to inserting a capsule to make my espresso or coffee. 

I was curious why it opened in the quite remote location, why Hong Kong, etc.   Waiters were very kind to ask the chef.   The owner was a noodle specialist.   His noodle shop was a great success in Japan.  It won special honourable prizes within one year of the business in Japan.   He was introduced to Hong Kong by his friend (owns Butao Ramen).  He felt that the ramen standard in Hong Kong was so sub-optimal and decided to move to Hong Kong to enable authentic ramen to be served in Hong Kong.   He closed the restaurant in Japan and brought his team here.  That's the story.

Apart from the soup ramen, there are other choices.  Ramen without soup, spicy one, with cheese and Tsukemen 沾麵.  The latter is only served maximum 30 bowls a day.   I am interested in trying the Niboshi (Japanese dried infant sardines) and Tsukemen.  One day......  

And the egg was wonderfully tasted.  Soy taste, very nice.  It made me want more but the serving size was big.  I couldn't eat more.  The two pieces of pork were giant.  Plus, soft drink during lunch is a compliment.  If you don't want it, you can pick an extra half egg.   Excellent!  Let's go for it next time.

In less than one month's time I revisited the restaurant.   The chef changed!   This time I opt for the noodle with collagen.   I mixed it with the noodle and other ingredients.  Interesting is 1/4 of lemon was provided.   It did not make the noodle sour but lifted the taste.   The onsen egg was again very nice.   I preferred the one with soup more.  Be cautious that you may gain weight.  Both times, I go one more kilogram the next day.