Seaweed Shaker Fries: A delicious chemical creation

By Mark

The magical ingredient

Introduction:

McDonalds' Seaweed Shaker Fries are back, and oh how I've missed them! I'm definitely not alone in missing this incredible work of chemical engineering from McDonald's though; practically everyone I know is lavishing over their return. Yes, I'm well aware that this item probably involved more processes and chemical equations than I've seen in my life, and complicated, sterile, laboratory-ish equipment belonging in some faraway production plant before being shipped over here. Yes, it's fast food made by the biggest, richest, most evil fast food chain in the world. But credit should be given where it's due, and the Seaweed Shaker Fries tastes wonderful, to say the least.

Quality and taste:

Seaweed Shaker Fries may look like nothing particularly special. In fact, it appears downright plain and simplistic, with just a box of large McDonald's French Fries with a packet of seaweed seasoning which you're supposed to mix together using a vigorous arm motion that always manages to look somewhat inappropriate no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Sometimes though, it's the simple things in life that are the most enjoyable (and by which I'm not referring to the aforementioned action). Seaweed Shaker Fries falls right smack into this category, with its combination of two rather basic but very complementary ingredients.

There's always a limit on how much one can express sensations using mere words, no matter how extensive his vocabulary may be. French fries by nature are salty, the combination of fried potatoes and salt which for the most part, is enough to satisfy my tastebuds. The addition of the seaweed seasoning however, adds another layer to the hitherto uni-dimensional fries, introducing a hint of seaweed, an almost sweet taste and maybe a bit of MSG. The seasoned fry's taste isn't very strong, and doesn't try to overwhelm you. But it does taste quite natural, as if fries were meant to be seasoned with artificially-manufactured seaweed powder from the outset.

In terms of the sheer amount of flavour added, this doesn't add much; dipping a fry in chilli sauce would add more. But my goodness, the introduction of this tiny bit of seasoning brings the humble, processed McDonald's fry to a whole new level altogether.

The taste of the seasoned fry reminds me of a flavoured potato chip. Where the Seaweed Shaker Fries trumps the normal potato chip though, is its texture -the traditional and much-loved crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside trademark of McDonald's. Its familiar texture notwithstanding, I reckon these fries could even be eaten soggy and still taste great.

Value:

You know that a food is brilliant (and of course, too little) when you find yourself licking every finger and lip, and tracing your fingers over its container to get just a bit more of that awesome taste. Needless to say, Seaweed Shaker Fries suffers from this problem of brilliance amidst scarcity. At $2.85 by itself, it's also relatively expensive -a bag of comparable potato chips would cost around the same price and would feed more metaphorical starving children in some Third World nation. As part of an Extra Value Meal, it does become more value-for-money, although the very concept of value is debatable and probably stretched by a fair amount when it involves two slices of bread, one slice of dry, genetically-modified meat, an undersized bag of fries and a cup of watered-down, sugary beverage consisting mainly of ice.

Conclusion:

The Seaweed Shaker Fries may not be the freshest or most sophisticated of foods, but it's certainly an enjoyable treat that's hard to come around due to its seasonal availability. It is less bang for buck when bought by itself as compared to an Extra Value Meal, but then again, bear in mind that that's precisely what McDonald's wants its customers to think, and by following this line of thinking, we'd be buying straight into its marketing ploy. This notwithstanding, do give Seaweed Shaker Fries a try (whether by itself or as part of a meal) before it's gone!

Have you eaten this before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality, Taste and Presentation (80%)	7.5	A must-try item for everyone
Value (20%)	5.8	Too expensive considering the increasingly diminishing serving size
Ambience & others (0%)	nil	Is there really anything to say about a McDonald's?
Total	6.6	An overpriced indulgence not meant for regular consumption

Muso Ramen -Burdensome Expectations

By Mark

Intro:

One of the 3 new entrants to Ramen Champion in 2013, Muso was one of the stalls I'd been looking forward to sampling, with its impressive credential of coming out on top of the Ramen Champion franchise in Hong Kong. Ramen Champion's stalls may not be the most authentic out there, especially with salt and fat contents being toned down to suit our local palette, but they're still a standard bearer of sorts, thereby making it no easy feat for a stall to have emerged champion. With this in mind, I went in with a fair amount of expectations, apparently having not learn my many prior lessons that there cannot be disappointment if expectations aren't harboured.

Taste:

What I had: Ajitama Cha Cha Ramen ($13)

Muso's broth is soy-based and made from pork bones, which is essentially the same genre as Buta God's. I admit to having felt rather skeptical at Ramen Champion's decision to bring in two stalls that bear so many similarities to each other (at least superficially). Having two shops that are so identical, thereby not adding much to the variation of Ramen Champion, this basically defeats the purpose of its main selling points -exposing Singaporeans to vastly differing styles of ramen (or so I felt).

Looks pretty good

Upon sampling the broth though, I was relieved that it didn't taste much like Buta God's. Their similar genres notwithstanding, Buta God's was predominantly sweet, while Muso's had a much clearer and heavier pork taste. It did have a hint of sweetness too, courtesy of the onions, but this had a sharp tinge to it, adding another dimension to the broth and resulting in one that had a nice mix of flavours. This coupled with the thinner broth bears another similarity to Buta God, as it doesn't try to overpower its eaters with one intense flavour alone, but instead coerces them into indulging with its subtler, lighter-tasting flavours. Unfortunately though, the broth lost some steam towards the end of the meal as it started tasting increasingly of its individual ingredients, and less a unified product of them. Consistency is an issue that many eateries struggle with, and a truly great bowl of ramen would be thoroughly enjoyable from the first sip right down to the last, instead of growing more subdued as it's consumed.

Muso's chashu reminded me of Bario's on a diet, in that the fatty bits are melt-in-your-mouth good too, which is an irreplaceable experience in itself. The health-conscious (a convenient euphemism for the uninitiated) may whine about the adverse health effects of fatty chashu, but food is there for us to enjoy, and its creators probably didn't mean for us to agonize over it. On the flipside, the chashu suffers from inconsistency too, with its leaner bits being almost unbearably tough to chew and having a bland, rubber-like texture.

Also, I felt that the chashu, along with the noodles, didn't absorb the soup well at all, holding none of its taste the way better ramens do. By themselves, they didn't taste particularly bad, but they'd have tasted much better if the broth's flavour was infused in them, as any self-respecting ramen shop worth its money should know.

One saving grace of Muso would be its flavoured egg, which was executed nearly to perfection. Its yolk was almost perfectly runny, and the seasoning added to the egg made it very flavourful. This is unlike the other ramen stalls' eggs that we've reviewed so far, and this is undeniably the most well done out of all of them.

Value-for-money

At $13, this is pretty much the average price of ramen in Singapore. It's not extremely spectacular though, at least not in my opinion, and I think that your money could be better spent at one of the better stalls in Ramen Champion.Of course though, it's still better than any of the chain ramen shops out there.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I wasn't very impressed with Muso at all. Perhaps it was due to my inflated expectations which stemmed from its title as the best stall in Hong Kong's Ramen Champion (I really should have known better), but I didn't feel that it's capable of being a strong contender for the title in Singapore. I guess it all boils down to personal taste, and who knows, maybe someone else would think that this is the best ramen in the world. I should mention that it may be a good alternative for those who aren't as used to heavy broths.

Have you eaten here before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality, Taste and Presentation (80%)	6.7	Nothing too spectacular because of its average quality
Value (20%)	6.5	Normal pricing
Ambience & others (0%)	nil	Check Ramen Champion main page on the blog for ambience
Total	6.6	Worth trying to satisfy one's curiosity

Address:
#04-10, Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street

Operating Hours:
11:30-22:30 daily 

CHILI'S Grill and Bar (The Central): Not as hot as its name may suggest

Intro:

For our latest review, we decided to head over to Chili's Grill and Bar outlet at The Central. The restaurant chain is a Tex-Mex styled franchise originating from the States. To that end, the outlet in Singapore does manage to reproduce the homely and hospitable feeling of mid-Western restaurants. This leads me nicely to our first criteria.

Ambience:

Upon entering the restaurant, you are greeted by friendly staff and a cozy, warm ambience which somehow manages to uphold a lively presence at the same time. A bunch of flat-screen televisions are spread throughout the place, playing programs which are distinctly American such as baseball and basketball matches. These, and the lively music, are good distractions when you await the arrival of your food (they arrived decently fast) and when you are enjoying your meal. Neither sources of sound are too loud and do not intrude on your conversations.

Quality and taste:

Unfortunately, Mark was feeling a little full this time around and only ordered the appetizer sampler (Triple dipper-$26.00) which allows up to three appetizers of ones choice. The appetizers chosen were Texas Cheese poppers, chicken crispers and southwestern egg rolls.

Before I go into my own assessment, here's what Mark had to say about the cheese poppers which I did not try, "Its a throbbing mouth orgasm." BAM! There we go, the reviewly fix of Mark's 'patented' quirky commentaries :D

Those guys on the top left, yep those are the orgasm inducing balls ;)

Personally, having tried them myself at the tanglin outlet before, I'd have to agree. The cheese poppers are full of flavour, but that's the thing, it's just flavour, not flavours, which makes it rather unsophisticated. It's basically just a mix of different cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) fried into a ball. For cheese lovers like myself, it's great, but taken critically as a foodie, it's mostly just cheese done right.

The egg rolls on the other hand had a mixture of ingredients, capsicums, onions, beans and the like. It was pretty good but could have been better controlled. The deep-fry paired with the dominance of black beans resulted in a mostly salty flavour. This is compensated though by its semi-thick and tasteful skin which packs a greasy-sweet and chewy flavour.

Pretty good. Could have been better

The chicken crispers were not so good. It's very reliant on the concept of tasting the original flavour as with most U.S-styled cooking, but the frozen chicken that's most probably used is unsuccessful in providing that. Instead you get a bland, mostly oil-tasting dish.

For my main dish, I ordered a classic fajita combo. That was the first time I was eating fajitas so I didn't really know what to expect. What I experienced was pretty good, but nothing too great. The dish came with chicken and beef strips that had been grilled and placed on the serving hot-plate. They are accompanied by capsicums, onions and a dash of pepper for seasoning. There was a side plate with sour-cream, guacamole dip, cheese gratings and the like to add to the mix.  These are then placed by your own choice of ratio onto a flour tortilla (they provided 4).

Well-grilled. Brown but not charred

Pretty generous portions for the side condiments

Overall, the meat involved does fulfill the American-styled cooking approach. A minimalist touch of only onions, capsicums and pepper helps to bring out the natural flavours of the chicken and beef. The beef in particular was quite juicy and sufficiently tender. The chicken suffers a little in terms of juiciness and again was not too fresh but that is not too noticeable when it's mixed in with all the condiments within the flour wrap. Having said that, both meats are nothing to be overly excited about. None had the melt-in-your mouth, blissful-taste-of-happiness variants of quality meat and at a price of $29.00, you should be expecting fresher meats of better quality. That's not to say that they were not well prepared -in fact, the grilling was quite well controlled at a medium cook, but what you ultimately have here are slightly above average meats which are just presented nicely. That's the problem. If you're going to place your bets on the natural flavours of the meat, good quality meat is a must, lest the dish falls short on taste.

After this step you just roll it up into a tortilla

Value:

In terms of value, Chili's fares quite badly. As mentioned, the food was not too bad, but the primary ingredients' mere average quality fails to match up to the menu's high price point. In the end, you feel like you're forking out money more so for the American fare and free-to-watch TVs than the dishes themselves. I should mention though that there isn't a service charge so I guess you could choose to not give tips to cut on your spending if you so wish to.

Conclusion:

Chili's is more of a hype. For foodies and most other people, its good for going once or twice just to experience American-styled dining, but it probably won't be on your frequent visits list due to its high price points. Its also generally better for groups of friends and family dining cases where the main concern is an ambient environment for chatting and not so much the quality of the food.

Have you eaten here before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	7.0	Decent food that suffers from mediocre quality ingredients
Value (15%)	5.5	Pricing needs some serious reconsideration
Ambience & others (10%)	8.5	Ambience is a win. Plenty of themed decorations and cozy layout
Total	6.9	No harm in trying it.

Address:
#01-18, The Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street

Operating Hours:
Sun - Thu: 11:30 - 23:00
Fri - Sat: 11:30 - 00:00

Buta God: Ramen's black horse, a softer and sweeter side

Introduction

The most striking thing about Buta God is its willingness to buck the trend (as you'll read about soon enough in this review), which takes real courage to do. Sticking your neck out from the rest of the field is a risky thing, and if your food is not of exceptionally high quality, this has the potential to turn a stall into a laughingstock for those in the know. This inherent risk is perhaps one of the major reasons few ramen eateries here venture outside of the tried-and-tested formula of Tonkotsu broths which Singaporeans are so accustomed to. Again though, if one wants to stick to the norm, his dish must be significantly better than his competitors in order to be outstanding. By virtually creating its own style of Tonkotsu ramen, Buta God absolves itself of this necessity. Regardless of the path a chef chooses, his dish must still be executed well; it's just that failing to do so with a dish that dares to be different carries a much greater magnitude of risk, as opposed to being mediocre but mainstream, which at least affords a multitude of similarly middling competitors to hide behind.

Taste, quality and presentation:

Having written that about Buta God's uniqueness, what really gives it this attribute are its broth, egg and chashu. Starting with the former, the soup has a sweet taste to it, despite being Tonkotsu-based. This isn't in the diabetic sense of the word, but is more of a sweetness that hovers on top of the essential pork base of the soup, making it extremely refreshing, especially for someone as accustomed to thick, heavy broths as me. While it's sweet, don't mistake this broth for one that's light or weak -it holds its own as well as the heavyweights of the ramen world (ie Bario and Tonkotsu King), despite not being as overpowering. There're fatty bits floating in the soup, but not in Bario's heart-attack-inducing abundance. Personally, I feel that they didn't add much to the taste of the soup (the Collagen used is generally better for strong, salty bases), and especially with their rather meagre amount, didn't have much business being there at all. Either way, I don't think they played much of a role in affecting the soup. Towards the end, I felt that the soup's sweetness may have drowned out its porkiness, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that this makes the pork base irrelevant. Despite this minor shortcoming, Buta God's soup is less oily than other stalls, and this coupled with its sweetish taste definitely makes it a welcome addition to the local ramen scene.

Clearly different from the outset

The yellow noodles used were relatively thick (when compared to the prevalent thin Hakata style), although not to Bario's extent. I felt that this was a good choice of noodles, as it complemented the lighter soup base by allowing the soup to cling to it. The result was a noodle that was well-lubricated and flavoured nicely, allowing for excellent slurpability. 

Regarding the two other anomalies of the ramen, the chashu used was not the large slab of pork that's usually used, but was stewed slices of pork. Since I've always associated such dishes with my grandmother, I felt that the ramen had a very home-cooked feel to it, which made it more personal. The pork slices had a nice, slightly-chewy bite to them, entirely appropriate for their style of preparation. They absorbed the soup too, but did this without allowing it to compromise their bite or override their taste. Also, the portion of the pork was generous, and I believe that the total amount of Buta God's pork easily exceeded the usual single chunk of chashu. As for the soft-boiled egg, I was initially quite skeptical (one of the reasons I had my girlfriend try this stall before I tried it myself) that any style of egg other than Ajitsuke Tamago could work with ramen. The only thing that prevented me from flaming it (which I was rather inclined to do initially) was the fact that the egg was perfectly soft-boiled, with a yolk that dissolved in my mouth instantly upon entry, filling it up with a fuzzy goodness that completely shut me up. I still struggle to see how a soft-boiled egg complements the dish, but hey, it was done to absolute perfection, so no complaints there. 

Value-for-money

At the price of $12, my Tonkotsu Sukiyaki Ramen's generous portions of ingredients and the unique experience of eating such a different style of ramen made it well worth the money. While there was a $15 version offering more meat (Nikumashi Ramen), mine filled me up pretty well already, and I see no compelling reason to upsize.

Conclusion:

On its own, Buta God's willingness to buck the ramen trend already makes it stand out from the relatively homogeneous ramen crowd. It executes its unique brand of ramen extremely well, elevating its status from simply outstanding to brilliant. The willingness to experiment and come up with something different from everybody else is a recipe for success, and definitely one that we can learn from in our competitive, rigid society. If Bario's overwhelming ramen symbolised a brutally headstrong man, then Buta God's could be compared to the liberated modern lady -sweet and able to use this natural sweetness as a charm, free to experiment with different partners before finding the right one, and not cowed by men. 

Recommended and certainly worth a visit, not just for the sake of trying something different but also due to the merits of its ramen. In fact, coupled with its Japanese chef-owner (As far as I know, the only other stall with a Japanese chef is Gantetsu), I really don't see any reason not to go.

Have you eaten here before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality, Taste and Presentation (80%)	7.6	A unique ramen that's a refreshing change-up from its saltier cousins
Value (20%)	7.8	Reasonable pricing, and good portion served
Ambience & others (0%)	nil	Check Ramen Champion main page on the blog for ambience
Total	7.6	Great Ramen that's worth its price

Address:
#04-10, Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street

Operating Hours:
11:30-22:30 daily