Raku Hokkaido Ramen

Other than Taiwanese milk teas sprouting like stray mushrooms in the Metro, ramen houses have also started lining up and grazing the food landscape.  The arrival of this renewed fondness for ramen could not be a better timing… especially this year, when the weather is much colder and rains have soaked the city.  Imagine the calming flowing almost mute sound of a ladled soup with the steam wafting across your face.

Raku Hokkaido Ramen  

Raku Hokkaido Ramen in the midst of bustling Makati City aims to give just that.  The interior can easily transfer one to a quaint ramen restaurant in Japan.  Modish framed photos of beautiful geishas and scenic Japan facets complete the concept.  Space can be limited and cramped but this fact soon forgotten with what the kitchen can put forward.  I visited on a Thursday lunch and the place was packed, brimming with people slurping broth or picking at their bento boxes.

Raku Hokkaido Ramen  

On the Table

Yakitori PHP 145

Yakitori makes great appetizers, dampening your tongues with that touch of barbecue sauce covering succulent chicken meat.  The grilled chicken skewers of Raku Hokkaido Ramen seemed perfectly grilled over hot charcoals with taste highlighting smoky charred flavor embraced with the slightest sweetness of teriyaki sauce. 

Raku Hokkaido Ramen  

Fair warning, you might end up popping this continuously in your mouth mindless that lunch time is already over.  The same story goes for their mouthwatering gyozas, which I totally want to inhale plates and plates of.

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Nomama Restaurant

Artisan means someone who has a skill in a trade.  Chef Him Uy de Baron is definitely skilled in the kitchen, without a thread of doubt.  Count the number of people who recognize him as the genius behind East Café and you’ll be counting more than the fingers on your hands and your friends’ hands.  Heck, even Bubba recognizes him as a celebrated chef and the only other celebrities he knows are UFC mixed martial arts fighters.  That should mean something then. 

Nomama Restaurant Ramen 

Chef Him graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Sidney, Australia.  Today, he has dipped his hand in a hot bowl of ramen… or so to speak.  He recently opened his first restaurant, Nomama Artisanal Ramen in the Tomas Morato area. 

Nomama Ramen restaurant Chef him uy de baron

Artisan ramen probably refers to the ramen he makes from scratch.  It is simply handmade ramen that can change the ramen scene in Manila, mostly dominated by Ukkokei and Shinjuku fans (and now even Ramen Bar fans).  

Nomama Restaurant 

After a short but exhausting time at 360 Gym for circuit training (2 visits in 2 weeks is quite an improvement from my one-time workout last year), I called to see if we can still make it before their last call of orders which was at 945pm.  Did we make it?  No, we didn’t even have time [Read more…]