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Brian Kennett
Amateur Chef and Foodie Extraordinaire
Kurotoman Ramen City Square Johor Bahru – Oh yes indeed
Tom Cruise eat your heart out – maybe this sounds a tad confusing, but I am linking one of our “Great Escapes” sagas this time to my food blog.
Why and Why reference Mr Cruise…
A good question indeed. Let me explain. One of Tom’s highest grossing earnings has likely been the four Mission Impossible films. Well Cruisy old chap, you have only done four, yes FOUR Mission Impossibles – Mary, Jude and I are now on our TWELFTH or so, to satisfy our friends here in Singapore regards certain visa needs. Yes TWELVE. This time we ‘escaped’ to Johor Bahru, in our near neighbours Malaysia.
Oooooh Mr Cruise I didn’t realise how tall you were, and mmmmm you smell good enough to eat – you naughty boy!!!
An amazing trip that went like this;
- 0630 – awake and prep the bags and of course ourselves and Baby Jude;
- 0730 – leave the condo to get to the bus stop that travels across the causeway;
- 0800 – we’re on the bus, which cost a massive $2.50 each to travel all the way in to Malaysia (pretty damn good thought I…);
- 0900 – we’re through two sets of immigration, quite a detailed grilling at Malaysia immigration – but we got in;
- 0905 – we’re having breakfast at Old Town Coffee – garlic bread and soft boiled eggs;
- 1000-1230 – a wee bit of shopping at City Square Shopping Centre, not bad at all. A lot of brands at 1/2 price of Singapore – that \$2.50 travel cost is kicking in now ha ha!!!;
- 1230-1345 – lunch at Kurotomon Ramen – more on that in a short while, but suffice to say I now know why TripAdvisor calls it ‘best Japanese and Ramen outside of Japan…’;
- 1400 – back through immigration, this is where you’d be impressed Mr Cruise – with no back-up team, fancy gadgets, masks and of course in your case big f*ck-off Cuban heels we were able to gain our entrance back in to Singapore through two more sets of immigration;
- 1530 – we are sat back home in condo-Kennett.
How about that folks?
And that is with a 9 month old, nappy bags and milk galore and a buggy!!!
Now to the food – what a joint this was. Unbelievable in fact. It got to that time of lunch and this place is packed, I mean packed with restaurants from the four corners of the Globe. Which one? Mexican, Chinese, Western, Nyonya, Malaysian … on and on it goes…
We just then happened to walk past a rather unassuming place. Nice looking and all, but sort of unassuming if you know what I mean. I didn’t fancy Ramen though. We’d all been having quite a rough time of late with illness and runny tummy etc. so we needed something a little ‘plain’. But also something that was not too liquidy, as that was part of the problem we have all been having. So reading this places mantra towards its food kinda hit the spot;
‘Kurotoman is the symbol of Japanese traditions paired with food. Delivering authentic techniques, taste, smell, and flavours with passion preserving the purity of Japanese food culture.’
Yep sounds impressive. Sounds like something we should try.
BUT then I spot the words; ‘Sumiyaki – an ancient style of Japanese cooking prepared with skill and dedication where freshest ingredients on skewers are charcoal grilled and caramelised with robust flavours’
To another of Cruisy Boys Films; “You had me at Hello!!!”
We now have to eat here;
it is preordained;
it is destiny;
no spicy;
no liquids,
in fact even the drinks were revitalising juices; and
something plain in style.
Sumiyaki from Kurotoman Ramen, you are my heroes!!!
What did we have – we had these three beauties;
I can’t really explain what happened when took first bites as all the blood in rushed to my groin, and I nearly passed out.
We had simply three al-la carte dishes;
Wagyu style beef steak;
Pork fillet; and
Sotong (or a rather large squid in this case).
What an experience. Smoky, juicy, tender, fatty, melt-in-the-mouth, and perfectly seasoned. A true OMG experience on the food front!!!
We also had an absolutely hysterical experience whilst eating. Poor little baby Jude is still teething at the moment, with only two little teeth cut from his bottom gums. So he loves to chew, and chew he does. Everything and anything will go in his mouth, including my very own fingers. But today it was something different, it was something else’s ‘fingers’. It was the Sotong or Squid. Yes Baby Jude LOVED to chew on the BBQ‘d Sotong Tentacles. We had to take them away from him when he chewed to them to a squidgy mess, and when we did he screamed really really loud. So loud we had to cut another tentacle off quick and wedge it in his hands. Clearly nice for the teeth when teething and also a great taste.
Maybe there’s a new angle for baby food here?
To add more to why you should go here.
We paid all up less than $10 SGD to get there from East Coast, and entire lunch cost about $40 SGD including 10% service charge. Yes we ate lunch at what is revered as one of the very best Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, it being located in Malaysia for approx $50.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
So there you have it – well actually no you don’t – below you have it;
Kurotoman Ramen City Square
City Square, 80000
Johore Bahru
Malaysia
