from your observations & pics posted here, i think the soup base is quite tangy as tasted in some ramen specialities in hk, but as u mention, the soup base is quite strange :
to me, i think the situation is more or less the same as the one i tasted @ daruma of tai hang ~ it lacks the layering, esp. the sweetness !! i guess, the soup base may lacks one/ some ingredients : pork ( 膝蓋骨 & 肉, some shops only use pork bones , it turns out the sweetness is weak ), 木魚汁, veggies (including 大根), 昆布, soy sauce, etc ~ i remembered the taste of mist, where the soup offered is full of layers of sweetness : 1st veggies & 木魚汁, then the soy sauce ( 自煮昆布醬油 ), lastly the underlying taste of pork & pork bone, with quite long finish, but not too fatty !!
but i encountered the same problem of bitterness @ MIST !! it occured when the temperature of soup is running cold ~ i guess the bitter taste come from the soy sauce ( maybe i'm wrong
)for the miso, it's still a good news that the miso is 自家 mixed, but i love the sapporn noodles @ TST 嘉蘭圍, at which the miso is mixed by white, red, & black miso !! very dense & tangy, with taste of sweet, salty, notes of sourness & bitterness !!
for the ramen, i agree that the texture should match the characters of soup base ~ i love the one of MIST, straight, thinner & less chewy but strong flour taste ~ it matches the 清鮮 characters of soup ~ for butao, the texture of ramen is better to have more chewy & 彎曲, with strong eggy & flour taste, if the soup is more porkish ~ however, still not sure whether the ramen of butao is from 西山, with many types of noodles for commerical use ( for this small-scale shop, probably from this supplier, or same as other shops @ hk )
hope to have a taste of 翠王, which i admire most, just from the ingredients they used !!
cheers ^^
Hi hkgm1994, Oct 15, 2010 00:36 203.218.x.x
Yes I agree with the MIST comment and its soup base. I think their style is more of the elegant, artisanal French cooking method influenced Ramen shop, which has a sophisticated soup base that you can taste the many layers, also helped by the fact it doesn't major in Strong Pork Tonkotsu style soup base.
I think Butao here is also trying to be different from the Main Stream style commercial ramens, the likes of Santouka, Hakodate, Sapporo, Sapporo Ramen, Ippei An, Gen's.... even the Japanese ones like Ippudo/Ichiran.
You can tell they are trying to develop their own 風(格) and breaking away from tradition a little bit, its a Ramen bowl done with soul and I really appreciate it. They just need some minor tweaks of the formula, to become one of the best Ramen shops not only in HK, but in the World !
I think Butao here is also trying to be different from the Main Stream style commercial ramens, the likes of Santouka, Hakodate, Sapporo, Sapporo Ramen, Ippei An, Gen's.... even the Japanese ones like Ippudo/Ichiran.
You can tell they are trying to develop their own 風(格) and breaking away from tradition a little bit, its a Ramen bowl done with soul and I really appreciate it. They just need some minor tweaks of the formula, to become one of the best Ramen shops not only in HK, but in the World !
A Short review from me before they reopen, since I visited during their Testing Stage before official opening - just to give them some guidance as to what to improve.
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Overall, its a Specialty Ramen Shop with lots of potential !
Other Ratings:
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