Ippin Nyukon

Yesterday, while everyone else went fishing, for lunch Wid and I went to Ippin Nyukon in Kuta because I've been craving ramen (been watching too many Japanese shows on Asian Food Channel). The funny thing about Ippin Nyukon is the sign says "Chinese restaurant" but it's more like a Japanese's take on Chinese food so it doesn't taste like the Chinese food that I grew up with. Our fellow food lover friends brought us here for the first time months ago, and they were introduced to the place by their Japanese expat friend. When we entered the restaurant, we were greeted by the waitresses and the person we assumed to be the chef/owner, who reminds me of Inoue Takehiko because of the bandana and the beard.

Instead of sticking to our plan of sharing a bowl of ramen and some appetizer (the pan fried gyoza with red vinegar is really, really good), Wid was intrigued by the mapo tofu so we ended up getting the mapo tofu lunch set and a bowl of noodles with slices of roasted pork (叉燒麵). It ended up being a very delicious yet very filling decision since the meals are unusually generous in portion.

The noodle soup was excellent as usual with its very thick, flavorful broth, juicy chunks of roasted pork, seaweed, seasame, chopped scallions, and an soft boiled egg. What was surprising was the mapo tofu. The taste is very different from the mapo tofu that Wid makes, yet it was very delicious. The hint of sweetness is one of the distinctive features. The dish consisted of rice (which soaked up the sauce nicely), tofu, minced meat, white pepper, and chopped scallions. I wondered if it's only sugar that made the dish sweet or it's something else, like tian mian jian, because the sweetness is pretty complex.

We were so full that we couldn't eat dinner though it was well worth it. The noodles and the mapo tofu were soooo good.