There are many high quality ramen brands in Singapore these days, even many chains that come directly from Japan. But many of them stick to variations of soup bases from pork, chicken, miso, shoyu and the like. Mashi no Mashi, however, is the first ramen specialist in a soup base from beef that I had the chance to try. Moreover, although the chef is Japanese, he crafted his recipe after significant exposure to Singapore's food scene, so it is arguably a fusion of Japanese and Singaporean cuisine. This particular Ultra Wagyu Ramen dish is done Kyushu-style, with Kobe and Ozaki wagyu beef bone stock, but as I mention later, it really reminded me of a signature Singaporean flavour.
Before I start my taste review, I need to clarify that I did not know all the above information when I visited. I did not even know that wagyu beef bone broth was Mashi no Mashi's specialty, and just ordered it because it was their signature offering. I wasn't even intending to feature it on the blog because I didn't think it was that unusual. But after trying it, I was so delighted in an unexpected way that I decided to research more before finally deciding to feature it in this post.
Taste Review
I ordered the Ultra Wagyu Ramen, which their menu lists as featuring these ingredients: Wagyu bone broth, A5 wagyu char siu, red chilli tare, spring onion, soft-boiled egg and thin ramen noodles.
The first thing that struck me when I drank the soup (which I went for first), was that it really reminded me of bak kut teh (Singapore's iconic pork rib soup), except that instead of pork, there was the intense signature flavour of good quality wagyu beef. (Mashi no Mashi has a separate dish called Wagyu Bak Kut Teh, so I wonder if there are some cross influences between the flavours.)
The buttery, earthy and umami taste of wagyu was very prominent, and although it was very beefy, it did not come across as gamey at all. It was fragrant, rich and hearty, yet very smoothly blended into the rest of the soup's seasoning, despite being so prominent. I think it was probably the buttery element that stood out the most to me, because it made the entire mouthful very rich without the gamey feel. I wondered if they might have used quite some beef tallow for it to be that rich, even though I didn't see any thick layer of oil floating around. But it could also just be the beef bone marrow's buttery flavour.
And I don't know if I imagined it because of the association with bak kut teh, I believe there might have been some garlic and white pepper as well, even though these were not on the ingredients list. These weren't very prominent, however, but smoothly supporting in the background of the body.
Compared to the usual tonkotsu, the texture of the soup didn't seem particularly gelatinous or viscous. It was thick, but closer to a thick Asian double-boiled soup in mouthfeel and texture, or like a thick bak kut teh. The other comparison to tonkotsu soup is that this wagyu bone broth had a wider spread of flavours. The buttery tallow didn't overwhelm the entire palette, so you could clearly taste the beefy and buttery notes on top, the garlic-onion-pepper and umami notes in the middle (or whatever seasoning they used that tastes like bak kut teh) and the earthy notes below. For tonkotsu, it tends to be tightly clumped into a very rich and porky homogeneous taste, sometimes accented with oils such as garlic or truffle.
Wagyu Char Siu Slices - a wonderful spread of doneness in 1 bowl
Then, the thing to note, is that you should eat all the wagyu char siu slices first, especially if you like them rare or medium in doneness. This is because they cook quite quickly in the hot soup. Immediately after my first quick sip of the soup, I started on the wagyu slices. The first one I had was medium rare, but shortly after, by the time I reached the third, it was closer to a medium-well or a well done steak colour. It was the perfect experience because I got to experience all 3 slices in different doneness.
They were all heavenly and melt in your mouth, even the final well done slice. And the beef flavour also did not disappoint, with the full flavour profile described earlier of the soup. But I would say that they had more metallic notes due to the blood and somewhat less of a buttery taste, possibly because although the slices were marbled, they weren't the fattiest of cuts. So the soup was more buttery than the beef slices, interestingly.
The red chilli tare wasn't spicy at all that I noticed, and just seemed a bit sweet and savoury. If I hadn't read the description, I might have mistaken it for some sweet teriyaki-like sauce.
The egg and spring onions were standard fare. No complaints - the egg had a perfect molten yolk and nice soy flavour, but this is common nowadays for any legit ramen outlet.
Novel Appetiser
What I really liked about the experience is that they also served me a free appetiser for having ordered their signature dish. It was edamame fried in beef tallow and salt! I assume it was wagyu tallow.
Like normal edamame, you don't eat the pod, but since it was oily, in order to get to the edamame, I put the pod into my mouth and squeezed the beans out with my tongue. And that's how I ended up tasting the tallow and salt.
It was very interesting as it reminded me of the sides on a beef steak hotplate or teppanyaki - a little bit buttery, earthy and salty. And although it wasn't charred (hardly any black spots in the photo), the dark earthy flavours seemed to give an illusion of some smokey charred notes like from a hotplate.
It was overall a very nice spin on the usual edamame indeed!
Overall, I was just very happy with my visit and hope to pop by again if I'm in the area.
Discover other unusual hearty flavours and noodles
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