Zombie Soup

My brother and I love ramen. If you remember, we went on a quest for ramen here and here. Now what's with the Zombie Soup? I'll get to that in a bit.

It was an evening when I was without transport and my brother very kindly agreed to fetch me. So we took the opportunity to have dinner together.

Another place that we had ramen previously was Gantetsu@Isetan Eat Paradise 1-Utama simply because their neighbor was closed for renovation. Now that the neighbor has re-opened, we decided to give it a go.

From what I read in a blog, the management of this outlet has changed and apparently the taste of the food is not the same anymore. I also read unflattering comments on their FB page. The menu is different too, I noticed. 

But still, we have not eaten here before and having tasted the awesome (to us) ramen at Tokyo Ramen, we would use that as our benchmark. 

So. Time to place our orders.

Image source : Zomato.com

We both settled for the Musashi Ramen (RM32.00). Why? Because the Chasu Ramen (RM36.00) did not come with egg (according to the menu). We are suckers for egg.

We also selected (rather I suggested) kuro as our oil flavoring which is a special mix of fried shallots and garlic flavored oil (because these should be delicious).

Image source : Zomato.com

We also added a side of Edamame (RM4.50) and Gyoza (RM12.00).

For drinks, it was Green Tea (RM3.00), hot for him and cold for me (since my Ketua Pengarah wasn't there).

The Gyoza was very good. My brother loved it a lot and so did I.

I purposely chose the burnt one because I like burnt taste.

As usual, we love Edamame.

And now for the piece de resistance. 

I wonder why the soup is black (yes, I did read that the broth with kuro is black but I was attracted to the shallots and garlic). 

First thing I noticed, where is the egg? I dug into the soup but alas, no egg.

My brother was still busy with the Gyoza when I took a tentative sip of the broth. The first thing that hit me was the very strong unpleasant porky smell.

So I muttered to my brother "Very strong porky smell". Well, he did not take me seriously and thought that I was being fussy (he confessed later in the car hah..hah...).

Then it was his turn to eat. OMG! He too found it overpowering. 

So we both turned to these to kill the taste.

Fried garlic and chili pepper.

Somehow after a few sips, it didn't taste as bad. I'm afraid this ramen experience was not good for us due to the strong smelling broth. Though it had a good thick consistency, the unpleasant porky smell spoiled our experience.

It was this funky smell and taste that prompted my brother to call the broth "Zombie Soup" because he reckons (in jest) that's what zombies must taste like. I hope I don't get sued.

But it was not all bad because we did enjoy the Gyoza. Will I return? I would, just to try it again with another flavor. Maybe that particular batch of broth was not good. Who knows. My brother would return too, but only for the Gyoza.