 "Life is too short to waste on mediocre ramen" Sure you can feast on a platter of roti canai's from Valentine, lick your fingers after ploughing through a plate of Mollagaa's banana leaf, fornicate with your reflection at the bottom of an empty laksa bowl, or simply lie in bed shoving fatty charsiu in your gluttonous cavity. But after days/weeks/months of doing that, surely you'll crawl to the mirror on a day of self-introspection, see the loss washing over your eyes like cheap paint, and realise that ramen is exactly what you need to wipe clear the cataracts of doubt and fill you with truth once more. Having a group of friends that are also Ramen-addicts, I find myself waking up to a barrage of texts every morning "Where is the best ramen in KL?", "Authentic Ramen in KL?", "Who does the best ramen in Malaysia?". As a bonafide broth-martyr, I took it upon myself to carry the cross of noodles down the soupy streets of menma strewn depravity, tasting thirteen different temples of potential truth, and dividing them up into false prophets and stomach profits. Here they are, in all their glory, from worst to first. And in a country where pork is generally seen as soul death, the term guilty pleasure is even more apt. Places crushed: 1. Menya Shi Shi Do 2. Tokyo Ramen 3. Ippudo Ramen (their Yokohama special is much better than their regular ones). 4. Torazou Ramen 5. Aori Ramen 6. Bankara Ramen 7. Tabushi Ramen 8. Hokkaido Ramen Santouka 9. Kanbe 10. Marutama 11. Maruki Ramen 12. Kagura Ramen 13. Bari Uma (click the photo for a link to google map) The Worst First
The Winner! Bari-Uma RameN - 9/10Where there is competition, there will always be a winner. Ramen Bari-Uma knocks the ball out of the park for the following reasons. Their speciality is a Tonkotsu Shoyu broth, which is a touch darker and deeper than most other Tonkotsu bowls. They also import their own special soy sauce from Japan and refuse to serve even a single bowl if for some reason the distribution lines are cut and they cannot aquire their heavenly elixir. Standards!  Broth aside, the real hero here is the pork. The vast majority of ramen shops will serve you the thin, rounded pork belly thats been tied up with string and slow-cooked for 3-4 hours in a marinade of soy, mirin, leeks, ginger etc etc. Whatever they are upto in those secretive kitchens at Bari Uma is paying off. The pork here is more like a thick slice of brisket, with singed edges. At first when it was placed in front of me I immediately thought it would be tough. How far from the truth. This is single-handedly the most tender, juicy piece of pork that has ever drowned in a loving bath of broth, ready to hold its temperature until a willing carnivore snatches it from its protective shelter and begins pushing it apart with gums & tongues. No teeth are required for this pork. Its THAT tender. Everything else is perfect, although once my egg was under cooked, and the price is bang on. Do not wait to try this if you ever walk past the sign, you will not regret it! p.s. I just randomly found this video today and it made me smile! Subscribe to his page! All these recommendations are just personal opinions based on my palate, things change, chefs get fired or replaced, places open-close, relocate, so take it all with a pinch of MSG and discover your own gems too. But please do try a few of these, they have been researched exhaustively
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"Tastes are subjective, so take everything with a pinch of salty tears"
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