My First Visit to Menya Hanekin: The Rich Silkie-Chicken Broth That’ll Make You Fall in Love at First Slurp!
Meow meow everyone, welcome back to another one of those posts where I drag you all out to slurp some ramen and then tell you whether it’s any good. Today I’m taking you to a shop that’s been open for less than half a year – Menya Hanekin (麵屋 • 羽金)!
Full location details for Menya Hanekin: https://goo.gl/maps/gk4DQ8UHVJsixNk8A
The Storefront
It had honestly been suuuper long since I last hit up a ramen shop – my tongue was practically starting to forget what ramen even tastes like (^～^;)ゞ. When we first arrived, the place felt really easy to miss – a low-key blue background with smallish white lettering, and we very nearly walked right past it. But that doesn’t take away from how delicious the ramen itself is, right!? We got there at 12:26 and there were only 2~3 groups of customers inside. We ordered three bowls total, and the food came out 7 minutes later – pretty quick, all things considered.
There’s plenty of seating inside too, around 20 seats or so – mostly 2- and 4-person tables, with just a few counter seats. But unlike your average ramen shop, this one actually has a restroom, which is a really nice touch – especially for someone like me who chugs water like crazy every single time I eat ramen.
The Signature Bowl
This shop’s specialty is a creamy chicken paitan (white chicken broth) ramen made with black-boned silkie chicken, and the whole menu offers just one broth to choose from. The cheapest “Hakka” version at 280 is a simple bowl of noodles + 3 slices of chicken char siu and 4 slices of pork char siu, just like the one below.
The most loaded version, at 340 NTD, comes with one molten-yolk egg + 7 slices of pork char siu + 5 slices of chicken char siu. Honestly, if 60 bucks more gets you all that, I’d order it in a heartbeat! I love bowls piled high with toppings, and the value here is genuinely worth it. Alright, enough chatting – let’s dig in. The most distinctive thing about this shop, in my opinion, is the onions, which are different from other places: they seem to have been smoked? Or maybe specially torched, because as you eat you can still pick up that faint charred aroma. And I don’t mean actually burnt! It’s more of a just-enough touch, so the first bite hits you with a hint of bitterness, but the moment you chew you immediately get the sweetness of the onion. That subtle little layering keeps the whole bowl of broth from getting heavy.
Next up is the broth. It’s rich in collagen, with a slightly thick, almost lightly-starched mouthfeel (you know, the kind of broth a dietitian would absolutely tell you never to drink often – but who cares, today I’m here to eat good food (・～・)!!!). The broth has a faint golden hue, a bit different from your typical chicken paitan, and the chicken flavor feels a notch more pronounced. It’s like the difference between a plump factory-raised white chicken and a buff free-range chicken that runs around the streets all day – you can clearly link the two together as the same thing, yet still tell them apart. Paired with the thin noodles that soak up the most broth, it really is a super unique experience.
The Spicy Miso the Owner Recommends
Right as the food came out, the staff strongly recommended that we absolutely add the spicy miso sitting on the side, so of course I had to give it a try~ And wow, it’s fine without it, but add it and it’s a whole different story. What kind of sorcery makes two versions of the same broth taste so different? Once you add it, the soup turns even richer, and at this point if you throw in a free portion of extra noodles and treat the remaining broth like a dipping sauce (tsukemen-style), that’s yet another flavor altogether – and it doesn’t get too heavy either! It’s actually not even spicy; it’s only after you swallow that you feel a faint, lingering heat on the tongue. The owner also thoughtfully placed chili oil on the side, so customers who really want the heat can drizzle it on – though I didn’t, so I honestly can’t tell you how spicy it gets.
But there’s one big downside to doing this: I found it tricky to gauge the right amount, always worried about adding too little or too much. Honestly, at first I didn’t dare add much, so I only put in a spoonful or two – and it ended up barely tasting of anything. Especially as first-timers, we definitely couldn’t tell how spicy it would be. Maybe the shop could write a recommended amount next to it, or – like they apparently did when they first opened – just hand customers a small pre-portioned dish (perhaps they stopped doing that out of fear of waste). That would be better.
The Pork and Chicken Char Siu
The pork char siu in the ramen, like at some other shops, gets a light torching when it comes out, and every slice of char siu looks fantastic – sized just right for a single bite, and perfectly half-lean, half-fatty. As for the chicken, the specialty is a pomelo-and-sorghum-liquor chicken char siu. It has a faint liquor aroma, though it’s pretty subtle, and I couldn’t taste the pomelo at all. My suggestion would be for the shop to turn it into a pomelo sauce drizzled over the chicken to give it flavor, and to plate it at the very last second before serving. That way you’d be more likely to actually taste the pomelo, while also keeping it from turning bitter from the heat of the noodles. Of course, this is just my own unprofessional two cents.
And then there’s the finishing touch – the molten-yolk egg. Hanekin’s egg has a fairly strong liquor note that I personally really liked, and it was cooked to just the right doneness, with the whole thing looking super intact too! To wrap things up: I personally think this is a ramen shop with real character, putting a clever little twist on the basic ingredients rather than going for some over-the-top gimmick to grab everyone’s eyeballs. The flavors are dialed in really well too – never bland, never too salty – making it very easy for ramen-loving Mai-Mais to enjoy. Plus you can switch things up mid-meal by adding miso, which is a big bonus! Highly recommend giving it a try!
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