On-tama bukkake udon (small)
Allright, hands up if you haven't been to or heard of Mappen? Yes, I suppose many of you haven't but if this place has created quite a buzz in the Sydney food blogosphere around September. I have been there numerous of times and in its early stage as much as 3 times in one week, with 2 of them in a row. Hahahaha, I should go to Mappen anonymous huh? Well, I haven't had time to write about this earlier since I was dealing with my broken foot, school works and exams.
Anyway, I was there last week and I ordered my favorite thing: on-tama bukkake udon: udon with par-boiled egg and concentrated sauce. Then as I walked along the line to the cashier, my faith is not strong enough to resist those tempura temptations... Not that I want to anyway! I ended up getting mixed vegetable kakiage tempura and the shrimp as they stopped serving chikuwa for a while now. Mappen management if you are reading this, please bring back the chikuwa tempura!
Vegetable kakiage and shrimp tempura
What I love about Mappen is, not only the interesting concept: noodle and tempura bar, but also the cheap (relatively) price and it's quality. It's a rare feat for any shop to serve cheap and good quality food, but Mappen definitely achieved that. For udon, the most important thing is its texture, what is it's chewiness factor? Mappen's udon is definitely good, the only better ones I've had was sanuki udon from Koya san in Japan. The onsen tamago (par boiled egg)? I've been there many times and it's always on the right consistency.
My only foe here is the tempura bar... it is way too tempting! I can never resist. Beware though, don't eat too much, you'll hate yourself for the amount of food you forced yourself to eat. Or hey, maybe you don't have that problem hehehhe... I like the way they always keep just enough tempura on display so that it never stays there for too long, keeping it fresh so to speak.
Menya Mappen
Shop 11, 537-551 George St
Sydney, NSW 2000
+61 2 9283 5525
I must be one of the few people who haven't made it to Mappen yet! I definitely won't be able to contain myself in the tempura bar, but it's ok in the name of research for the blog hehe ;)
ReplyDeletehahaha, i like your thought! all in the name of "research"!
ReplyDelete