Malaysia restaurant sparks division over durian ramen

Since May 17, Menya Shishido Restaurant started serving the new ramen placed in a durian shell, with a piece of durian on top. The broth is a combination of their signature tonkotsu soup and real durian.

According to the restaurant, this makes for a creamy soup that complements their ramen. This dish is then topped with a piece of chasu, an egg, spring onions, and durian.

Priced at RM40 ($8.80), the durian ramen is limited to only 20 bowls per day as it is difficult to find suppliers.

“We’re having a hard time finding a supplier and it is also not easy for us to cut. We get a lot more orders than we expected so we decided to sell 20 bowls a day only,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post.

One Facebook user said, “It actually tastes not bad, and the ramen soup has a thicker, and slightly sweeter flavor.”

Though some diners find it creative and are looking forward to trying it out, others showed their disappointment.

“The people who invented this deserve a place in the depths of hell,” said one user.

Another user wrote, “Stop insulting Japanese cuisine please. The ramen croissant and boba tsukumen were bad enough.”

In February this year, the same restaurant introduced limited edition croissant ramen that paired a black garlic curry soup with a buttery, flaky croissant.

For Valentine’s Day, it offered a chocolate ramen to bring a sweet, cocoa touch to its savory broth.

The restaurant is also famous for introducing nasi lemak dry ramen in 2020 and matcha ramen in 2021.