Happy Holidays. I'm heading back to California for 3 weeks, San Francisco and Los Angeles. I might eat some ramen out there, but to be honest, I'm feinding for some Mexican food. But we'll see. A few good English ramen blogs (look to the right) are based in LA, so I might have to check some out.
I'd been here before, and I remember it was really good, and really bad at the same time. How can that be?
Looks pretty damn tasty. Well, this is abura ramen. Abura is the floating bits of fat that form when making the soup. Many tonkotsu shops will strain out the fat, since... well... it's just globs of oily pork fat. But other shops actually specialize in this stuff. It's silk smooth and tasty, but you will feel like crap after eating too much.
To add instult to injury, almost everyone who came in this shop got their ramen with メーヨ topping. That's mayonaise people! Why stop with half a liter of artery clogging fat chunks when you can add mayo.
I had the bubuka special, which comes with 3 thick slices of their pork, which they grill on a little burner before serving. The pork is up there with the best of the best, it's so good. My advice here is to eat the pork, noodles, and other toppings, then maybe nurse the broth a little, but don't try and finish it. It's hard to do, but your body will thank you.
Bubuka is hella crowded at night with drunk salarymen. Kichijoji is a bit of a transport hub into the west of Tokyo, so a lot of people come through here on their way home.
Keep you eye out for the instant version in a supermarket near you. Compete with mayo.
Nagi is now my regular ramen shop. I teach a private lesson nearby every Tuesday, so it just makes logical sense to eat here every week. One of the cool things here, besides the だれやま set (beer or shochu with a side of barbecued pork and bamboo shoots) is that they have over 50 things on the menu. Of course, I recommend the house ramen, but I've got time to branch out.
Today was 焼ーチーズーラーメン, fried ramen covered with cheese. They used the thin, stiff Hakata style noodles, fried it with the tonkotsu soup, and covered it with cheese. There were also little chunks of pork inside. Yeah, it's as good as it sounds.
*Years later... the menu has changed and you can't get this anymore. But you can get it at the Nagi Nicai shop!*
Just outside the station I use is a little ramen shop. It's never crowded, and I'm never hungry enough to go in. But today I needed ramen.
You see, I had just finished the annual JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) and felt like celebrating. Celebrating with ramen.
So I went in. One of the best things about this shop is that it is run by a little old lady and a little old man. I always see them when I walk by. It seems like the shop is only open when they feel like opening it.
Inside, it was just me and another old lady eating. Eventually, another old lady came by to chat with the owners. It was pretty much an old lady ramen party. Everyone involved was over 80 years old today. Imagine spending your golden years running the neighborhood ramen shop, just chatting with friends and making the occasional bowl.
So even though the ramen was pretty normal shoyu soup, the air of this place was fantastic. The master even mustered the courage to talk to me about Obama on my way out. It's a good thing.
The Grandia building in JR Tachikawa station is home to a funky Chinatown. Yeah, Chinatown. Hmmmm, maybe more of a China food court. Take the escalators to the top floor of this department store and you are treated to about 10 Chinese restaurants. Half are dim sum places, others are random chinese food, but one, Chen Ping, is a ramen shop.
Tangy!
The taste is almost like Vietnamese Pho broth. Salty and spicy. The taste of cilantro went well with the shrimp and fried pork bits that were in the bowl.
Nice to have something different, but the fact that I was eating in a department store kind of took away from the magic.
From JR Tachikawa, take the Granduo exit. It's on the 7th floor in Chinatown.
(I don't always have my camera, and have to resort to my cell phone)
Today's Junior High School lunch. Ramen noodles with some chashu pork and a mystery soup. On the side, those are 大学いも (university potatoes?). Also served with an apple and milk. Ramen doesn't really match with milk (stick with water), but the sweet fried potatoes do.
The soup was a sort of random thing. More like real soup than ramen broth. There were lots of carrots and bamboo shoots.
I had the 大盛 size with a couple extra plates of potatoes and an extra 2 milks.
I did a small survey of the kids I ate lunch with this day (about 30 thirteen year olds) and they actually prefer miso ramen the most. Adults are like 90% for tonkotsu, which makes sense.
Spent a weekend in Hong Kong. There are many things in this city inspired by Japanese. Many restaurants especially. Teppanyaki seemed very popular, which is funny because places like Benihanas (where dinner is the show) aren't big in Japan. Noodles are of course common in China and Hong Kong, but I happened to find some ramen shops as well.
I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat here, but it was an actual ramen shop with a line.
The menu had a selection of all styles of ramen.
Ajisen ramen was at the airport. It actually looked pretty good, but I wasn't hungry.
The ramen had little strange additions, like this one which says it has beans in it.
Every season brings a new release at this Kichijoji shop. I had the spring release, a shrimp soup with shrimp wonton and asparagus. I had the summer release, a spicy dipping noodle. I missed the autumn. And now it's the winter one.
The broth has almost no flavor. The noodles were way soft. The cabbage didn't add much. Is this a complaint? Not really. This ramen would be great as a chicken soup substitute for the sick. About half a dozen won-tons add to this. Actually, it tastes almost exactly like won-ton soup at Chinese restaurants in America.
If you are easy to get jealous, you will see what other people are eating and suddenly that green eyed monster will rear it's head. There is something called "mega meat" I think. It's the polar opposite of light and healthy. But sometimes the body needs to cleanse for a little.
Straight from the streets of New York comes Ippudo. Whats that? It was here in Japan long before? Oh.
Ippudo is big in recent ramen news.
You see, Ippudo took the New York scene by storm, becoming a very trendy spot in one of the trendiest cities in the world. I hear it's good stuff, loyal to the shops out here in Japan. I'm all for ramen expansion across the globe. I only knew instant noodle ramen when I lived in California. To someone who doesn't understand, it's like comparing Spaghetti-Os with homemade family recipe spaghetti at a little shop in Napoli.
The menu is simple. You can get the traditional shiro motoaji (白丸元味) Hakata style ramen, or the modern akamaru shinaji (赤丸新味) style, which adds garlic oil and a stronger soup. There are a few other things on the menu, I hear the gyoza is good. Also, there are "Hakata Buns" which use the same pork from ramen in a bun with some toppings. They looked good too. Future prospects.
Ippudo should be on every first timers list. It a great intro to the creamy smooth soup that comes out of Hakata in Kyushu. Ichiran is another choice for this style, but I don't like the solitary seating style at that one. Ippudo is a much more social type place. The one in Kichijoji is downstairs, open very late, and comfortable to hang out in with friends.
Actually, I went here almost a year ago. This was before I started my ramen hunting adventures. It was December 8th, 2007. I had just moved from Kure, a city in Hiroshima prefecture, and hadn't had good ramen in a really long time. But I knew one guy who could set me straight.
Jackie Chan!
A few days prior he had been to this area and ate here. Actually, this shop is in the NTV building. So maybe it's sort of a celebrity hangout. Don't expect to meet Jackie Chan. If you are lucky, you could meet a Japanese celebrity, like that guy who dresses like a school girl and beats people with a kendo sword. Or that dude who counts, and every time he says "8" he makes a funny face. He's very popular (in Japan).
The ramen here was created by some guy who won some TV contest. That's all I know. I told you, it was like a year ago, before I became a ramen maniac.
The soup is a soy sauce broth with seafood used to flavor it. I remember it being on the strong side.
At the end of the meal, toss in a bowl of rice with fried pork into you soup. Yum.
Sorry, that's all I have to say. This was so long ago, but I remember that day. You can go to Shiodome station and find this place.
This time I brought my camera to take some photos of the soy sauce ramen. This bowl is rich and full of abura. What could make it more delicious? Bunkara's giant slab of pork, which comes along side the regular slice of chayshu. This is a great bowl, but I recommend the tonkotsu more. And yes, the tonkotsu comes with a giant slab of pork as well.
Also on the menu today was a side of rice topped with mountain vegetables. If you are feling like even more meat, you can order rice topped with grilled meat (pork I'm assuming). I saved about half the soup broth and dumped the rice in at the end of the meal. Suddenly I had what equated to another bowl of ramen on my hands. Yeah, it was too much.
Actually, I wasn't hungry at all. I had just eaten. But I had some time to kill in Ikebukuro, so I thought I'd find where the #5 Ramen shop was. It's the last one in central Tokyo on my list. It was a little off the beaten path, out past the Sunshine 60 building. Who goes past Sunshine 60? Apparently ramen lovers do.
Here's some foreshadowing for you...
I swear I'm on the right block. But I can't find any addresses. Just this.
A massive construction site.
I wandered around the area in disbelief for about 20 minutes. Sure enough, Taishoken is no more. Funny thing though, it's still there on google earth.
I take note and leave. Thanks to the internet, I'm able to find out what happened.
Urban development.
And damn, I sure missed out. Turns out this is the birthplace of Tsukemen, the concept of dipping noodles into a separate sauce. The master at Taishoken was ramen royalty. Hour long waits and an uproar over his (attempted) retirement add to the allure.
Somewhere in Fuchu city, on Route 20, is a place called Gorilla Ramen.
Actually, I was trying to get to the #3 place on my list, but they were closed... again. I've been there a few times, and each time is the same story. Today I think I just missed them, as the gate on the store was halfway open.
Driving home on congested Route 20, I saw this place. I couldn't resist.
Not crowded at all, just one other guy reading a manga. The staff was in good spirits at having some strange foreign guy in their store taking photos. Trying to hold back their laughter, they took my order. Of course, I ordered the ゴーリラーラーメン, Gorilla Ramen. It was a spicy bowl of shoyu, with ground meat in the soup.
Seriously, the master was cracking up with his friend in the back the whole time I was there.
Fairly standard stuff, with a perfect kick of spice. The heat stuck on my tongue for a while after I left.
Most people don't finish the soup in their shoyu ramen, but I did. Surprise!
I don't know any more than that. I guess it's based on a manga. Maybe I'll check it out. I'm going to go on record and say that all recent Japanese popular movies that have any ties to manga are utter crap. Interesting website though.
I can only think of 2 other ramen related movies.
The first is the truly excellent Tampopo. If you've never seen this movie, watch it.
The other is Ramen Girl, staring Brittany Murphy. I haven't seen it yet.
I'm sure I've been here before. Oh yeah, Nagi is my favorite spot at the NY Ramen Square in Tachikawa. I hesitated for a second, I was really hoping for something new. But then I realized, stop thinking and just eat!
I'm glad I did. The first thing you will notice here is the booze.
There are sake bottles on the walls, and everyone had a beer in front of them. The atmosphere is one of a typical 飲み屋, the small drinking establishments that cover Tokyo. There's even a happy hour type thing where all the drinks are 400￥. You can order your drink in "set" form. For 800￥, you get your drink and a bowl of menma and grilled pork. Not a bad way to relax after work (or at lunch (or on the weekend)).
The menu is daunting. I think I see something on there that says ラーメンオムレツ... ramen omelet?!? Anyways, I asked if this was the same shop as in Tachikawa, and sure enough they are related. But, I was assured, different taste. I went with the メガとん, megaton, which although it sounds like some sort of transforming robot was a hearty tonkotsu made with fish in the broth.
The noodles are nothing like the thin, firm ones with most tonkotsu ramens. Curly, fairly soft things that grab this amazing soup. On the counter is some sort of mystery spice sauce that gives a nice kick as well.
The real draw here, besides excellent food, is the atmosphere. I could easily sit here with friends for a couple hours, drinking shochu and nibbling on random bites. Is this a ramen izakaya? It could be.
Another thing to watch for, they have a ramen, it's the 4th on the menu, that changes every day. How awesome is that! This may become a regular spot for me on Tuesday nights, since I teach a lesson a couple blocks away.
Here's a youtube video, Nagi is 3rd one in the video:
They have 2 top items on their menu. Today is going to be the tonkotsu soup. The broth is like butter, almost pure white stuff that just coats your taste buds.
There are a couple kinds of pork. The regular slice and then a huge... slab of roasted meat. If you tap it lightly with your chopsticks, it will fall apart into your soup.
Everything on the menu here is great. They even have a few rice side dishes, one with mountain vegetables on top. I'm never quite hungry enough to spend the extra yen for that, but maybe I'll make an exception next time. From the north exit of Tachikawa station, follow the road to the left along the tracks. It's about 2 minutes.
Looks like Nyami is out and Idaten is in at the NY Ramen Square in Tachikawa. Damn, no more waitress with the homegrown swastika tattoo.
伊駄天
I have no idea what this Kanji means.
And the verdict is... out with the old and in with the new! This was some tasty stuff. The soup was really thick. Usually thick means it's a tonkotsu or miso soup, but this was a shoyu made from chicken and fish.
If you like menma, Idaten had the best menma I've had. Some sort of special house special, they were cut long and stringy.
This shop takes a definite #3 spot at the ramen stadium here.
Oh, and there was a hula show in the middle of all the shops this day. So far, I've seen a hula dance, slot car racing, and a couple live bands here. It's all free (but the slightly overpriced ramen pays for it I guess). Keep that in mind, there is usually something happening at this ramen stadium on Saturdays.
After eating you can stop buy and have an English lesson with me a block away. And yeah, I use this blog in some of my lessons.
I'm back to my Top 30 From Some Random TV Show hunt.
不如帰
Hototogisu translates to "the lesser cookoo bird". To be more specific Cuculus poliocephalus. Fascinating. So here we are, #8 in Japan according to the list. It's been a few months since I tried anything new from my Top 30 list, mainly because of my mission to eat lots of Tachikawa ramen. Well I'm done in Tachikawa (done eating at new restaraunts, never done with ramen) so it's back to the grand adventure. I only have like 6 or 7 more to go in Tokyo, which shouldn't be much of a task. Plenty of ramen lovers hit multiple places a day, so why is it taking me months?
I think it's the weather. The mad heat of summer and bitter cold of winter make going out a pain. But now it's the 2 or 3 weeks of nice weather between the seasons. Some may call it autumn. Let's eat!
It's in a little alley off from the main shopping street. There was reggae on the stereo and spot lights shining on stainless steel. It's a nice shop.
The recommended bowl was the shoyu ramen. The little bits are carmalized onions. Amazing taste. Imagine a nice French onion soup gets fed to a pig. This pig then has sex with a chicken. The resulting mutant beast is slaughtered and somehow made into ramen.
Definitely unique. On the weekend the master makes a special ramen from some sort of French quail. Unfortunately, I went on a weekday, so there was no obscure ramen to be had. I'll be back though.
