imitation noodles
I’m not quite sure what it is that makes them imitations (the ingredients are “wheat flour, water”)…or wait! I got it! Since noodle is singular, only ONE of the noodles is an imitation, and you just gotta find it. Good fun.
ramen rating: la-men – buena park, ca
I noticed La-men springing into existence maybe a month or two ago on the way to a friend’s house. At first, my first instinct was to make fun of it. “La-men! Ha! They can’t even spell it right!” But later, when I found out it was actually run by Japanese people, I was intrigued. My friend told me that he heard it was decent, “but do you really want to go there instead of Gomen?” Gomen, my favorite ramenya in the area, called out to me from just a few minutes away. But duty calls! Read the rest of this entry →
mitsuwa food fair
This weekend and next weekend is Mitsuwa Supermarket’s “Explore diverse flavor of Japanese Cuisine” fair, with specialty ramen, of course.
First up is Ramen Tatsunoya (House of the Dragon), making a return engagement with their pork-and-water-only tonkotsu ramen. If you missed their first appearance last year, you owe it to yourself to try it out this year.
Thurs. to Sun. 7/8-7/11 at Mitsuwa in Torrance
Thurs. to Sun. 7/15-7/18 at Mitsuwa in New Jersey
OC peeps get a taste of Ramen Ezofukuro’s tsukemen. Tsukemen is a dipping ramen where the noodles are served seperately from the soup. Ramen Ezofukuro will be serving their Shiro Shio Butter and Aka Shio Butter tsukemen (white salt butter and red salt butter, respectively. The red version is spicy).
Thurs. to Sun. 7/8-7/11 at Mitsuwa in Costa Mesa
Thurs. to Sun. 7/15-7/18 at Mitsuwa in Chicago
See the Mitsuwa web site for more info or store locations.
ramen rating: breadbar ramen yatai – los angeles, ca
Trendy ramen comes of age in L.A. at BREADBAR (apparently, they don’t believe in lower case letters). Bakery and…well, “bread bar” by day, BREADBAR turns into a pop-up ramen yatai (food stand) serving “gourmet street food” by night and features guest chef Kazuo Shimamura from Ironnori Concepts. Their ramen selection ranges from the classics (shio, shoyu, miso, and spicy miso) to the exotic (spicy pork curry, tomato, vietnam ramen, ox tail, and foie gras). At times like this, I wished I had multiple stomachs. Read the rest of this entry →
reader question: 80′s ramen
A reader from Autumn Heart writes:
I’m doing a painting of a Ramen package (I picked Maruchan chicken flavor.) It looks pretty lonely sitting all by itself, however, so I’d like to surround it with rays extending from it like a sun, some related imagery.
When I was a kid in the 80s, I remember that one of the readily-available ramen packages had small icon cartoons on the packaging, to go along with the flavor (a small hen for chicken flavor, and I can only assume there was a pig for pork, and a shrimp for shrimp. I was a big chicken nut, so that’s the one I remember.)
However, they’ve long since moved on from this packaging, and I cannot find a picture of ANYwhere.
You wouldn’t happen to have a photo of some vintage ramen packaging with the little chicken cartoon in place, would you?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
After some digging, we determined that it was not Nissin’s Chiken ramen, and she continues:
The image I’m thinking of is somewhat similar to this…
This is also going back to c.1983, so the possibility that it’s gone for good is quite real.
So can anyone out there help out? Show off your instant ramen knowledge! Leave your suggestions and/or questions in the comments below.
$5 ramen, one day only
Mizuki ramen, judging by some of the comments, isn’t getting a whole lot o’ love. But if you’re not put off by that, and want some cheap grub, they’re offering $5 shoyu, miso, or tonkotsu ramen from 11am to 1pm on 6/24 as part of their World Cup celebration. Go (insert your favorite country here)!
You need to check out Mottainai soon! 
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