Well, we never were able to make it to Motomachi Shokudo, just a few doors down from Kintaro (and owned by the same people). There was just too much to see and eat, and too little time.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to award a gold, silver, and bronze ramen medal, seeing how we only managed to hit two ramenya this time around. Kintaro gets the gold medal by virtue of its Audacity of Pork and its superb pork-to-dollar ratio. This is a place more suited to serious eaters: get in, enjoy your ramen, get out. It’s like the former East Germany of ramen. The silver medal goes to Benkei. Even though I think Kintaro has a slight edge overall on their ramen, I enjoyed Benkei’s soup and overall dining experience a bit more. Even now, I’m still thinking about the sea-salt and grilled-pork flavor that lingered in my mouth after eating there. I’ve heard good things about Motomachi Shokudo, and with Santouka opening up just down the street, Vancouverite ramen fans have plenty of fine choices and reasons to be happy.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Vancouver, and leave a few less-ramen-related tips:

There is no ramen to be had in Whistler. None. Believe me. I looked.

Cactus Club, a chain restaurant run by Iron Chef Canada (he defeated Iron Chef Morimoto!) is fantastic. Highly recommended.

For good coffee, you can’t go wrong with Bean Around the World or Agro Cafe.

Holy cow! Vancouver has good bagels! Siegel’s Bagels at the Granville Island Public Market blew my mind, while my wife fell in love with Solly’s, near the Olympic Village.

And last but not least…Japadog!!! Wow, oh wow! The Oroshi hotdog is heaven on a bun! It lives up to the hype!

Signing off from Vancouver…Go Canada!

If you’re in Vancouver for the Olympics, Robson and Denman are a bit far from all the Olympic excitement happening on Howe, Granville, and Seymour, but even from the GE Ice Plaza/Robson Square, it only takes about a 30 min walk to satisfy your ramen craving.

And what’s this I spy…about half a block from and across the street Benkei’s Robson’s location…

Yes, it looks like Santouka Ramen will be jumping into the fray with their first Vancouver location! Vancouverites will soon be able to judge for themselves whether or not this popular ramen chain is worthy of all the hype they seem to generate wherever they go.

No word yet on when they’re going to be open, but it looks like they already have an interested customer looking in. I also couldn’t resist taking a peek. It doesn’t look like much is set up yet, so it might be a while before the Denman/Robson ramen central gets a 4th choice.

I don’t often shill for web sites that sell instant ramen (though there are links off on the side for anyone in need), but this is a neat idea. It’s simple…and the picture above is pretty self-explanatory: you choose the size of the “Ramenbox,” fill it with your choice of instant ramen, pay a flat fee based on the Ramenbox size, and wait for the delivery guy! It looks like you can even earn free ramen by writing reviews and submitting pictures and videos.

To be honest, this might be less appealing to anyone who lives near an Asian supermarket. But if you don’t have any local sources for instant ramen, or you want to customize your own variety pack, or you just like the idea of coming home to a Ramenbox on your doorstep, check it out. Heck, this would be a great gift as well for any instant ramen fan.

I haven’t had a chance to try them out yet, but they were kind enough to offer our readers a 10% off coupon! Just use coupon code ramenramenramen when you check out.

Remember the ramen bath? Now you can bring your ramen bath accessories on your next visit. Soap up with Ramen Soap and wash up with a Cup Noodles Ramen Sponge: Takara Tomy is coming out with soap and sponges packaged as instant and cup ramen! They’ll only be available in Japan, so those of us stateside will probably need to settle for using a brick of instant ramen as a loofah…um…if you do, let us know how that works out…

via Akihabara News

Ladies and gentlemen…I am a moron. Thanks to a brilliantly snafu’d server setting, I made it impossible for anyone who emailed me directly over the past few months to actually reach me. The Contact Form actually worked fine, so some of you may be scratching your head, thinking “but you did reply to me.” Well guess what? If you replied to my reply, I didn’t get it…until now.

So I offer my sincerest apologies to anyone who thought I was being even less responsive than my usual too-busy self. I think I’ve recovered all the emails, and I’ll reply to them ASAP. If you’ve emailed me in the past few months and you want to make extra sure I got it, please feel free to try again via the Contact Form for now. I should have this straightened out within a few days at most.

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you might’ve noticed that fans of the now unavailable Maruchan tomato ramen are a fanatical bunch. And now, they’re organized! Join them on the Facebook group: Bring Back Maruchan Tomato Ramen!

Join Anarchic Ramen on his quest to create his own ramen…from scratch!

Not only does the latest issue of Maxim feature an entire article on ramen, fellow ramen blogger Go Ramen! gets a shout out (in the dead-tree version of the article only).

The most popular Japanese fast food chain in China is…Ajisen Ramen!

…my wife! Now, now…settle down! Ramen comes second! Imagine my surprise when I came home from work and saw what my wife bought for me. Thanks, sweetie!