It’s aboutfreakingtime! After waiting for a long long time, and after literally months of fruitless enquiries to media 8 entertainment (a hearty “I hope your ramen is limp” to media 8!), I’m happy to report that the Ramen Girl will be out in Japan on Jan 17. The Ramen Girl (trailer here) is a movie about an American girl (Brittany Murphy) who is abandoned by her boyfriend in Japan. She ends up hanging out at a local ramen shop and eventually decides that she needs to become a ramen chef. The movie promises to show us “that each ramen bowl must contain a universe of feeling and truly be a gift from the heart.” Yeah…… To be fair though, I’ve rewatched the trailer a few times, and watched the Japanese trailer (it’s exactly the same as the English one), and I have to say that I’m at least a little more excited than ever to watch this movie.
Of course, that’s assuming it doesn’t dissolve into pure east meets west schmaltzyness. Then again, the casting of Toshiyuki Nishida as the “tyrannical, temperamental Japanese master chef” and Tsutomu Yamazaki as the “grandmaster” makes me less ambivalent (tip: click on the imdb link for Yamazaki-san and scroll down until you see a ramen movie you recognize. Yep, that’s him!).
One thing I have to take exception to is some of people (you know who you are!) calling this a “remake” of Tampopo. Of course, since I haven’t seen the Ramen Girl yet, I’m not really in a position to judge, but neither have the people comparing this to Tampopo. How in the world does this trailer make you think it’s similar to Tampopo besides having ramen as a main theme? I mean, is the Transformers a remake of say Herbie the Love Bug simply because both movies feature talking cars? Tampopo is so much more than just some movie about someone learning to make ramen, and this sort of “lump them all together” thinking just bothers me. End rant.
No word on when or if the movie will be coming stateside, though I have a feeling that a straight-to-DVD release is as much as we can hope for. For those of you who aren’t looking forward to seeing if Brittany Murphy can give this kind of movie the acting chops it deserves, I leave you with another, possibly more entertaining Japanese movie to look forward to:
Thanks and tips of the ramen bowl go to: Keizo and Cutie for the heads up about the movie release date. Brittany Murphy Media for the picture.
And Coilhouse for the High Kick Girl lowdown.
I’ve been sick for the past week (8+ consecutive 103 degree+ fevers! woohoo! I feel like a major winner in the 2008 flu lotto!) and pretty much living on Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. During one of my fevered deliriums, it occurred to me that this is the American version of ramen: there’s soup, there’s noodles, there’s meat…somewhere…and it’s packed with enough sodium to satisfy any MSG addict! Ok, I’m really pushing the comparison, but when I’m sick as a dog, I find that there’s nothing I crave more than chicken noodle soup.
Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup is just what the doctor ordered. But how does it compare to instant or nama ramen? For starters, the noodles are about as soggy as you can get. But then again, I, for one, am not looking for chewability when I’m sick: I wanna just slurp those puppies and not even bother to chew, if I so choose. As a get-well-soon food, digestibility is key, and Campbell’s delivers. The tiny little bits of chicken in the soup doesn’t even come close to a decent slice of chashu, but again, you can just about swallow the chicken without chewing.
And how about the all-important soup? The typical MSG-laden instant ramen has nothing on a can of chicken noodle soup. With the one-two punch of MSG and sodium, you’ll think you’re drinking a Japanese ramen import! Think there’s only shoyu, tonkotsu, and shio? Allow me to introduce the “tori” (chicken) soup base, popular in all regions of the U.S. Personally, I’m convinced that the sodium is what kills the cold and flu germs. Maybe that’s why I crave this soup when I’m sick.
In the final analysis, Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup is just like ramen! –Except…oh, who am I trying to kid. I bet I still have a fever. I hope everyone had a very Happy Holidays!
December 16, 2008By: edjusted Category: ramen shops
Ok, it’s not ramen, but if Keizo can review it, well, so can I! I’ve been wanting to try Wonton Forest after reading some rave reviews, and though my first love is ramen, I’m up for just about any type of noodle dish. Sure, some ramenyas serve wonton men, which is another wonderful Chinese/Japanese hybrid, but a wontonmen ワンタンめん at a ramenya is quite different than a Chinese, actually Hong Kong style, wonton mien 雲吞麵 (or wantan mee in Cantonese). A Japanese wontonmen is typically a shoyu ramen, complete with shoyu broth, ramen noodles, ramen toppings, and…wontons! Hong Kong style wonton noodle soup, on the other hand, has a lighter soup base that’s typically more of a chicken and fish stock, hard, thin egg noodles, wontons, of course, and is typically topped with Chinese broccoli or bok choy, and nothing else. Read the rest of this entry →
My wife pointed this out to me while we were at Mitsuwa Supermarket today, stocking up on ramen, snacks, and canned coffee (20% off everything this weekend! woohoo!). At $9.99/lb, that’s more expensive than some high quality steaks I’ve seen! I was excited to try this out.
I took my first bite of the chashu right out of the box, without heating it up. The chashu was as lean as it looked. Texture-wise, it’s about typical of what’s served in run-of-the-mill ramenyas, if only a bit thicker. If anyone had a slice of overcooked white turkey meat during Thanksgiving, that should give you an idea of the texture of this chashu. The pork was a bit sweet; the sugar and sweet sake in the marinade overpowered the shoyu by just a bit.
After I prepared some tonkotsu instant ramen, I let the pork soak in the soup for a few minutes to warm up and soak in some of the soup. The contrast between the slightly salt soup and the slightly sweet pork made the chashu taste even more sweet, which didn’t really go well with the ramen.
Mitsuwa’s chashu makes a decent, if unexciting addition to a bowl of instant ramen. If I find anything better, I’ll be sure to report back, but this chashu gets a middling 5 out of 10.
Of course, that’s assuming it doesn’t dissolve into pure east meets west schmaltzyness. Then again, the casting of Toshiyuki Nishida as the “tyrannical, temperamental Japanese master chef” and Tsutomu Yamazaki as the “grandmaster” makes me less ambivalent (tip: click on the imdb link for Yamazaki-san and scroll down until you see a ramen movie you recognize. Yep, that’s him!).
