the ramen blog & other goodies!

Among the unique logistical nightmares I face when traveling with a group of people is: 1. how do I trick–I mean convince everyone to eat ramen with me, and 2. how far out of the way can I coerce everyone into going for ramen? Recently, I was excited to be able to try another bay area ramenya. Santa Ramen was not my first choice, but between one ramenya being closed when we wanted to go (damn you Ramen Club!) and one ramenya being too out of the way for us (damn you Kahoo Ramen!), Santa Ramen was the next best compromise (yay Santa Ramen!).

We arrived at Santa Ramen a little bit after noon, and braced for a long wait. The line was almost out the door, but at least it moved pretty quickly. Be aware that, like some “true” ramen shops, Santa Ramen only serves ramen at lunch (sorry “D”!). There’s no fried rice. There’s no gyoza. There’s no curry anything. Santa Ramen serves only three different types of ramen: a shoyu-tonkotsu ramen, tonkotsu ramen, and a miso ramen. Read the rest of this entry →

…so I’m chatting with my wife about ramen and she stumped me with this simple question:

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Ajisen Ramen started out in the late 1960’s as a ramenya in Kumamoto, Japan, serving “Kumamoto Tonkotsu” ramen, a tonkotsu ramen served with a garlic and onion brown sauce. Since their humble beginnings, they’ve expanded to more than 300 stores worldwide and their Chinese joint venture even trades as a public company on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

I have to admit I’m biased against Ajisen Ramen…they’re a franchise chain, and my years-ago first experience with Ajisen Ramen in Shanghai didn’t exactly make me jump for joy. Ok, I actually thought it was horrible. On the plus side, though, I found their decor to be elegant, and I was charmed by the winking mascot (who also has a cartoon series and is apparently fond of throwing cleavers). Of course, nice decor and cute mascots can’t make up for subpar ramen. When I heard that Ajisen’s Irvine branch finally opened this week, I approached the news with something akin to morbid curiosity. Read the rest of this entry →

It’s not ramen, it’s soumen. And not just any soumen, it’s nagashi soumen 流し素麺 (”flowing” soumen)! Only distantly related to ramen, soumen is thin white noodles usually served cold (sometimes in a bowl of ice) with a light dipping broth. Watching this video brought back a very fond memory of the funnest meal I’ve ever had (well, besides the live, still-moving whole-fish sushi I had once with my Japanese host pointing excitedly and repeating in English “fresh! fresh!”, but then again, that probably belongs more in the “most terrifying” meal category).

I lived in a tiny Japanese town with an incredibly friendly host family during a study abroad program, and my host parents made it their purpose to expose me to Japanese culture. One night, my host father took me out and led me to a dark alley. At first, I thought maybe the price for their hospitality was my left kidney, but as we walked deeper into the alley, I noticed an interesting sight near a street lamp: there was a small group of people huddled excitedly around a long, slanted bamboo sluice about 6-7 feet long or so. The top of the bamboo rested on top of a scooter while the bottom of the bamboo was propped up on top of a red bucket. As we got closer, I noticed that everyone had a small bowl in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other. I could hear water flowing down the sluice and I saw…something white…shooting down the sluice…noodles??? Noodles!!! Clumps of white noodles were sliding down the sluice, and the object was to “catch” the soumen, dip your prize in your bowl of tsuyu (noodle broth) and slurp to your heart’s content. It’s not just a meal, it’s a game! I was naturally delighted, and will always remember that happy meal in that dark alley on a warm summer’s night. Sometimes the simplest meals are the best.

The video features Pan-kun, a celebrity chimpanzee (yes, I think that’s an odd phrase too) in Japan, who has his first experience with nagashi somen. His sluice is much bigger than mine was (ahem), but I bet I had more fun.

thanks to Japan Probe

I’m posting this new Weird Al song for 3 reasons:

1. I like Weird Al.

2. This lyric: “You like Top Ramen…need Top Ramen…got a cupboard full of ‘em, I’ll keep ‘em coming…you want it, I got it, go get it, just heat it, dump the flavor packet on it and eat it.”

3. If you like the song enough to buy it via this itunes link, I get a shiny new nickel. A whole nickel!

“North Korean scientists have created a new type of noodle that has twice as much protein and fives times as much fat as ordinary ramen.” –wait, did I read that right? North Korea? Apparently, a technologically-advanced team of North Korean scientists have specially engineered the “super ramen” from ingredients such as soybean and corn, instead of the usual wheat flour. Designed to stave off hunger pangs longer than “conventional” or, I guess, “non-Super,” ramen, this could certainly be a breakthrough for a country that’s experiencing severe food shortages and famine.

Sadly, somehow, I don’t think anyone at Nissin is losing any sleep over this, though I’m sure diet fad heralds are eager to see the outcome of this grand experiment.

Thanks to Korean Melon and Big in Japan. Photo courtesy of yeowatzup.