the ramen blog & other goodies!

After many failed attempts to get together, Keizo, Rameniac, and I finally found time in our oh-so-busy schedules to gather for our 1st Ramen Summit (Well, Keizo called it a Ramen Round Table, but I prefer the “the fate of the ramen world is at stake”-sounding “Ramen Summit”.) I’ve already met Keizo several times, and he’s every bit the friendly ramen fiend you would think he is. This was the first time I’ve met Rameniac, and, while I don’t remember how I started associating “rock star” with “rameniac,” that is exactly the sort of vibe he projects, but in a friendly way. And me, I’m “just me,” as you can tell by my “ramen name” of edjusted. (Creative readers might be able to come up with something for a “ramen name”…take the name of your first pet, and the street you lived on…no, no…maybe not…) (more…)

Located in a seemingly deserted neighborhood and housed inside what looks like a liquor store in a not-so-good neighborhood, Foo-Foo Tei is the unlikely ramen hotspot of San Gabriel Valley. Foo-Foo Tei has been on my radar for a while, and since the star of Go Ramen! has committed himself to eating Foo-Foo Tei’s 31 styles of ramen in 31 days, I decided that there’s no time like the present to join in the festivities. In fact, I ran into both Go Ramen!’s Keizo and fellow food blogger Exile Kiss. Is Foo-Foo Tei the new ramen party central?

Since Keizo is and will be doing a much more thorough job than I could in covering Foo-Foo Tei’s offerings, we’ll be doing something a bit different for this review. Our impressions of Foo-Foo Tei will be covered slide-show style. Click on to the first picture, gentle reader, then click on through to read the conclusion!

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A few months ago, I tried and reviewed Marutai’s shoyu tonkotsu stick ramen. The next day, I tried this goma shoyu version. No, you didn’t wander into a time warp. This is simply laziness at work. On to the review! (more…)

Years of disappointing experiences have taught me that I shouldn’t order ramen from restaurants that aren’t ramenyas. Too many places have ramen on their menu only as an afterthought, and ramen aficionados like me end up being bitterly disappointed by the ramen I ordered and my eating companions point and laugh at me and make me the butt of their jokes for the rest of the evening and refuse to share their food and–ahem…sorry…got a bit carried away there. Where was I? Oh yes…you would think I would’ve learned better. But thanks to some friendly recommendations, not only did I order ramen from a restaurant that specialized in other foods, I decided to go to Honda Ya for the sole purpose of trying their ramen. (more…)

Located across from a power station and nestled in a tiny plaza with really only a Donut Star and a bunch of small businesses as neighbors, Ma Ru Yu is in the running for worst location for a new ramenya.

The restaurant is homey, with simple decorations and cutesy hand-made signs on the walls to announce special items not on the menu. There’s a great hole-in-the-wall vibe, yet the place is very clean. The two waitresses there were both very friendly and efficient. The menu touts that there are ingredients flown in fresh from Japan and that they don’t use MSG. Hmm…I actually like MSG…I ended up ordering a shoyu ramen and an order of gyoza and hoped for the best. The food took a while even though the place wasn’t very crowded. (more…)

Have any of you ever woken up in the morning and thought: hmm…it’s going to be 99 degrees today…what a great day for a nice steaming hot bowl of ramen! Since Mitsuwa Supermarket decided to hold their Gourmet Food Fair on the hottest weekend of the month, I found myself in the awkward position of doing just that and convincing my wife that I wasn’t already suffering from heat stroke! The wife and I went early to beat the heat, only to find an already packed parking lot and an already packed food court. We eagerly ordered the Kujiraken Shinasoba ramen (there’s only one choice) and circled the busy food court a few times before we were able to find some seats. (more…)