the ramen blog & other goodies!

Rumor had it that Daikokuya was opening in “the OC” in the beginning of March. I happily went there two weeks ago only to find a Daikokuya sign and an empty store. Darn. Finally, after asking around, I found out that the official grand opening was set for “some time in April” (this was from two different Daikokuya employees, but neither could give me a firm date) and that the owner was currently in Japan buying decorations. The good news though? The location is already up and running and open for business!

The ramen shop does look a bit unfinished, with no real signage or posters; there’s only a little hand-written blackboard menu on the counter. The only items on the menu (so far?) are the Daikokuya ramen, a shredded pork bowl (a rice bowl with shredded pork), and the gyoza. (more…)

I don’t normally shill for ramenyas that haven’t opened yet, especially one that I haven’t tried first hand, but in this case, I’ll make an exception.

Shigemi Kawahara, “Ramen King”, will be opening the first American outpost of his famous Ippudo in New York City at the end of the month. Kawahara-san gained fame by taking 1st place in televised ramen battles 3 years in a row, and then won the title of “Ramen King” in a TV competition in 2005. Ippudo was first opened in Hakata in 1985, and has grown to 34 locations throughout Japan.

Big in Japan has a recent review of Ippudo’s hakata ramen in japan while the Feisty Foodie and Eater report on last Tuesday’s sneak preview.

Hakata Ippudo NY
65 Fourth Avenue
New York, NY
212-388-0088

via gridskipper and rameniac

(Disclosure: I’m very sleepy, so if this review comes across as a bit loopy…well…you’ve been warned.)

The-wife-is-away-so-I’m-eating-ramen-all-week week continues with this special ramen. It’s got “PH adjustment” and “antioxidant”! Really! Scroll down and look at the label for yourself! Oh, It looks like the tonkotsu ramen I had a few days ago also had antioxidant (yes, it’s also singular). Who says instant ramen isn’t healthy?

I don’t know why you readers voted for us to show nutritional info on the ramen we review. I think I was happier not knowing what I was eating.

I was excited when I opened this bowl ramen…it came with four packets of accoutrements! Somehow, my expectations go up with every packet I see in my instant ramen. Oh, and ginger gets its own packet…yay…(I don’t like ginger, which always makes my wife roll her eyes and ask “are you really Asian?”). On the plus side, the soup powder has a very strong pork smell that reminds me of Chinese “pork sung,” which, according to wikipedia, is also known as “pork floss.” That sure sounds appetizing.

The noodles were decent, with a nice hard texture, and had a hint of instant-noodleness to them. The toppings gave the ramen good flavor, and the tonkotsu soup was rich and well-balanced. Being negi ramen, there were lots and lots of green onions, which suits me just fine. The strange thing was, while the soup had good flavor, you could barely smell it, which was especially surprising after the strong smell of the soup powder.

Overall, this was a slightly above average ramen. If you like green onions, it’s hard to go wrong with negi ramen. Marutai’s negi ramen gets a 7.

The wife is away, so let there be ramen! It seems like I can’t go wrong with instant tonkotsu ramen, so I was eager to try this cup ramen. The ramen comes with a few bits of seaweed, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, plenty of green onions, and a few pieces of pickled ginger to balance out the flavor. Since it’s a tonkotsu ramen, it has the typical thin, hard noodles that are nice and chewy. The noodles held the thick broth well but were mostly adequate. The soup smelled great! Unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown. The tonkotsu broth starts off with a rich, thick flavor. After a few more slurps, though, it becomes a bit one-dimensional, and very MSG-y. There isn’t much of a full-bodied porkiness to the soup, and after a while, the MSG starts to beat mercilessly on your taste buds. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but you’ll probably be really thirsty afterwards. There are much better tonkotsu bowl/cup ramen out there, and the small portion doesn’t help either, unless you’re just looking for a light snack. This cup ramen gets a decent 6.

This somewhat ordinary looking package hides a somewhat not-so-ordinary nama ramen. The first surprise of this ramen is the lack of individual plastic bags around the noodles. This is certainly the freshest-looking package of ramen I’ve ever seen.

I could almost picture the noodles being made from scratch, packaged, and delivered straight to the store.

After pouring the soup mix into a bowl, I noticed a strong and familiar scent. I inhaled the aroma to get a feel for the flavor and smelled nothing but…sesame oil? I smelled again…yes, slightly burnt sesame oil. Interesting. The soup was a mild and clear with just a hint of msg. It wasn’t very oily, and it also didn’t have a very strong pork flavor. If I didn’t read the package, I’d think the soup was sesame oil based, though the soup base ingredients on the back of the package read simply: soy sauce, vegetable oil, salt, sugar, amino acid & spices. Hmm…no sesame oil, no pork/pork fat/pork bone/pork flavoring/pork anything. I still enjoyed the soup, it just wasn’t really tonkotsu-y.

Onwards to the noodles! The noodles were indeed fresh tasting, and had a slight floury taste. They held the soup flavoring well, and were also pretty fragrant. Unfortunately, they were also very hard, and slightly raw-tasting. The cooking instructions were a bit unusual: instead of the typical “cook for x mins,” it gave a range of 1-1/2 minutes to 2 minutes “depending on your desired firmness.” Don’t believe it. I like my ramen al dente and 1-1/2 minutes made the noodles just barely edible. They were still a bit too hard even at 2 minutes. Your mileage may vary of course, but I recommend starting at 2 mins and working your way up.

Overall, this was just a decent ramen. The noodles looked better than they tasted, and the soup, though good, was slightly unusual with the heavy sesame oil fragrance. This gets a 7 out of 10.

Oh! One last thing. The Miyako nama ramen comes with a packet of desiccant…I think…(they call it an “oxygen absorber”…sounds dangerous). Kids, make sure you don’t accidently mix that into your ramen!

This is the last day of Ogawaya ramen week (actually, this review is 2 days late. Sorry…had a busy weekend), and I’m a bit sad. But, I’m also a bit glad…you try to come up with 5 different and interesting ways to describe the same noodles! I also want to give a shoutout to rameniac for his timely and wildly informative “field guide” to 22 (yes, 22!) popular ramen styles in Japan. If you want to read up on the background behind the hakata and kurume ramen I’ve been talking about for the past week, this is a great resource.

Every once in a while, events fall into place that makes you think of fate; even though I chose this week’s ramen in random order, it turned out I was actually eating them in order: each day’s was progressively better, and today’s ramen was the best of the bunch. (more…)