The Great Ramen Showdown!!

It's no secret: In this relationship, we love each other...and ramen. 


When we were doing the long-distance, cross-country-dating/marriage thing, my most requested meal during a visit to LA was ramen. Our go-to place in LA was Daikokuya. We were frequent customers of the Little Tokyo and Monterey Park branches, waiting patiently in line for our chance to squeeze in at the counter and slurp down a bowl of perfectly cooked noodles and tender pork, with a touch of bean sprout crunch, all in a rich and savory broth. Yum. 


So you can bet your babushka (I just invented this.  It's already my new favorite saying.  My Polish brethren are applauding, I just know it.) that we had our hearts set on some ramen-fication while in Japan.  Japan in February is actually very conducive to ramen - after spending a morning traipsing around the grounds of a palace, temple, or shrine in the cold, we were often looking for something hot and cozy for lunch.  As a bonus, ramen is gentle on the pocketbook - after all, it's food for the masses.


If you recall from the end of this post, we had our first ramen after less than 12 hours on the ground.  This was at the end of our day-trip to Osaka.  We were tired and still adjusting to the cold.  But we figured that the ramen served at this stall must be delicious, if people were willing to sit outside in the cold to eat it.

Testing my chopstick skills. Verdict? Trickier to manipulate when your fingers are numb!

The ramen was actually quite disappointing.  The broth was salty and greasy, but without a robust pork flavor.  The noodles were OK, but the pork was tough.  We weren't overwhelmed, but we were full - and for the evening, that was good enough.

But really, it wasn't.  Upon returning to the hotel, Kee-Min did some research and identified a possible stop for lunch the next day.  So, after spending the morning on a tour of the Imperial Palace, we headed for Ippudo.  Ippudo is actually a chain of ramen shops, with branches in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, and throughout Japan.  They specialize in tonkotsu (pork) ramen, the same as we had the night before.  This is probably the most common variety that people associate with the word "ramen" (excepting the cellophane-packaged crap), although ramen does comes in quite a variety of shapes, sizes, and flavors.

We had to poke around a bit to find the small storefront, through an Isetan department store and into a back alley.  But our persistence was rewarded.  We entered and were quickly ushered to a small slice of counterspace at the back.  We tucked our belongings into the baskets that fit under our chairs (brilliant idea, by the way) and opened our menus.

Now, one of the dangers of traveling in Japan with Kee-Min is that he is constantly mistaken for a native.  Although Ippudo apparently has English-language menus for foreigners, we were holding Japanese-language menus.  Thankfully, they included pictures. We each got a lunch set: a bowl of ramen, a bowl of rice, and 5 gyoza dumplings.  I got the Shiro ramen (white broth), Kee-Min opted for the Aka (red broth, a bit spicy).  [Editorial note: I learned these names after the fact. At the time of ordering, we just pointed and nodded.]  Both were made with long, skinny, wavy noodles.  

We were dining during the lunch rush, and the place was bustling.  Like most of the dining establishments we frequented while in Japan, it was small - a long counter area and one large table.  Customers were packed in pretty closely (thankfully, we were all right-handed), and the servers squeezed around and past us, cheerfully welcoming new patrons, calling orders to the kitchen, and wishing everyone a good day.  At least, I'm pretty sure that's what was happening, since I could actually only understand a small fraction of their rapid-fire Japanese.

While the atmosphere could have been chaotic and stressful, I actually felt bolstered and energized by the enthusiasm and fast pace.  In just a few minutes, steaming bowls were placed in front of us:

This lunch experience was amazing.  The ramen was excellent: flavorful broth that wasn't too greasy, firm noodles, and tender pork.    The gyoza were also quite tasty, with a nicely browned finish and typical pork-y interior.  For a bargain-hunter, the rice was a good addition to make a really filling meal.  Kee-Min's looked much the same, except his broth was a bit redder and spicier.  We each liked our own better. Win.

We slurped down our noodles loudly - this is a sign of appreciation - and didn't dilly-dally.  People were waiting for our seats, so we settled the bill (< $10 USD each) and moved on to our next adventure, which I'll tell you about in my next post.

Having checked off "REALLY GOOD RAMEN" on our Must Eat In Japan list, we diversified our diet over the next 5 days, exploring many of Japan's other culinary delights.  But in Tokyo on the last day, we headed out in search of a "farewell" bowl of ramen.   We had a place in mind, but got a bit confused on the name/characters and were not entirely sure of the street.  So we ended up popping into a place which may (or may not) have been our intended target.  But I'm glad we did, because we had quite a different ramen experience.

We again ordered by pointing, on an all-Japanese menu.  We first chose the amount of noodles we wanted (200, 300, or 400 grams).  Then, we chose what we wanted in/with our ramen: pork, extra pork, bean sprouts, egg, bamboo, nori, and a few other items I either couldn't identify or don't remember.  Then, we crossed our fingers and waited.

The interior of the place was quite typical - see below.  Seats at the bar, plus some small tables.  Chefs are preparing food on the far left.  

Cute, right?  Sorry ladies, he's taken.

Below, you can see how mine looked when it came out:

Clockwise from top: Noodles, broth, cabbage & bean sprouts, meat & eggs & bamboo, chicken non-wings.

Let's start with the chicken non-wings.  They were actually boneless dark meat, battered and fried up very crispy.  They were unquestionably my favorite part of the whole meal.  The meat was juicy and tender, the batter flavorful but not too salty, and the frying was exquisite. Crispy, but not too greasy.  We squeezed a bit of lemon on top, which complemented the seasoning perfectly. They were divine.

The ramen itself was good, but not great.  Although, it was definitely unlike any ramen I had before.  The noodles were thicker and, as you can see above, not curly. The broth was thick, with chunks of beef and a few veggies in it.  It could be thinned slightly by adding some clear broth from pitchers provided on the tables - although we didn't notice this until the end of our meal.  The thick sauce was a bit spicy, pretty salty, and had a few other strong flavors that I couldn't identify.  I still maintain that it was a bit like curry (although without a super strong curry flavor), although Kee-Min disagrees.  I wish I could describe it better, but it was unlike anything I've ever eaten before.

You eat this dish piece by piece, dipping each into the sauce, then eating directly. There were a few things that made this NOT my favorite ramen experience.  First, I tend to prefer a thinner noodle, and find the wavy ones easier to eat with chopsticks. These were a bit tricky to manage, getting them into the sauce, then into your mouth.  My shirt definitely ended up with some splashes of sauce at the collar.  The add-ins (pork, bamboo, egg) were good, but not amazing, and there was one flavor in the sauce that eventually overwhelmed me and I was unable to finish all my noodles.  

Overall, I'm glad we had this new (to me) ramen experience - but as a rule, I'll generally choose the lighter, cleaner-tasting Ippudo offerings in the future.

Also note, 300 g of noodles is a LOT.  We both would have been content with 200 g, and we left stuffed.  Therefore, we were unable to properly seize the next eating opportunity that presented itself:

Dang.  I love ice cream covered mozzarella sticks..

DARN.

But that reminds me - we do have some photos & notes to share on some genuine Japanese sweets.  So, pop back again soon!