While checking out my friends band “The Virginations” in Koenji we popped in this place for a bowl of Ramen. It turned out to be an excellent bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen. Unfortunately I have no idea what it is called (the street is too small to check on Google Street View), I’ll have to check the next time I am in the area which will be soon enough.
This was a solid and different bowl of Ramen in Chitosekarasuyama (千歳烏山). This Ramen is all beef based soup as well as a piece of sliced beef instead of the typical pork. The broth and noodles were really good. When I saw the soft boiled egg (半熟卵) I thought it look too over cooked but it actually turned out to be the best I have ever tried. The sliced beef was tasty as well and a nice change but I still prefer a nice tender piece of pork chyashu.
After my dissapointing Ramen Mistake I was determined to revisit Jangara Ramen and get it right. Of course all that hype is a recipe for a let down. The Ramen was good but not great. The pork was really good but the egg turned out to be just a hard boiled egg not a Hanjuku Tamago which I prefer (半熟卵 Soft boiled egg). Plus the little orange/red blob in the top right was some strange substance I am still not sure of what it was. It was kinda fishy and spicy in taste. Still all in all it was pretty good bowl of Ramen and I would recomend it to anybody passing through Harajuku.
For those of you who don’t know Tsukemen is basically a reverse Ramen. The noodles and broth are separate and yyou dip the noodles before eating them. This wasn’t bad but there were a couple things I didn’t care for. The noodles were a bit too thick more like Spaghetti and the broth was a bit too fishy for me. Plus I think I just prefer Ramen over Tsukemen.
I have been here at Yottekoya before but this is the first time I had their Red Cheese Ramen. It was pretty good but not as good as the cheese ramen from Tukumo.
Ivan is a fellow New Yorker who thought he would see if he could hang with the Japanese Ramen Elite. I think Ivan is hanging in there just fine if not better than fine. This 醤油全部のせラーメン (Soy Sauce Everything Ramen) was definitely one of the better bowls of Ramen I have had here. If you are ever in 芦花公園 (Roka-kōen) defenitely drop by for a bowl.
This was a pretty good bowl of Ramen though nothing special. But it is always good trying some more neighborhood Ramen.
Natsuko’s father took me for ホルモン焼き (Hormone Yaki) for the first time. Basically its giblets, organs and all the random beef and pig parts. Ohyeah you can get just regualr meat too. I have gone for 焼き肉 (korena bbq) before just never ate all the extra stuff. I would say in the future I will just stick to the straight up meat. After a whole lot of meat and quite a few drinks Natsuko’s father insisted I try the Snake Sake. I was a bit hesitent at first but eventually I gave in. All in all not bad though it was quite strong.
Yum!
This was surprisingly good. Not that I don’t think vegetarian/vegan food can be good, I just didn’t think it would be possible to pull off Ramen without animal parts.
