Ramen Saryo Hachi, Burlingame, CA

Saw the post on Instagram from my friend Hiro of ramen hero:

Chintan(clear broth) Shio Ramen @Ramen Saryo Hachi

A post shared by Hiro (@hirohrm) on Jan 11, 2018 at 1:32am PST

I thought I would give it a crack today at lunch time.  The shop is located in Burlingame, close to SFO airport.  It is a nice addition to the community dominated by Chinese restaurants in Millbrae. 

We arrived around 12pm and it was not too crowded with 3 table occupied.  The service was a bit slow with only 1 server for the whole 12 table restaurant.  The atmosphere was refreshing with light wallpapers and clean design.  I love the "Ramen Tabetai" (I crave Ramen) on the wall!

I thought that the table setting is carefully picked with designed cloth and plates. 

We ordered Chicken karaage, 2 shoyu ramen with chicken and pork chashu each.

 

The karaage is with thigh meat which is juicy and full of flavors.  It was a bit odd without seeing mayonnaise and the usual lime (replaced by orange).  

The shoyu ramen came with thin straight noodle, chicken chashu, hot spring egg, arugula, and truffle oil.  The chicken bone based shoyu ramen is light and refreshing.  The straight noodle mixed well with the soup.  The truffle smell dominated my smell senses.  The bowl reminded me of having a bowl of wonton noodle soup, where the noodle carried an alkaline taste.  

This bowl certainly bridge the Chinese noodle with Japanese soup base.  Having a bowl of ramen for the Chinese elders around the area could be a refreshing, quiet option, comparing to dim sum.  I will come back to try out Chicken paitan soup base!  Till next time!

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Ramen Saryo Hachi

1861 El Camino Real
Burlingame, CA 94010

https://ramensaryo.com/

https://www.yelp.com/biz/ramen-saryo-hachi-burlingame-3

Menya La Nood - Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu has always been Japanese friendly town with around 1.5M visitors per year.  With this many Japanese tourist, there has to be authentic ramen shops in Honolulu.  My friends and I were in Honolulu on cheap flights, with round trip $300 and planned 2 day diving.  It was my first real dive after getting NASE certified in Monterey.  Thank god that the water is warm and everything is set up in Hawaii.   

It was a great morning dive down 40ft and saw lot of sea turtles and unagi.  After, at around 11am, we headed over to Menya la Nood around Ala Moana area.  Parking was limited with few spots in front of the store.  There were only street parking available.

I ordered large Musashi Tsukemen in tonkotsu soup base and we had 3 appetizers.

The noodle was medium size straight noodle, which was very chewy and fantastic for tsukemen. The kakuni was juicy and full of flavor.  The soup base is rich tonkotsu and sticks to the noodle well.  This bowl is one of the spot to note in Hawaii.  Totally worth to come again to try the other flavors.

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Menya la Nood

560 Pensacola St
Ste 105
Honolulu, HI 96814

https://www.yelp.com/biz/menya-le-nood-honolulu

Myoji Shoyu Ramen - Home Cooking

Has been a while since the last time I blogged.  Does not mean that I have not been eating ramen!  Many ramen shops have opened in the bay area both in the city and more to come! 

I have taken a different approach in exploring ramen at home, starting from tasting those in the Japanese market.  Yes, those one that looks professional in a package but not in a cup on an aisle.  I would like to know the quality of "instant" ramen comparing to the ones at the shop. 

Here we go.

The Myojo Shoyu ramen package can be bought almost all Japanese or Chinese supermarket.  The store price is $4.29 for two pack of noodle+soup which is relatively cheap for a bowl of ramen.

Cooking instruction is quite simple.  Once the water boiled, throw everything in the bowl.  Make sure to add one cup of water to avoid the spill of water (or turn down the heat).  I have added 1 egg to be the topping.

     

Voila!  Bowl of shoyu ramen with only soup, noodle and half cooked egg.

With the high sodium content, the soup is full of flavor but a bit watery.  Amazingly that the flavor of menma (bamboo shoots) can be tasted from the soup.  The noodle was a medium size thin noodle a bit soggy due to cooking for 2 minutes.  Eating this bowl feels like eating white rice adding soy sauce.  You know it is good but just something is missing.  The earth warm taste of long stewing pork/chicken bone is missing.  But for the price of around 2 bucks, it is what it is.

To be honest, I might have to laugh at myself of trying 😅.  There is sense of urgency in me to go out to get a legitimate bowl of ramen right now.. too bad I am full. 

Tokyo top 3 Ramen in Taipei! Menya Ittou 麺屋一燈

Menya Ittou in Taipei!! I cant even express how excited I was!

How famous is Ittou in Japan?  Rank #2 in Overall Japan Ranking in Ramen Database (Here).  Tsukemen rank #2 in Japan.  Toripaitan (Chicken Soup) rank #1.  Tabelog (Japanese yelp) scores 4.18!  Many and many awards.

I did visited the sacred Ittou ramen back in 2012 (Click Here!).  I thought back then it did live up to the expectation despite the location is a bit far.

The Taipei store is the first oversea store of Menya Ittou.  It is actually the 4th store for the group (Other 2 stores are Ramen Tourou, and Tonkotsu Ittou.)  I thought it was an adventurous, but well thought move to expend to Taipei.  The current tsukemen landscape in Taipei is not as big as tonkotsu ramen, but Mitta Semensho (三田製麺所) has most of the city covered with 10+ stores.  Ittou buzzes in as the favorite in the category.

I arrived around 4:30pm on Monday to avoid the long lines (came twice and the line was 2 hours).  There were no line and got seated right away.  The waitress was very kind to introduce the menu to me and the special rice dish.  Ordered the famous toripaiton seafood based soup tsukemen (濃厚魚介つけ麺).  The chicken soup is full of flavor with the seafood, but the better part is that it was not greasy.  I would say the soup is comparable to the one in Tokyo but a bit sweeter in taste.  The noodle is a straight middle size yellow noodle.  Not as chewy as in Tokyo but it would still be better than other stores in Taipei.  The topping includes chicken and also pork.  After dipping the meet into the soup, the tenderness of the meat is fully exposed and mix very well.

When you get a chance to be in Taipei in one of the most famous ramen shop, I did ordered the second bowl to taste the whole menu... 

This is the Scallop Toripaitan Ramen.  This version of toripaitan stresses the seafood more than the chicken soup where the sweetness is a bit less.  Noodle is the thin straight egg noodle which is a very easy eat.   Adding the Scallop sauce on the side, it would enrich the flavor of the chicken soup (but kind of cheating).  This bowl is still one of the top unique bowl in Taipei

I would definitely recommend Menya Ittou in Taipei, especially on the weekday between lunch and dinner time with no lines.  Definitely try tsukemen first!  Yum.

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Menya Ittou 麺屋 一燈
MRT Zhongshan Station about 5 minute walk.  Next to the Okura Hotel

Take out ... for RAMEN?!?!

There are always a first in a life time for ramen, but in Austin?  Must be a correlation between geeks and ramen some how..

It was around 8:30pm Friday and I was craving for some slurping.  Open the usual Yelp/Foursquare/Google and found 2 shops in Austin head to head.  I went to the first one, Tatsuya @ Lamar, and the line was still out the door, 9:15pm Friday.  You dont even see this in bay area... Did not even bother to get out of the car and went to my second target, Michi Ramen, around the corner.  Drove to the plaza, drove around 2 times and finally found the place with out a bright sign. Walked in, and told the waitress "1 person". She said take out only. I was like "Whaaaaaat?".  I can honestly say that it is my first take out ramen experience.  I calm myself down and started looking at the menu.  Thought to myself that soup base would be too messy for take out, lets go with tsukemen takeout.  There was a Japanese family waiting for their order which I thought this place should be good...

Got my food quite quickly, but finding a place to eat took longer than both waiting for the food and also finishing the food.. 

 The dip is the shoyu seafood tonkotsu based soup with full smooth flavors.  The broth itself has the stickiness to the noodle, which is round curly medium size egg noodle.  The bad about take out is that the noodle itself would be stuck together and hard to be separated.  The chashu reminded me of eating beef tongue for some odd reason (too hungry).  With the extra veggies in the bowl, it was quite a filling and light dinner. 

This bowl is surprisingly good, with the thought of second flavor through lime.  I would come back to try their other bowls. good.

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Michi Ramen 

http://michiramen.com/

Corners Shopping Center 
3005 South Lamar Boulevard D-114B 
Austin, TX 78704

Shiro Light Negi Ramen, Kotetsu, Santa Clara, CA

Lunch on workday, especially Monday, Kotetsu would still be on top of my list of places to go! Plus, if you are arriving around 1:15pm, there is essentially no line => Major plus. 

Shiro light and shiro do not differ that much in taste, but a reduce in calories!  Soup with green union is still to die for!

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Kotetsu
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kotetsu-santa-clara

Tonkotsu Shoyu - Mitasu Ramen - Cuperino, CA

I was excited when there is new ramen place to replace the old Shin Shin Men Men.  The spot transformed to a Hong Kong Street food restaurant before re-invented itself to Mitasu Ramen.  Caution to all, the sign looks Japanese-wannabe but actually the place is owned by Cantonese, sited by Yelper.  Without knowing the fact, I would agree after the slurp.  The bowl I had was the Tonkotsu Shoyu with regular toppings.  The soup is blend and concrete and the noodle tasted like instant curly yellow noodle. 

If you like instant noodle and cant make yourself a bowl for 10 bucks, this is the place to go!  They close early fyi!

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Mitasu

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mitasu-cupertino