Saturday lunch with the kids. More precisely, ‘Saturday lunch where we take turns desperately trying to entertain the kids while our spouse eats ramen’. As usual I was naive. I thought if you got to a 97+-rated shop by 11:30, you’d be kinda safe. What did I think ‘safe’ meant? Because they don’t have a […]
ramen
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Touka, Arakicho (鯛塩そば 灯火)
“Daaaaaddy, ramen again?” said no kid ever. Especially not Catfish. All the times I’ve been in Arakicho, I never knew that the Tokyo Fire Museum and Toy Museum are both there. I have undoubtedly stood in front of the fire museum (I first met Common right across the street). Now I have been there. And I […]
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Taisetsuken, Shin-Yurigaoka (旭川ラーメン 大雪軒 新百合ヶ丘VIVRE店)
As usual I’m left wondering if this name 維sスッポセdとべあぷん。Oh, sorry. Is supposed to be a pun. Is it like an ‘important’ joke, but it’s ‘Big Snow’ instead? I bet not. It’s just that everything’s a potential pun to me. Jokes aren’t the same in Japan. This ramen is Asahigawa-style (here, read all about the three […]
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Yakumo ramen, Ikejiri (支那そば 八雲)
Yaaaaaaa-kumooooooo Yaaaaaaa-kumooooooo! OK, that’s out of the way. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a video of a sweet potato truck playing the traditional song, without a white guy on the front babbling for 2 minutes about he’s exposing the soul of Japan. Even that video kinda sucks, so you knead to […]
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Yaro Ramen, Naka Meguro (野郎ラーメン)
Yaro there! Sometimes you need to embrace the unexpected and glory in the thrill of the idiotic! Especially when you walk 35 minutes to a shop that’s CLOSED ON TUESDAYS. So you end up eating Jiro-style ramen, although I wonder if Mr. Yaro gets mad when people say that. Then again, he’s rocking the yellow […]
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Kimihan ramen, Gotanda (江戸前煮干中華そば きみはん 五反田店)
Good, heavens, this is my first-ever post in Gotanda. I believe this was the second or third time I’ve ever been here, and the first one or two were during weekend daylight hours for a funeral. I feel like it required two trips but it’s been many years and things are hazy. It’s hazy in […]
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Purple Mountain Chinese Noodles, Tamachi (ラーメン むらさき山)
So here we are again, just me and Todd, passing an enjoyable hour getting away from it all for lunch. It’s a little funny that we’re both in Tokyo. It’s also little funny that ‘getting away from it all’ entails sweating while surrounded by shortish guys in suits, but that’s how we roll. Or stroll. […]
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Ishin Ramen, Meguro (麺や 維新)
Hmmm, how did we feel about this? An absurdly high score on ramendb and a Michelin Guide ‘Bib Gourmand’ mention probably had hopes a little high. I can’t quite point to why I was dissatisfied with it. I guess if you wanted to sum it up in a phrase, it was all that but without […]
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Denmaru Ramen, Kami Asao (伝丸 新百合ヶ丘店)
I got back late, late at night from my first trip to Osaka. I mean, regular salarymen work this late every night, but when I arrive at the station at 11:10, that’s a solid day of work (lunch pictures notwithstanding). There’s an izakaya between home and the station that I’ve been itching to try, and […]
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Ichi Kichi Ramen, Kami Asao (らーめん 壱吉, 川崎市麻生区上麻生)
Once in a while I like doing a long, loving post about something completely inconsequential. Today the sky was blue and the mountains were calling, and I went for walk in search of sustenance. Sort of hunter-gatherer thing, you understand. On the other side of the mountain, life is simpler. This is really like country […]