Junk Garage, Tokyo (ジャンクガレッジ)

Years, I’ve wanted to try this place. Years. About the same length of time since they moved from southern Tokyo to a location way out in the Saitama suburbs (Omiya). Now they’ve brought the magic to Tokyo. Look at the skull-and-crossbones-with-ears pig logo.

When I say they’ve brought the magic, I really think they’ve done it. I mean, I really think the staff came from the main shop. There’s just something suburban-looking about them.

They must have brought the decor too – the walls feature lots of album covers, and the music parallels that. Much of it is heavy rock – where I was sitting, I was facing copies of Dookie, …And Out Come the Wolves, and Blood Sugar Sex Magik…all your early-college favorites. I’m very much in favor of rock ‘n’ roll, but let’s look at the noodles. Their thing is ‘ma-ze-soba’, meaning ‘ramen with no soup that you have to stir to mix the ingredients’. You could also call it ‘abura soba’, but I’m told this sounds gross.

Choose your free toppings – vegetables, garlic, cheese, extra fat.

Or all of the above. Or, best, “extra fat, cheese and garlic, please.”

I think ‘extra fat’ is a pretty gross option, but it’s always there.

You can also pay a little extra to get some ‘TOPPIG’s like these (pun probably not intended), but I had already ordered the ‘special’, which comes with several of them. I am a bad person.

And because I am a bad person, I want you to get a nice, big look at the following. I described it to someone as ‘teenage boy fantasy noodles’, but you could equally say it was “Thick, chewy ramen topped with fried ramen bits, cheese, mayonnaise, fried garlic, bacon bits, dried fish flakes, bean sprouts, onion, and a raw egg yolk (just for texture, you understand). That slab of pork bottom left was one of the sweetest I’ve ever labored over; I would have thought these was sugar in it (and there might have been). Mix the whole thing up and dig in. And may god have mercy on you.

‘Cuz this bowl ain’t gonna!!!
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