As close as it comes. Kambi/Minca

I don't know why this wasn't my first post. Probably wrapped up in my born-and-raised-in-NYC psyche is that you don't speak about your favorite places except amongst close friends out of fear that someone from Time Out will write about it and completely and utterly destroy the place with tourists and NYU students.  I am also confused by it's completely middle of the road ranking on Yelp.

Since Time Out already has it as their second best ramen joint [link] and it is right on the edge of NYU and the wanna-be dorms that is Sty Town, I guess if it was going to be over run, it would have happened by now.

So, here it is, my favorite ramen shop:
Kambi Ramen House - 351 E 14th St 


and its equally good, more funky, smaller, have to wait for a seat every time sister:
Minca Ramen Factory - 536 E 5th St

Service & Ambiance: I tend not to go to Minca because it has the same exact quality in a much tighter, rushed, and frankly dumpier atmosphere. It could be mistaken for trying to imitate a Tokyo ramen shop, but it's really just a LES first floor apartment dive. Kabi is a modern take on a ramen place and rarely do I have an issue having a party of 4 seated right away. It is large, so that helps, but I don't find it very busy. Unlike Minca, I haven't been asked to leave.


Either way, you are getting a hearty welcome (only second to Ippudo), a menu with Japanese and English, an inquisitive look when you don't order goyza (I don't get why that is mandatory) and kitchen staff that will cook your noodles "kata" (al dente) if you ask them to.


Broth: This is the closest to a creamy pork broth as I can find. It is excellent. I am puzzled by Yelp comments saying the broth isn't much. I have to think they are looking for something else because this is excellent tonkotsu broth. They also have a chicken broth I tried once. It was fine, but I can't really rate it as I'm not in to it.


Noodles: Good. I never know what to say about noodles. I've never had "bad" ramen noodles and their taste largely comes from the broth and seasoning in the bowl. If they aren't mushy, I'm good. These are cooked right. You can get thick, thin, wavy and for some reason whole wheat and bean. Choice is always good.


Egg: Yup. Over cooked, but a soft boil just isn't going to happen for me. It's good, seasoned and there.


Pork: Oh yes! Not the mega pork you get in Japan, but this is belly with a nice piece of fatty soft, melts-in-your-mouth pork. Yes.


I'd agree Ippudo has a better broth, but since the wait time is 1 to 2 hours for a meal that should take 20 min, it's impossible to recommend it. So, go to Kambi, enjoy it. If you see any tourists ask you the way, point them to the west side. Maybe they just haven't figured out where it is yet.

Where I'm coming from

I haven't written a quarter of the reviews I have to write. However, the ones I have written I think have sounded overly critical. With only two places in NYC I can say I really like, I guess they are mostly going to be downers.

That said, I've been trying to figure out what I was looking for. The other day, over a bowl of good ramen from Kambi (there, one of the two places I'll recommend) I was looking at some ramen pictures from my trip over the summer. I went to Tokyo to search out the best ramen in the world and the differences was obvious from the pictures...

 

Look at that egg. Not an over cooked hard boiled egg with no flavor. Soft boiled, delicate and full of flavor that compliments the soup. 

Can you see the fat content in the soup? Look at this close up:

The thick creamy taste of a Hakata style tonkotsu (pork bone - yes, bone with marrow!) broth that has been left to simmer for many many hours just can't be beat.

Let's talk pork. LOOK AT THOSE PIECES. Big, thick, fatty. Not dried out thin wafers hiding in the broth because they are embarrassed. After the broth, the pork slices are the most important part of the bowl. Unfortunately, I just don't think you'll find pork belly slices like this show up in your bowl. Kambi/Minca certainly comes close, they are small, but perfectly fatty pieces.

The noodles are usually standard. I'm not able to discern the subtle differences in the different homemade noodles and the once from a noodle "factory". I will say, it is important to ask for the noodles to be al-dente or "kata" or they will be served too soft and become a little to mushy by the end. It is usually served a little less well done here if you don't ask.  


I'm not sure the exact reason we have such sub-par flavored ramen. I don't know if it is made to be "healthy" for the NY/LA audience? No one walks in and asks for a slice pizza made with low fat mozzarella, do they?


The hunt continues....

Hide-chan Ramen

This is getting embarrassing. I hit up a East Village ramen place at least once a week and I've yet to write anything on them, and here I go again...

Hide-chan Ramen 

248 East 52nd Street, 2nd Floor, 

New York NY 1002

212-813-1800

I stumbled on a review of this place here:

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2010/09/hide-chan-ramen-come-for-the-noodles-stay-for-midtown-east-opening-review-nyc.html

and really wanted to try the Hakata Kuro Ramen with the charred garlic oil as it was a flavor I remember from a meal in Tokyo over the summer.

I also the ability to order the richness of the broth was something I had to check out as I find most broths a little on the weak side.

Service & Ambiance: It's a quiet shop since it is in midtown and I was there on a random mid-week, service was good, and we got a quiet irasshaimase. It's a nice looking place, though not with the feel of a traditional ramen shop, which for me some how excites a part of my brain that remembers ramen meals gone by.

Noodles: These were some tasty noodles and were cooked perfectly. They were al dente / kata to begin with, but settled in quickly soaking up the broth.

Broth: The burnt garlic didn't do much for me in this case. The garlic flavor at Misuwa's ramen shop makes me slurp it down quickly. This on the other hand seemed to compete with the broth. The broth was fine but not with the richness of Minca and it's no longer possible to increase the richness.

Egg: Yup it was there. No it wasn't undercooked as I had hoped when I bit in to it, but fine.


Pork: Actually a tasty piece of pork! One of the better I've had. Soft, not over cooked and actually did shine with the addition of the burnt garlic taste.


The extra stuff: The mushrooms, bamboo shoots and scallions were all perfectly balanced.


Did I like it? Yup. Would I go to midtown to get it, nope. But if I'm there, I'll hit it up.

Daikokuya, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

On a recent trip to LA I had to hit up popular Daikokuya in Little Tokyo. The reviews on Yelp are spectacular so it was no surprise there was a good 45 min wait on a Monday night just to sit at the counter.

The atmosphere was an interesting mix of American diner and ramen shop. Actually it was pretty close to a diner and a lot less like a ramen shop, but interesting none the less. Unfortunately my decision to go was a last minute one after dinner plans fell thru so I didn't have my camera and my phone was dead so I don't have any pictures :(

Service was efficient and I was issued a relaxed "irasshaimase" by the person seating me. I do love when you get a hearty shout from the kitchen, but that wasn't being served here.

The menu is pretty extensive for a ramen shop, with sashimi, bento boxes and tempura. They have plenty of combo plates which gives you a bowel of ramen, a small (and awesome) salad and a small dish of one of their other dishes. I went with some fried rice since so many people loved it.

I'll say it a again, for a small basic salad, I loved it - the way it was shredded and the dressing it was almost like a slaw. Ok, that's more about salad then I thought I'd ever right.

One really unique feature is you can order extra fat! That seemed like a no brainer. As long as they didn't go all Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum on me (a story for another time, but needless to say WAY too much fat, like an inch of it.) I'm all for it.

So first off - the bowel of ramen is HUGE. I make clean plate every time, but this place has no business serving combo dishes. I was hard pressed to finished my bowl and I am 6' 5" and all stomach.

Noodle: As I was watching the ramen being made, I was a little disappointed to find them coming out of sealed plastic bags. That doesn't scream fresh to me. Sure lots of places don't make their own, but if the place they are getting them from needs to take the time to seal them up, I'm concerned. That said, this is one tasty noodle. Good for them, next time take them out of the plastic in the back and stop screwing up my illusion.

Broth: The (extra fatty) broth unfortunately didn't hold the appeal. The pork taste was lost with the addition of the soy. It a pretty bland broth. When I start reaching for the hot stuff to spice things up, something has gone wrong. Oh well.

Egg: The egg - whole, not sliced could have stood a little more seasoning, but was tasty, though over cooked. I wish just once I'd bite in to a perfectly cooked egg, but it never happens in the states.

Pork: Now we come to the winner of the thinnest sliced pork award. The pork was good, not over cooked, had a decent piece of fat there, but as thin as a piece of paper. It literally disintegrated when I tried to lift it out of the soup. I don't know what that was about, but not a winner in my book. 

The extra stuff: Nothing really to mention of note. And the broth could use it.

In the end, a solid showing, but probably won't be back to this LA institution. I'll be back in a few weeks and I'll have to give another place a shot. As I've seen in NYC, long lines don't mean much. My favorite place never has a wait and I've waited for some really sub-par bowls.

Cheese Wasabi Ramen

I am backlogged with about 3 ramen reports, NY, NJ and LA are in the making, but then a report comes from one of my favorite Tokyo ramen blogs that blows my mind.. Cheese Wasabi Ramen!

http://www.goramen.com/2010/10/cheese-wasabi-ramen.html

and I realize, I'm just trying to get a decent tonkotsu broth with a melt-in-my-mouth piece of chashu and a semi-hard boiled egg and this dude gets to sample some real experiment stuff.

Lucky bastard. 

Morimoto's "Ramen Soup"

I tried Morimoto's take on ramen at his restaurant in the Chelsea Market. Listed as "ramen soup 'iron chef' chicken noodle soup".

Service & Ambiance: Killer - but this is not a ramen shop so not really applicable.

Broth: If you are looking for chicken soup, this is the bowl to get. If you are looking for a ramen broth, you have been sadly mislead.

Noodles: I don't know what was going on here, but these aren't ramen noodles. Though, pretty good chicken noodle soup noodles.

Egg: Yeah, no egg here, this isn't really ramen.

Pork: You knew there wasn't going to pork here, right?

Extra stuff: Broth, noodles, a little seaweed, period.

Oh well :(

Totto Ramen

First ramen post and it's all backwards from my norm. Living in the LES area, most of my ramen comes from the numerous choices in the area. This one comes Hells Kitchen / Theater District at the urging of a friend. Also I'm very partial to tonkotsu which they aren't currently serving. Ok here we go..

Totto Ramen | 366 W 52nd St New York, NY 10019 | (212) 582-0052 | http://tottoramen.com/

The first thing I notice is the atmosphere, but it's the last thing I care about. Efficient wait system, put you name on the list hanging at the door. Open cooking area that gives you a good look at the big vat of fresh chicken broth being made and roast pork being seared in front of you. Nice.

 The kitchen is small but they turn out the bowls fast.

I ordered the Chicken Paitan Ramen

For a chicken broth, this was excellent. Just the right fatty content for a chicken broth. There was some rice floating around, which was just weird and distracting.

The pork was good, but could have been a little more moist. Searing shouldn't dry it out, such is the point of searing. There was a good fat content though, so that saved it a bit.

The noodles were very good. Cooked just right, they start out a little hard, but that what you want. Quickly they start soaking up the broth and get perfect. If the start out soft, they are a soggy mess by the end.

The seasoned egg was excellent, but should be served as two halves. Also, you need to order it as an extra, it doesn't come standard. At $10 a bowl, it should be included. Boo.

Service was attentive.

Rating: Will definitely be back. Hopefully they'll have a pork broth for the fall.

Toyko Ramen

Over the summer I was returning to Tokyo and I was determined to get my hands on some "good" ramen. In the past I aimlessly wandered in to noodle shops, for some bizarre reason, thinking there was very little difference between the shops. Not my brightest moment.

My research was confined to ramen blogs. These guys are real ramen addicts. Granted, they have more opportunities to sample a large variety - but their blogs are massive!

http://www.ramentokyo.com/

http://www.goramen.com/

http://www.ramenate.com/

http://www.ramenadventures.com/

This was a great article that appeared in the NY Times.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/travel/31ramen.html

After reading these, I was hoping to find similar blogs about NYC ramen. No such luck, so here I am. These guys showed me, there is good ramen, outstanding ramen and ramen just not worth your time. Overall, the ramen I had in Tokyo was far better than the ramen I've found in NYC. But a lot of that probably has to do with my preferences... which is covered under my next post.

NYC Ramen Adventures

Similar to my experience with beer, you drink a lot of crap, you don't know why, but you're drinking beer, so you're happy. Then one day someone hands you a good beer and you think, wait I can drink beer and it can taste good? So it goes with me and ramen. We met like most do, an instant package with a amazingly salty "broth". It was cheap, it was tasty, it was good, I was happy.

During a few trips to Japan, I sought out udon noodles. I liked them, they were authentic and they good. But there aren't many udon noodle shops in NYC. Sure you could get a bowl in a Japanese restaurant, but they were sub-par. These were not shops dedicated to making bowl of noodles. I tried some noodle shops, but I was a newbie, I had no idea what I was looking for.

Then in 2008, Ippudo came to NYC. That was the equivalent of someone handing me a good beer, it was an introduction to what a bowl of noodles should be. The broth, the noodles, the spices and oh, the pork. Now we have something to rival my love of beer. Ramen. But still, this was one place, with an incredible line at any given time. There must be alternatives.

I am not a ramen expert, I obviously haven't been eating it that long. The blog is dedicated more to the learning experience of what a good bowl of ramen can be and the sharing of who is doing what in the NYC ramen scene. Through these pages I hope to make friends, learn and share my ramen adventures in the vein of some of my favorite Toyko ramen blogs.