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.