Sam brought me back this Japanese Ultimate Ramen Magazine from his trip to Tokyo. On the cover is Ramenman from the original Kinnikuman manga. Â It’s basically a directory of all the ramen joints in Tokyo. It includes a free towel and coupons to each ramen shop. It’s really cool browsing through it, even though I don’t understand nor eat it.
First Ramen and Friends dinner since baby Cormac. We went to Hide-Chan Ramen in Midtown. I got the Mega Ton (extra noodle, extra thick char siu, a lot vegetables $15). They weren’t kidding. It was a mega ton of food. I barely made a dent even with a little help from my friends. There is a lot of vegetables/cabbage though. I really had to dig around for the noodles.
Richard mistakenly got someone else’s Hakata Grilled Pork Toro Ramen (cheek meat marinated with brown sugar and soy sauce $12) and I’m glad he did because I got to try it. The meat was so good.
Chicken wings were just okay.
Hide-Chan Ramen – 248 E 52nd St (btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave) New York 10022
Ramen and Friends’ cross post
Met up with Yoshie, Sam and Rob at the new Totto Ramen a few weeks ago in Midtown. It’s a tiny little place and therefore long waits. Yoshie gave up our table a few times because we were late. Then as I got an important food blog related phone call when our table was ready. I ran out to talk and several minutes later Sam runs out to say we have to order or they’ll kick us out. Okay, I’ll have the chicken one! They have several chicken ones! Oh, get me the creamy one! I don’t know what the creamy one is! Dang, get me shio miso! …I thought I probably sounded food smart by saying “shio miso” over the phone, but turns out that “shio miso” is two different things.
They ordered me the creamy chicken one. It was alright. Better to read Yoshie’s review.
Totto Ramen – 366 W 52nd St (btwn 8th & 9th Ave) Manhattan, NY 10019
Went out with Ramen and Friends to try out the new Ramen Kuidouraku, which used to be a Ramen Setagaya. The place pretty much looks the same and they used part of the front window sign –the “Ramen” part. Unfortunately, I can’t say it taste the same. If anything, I recommend throwing in more fatty pork and maybe less corn. Something about corn in a bowl of milky brown soup looks backwards if it’s about to go in me.
Ramen Kuidouraku – 141 1st Ave (btwn St Marks and 9th St) New York, NY 10003
Read Ramen and Friends’ review
If you bid on any of the fancy dinners from the last post, here’s something you can afford with the rest of your money.
Name: Braised Ribs Chicken Noodle
Brand: Hongfa (China) Group
Price: under $2
Contents: bucket of noodles with three seasoning packets (dried soup powder, paste, dried seasoning flakes)
Cooking: Fill hot water up to the line and cover for 3mins.
Results: For all the different packets included, it was surely disappointing in flavor. Pretty bland. I think this is the same company that made this one I reviewed. Maybe it’s a bucket thing. I’ve yet to have an instant noodle bucket that tastes better than a regular brick package. I really want to like you, bucket, but you really making want to kick you.
…The little plastic fork works surprisingly well.
Name: Nissin Spicy Flavor
Brand: Nissin
Cost: around 59cents
Contents: Brick of dry ramen, seasoning pack & red chili oil
Cooking: 3mins with 2 cups of boiling water. I added dried mushrooms
Results: It doesn’t look red as the package. Taste kind of like the Picante flavor they sell in America. I wish all that seafood stuff on the package picture was in here. That looks insane. And it also looks like a different type of noodle.
I liked how this says “Superior Soup”
Name: Fuku Superior Soup Instant Noodles
Brand: Fuku
Cost: less than $1
Package: Brick of dry ramen and seasoning pack
Cooking: The instructions were confusing. Put noodles in 450ml of boiling water or let it simmer in 500ml of boiling water. Which is it? I added dumplings.
Results: Very buttery tasting. My roommate thought the apartment smelled like popcorn. Maybe my belly was full of beer already, but this thing was very filling. The noodles seemed to have expanded a lot. I could only eat about a half of it. I don’t think the soup was superior, just very buttery.
I first thought this was spaghetti, looking at the package. It’s Yakisoba.
Name: U.F.O. Yakisoba
Brand: Nissin
Cost: about $1.99
Package: flying saucer carton (reminiscent of the old McDonald’s Flying Saucer Happy Meals you could throw as a frisbee back in the 80’s). The dry noodles also had bits of dried vegetables. There was a packet of dried seasoning and wet yakisoba sauce.
Cooking: pour hot water and let it sit for three minutes. Let it drain through the perforated holes. Then mix in the packets.
Results: Pretty tasty. Like sweet soy sauce noodles. Tasted like cheap instant yakisoba. I would buy again.
