Ramen^2.0

my.opera.com/offspring/blog/ cold day and a hot bowl of steamy ramen, whats there not to like? i was on transit at the town of odawara to see one of japan's rare castle but the rain persuaded me to spend my time at the food center. it was cold and i wanted to use some soupy stuff. i saw a some queue forming at the ramen counter and decided to have one myself. i am not sure what ramen this is but the stock is mixed with several spoons of cloudy susbstance that is quickly whisked into the broth. the 900yen bowl comes with several slices of thin charsiew, some pickled bamboo and a handful of chopped spring onions. i suspect that this ramen may be tonkotsu-based, or pork bone, but this soup seemed too light and soy-based for that. oh well. strangely, i seemed to have better ramen in singapore, with the exception of the bowls of ramen i had in odaiba (photo soon).

i've been meaning to check this place out for a while, and i was in the area when naoko rang and told me she'd just seen it on telly. when i got there, it looked like a few others had too, there was a queue out of the door..... worth it though, but taking this shot elicited a few nudges and giggles. That's how i excuse my poor focus, anyway

what was suppose to be a delicious bowl of tonkotsu ramen turned out to be a msg laden, undercooked bowl of noodles with overcooked pork. need i say more? we also had a side of duck/pork gyoza, but those were not too spectacular either. the food aside, the service was friendly and the restaurant interior was pleasing to the eye. but really now, the whole point of going to a restaurant is to EAT/DRINK, is it not? that being said, i did enjoy the hot sake. IZAKAYA 69 Front Street E, Toronto www.izakaya.ca

If I had to give a negative point to Foo Foo Tei, it would be for their noodles. For one thing, their noodles aren't freshly made. They remind me of the noodles that you would get in the refrigerated/frozen ramen found in Japanese markets. Thankfully, Foo Foo Tei makes up for the noodles with a variety of soup bases and toppings ranging from your standard shoyu, shio, and miso bases to seafood fritter to mabo tofu and even to menudo. Yeah, you read that right. Very non-traditional indeed.

A pair of mini tuna bowls. Part of my usual order. Foo Foo Tei knocks $1 off the price of a mini bowl if you purchase a bowl of ramen. As a result, you end up with a filling meal. As for this photo, don't you love that tack sharp table? (I need to figure out my camera's focus)

My favorite and quite possibly the most popular choice of this ramen-ya is the Nanchatte Tonkotsu ramen, a very unconventional soup base for ramen. The Nanchatte Tonkotsu ramen features a light, sweet, creamy soup base. When I first heard about this ramen, I found it rather odd, yet intriguing. I was reluctant to try it, but when I first tasted it, I was quite surprised. The light cream base really works well. I highly recommend this ramen to anybody in the LA area.