Late Night Ramen

flowers! <3

I'm going to take a break in the middle of my Germany posts to keep things more interesting and prevent excess backups :)

Returning from Berlin was like the happiest moment ever. Not that the trip was THAT bad..... but I was just so freaking happy to finally be back in my beloved SF bay area. Things started out great as Carlos picked me up at the airport with flowers :) and then took me back to my place to help unpack. After being up for like 24 hours and having nothing but kind of crappy but overly filling airplane pastas, I was really ready to have a nice, warm and light dinner. Only problem was that by the time we were ready to head out, it was pushing 10 on a Sunday night :(

Luckily for us, SF has plenty of places open late, and we were able to quickly pick Tanpopo, a decently rated ramen shop in the Japantown area. It was located just outside the mall on one of the mini walking streets. I was surprised by how crowded it was on a Sunday night, but it's a fairly spacious shop so there was no issue.

I was very impressed that we were immediately given water! And not only was it prompt, but the attendant refilled it without being asked multiple times!! One problem I have with many traditional Japanese restaurants is that it's hard to get beverages. This was some major points for Tanpopo.

The menu was definitely ramen focused but also had other Japanese dishes. I liked that the 12ish varieties were all listed with pictures. Picture menus make me happy. There was a pretty good selection of diff types with various meats and spicing. Free egg included!

spicy miso w/ extra pork

As a savvy consumer, I was ready with two options: garlic and spicy miso. Carlos also had two options, one being the spicy, so we determined that he should get that and I'd get garlic so I could try his. Then I totally Sharon failed when the server arrived!! I was informed that they had run out of garlic for the night, and instead of being creative I quickly switched my order to spicy miso meaning we both got the same thing. :P lame. His had extra pork in it, but otherwise, no even ingredient variations.

The ramen was pretty tasty! The spicy broth was very good and I liked the items in the soup. They even had one of those weird naruto swirly fish cakes in them which makes it seem super authentic. The noodles themselves were a bit chewy, and I think they might have been overcooked. It was good, but not outstanding. I feel like I would need to go back and try shoyu or something more basic before I made a final ranking.

size comparison with my glasses. HUGE!

Overall, it was a fun experience and it was perfect for its purpose. Also, the bowls were freaking huge which is inherently exciting :D

The Road to Ramen Expertise

I have a bad habit of wanting to try new places so much that I almost never repeat restaurants. Although this keeps my eating interesting, it still is kind of silly to not go to back to the ones that are awesome. However! There are a few exceptions. Some foods are so amazing that I want to become an  ultimate expert so I can always end up at the best venues. So far I've mastered froyo & cupcakes, and now I officially am taking on the ramen challenge! I don't think there are THAT many places that serve it, so it seems like a manageable task. Plus, Carlos is also a big fan, so it's a good project for us to take on contigo (yes, i know i'm using that word incorrectly).

Yesterday, we decided to start crossing off some of the places on the Yelp Silicon Valley "ramen list" and hit up Dohatsuten in very south Palo Alto. This place is down in almost Mt. View on San Antonio between 101 and el Camino. It is a very small little shop and looks pretty legit from the outside. We got there about 45 minutes before they were closing for the afternoon, and I was amazed that every table but one was completely filled. There were only two other white people in the place, so I was at first quite excited about the authenticity.

ramen focused menu

The menu was totally ramen focused with an entire sheet dedicated to picking the broth, type, and add-ons to your soup. The back had a few appetizers, but you can tell people come for the ramen. So far so good. We both ordered their "Dohatsuten" special. I added an egg to mine (<3 egg), and Carlos got the "Hyper" version. Points for using the adjective hyper in food context :).

dohatsuten special

Normally I am ok with crowds and noise levels, but I was kind of surprised about how loud the place was for a Sunday afternoon. There were a lot of families and screaming babies. It didn't necessarily bother me, but it definitely didn't add to the positive ambiance.

hyper dohatsuten special

I was starving and super excited when the food finally came; it looked very authentic and delicious. Unfortunately, the taste wasn't as good as the appearance :(. It wasn't bad by any means, but it was not outstanding. Granted we are both sick at the moment (completely coincidentally :P) and not on our tasting A-game, but we just weren't impressed by flavors. The noodles themselves really reminded me of Top Ramen for some reason. They were kind of bland. The broth was tasty, but not as spicy as I would have liked or strong enough to really flavor the ingredients. The "hyper" version didn't seem that much fancier, it just added some more meat, the egg, corn (so jealous), and some green onion things. 

Maybe it would have been better if we had paid extra money for different types of broth (lame! I think broth options should be free), but their "specialty" dish was not really worth the adventure. I'd vote any of the San Mateo shops over this.

Ramen Questing

more backblog:

I'm always looking for new, yummy ramen places! There seem to be so few legit ones, and every time I find one, it makes me so happy. Sometime last November, Steve and I hit up Himawari in San Mateo for lunch. I had only heard so-so reviews of the place, so I went in with some hesitation.

mmm butter ramen

The inside is adorable! It was very crowded for lunch, but luckily we came early. It definitely has a trendy cafe feel with modern decor and plentiful seating. I guess it should be expected after seeing the adorable squiggly-fonted sign outside.

I ended up ordering a "butter ramen" and Steve got a deluxe ramen with pork. I LOVED mine!!! I'm totally American, so chances are what I was loving was like the orange-chicken of ramen, but it was so good. I think I added egg and extra corn, so it was basically like a corn on the cob stew with hints of ramen spices and yumminess.

giant meat chunk

His was also quite tasty, and I was really impressed by the pork. Instead of the traditional, flat slabs, his contained large cubes of meat! They were very tender and flavorful <3. I've never really seen cubes of meat like that, and all I could think of was the opening to Dexter when he cuts the large square out of the ham. Any meal that reminds me of that show is total win. 

Dexter meat

I think I liked this place better than Ramen Dojo or Santa Ramen :O!! But once again, it's prolly cuz I americanized my dish :)

Finally- Santa Ramen!

I need to preface this by stating: I am a white girl from Sandy, Utah. I know nothing about good ramen. To be honest, it all kind of tastes the delicious same to me.... that said! I had a very pleasant meal at the Santa Ramen in San Mateo yesterday. I feel stupid that it's my first visit considering the rave reviews I've heard (mainly from Alice), and the fact that I live on the same street :P

Gee Unit and I went for lunch at 11:30. It was already quite packed when we arrived but we were seated. Immediately like 50 people showed up, and the line was insane (piles of people stuck outside). This may be 1. because it's good, and 2. because it's SAF (s for slow). The ramen itself was quite good, I loved the broth! The one bummer was that you had to pay extra for the egg, and according to my asian counterpart, they didn't cook it right. lame! either way, i highly enjoyed.

I think it's a common place for us game industry folk to hang out. I know EA people go there tons, and I hear that Capcom people love it too. As i was leaving, I noticed a table with that one dude from Sony with black hair and all the tatoos.... I don't know his name but I think he's PR or community management cuz I always see him at trade shows. wow, CREEPY STALKER! here's hoping he never stumbles upon this post. :)