[RAMEN] 6 Days of Ramen (from March 29, 2002)

Ramen This Week: 6 Days of Ramen

From Thursday to Wednesday, I had ramen almost every damn day.

Thursday: 天下一品 ･ 六本木店 Tenka-Ippin Roppongi
Friday: 西安刀削麺 Xi'an Toshoumen
Saturday: 西安刀削麺 Xi'an Toshoumen (again!)
Sunday: かおたんらーめん Kaotan Ramen
Monday: 茂助 Mosuke
Tuesday: [定休日] The Day of Rest (Thank God.)
Wednesday: 西安刀削麺 Xi'an Toshoumen (AGAIN!!)

But as I've noted before, Toshoumen is not ramen. Taking this fact into consideration, I therefore ate ramen only three times over that 7-day period, which is a completely normal pace. Furthermore, on Saturday and Wednesday I had half- and quarter- bowls. (I believe the restaurant expanded its menu of serving sizes to accommodate people like me whom Lindy ruthlessly refers to as "halfies.") Screw me for talking up a place and then being asked to go there fifty more times.

Everything else was rather unspectacular. No new places.


天下一品 ･ 六本木店 Tenka-Ippin Roppongi

The Tenka-Ippin formula for kotteri is well known. Tonkotsu and remarkably obvious torigara flavor reduced to a deadly gloop. As you pull noodles from the bowl, the thick gloop hangs on to the noodle for dear life. Perfect ramen for drunk bastards, because even if you knock the damn thing over you have about 10 seconds to right the bowl before anything actually spills out. Bad charsiu. Bad gyoza. Really bad "seasonal specials."

That said, the original Tenka-Ippin is heaven. The 本店 is in Kyoto, near the corner of Shirakawa-dori and Kitaoji. It is also across the street from the sculpture school of Kyoto Geidai, so you can make a day trip out of gazing at beautiful things. (Well, at least I did. I love art schools.) But what sets the honten apart is the strong torigara flavor. It's as if the purest essence of a whole chicken was strangled, hacked, mangled, folded in thirds, crammed, blended, melted, and liquified into your soup. Beak, eyeballs, feathers, nails and all. Fantastic.

By contrast, the Roppongi outfit is not very good. I suspect too much sesame oil makes the soup seem peanutty. Among the Tokyo outposts, I think Meguro is the closest in flavor to the honten. I have no idea what the Honolulu branch tastes like.


かおたんらーめん Kaotan Ramen

I guess I just don't get it. The noodles are nice, and it is a dandy place to swing by if you just so happen to be walking around the Aoyama graveyard with nothing else to do. But to me, this is just sour soup with roasted garlic. This is more plain than your first girlfriend. There is little in the way of depth, nothing in the soup that will force you to ponder the mysteries of the universe. I mean, just look at those guys behind the counter. They don't look like they've sat around stewing 24 hours of anything except their gambling debts.

And the gyoza is barf.


茂助 Mosuke

Speaking of barf-alicious gyoza, I hit this joint again -- some amateur friends of mine wanted to give it a try after they learned it was named to #22 on the Nittele scam list. Don't let it ever be said that I'm not fair.

Anyway, I've published my thoughts on this matter before. The gyoza is not barf. It's just far from spectacular. This time, I even tried a different soup, opting for the shio. Boring, boring, boring. This ramen was meant to complement Bloomberg seminars, morning research calls, and Emma Thompson movies. I almost fell asleep mid-noodle. I actually woke up in a rage later that night while having a nightmare about intensely boring ramen.

But again, the lunch set is very filling. And as long as this place attracts amateurs away from the places where I really want to go, I'm happy.




And a quick shout-out to Kekke-san, who has entered the world of marriage, hence calorie and sodium paranoia. Congratulations!