Just Food [4]

Re: Ramen Yamada

I like this place a lot.  Every time I go, the broth has been consistently thick, creamy, and full of pork flavor.  Sometimes the broth also imparts a more oily texture on my tongue while other times it does not.  I’ve begun adding different flavors by adding different types of toppings like corn, bamboo shoots, onions, etc.  The one topping that stands out the most is the menma (bamboo shoots).  The menma imparts a kind of a sour vinegary yet earthy taste to the broth.  I think this gives the broth a nice contrast at times.

Here are two more pictures of the awesome broth ramen.


The left picture is the Chasuu Tonkotsu Shoyuu broth with fried rice and chicken karaage combo.  Shoyuu (soy sauce) is not my favorite type of broth.  Unfortunately the time I went they ran out of everything except shoyuu and spicy miso.  I’m not a fan of spicy miso either so I was disappointed.  This broth tasted like a very light version of the Tonkotsu broth.  It felt almost watered down but not quite.  Its like the chef added more water to the leftover broth that they couldn’t get into because of the bones, meat, and fat thats in the way of them scooping it out.

The right picture is the Kakuni Tonkotsu Ramen broth.  The pork belly kakuni wasn’t as good as the previous time.  The meat was a bit tougher on this cut.  The broth didn’t taste as oily this time to me.  However maybe because it wasn’t as rich and oily, this broth didn’t seem like it tasted as good as my very first visit.

Just Food [3]

Re: Ramen Jinya
As I mentioned in the previous post, ramen is one of my favorite type of food.  The combination of pork broth with noodles and sliced pork, bamboo shoots (menma), chopped onions, and hard boiled egg is just too good to pass up any day of the week.

Ramen Jinya was recommended to me almost two years ago.  But the only location was in Studio City.  I didn’t want to trek to Studio City on a weekday since traffic is always horrible in LA.  I also never really found an excuse to go to Studio City until recently.  

1. The broth is always the first thing I taste.  I always ask myself:
2. Is the broth flavorful?  
3. Can I taste the pork (if its a pork based)?
4. Can I see the tiny white bits of floating marrow?  
5. What else can I taste?  Garlic? Onions? Sesame?
6. Are the noodles chewy?
7. How are the toppings (corn, bamboo shoots, spinach, chopped onions, seaweed)?
8. Do they complement the broth or the noodles or each other?

Now... THIS....

This is one awesome bowl of ramen.  Its a pork tonkatsu broth base.  The broth was flavorful and surprisingly neither too salty NOR too oily.  The broth has a very light taste.  It didn’t taste rich like Ramen Yamada (which was oily in comparison to this one) but it maintained its flavor very well.  Honestly, I couldn’t get enough of this broth.  I had to stop myself from finishing the broth before finishing the rest of the ramen, spinach, chashu, chopped onions.  The chashu was very soft and tender.  There cut of meat was pretty lean.  I don’t mind lean cut but I think ramen requires fatty pork belly to taste good.  I also wish they added more than just a few obligatory bamboo shoots.  I find the bamboo shoots and chopped onions changes the flavor of the broth temporarily.  Ramen Jinya also added some spinach into the mix.  

The chicken karaage had this ponzu sauce that tasted very good.  The chicken itself tastes similar to how other Japanese restaurants make the dish.  I wish they would put the ponzu sauce aside as a dipping sauce instead of pouring it on the chicken.  I think it would taste much better to continually dip it after each bite.

Just Food [2]

I think the title of this new section is a little too long.

Re: Hole in the Wall Burger

A hole in the wall restaurant is a dining establishment that doesn’t have a lot of seats or many amenities.  However these eating establishments tend to serve great.  

So... with that being said, Hole in the Wall Burger Joint does just two things: make burgers and fries.  But these burgers aren’t your run of the mill burgers.  As trite as it might sound, these burgers are “gourmet burgers.”  But yes you can get gourmet burgers at those fancy upper scale restaurants or at alternative places such as The Counter.  However, the specialization that Hole in the Wall has with burgers makes these burgers infinitely better than the other restaurants that server gourmet burgers.  

Anyways, I’ve been to this place a couple times already.  You fill out a piece of paper that asks for the type of meat (beef, chicken, turkey or veggie), the type of buns (pretzel, brioche, old fashioned), cheese (swiss, cheddar, provolone), vegetables (onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles), dressing (chipotle mayo, ranch), garnish (bacon, egg, avocado) and fries on the side (kennebec, sweet potato).  There are probably other options but I don’t remember them at the time of writing.  I highly recommend having a beef burger with bacon, cheddar, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, chipotle mayo and kennebec fries.

They also have weekly specials.  On my last visit, they had the “Pastrami Burger” which consists a beef patty topped with three slices of pastrami, three slices of cheese, thousand island dressing and coleslaw.  Man this burger was messy but delicious.  The thousand island was uniquely different as I tasted a hint of chipotle in it.  Even though the bread was somewhat dry at the start, by the time I had my second bite, the juices from the burger had soaked through the bottom bread while the thousand island and coleslaw soaked the top.  This burger was so large I had to use a knife to initially cut the burger in half.

I would recommend anyone looking for a decent burger to go here.  Unfortunately, it is a little on the expensive side, but I think its worth the price.  On a side note, this spot was the first “mayorship” I attained on Foursquare.

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Re: Yamada Ramen

One of my favorite types of food is ramen.  Most of the good ramen I’ve eaten have been in NorCal -- specifically in the San Jose area where a friend usually takes me around to eat ramen whenever I visit the Bay Area.  I’ve tried all the ramen places close to work which includes Santouka Ramen inside Mitsuwa Market, the defunct Kinchan’s Ramen, Chabuya Ramen, Asahi Ramen and Ramen-ya.  There are two new places opening up soon: Ramen Jinya and Tsujita LA.  Ramen Jinya has another location in LA. Tsujita had a “flash” store inside a Mitsuwa Market last year.  Tsujita currently is open but does not serve ramen... yet.  

I stumbled upon this restaurant somehow looking at ramen pages on Yelp.  Apparently when I looked, they had just opened that week.  I ventured out the following day for lunch in hopes of trying it.  Surprisingly not many people eat lunch at noon on a weekend... which is good for me.  I tried their Tonkotsu Kotteri.  The broth was good.  It was rich, creamy and full of flavor.  The description said there was some garlic in the broth but frankly, I really couldn’t taste it.  

I went to Yamada Ramen again for dinner recently.  When I arrived, the line was out the door.  I put my name on the list hoping they could seat me at the counter quickly.  My gamble paid off and the waitress seated me immediately at a communal table.  I tried their regular Tonkotsu ramen.  The broth was still good.  It was rich, full of flavor, creamy and it tasted very fatty/oily.  That was something I didn’t taste the last time (or wasn’t paying attention to).  This broth is better than Santouka’s miso base and shio base broths.  I ordered a side of the kakuni pork belly to go with the ramen. The combination of the broth with the pork belly made my day complete.

I would totally recommend people to come here.  My only concern is the wait time since this is a new restaurant.

Just Food [1]

After Gourmet Food Trucks (20), I figured it was time to expand outside the realm of the food trucks.  So I introduce the FIRST Not Gourmet Food Trucks post!!



Re: Churros Caliente

A friend recommended Churros Caliente describing their churros as an awesome treat.  I had tried their churros once before during winter.  I recall that night because I walked back home in the rain.  Why did I walk in the rain?I got fed up waiting for the bus for 30 minutes that I just started walking in the rain.  The bus eventually did come after 40 minutes which was packed.  



I had stopped at this place that night as a quick break to warm myself up after walking in the rain.  I also hoped that the rain would stop a bit as it had become more of a drizzly mist by the time I got to the restaurant.  I had the churros and hot chocolate combination.  The churros were good but I didn’t enjoyed it as much since I was soaking wet.



This place is located next to the theater on Santa Monica.  They have a small space for dining and a small patio that extends out into the sidewalk of Santa Monica.  After a “half-day” Friday, I stopped at the restaurant to eat lunch.  I had their chicken panini, churros and ice milk coffee.  The panini would have been better with a little more cheese and more of the tomato sauce.  The bread was very good but suffers from being very dry.  The chicken was pretty juicy.  But I still think more tomato sauce would have been better.  


The churros were extremely good.  They make it fresh which probably was why it was good.  The sugar sprinkles had a nice added sweetness that gave the churros a nice aftertaste.  It was so good that I went and tried a Churros Grande with cream cheese stuffing and guava drizzle.  Apparently this is a pretty popular fan favorite combination. And let me tell you it was good.  The warm cream cheese was perfect with the churros.  The guava drizzle wasn’t too sweet and complemented the cream cheese slight sourness very well.  Using strawberry drizzle would have probably overpowered the cream cheese flavor.



I would come back for the churros.  I think you should too!

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Re: Urbanbelly



I was sent to Chicago for training.  Taking the opportunity, I went to try a restaurant that was shocased on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate.” I had the recommended Rice Noodle.  It was a noodle soup using thin vermicelli along with thick rice cake noodles (the ones you find in a shanghai rice noodle dish).  The soup is made from a pork broth base that was spiked with the spicy kim chee flavor.  The soup also contained thick cubes of pork, garbonzo beans and kim chee.  I had also ordered the bacon and squash dumplings and a side of Chinese eggplant.



I found the broth to be amazingly good.  Its a clear pork broth base similar to the type of Chinese style noodle soup broths.  Its definitely different from the Tonkatsu Japanese ramen broths.  This broth was delicious.  It tastes as if it was simmered for a good 4 hours similar to how good home made Chinese beef noodle soup base should be made.  It was spiked with a kim chee flavor that made the broth spicy.  It’s like the spicy beef noodle soup that you eat in Taiwanese restaurants.  


The bacon and squash dumplings were not what I expected.  They were spicy squash “dumplings” with bacon, tangerine and daikon topping.  I really had hoped the filling would be squash and bacon flavor.  It would be an interesting flavor combination to have the texture of the squash mix with the flavor of bacon.  I had also expected Chinese style dumplings.  I think ravioli would probably be a more proper term for this dish.  


The Chinese eggplant was very good.  I really like the vinegarette sauce.  The eggplant was topped with some crunchy wontons that complemented the “mushy” eggplant.  I like that odd juxtaposition.