Shin Shin??

The word "Shin" in Japanese has many meaning, including the meaning of "Spicy".  The other meaning of Shin can be "new" or "fresh".  The reason why I brought this up is that I was quite disappointed with the quality of ramen from Shin Shin Men Men in Cupertino.  Came in around 1:30pm right before closing and ordered Shoyu ramen. 

The chashu is obviously over cooked with burnt around the meet, which also affected the soup.  The noodle is not as chewy as before.  The only constant would be the soup and the egg. 

They did make some improvement to put up their opening hours on yelp. lol. 

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Shin Shin Men Men

21265 Stevens Creek Blvd
Ste 200
Cupertino, CA 95014

http://www.shinshinmenmen.com

Tenma Ramen + Sumika

Today might be the first time I bounced away from the waitress!  I was in the motion of taking photo when the waitress creeped up and asked is everything alright???? "Yes damn it is alright!!"(my os).  Somehow I was in a hurry closing my camera app like a kid got caught from watching porn.

"yah, everything's alright" I awkwardly replied, shuffling my phone to the side.

And yes, I over reacted.. orz.

Back to Ramen and here is the picture of the "Sun Ramen", a summer special form Tenma.  The pork bone soup base with their thick ramen, finishing with premium bonito flakes on the top.  The soup was smooth and easy to take in.  A plus with the red ginger and bonito flakes.

The usual name for these kind of noodle would be flat pressed medium noodle.  The chewiness is there but the mixture with the soup need some more work.

Also, went to Sumika with a friend today for dinner and FINALLY, I have correctly ordered oyako don.  The last couple time I was persuade by the server to order kitsune don and sumika don.  Wrong Choice!  Although Sumika don is not a bad choice (with teriyaki sauce, no egg), Oyako don's egg was a must.  Can never go wrong with half raw egg + rice, plus adding the charcoal grilled egg.  Fantastic.  

Have to admit that Sumika is very pricy.  Would suggest to get some late night snack afterwards.... My WALLET!... 

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Tenma Ramen

487 Saratoga Ave
San Jose, CA 95129

http://www.ramentenma.com/

Sumika

236 Central Pl
Los Altos, CA 94022

http://www.sumikagrill.com/

Yuji Ramen, NYC

At last, Yuji Ramen is one of the joint I am eager to try in nyc!  The joint is located on the second floor of the E Houston Whole Food Market, standing out right next to the jumba juice.  The setting puts an emphasis on healthy and novice food.  

After arriving around 5pm, the chefs were preparing for their tasting menu dinner for those reserved.  Sadly that all reservation is booked till end of July.  I have ordered egg and bacon mazemen.  

I am especially impress by the flat wide noodle.  Once I was thinking if it is actually linguine.  Mixing the onsen egg and the rest of the bonito base sauce, the noodle is full of flavor with a little chive aftertaste.  A little surprise that the egg flavor is not that strong, but that is not the point.  If is there a chance next time, I want to try to be on the tasting list!! 

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Yuji Ramen 

95 E Houston St
2nd Fl
New York, NY 10002
Neighborhood: Lower East Side

https://www.kitchit.com/tickets/YUJIramen

Totto, NYC

Yes, not the toilets maker.

Totto, the paitan chicken ramen specialist, is a shop near the midtown west of NYC.  They also carries other Japanese cuisines, like Yakitori.  The line is always amazingly long, about 1-2 hours wait lunch and dinner time.  My cousin is a regular here, putting it no.1 in his list. 

After putting down our name, we came back around 1 hour later, right on time.  The place is around 7-8 bar seats and 5-6 2 person table.  My cousin and I both got the Paitan Chicken ramen. 

The soup is made from whole chicken and premium soy sauce.  The taste of the heavy flavored chicken soup would wonder around for a while after the first sip of soup.  I thought that this bowl is the closest to the paitan chicken soup bowl I had in Tokyo.  The soup is cooked long to smoothen the dense flavor.  The chashu is gas flamed before inserted in to bring more flavor.  Plus the straight noodle is homemade, a plus!  

After the amazing ramen, we followed that up with my craving of lobster roll!  There are tons of lobster roll here in new york but the most famous one we went to is Luke's Lobsters.  Although it is a bit small for a whole serving, lobster meat with buttered bread is a perfect combo, plus the extra butter is added on the lobster.  Although the lobster is more on the code side, it was a real treat even if you do not eat lobster!

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Totto Ramen
366 W 52nd St
New York, NY 10019
http://tottoramen.com/

Luke's Lobster
Multiple location
1 W 59th St
Lower Level
New York, NY 10019
http://www.lukeslobster.com/

Rai Rai Ken + Basta Pasta NYC

I was thinking about this long and hard.  Code struggling leads toward ramen night?  In conclusion.  No matter what, everyday is a ramen night! 

After Ippudo experience yesterday, I was checking out Yelp and @goramen to see where I can go next.  Totto is closed for cleaning.  Yuji ramen might be tons of people (it is around noon time).  I thought I give Rai Rai Ken a try.  

While walking there, I have passed by Satagaya Ramen (Tokyo Chain) and Japadog (japanese hotdog).  Quite surprised that it is quite empty at noon time.  Sitting at the bar in front of Mexican chef, I started to wonder the quality.  The server is prompt to order my food and I have put in Tsukemen with hot noodle.

From looking, it is tasty, starting from the noodle to the side dishes.  I like the chewiness of the noodle and how it mesh with the dipping soup, which is combined tonkotsu and checken bone.  The side of vegetable and menma were less of a quality.  I did not finished those sides.  

Later in the day, my cousin and I hit up Japanese Italian Basta Pasta on the west side of town. Yellowtail carpaccio with mango sauce.

Hands down with the Linguini al Ricci de Mare, which is pasta with uni.  Both my cousin and I got this dish.  The red and white sauce mashed perfectly with the uni.  The basil gives it an extra spice emphasized uni taste.

There were a lot of people in Basta Pasta.  Make sure to reserve! 

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Rai Rai Ken 

218 E 10th St
(between 1st Ave & 2nd Ave) 
New York, NY 10003
Neighborhood: East Village

http://www.yelp.com/biz/rai-rai-ken-new-york

Basta Pasta

37 W 17th St
(between Avenue Of The Americas & 5th Ave) 
New York, NY 10011
Neighborhood: Flatiron

http://www.bastapastanyc.com/

Ippudo, New York City, NY

Cant be more eager to try the famed ramen Ippudo in New York!  It is my first bowl in ny and I cant wait!

I was quite amazed by the atmosphere inside shop, combining fusion feel plus the traditional Japanese ramen shop yelling.  It is definitely one of the more "energized" ramen shop in the States.  I have ordered the special BBQ pork ramen, which is a special corporation with a local chef in town. 

The soup is the regular tonkotsu shoyu soup with the chopped bbq pork on the top.  The bbq pork is a traditional southern style but I feel like it might be better combining with the original tonkotsu soup.  Although the bowl might be the most expensive one I have tasted, I admire Ippudo's desire to try different combination and working with local ingredients!  

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Ippudo NY

65 Fourth Avenue,

New York, NY 10003http://www.ippudony.com/  

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Shin Shin Men Men, Cupertino, CA

Extraordinary might not be the word to properly describe this place.

I have been here more than 5 times to eat ramen after a friend recommended me here.  The first three times I found myself lost with unknown opening hours!  It was a cost saving way of putting your hours on the yelp photo page!  That was a first for me.

3 kind of base soup is offered here, salt, soy sauce, and miso.  After trying all of them, I did stick with soy sauce based.

To be honest, I usually do not go for soy sauce because of the saltiness, density, and seafood/pork proportion.  This place reminded me of one of my favorites in Shibuya, Tokyo, Hayashi, which serves Tonkotsu gyokai shoyu ramen.  Although today's bowl was not as filtered as the other day, the taste is compacted into the soup.  The noodle is yellow curly medium size noodle and the was perfect with the soup.  Chashu is tasty but might be too fatty sometimes.  Egg is amazing as usual.

My tip would be make sure to know your spicy levels before you go to a 6!  I did try 3 and it was spicy!! If you go for a 6, you have to be either, senseless to spice, or just like to be challenged!  I would definitely recommend this place! The Soy Sauce based is definitely rank number 1 in my list. 

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Shin Shin Men Men

21265 Stevens Creek Blvd
Ste 200

Cupertino, CA 95014

http://www.shin2men2.com/#shinmen_location

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Ramen Halu, San Jose, CA; Umami Burger, Palo Alto, CA

First of all, thanks everyone helping me passing 2025 page view on this blog!  It was my previous site's record, and I will continue to provide you all more and more post on delicious food!  Although the blog post is a little bit higher than the other site, interest of ramen in the bay area is up there! I am excited!

I have revisited Halu Ramen today and ordered the regular Nagisa ramen with extra egg, green onion and spinach.

I did try to ask if I can switch to the thicker noodle but got declined.  As for the soup, this time around is not as smooth as previous times I have been here.  It has a wildness to the soup where I would not recommend drinking when you are feeling sick.  But overall, the noodle texture and the egg are superb, same as the chashu.  I would still go with the tantan men here to over come the wildness in the soup.    

On the same note, my cousin and I visited Umami Burger on University in Palo Alto.  I was a little confuse on the "Trust Us combo" where my cousin cannot even choose the drink item!!  At the end we decided to order a la carte style.  Comparing to the price tag, the Burger portion is not big.  The funny thing is that they only give you 1 piece of everything.  Like one piece of shittake mushroom, one piece of tomato, one piece of fried rice layer parmesan crisp.  lol. I hope that they do give you a bowl of salad instead of an uncut lettuce... lol. 

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Ramen Halu

375 Saratoga Ave.

San Jose, CA95129

http://www.ramenhalu.com

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Umami Burger
452 University Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
http://www.umami.com/umami-burger/eats/palo-alto


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Kotetsu Ramen, Santa Clara, CA

Another Bright and sunny day today in the bay area. Hope everyone is well in Boston after the devastating tragedy in the Boston Marathon.  Today, I was trying to direct my friends to this blog but having a hard time since google search does not recognized my site anymore with less traffic.  Is that a sign?!?! lol.

I have come back to Kotetsu in Santa Clara again and try their other noodles in the menu.  It was close to 1pm and almost fully packed.  I have ordered Shoyu Ramen with Chicken and Seafood broth with an extra egg....

The first sip of the soup reminded me of the chicken soup I made couple days ago with a first taste of chicken broth.  What was different from mine is that their soup has more sticky which is a good sign of the cook time.  The soup was very easy to take in, which should be the lightest right ahead of the vegetarian.  The chashu is the original one they have been using at the store.  I was hoping that the noodle can be more matching with the coup base.  The texture and the chewiness of the noodle is there, but somehow it has not suck in the soup in the bowl. 

This bowl is one of the pioneer in this category of chicken broth soup.  Chicken broth soup is actually more and more popular in Japan.  To contrast, this bowl fits more toward local taste with the less salt and full of flavors.  2 thumbs up! 

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Kotetsu

2089 El Camino Real

Santa Clara, CA 95050

http://kotetsuramen.com/

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Ramen Sea, Sunnyvale, CA

Weather cannot be better in the bay! Plus, Warriors are playoff bound!! Go Warriors!

Recently I have been reading online on where to get good drip coffee.  One of the first advice is to stop drinking Starbucks.  Totally agree!  Reminded me that I never get dripped coffee in Starbucks and how nasty or blend that stuff is.  If you have not been to "Bitter + Sweet" Coffee house, you are missing out! Besides their awesome coffee, they also carry Humphrey Ice Cream! 

I have never thought to visited a ramen shop in an area which does not have many asian food.  "Ramen Sea" is located in the heart of Sunnyvale Downtown South Murphy Street.  From reading the reviews, I have ordered Asari Ramen with clam, egg and bak choy.  

The soup base is more on Shio with heavy clam flavor.  Also works every well with butter.  The clam flavor hovers over the tonkotsu flavor.  There are around 5-6 medium size clams in the soup which is delicious.  The added bak choy would cover the lost of meat inside this bowl.  Noodle used is the medium thin yellow noodle, similar to the one from Ramen Tenma.  One of the funny observation is the egg...

This soft boiled egg is cooked well with the yolk half cooked.  The yolk would fluttered out if cut open.     I would have to say that either the egg has been through serious sun tanning or the person peeling the egg shell has major hand disorder?  I would say that it would be better with more flavor soaked in. 

Overall, "Ramen Sea" is a good place for a different flavor types of ramen in the bay area.  This type of ramen is usually found in Izakaya menus.  Although this place is on the expensive end, I would come back to try their Seafood Ramen!  

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Ramen Sea

173 S Murphy Ave

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

http://ramenseas.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/ramen-seas-sunnyvale

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Kotetsu, Santa Clara, CA

Baseball starts today! Go Giants! Although they lost today, looking back at 2012 playoff run, you can predict they will lose tomorrow and win the next 3.  But I seriously do not like the Dodgers. Please go rip them up tomorrow!

Looking back the time when I tasted a new ramen joint around south bay, it was a while ago.  But today changes that! A good find!  Or more like Shalala decided to open another store close to where I live!! excited!!

Kotetsu in Santa Clara is the sister store to Shalala in Mountain View.  It was called Menta Ramen before the Shalala ownership took over.  I would like to say thank you Shalala for taking over! Thank you for creating a new choice in the south bay!

I ordered all star ramen Shio today, which means ramen with everything!

They do have other options with various amounts, but I was very hungry.  The soup is tonkotsu shio based soup, very similar to Shalala.  For those who has not been to Shalala yet, the pork bone is cooked to perfection to create the density in the soup creating a rich flavor but very easy to take in.  You probably saw the pork already.. 

The chashu when deep in the soup creates an extra juiciness.  The other part of this ramen is the sauté bean spout with black peper on the top.  Egg is the half boiled egg which everyone loves!  

All I can say is that this definitely fill my ramen craving today.  I would try the Shoyu next time around and let everyone know.  Totally recommend to people if you are around the area or visiting! Yum!

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Kotestu 

2089 El Camino Real

Santa Clara, CA 95050

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kotetsu-santa-clara

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Ramen Tenma, San Jose, CA

Good afternoon my fellow Ramen lovers!  I have decided to pick up my blog again (again again again..).  You may ask why now?  Well, keep the long story short, eating sandwiches, burgers and fries  or Chipotles were getting very boring.  Healthy?  Ramen is healthy! What are you dreaming about??

To start up again, I would like to write about Ramen Tenma in San Jose.  Their services is always been impeccable and the ramen is also excellent!  Although I have tried most of their ramen, I have found myself sticking to couple ones lately in the draw,  Okinawa Soba to Bonito Ramen (うみんちゅ) to my current one which started the last 2 visits: Kim Tama Ramen.

After the first sip of the soup, you can definitely feel the kimchi flavor started to unfold in side your mouth.  With the tonkotsu soup, the regularly thought of spiciness of kimchi has tone down to be a perfect match.  The soup blended very well with the kimchi on the top.  Definitely suggest folding the seaweed (nori) with the kim chi, dipping it in the soup and tasting it to bring a new flavor.  The half boiled egg is good as always!

Sena san is very nice and treated me a small bowl of rice with marinated pork.  It was a nice eat after dumping it in the soup!

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Ramen Tenma
487 Saratoga Ave
San Jose, CA 95129
http://ramentenma.com
http://www.yelp.com/biz/ramen-tenma-san-jose


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