Tuesday, April 23, 2013

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


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


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Thursday, April 18, 2013

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 ClaraCA 95050



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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

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
SunnyvaleCA 94086
http://ramenseas.com/


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Monday, April 1, 2013

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 ClaraCA 95050



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