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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