Saturday, July 9, 2016

Tokyo top 3 Ramen in Taipei! Menya Ittou 麺屋一燈

Menya Ittou in Taipei!! I cant even express how excited I was!

How famous is Ittou in Japan?  Rank #2 in Overall Japan Ranking in Ramen Database (Here).  Tsukemen rank #2 in Japan.  Toripaitan (Chicken Soup) rank #1.  Tabelog (Japanese yelp) scores 4.18!  Many and many awards.

I did visited the sacred Ittou ramen back in 2012 (Click Here!).  I thought back then it did live up to the expectation despite the location is a bit far.

The Taipei store is the first oversea store of Menya Ittou.  It is actually the 4th store for the group (Other 2 stores are Ramen Tourou, and Tonkotsu Ittou.)  I thought it was an adventurous, but well thought move to expend to Taipei.  The current tsukemen landscape in Taipei is not as big as tonkotsu ramen, but Mitta Semensho (三田製麺所) has most of the city covered with 10+ stores.  Ittou buzzes in as the favorite in the category.

I arrived around 4:30pm on Monday to avoid the long lines (came twice and the line was 2 hours).  There were no line and got seated right away.  The waitress was very kind to introduce the menu to me and the special rice dish.  Ordered the famous toripaiton seafood based soup tsukemen (濃厚魚介つけ麺).  The chicken soup is full of flavor with the seafood, but the better part is that it was not greasy.  I would say the soup is comparable to the one in Tokyo but a bit sweeter in taste.  The noodle is a straight middle size yellow noodle.  Not as chewy as in Tokyo but it would still be better than other stores in Taipei.  The topping includes chicken and also pork.  After dipping the meet into the soup, the tenderness of the meat is fully exposed and mix very well.


When you get a chance to be in Taipei in one of the most famous ramen shop, I did ordered the second bowl to taste the whole menu... 


This is the Scallop Toripaitan Ramen.  This version of toripaitan stresses the seafood more than the chicken soup where the sweetness is a bit less.  Noodle is the thin straight egg noodle which is a very easy eat.   Adding the Scallop sauce on the side, it would enrich the flavor of the chicken soup (but kind of cheating).  This bowl is still one of the top unique bowl in Taipei

I would definitely recommend Menya Ittou in Taipei, especially on the weekday between lunch and dinner time with no lines.  Definitely try tsukemen first!  Yum.

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Menya Ittou 麺屋 一燈
MRT Zhongshan Station about 5 minute walk.  Next to the Okura Hotel

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Take out ... for RAMEN?!?!

There are always a first in a life time for ramen, but in Austin?  Must be a correlation between geeks and ramen some how..

It was around 8:30pm Friday and I was craving for some slurping.  Open the usual Yelp/Foursquare/Google and found 2 shops in Austin head to head.  I went to the first one, Tatsuya @ Lamar, and the line was still out the door, 9:15pm Friday.  You dont even see this in bay area... Did not even bother to get out of the car and went to my second target, Michi Ramen, around the corner.  Drove to the plaza, drove around 2 times and finally found the place with out a bright sign. Walked in, and told the waitress "1 person". She said take out only. I was like "Whaaaaaat?".  I can honestly say that it is my first take out ramen experience.  I calm myself down and started looking at the menu.  Thought to myself that soup base would be too messy for take out, lets go with tsukemen takeout.  There was a Japanese family waiting for their order which I thought this place should be good...

Got my food quite quickly, but finding a place to eat took longer than both waiting for the food and also finishing the food.. 


 The dip is the shoyu seafood tonkotsu based soup with full smooth flavors.  The broth itself has the stickiness to the noodle, which is round curly medium size egg noodle.  The bad about take out is that the noodle itself would be stuck together and hard to be separated.  The chashu reminded me of eating beef tongue for some odd reason (too hungry).  With the extra veggies in the bowl, it was quite a filling and light dinner. 

This bowl is surprisingly good, with the thought of second flavor through lime.  I would come back to try their other bowls. good.

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Michi Ramen 
http://michiramen.com/
Corners Shopping Center 
3005 South Lamar Boulevard D-114B 
Austin, TX 78704