Ramen Saryo Hachi, Burlingame, CA

Saw the post on Instagram from my friend Hiro of ramen hero:

Chintan(clear broth) Shio Ramen @Ramen Saryo Hachi

A post shared by Hiro (@hirohrm) on Jan 11, 2018 at 1:32am PST

I thought I would give it a crack today at lunch time.  The shop is located in Burlingame, close to SFO airport.  It is a nice addition to the community dominated by Chinese restaurants in Millbrae. 

We arrived around 12pm and it was not too crowded with 3 table occupied.  The service was a bit slow with only 1 server for the whole 12 table restaurant.  The atmosphere was refreshing with light wallpapers and clean design.  I love the "Ramen Tabetai" (I crave Ramen) on the wall!

I thought that the table setting is carefully picked with designed cloth and plates. 

We ordered Chicken karaage, 2 shoyu ramen with chicken and pork chashu each.

 

The karaage is with thigh meat which is juicy and full of flavors.  It was a bit odd without seeing mayonnaise and the usual lime (replaced by orange).  

The shoyu ramen came with thin straight noodle, chicken chashu, hot spring egg, arugula, and truffle oil.  The chicken bone based shoyu ramen is light and refreshing.  The straight noodle mixed well with the soup.  The truffle smell dominated my smell senses.  The bowl reminded me of having a bowl of wonton noodle soup, where the noodle carried an alkaline taste.  

This bowl certainly bridge the Chinese noodle with Japanese soup base.  Having a bowl of ramen for the Chinese elders around the area could be a refreshing, quiet option, comparing to dim sum.  I will come back to try out Chicken paitan soup base!  Till next time!

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Ramen Saryo Hachi

1861 El Camino Real
Burlingame, CA 94010

https://ramensaryo.com/

https://www.yelp.com/biz/ramen-saryo-hachi-burlingame-3

Menya La Nood - Honolulu, Hawaii

Honolulu has always been Japanese friendly town with around 1.5M visitors per year.  With this many Japanese tourist, there has to be authentic ramen shops in Honolulu.  My friends and I were in Honolulu on cheap flights, with round trip $300 and planned 2 day diving.  It was my first real dive after getting NASE certified in Monterey.  Thank god that the water is warm and everything is set up in Hawaii.   

It was a great morning dive down 40ft and saw lot of sea turtles and unagi.  After, at around 11am, we headed over to Menya la Nood around Ala Moana area.  Parking was limited with few spots in front of the store.  There were only street parking available.

I ordered large Musashi Tsukemen in tonkotsu soup base and we had 3 appetizers.

The noodle was medium size straight noodle, which was very chewy and fantastic for tsukemen. The kakuni was juicy and full of flavor.  The soup base is rich tonkotsu and sticks to the noodle well.  This bowl is one of the spot to note in Hawaii.  Totally worth to come again to try the other flavors.

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Menya la Nood

560 Pensacola St
Ste 105
Honolulu, HI 96814

https://www.yelp.com/biz/menya-le-nood-honolulu

Myoji Shoyu Ramen - Home Cooking

Has been a while since the last time I blogged.  Does not mean that I have not been eating ramen!  Many ramen shops have opened in the bay area both in the city and more to come! 

I have taken a different approach in exploring ramen at home, starting from tasting those in the Japanese market.  Yes, those one that looks professional in a package but not in a cup on an aisle.  I would like to know the quality of "instant" ramen comparing to the ones at the shop. 

Here we go.

The Myojo Shoyu ramen package can be bought almost all Japanese or Chinese supermarket.  The store price is $4.29 for two pack of noodle+soup which is relatively cheap for a bowl of ramen.

Cooking instruction is quite simple.  Once the water boiled, throw everything in the bowl.  Make sure to add one cup of water to avoid the spill of water (or turn down the heat).  I have added 1 egg to be the topping.

     

Voila!  Bowl of shoyu ramen with only soup, noodle and half cooked egg.

With the high sodium content, the soup is full of flavor but a bit watery.  Amazingly that the flavor of menma (bamboo shoots) can be tasted from the soup.  The noodle was a medium size thin noodle a bit soggy due to cooking for 2 minutes.  Eating this bowl feels like eating white rice adding soy sauce.  You know it is good but just something is missing.  The earth warm taste of long stewing pork/chicken bone is missing.  But for the price of around 2 bucks, it is what it is.

To be honest, I might have to laugh at myself of trying 😅.  There is sense of urgency in me to go out to get a legitimate bowl of ramen right now.. too bad I am full.