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Tag archives: ramen

Ramen Versus

The ramen wave in Seattle is still going strong, after Santouka, second Kukai, Arashi and Jin Ya, two other ramen stores opened their doors on the east side.

Ramen Bushi-do is in Issaquah.

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I was super excited with this place because the menu looked interesting.

The dish I was dying to try was the fish tsukeman.

Broth was very strong in bonito flavor, noodle was nice and thick.

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The other attractive-looking dish was the salmon cold noodle.

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Noodle was good, flavor was ok.

I had mechanical issue with the dish: why were the salmon and vegetables diced?

With every bite, the diced ingredient fell through the gaps of the noodle; then, I had to pick up the diced vegetables from the plate.

I would prefer the vegetables to be julienned, and perhaps salmon in larger chunks.

It looked great on presentation, but difficult to eat.

On the appetizers, gomae did not have enough sesame flavor and was too wet.

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The “appetizer” of marinated bean sprouts were ok.

Chicken karaage was fried nice and crisp, but it came with a Chinese salt and pepper dipping sauce for Chinese steamed salted chicken, not Japanese at all.

We opted for the low sodium version of the Tonkotsu ramen which, perhaps was a mistake.

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The  sodium level was just right for our taste, but the flavor was weak.

There was the thickness from the collagen of the bone broth, but without flavor, a little strange.

By comparison to Ramen Bushi-do, Yoshi Ramen in Bellevue had a much smaller menu.

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On the first visit, I had the yuzu ramen with chicken soup.

It had a fragrant grapefruit/citrus flavor in a light chicken broth, very delightful.

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Their #1 noodle was the Jiro noodle with pork, and tons of bean sprouts.

The broth had a deep, garlicky flavor, little salty but still good.

Pork was tender, and noodle had the perfect chewy texture.

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A note on their noodle, they were not the typical ramen noodle: a lot thicker, almost like Chinese noodle, and I absolutely found the bouncy texture enjoyable.

Some people online did not like their broth because it was not thick.

It did not bother me one bit.

Being Chinese, I like brothy soup, and Ramen Yoshi’s broth was right down my alley.

Ramen Yoshi’s shining star was their mazenmen.

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Dan Dan, spicy flavor with ground pork, delicious and addictive.

For appetizers, chicken karaage was fried very well, and marinated flavorfully with lots of garlic, exactly how I like them.

The fried squid was also very good, tender and crisp.

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I am partial to Ramen Yoshi in this round of ramen versus.

Ramen Bushi-Do Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Suika

Suika means watermelon in Japanese.

I was excited to visit this restaurant since there were far and few Japanese Izakaya in Seattle.

The Seattle Suika is part of a larger chain from Vancouver BC.

We easily missed the store front in Capitol Hill as there was no overhead sign, just a tiny sign to the side of a single-door main entrance.

A smile immediately floated to my face when I entered — a wall of old game cassettes!

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Decorations in the place was fun, and I was told that they deliberately designed to have little things everywhere so that our eyes had something to looked at all around.

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Arashi Ramen

On the main street of Southcenter Parkway, the new Arashi Ramen was in a strip mall with its “Grand Opening” sign visible.

WP_20140914_12_10_57_ProI loved the décor inside the restaurant — simple with many wood details that made the place comfortable and elegant.

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On the menu, there were appetizers and a few different ramen to choose from.

All the ramen was made with the tonkotsu, pork bone soup base.

It was touted that Arashi Ramen had hired a Japanese chef to prepare their broth.

With my party, we had the honey garlic chicken karaage for appetizer.

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The only difference between this and the regular karaage was the drizzle of I believe, honey garlic sauce.

Unfortunately the extra flavor impact was minimal.

The karaage were marinated well but was not as crispy as I liked them — the dish was so-so.

We had 3 different ramen to try.

First was my friend’s shio ramen.

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Santouka Ramen

August 2014 Update

Since the first post, I had been back to Santouka 3 times.

Happy to see that they had fixed the noodle problem; the ramen noodle had been cooked perfectly bouncy each time.

Santouka had introduced new dishes as well.

My new favorite was the cold noodle salad, looked like it might be a seasonal item.

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The noodle was perfect with lots of crisp fresh vegetables, and paired with the deliciously melt-in-the-month pork cheek meat (same as the one in my earlier review).

Another new dish was the tsukemen, dipping ramen noodle.

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The ramen noodle in tsukemen was quite a bit thicker than the ones in soup ramen, creating a chewier, more exciting fun texture.

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Vancouver Food Day Part I

Vancouver eating trip was always the best!!!

I was often surprised by my own flexible stomach at which large amount of food were deposited in a short period of time.

We started our trip at Michigan Noodle Restaurant.

I had heard a lot about the wonton noodle in this place for a very long time and finally made the journey.

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L: mixed pan fried noodle — R top: stir fried pea vines — R bottom: won ton noodle and salt and peppers chicken cartilage

The wonton noodle was excellent!

The noodles were thin and Q Q — the best term to describe the perfectly cooked noodle with a slight chewy texture, al dente and bouncy.

I usually avoided ordering egg noodles because most places could not cook them properly and had a soapy flavor.

These egg noodle was prepare fantastically without soapy flavor, and I would most certainly eat this!

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