Date Night Ramen

A bit out of order, but La and I tried a new ramen place on a Friday night date - Agu Ramen Bistro.  I had the Tan tan and she had a Cilantro based bowl.

Good stuff!  Not as good as a couple others out here, but good comfort food on a cool winter Oahu evening!

The New "Second Best" Ramen

I took the family to a ramen shop I've been wanting them to try on Friday evening - Goma Tei in the Ward Village complex. I got the Tan Tan Double The Shoyu was really good as well. In the spectrum of ramen shops we've been to, this is definitely up there. The shop we ate at in Hokkaido during the Snow Festival will always be ichiban, in fact that was the restaurant that changed our perspective of ramen - uplifting it from the memories of very inexpensive college food to gourmet fare. But - with that being an expensive and lengthy journey, I'll reset the number one spot to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo (LA). I can remember the soup base being so savory and the absolute perfection of the noodles. The char siu was melt in your mouth bliss... but alas - it is best not to lust for that which you cannot have (flying to LA for ramen might be in some folks budget, but not mine...). Another great ramen shop as chronicled in this very blog is Sakuramen in the NW District of Washington DC. But heck - that's even further than LA. That said, distance makes one appreciate the opportunity to seek out local options, and this being the Gathering Place, I would argue we have some of the best of everything. This ramen shop is just one of many, but it is setting the bar high early on in our exploration of modern day Ramen Shops of Hawaii. Stayed tuned...

Ramen and More

Late post - seems as if the ramen shop in the Mall area outside of SEATAC has become our default place to eat when flying in or out of the area. Here are some pictures from the Nov 20 ramen run.

Fourth Best Bowl of Ramen

The "Belly" Bowl from the Lucky Belly in Downtown Honolulu. Number 1 was from a street shop in Sapporo, Hokkaido Number 2 was from a shop in Little Tokyo in LA Number 3 was from Sakuramen in NW DC

Ramen - Ramen - Ramen and other stuff

We had to take the truck to the Matson terminal - since we were making the trip up to Seattle, we might as well hit the Japanese shops. First up - ramen. This was good, but it wasn't Sakuramen (or that place in LA, or that other place in Hokkaido). The Beard Papa cream puffs were just as good as Japan!!! We didn't take pictures at the bookstore, but we spent hours there - so much fun looking at the gizmos, books and pens (yes pens). We shall return!!!

Thawing Out

So how to thaw one's self out after surfing cold waves? A steaming hot bowl of ramen from Kyushu. Not the island (although if I were to go that far, I'd go to Sapporo instead), but the restaurant in Virginia Beach (400 Newtown Road). The "gyotaku-ish" art on the wall was nice, but if I may say so myself, I think my prints are way better. We finished off the day picking up some cool books at Barnes and Nobles on Virginia Beach Blvd - Virginia Beach is and has always been a really cool place to hang out - some things never change. Thanks La, Marlon and Noe for a wonderful day!!!

OMG!!! My Mouth was Broke!!!

We hunted down a ramen shop for tonight's dinner. Sakura Ramen on 18th St in North West DC. This ramen was great!!! In the top five bowls I've eaten. It helps I haven't had a fresh bowl in a few years, but it truly is good. I had the Miso. Oh and the bulgogi manapua...... DAMN!!! I could eat those all day long!!!! If you are wondering, ramen is amphibious and can be written about on this blog because historically it comes from an island (Japan). My tummy is happy! We also stopped by a used bookstore a couple of doors down - I picked up some cool items - a book on restoring ancient Hawaiian fishponds, and a couple of multipurpose thank you cards with sea monsters on them - they are so cool and amphibious that I'll post on them separately, but after I take a picture of them. Maybe tomorrow because my tummy is too happy!