ikemen at arms

Posted by rameniac at 01:20 PM | 26 Aug 2011

Ikemen is now open. "What?" you say. The hot new thing to hit the Los Angeles slurping scene is a heavyweight that has thus far flown low, low, low under the radar, the product of one Sean Nakamura, yes, that one, he of Ramen California fame. When disquieting reports of Nakamura-san's mysterious abdication of the south Torrance throne began making the rounds last month, I was inundated with requests for more information, as if I alone had the inside track to all the noodlings-on in Tinseltown.

so you want to be a ramen champion?

Posted by rameniac at 02:38 PM | 10 Mar 2011

Ever step into a ramen shop, only to notice some banner or advert touting the chef as a “ramen champion?” Ever wonder where they got that title? There are more than a few ramen “championships” held periodically throughout Japan, amid loads of cooking contests in the nation that gave us Ryori no Tetsujin, the Iron Chef competition. Tokyo Terebi’s recent tournament to crown a new Tokyo Ramen Champion fired up at the end of November; set high atop the 49th floor of the Shinjuku Sumitomo building, twelve prominent Tokyo ramen chefs competed in blocks of four over the course of four months for the weighty title, to be decided at the end of March.

feeding the fever

Posted by rameniac at 07:17 PM | 21 Dec 2010

So this past week, I traveled to New York and spoke at Ramen Fever, a lecture and tasting event co-hosted by the organizations New York-Tokyo and The Asia Society. Part of an ongoing series of cultural exchange-related talks, the night’s festivities were held at the Asia Society’s center on the Upper East Side, and included appearances by Jenny Miller, editor at Grub Street, Adina Steiman of Men’s Health magazine, and Shigeto Kamada, proprietor and chef of two of New York’s most popular ramen shops, Minca and Kambi. I’d like to think that a fun and educational time was had by all; people certainly seemed to enjoy themselves, especially when the evening culminated in a cooking demonstration and sampling of an authentic triple soup ramen courtesy of Chef Kamada. Big, big thanks to all involved, especially to Taeko and Yoshie who organized and coordinated the whole event and also to Shreeya and her team for putting together a fabulous video detailing the night’s proceedings.

slurp, actually

Posted by rameniac at 09:53 PM | 19 Apr 2010

As one of the world’s greatest cities, London, England can boast its fair share of everything, including an assortment of ramen shops located primarily along the chic streets of Soho north of Piccadilly Circus. Joints like Taro and Ten Ten Tei specialize in no-nonsense noodling, while the incongruously named eat TOKYO and Ramen Seto do their best to hide their not-quite-Japanese state of ownership. Perhaps no ramen shop has ever been more obvious about co-opting another’s gimmick as Osatsuma, which has admittedly got the Wagamama sense of modernist decor down to a science. All told, Ryo may serve the most authentically Japanese bowl of shoyu ramen this side of the North Sea; at least in vibe, the modest izakaya is as ex-pat as they come.

ramen california remixed: vegetarian ramen (finally!) and noodling for purists

Posted by rameniac at 01:58 AM | 03 Feb 2010

Full disclosure. This is flagrant shilling. Well, almost. Firstly, because the folks at Ramen California did in fact contact me recently to explain that celebrated chef Sean Nakamura had finally started experimenting and introducing new items to the already stellar menu, but secondly because the little tasting I was invited to partake in really was fantastic. We’ve seen glimpses of Nakamura-san’s vision in the months since the restaurant first opened; their long-standing “preview menu” featured a controversial California ramen which health-conscious slurpers loved and ramen traditionalists were quick to dismiss.