hide-ing out in plain sight

Posted by rameniac at 08:26 PM | 25 Jun 2010

Word out of Grub Street is that Hide-chan ramen is now in business in New York City. Another new ramen shop in the Big Apple? Nota bene: this one comes with an excellent pedigree, as Hide-chan is opened by one Hide Kawahara, mastermind behind Hakata's most excellent Hide-chan, Daruma and Shodai Daruma ramen joints. Youse lucky New Yorkers don't know how lucky youse are.

big love to hideki k., grub street, and midtown lunch

go samurai blue!

Posted by rameniac at 11:13 AM | 24 Jun 2010

How long does it take to change the mood of a nation? Um, three... minutes?

hanjuku hairballs

Posted by rameniac at 06:08 PM | 21 Apr 2010

So the fine folks at Tokyopop have hipped me to a brand new comic, Neko Ramen, about a cat with a ramen shop. Told in the format of a yonkoma manga, a traditional-style four-panel Japanese comic strip, it kind of takes the maneki neko "fortune cat" concept to a whole new level, doesn't it? Would you eat ramen cooked by a furry feline? One hanjuku hairball with my shoyu, please. The book won't be out until June but you can friend 'em on facebook or read the strip online here.

soapy tonkotsu flavor

Posted by rameniac at 07:22 PM | 02 Feb 2010

Yet another product to file under "zany stuff from Japan," ramen-shaped soap is now available for dorks everywhere who want to keep clean whilst scrubbing with a fake cake of instant Charumera ramen or UFO yakisoba soap. This is the sort of thing that would be good for a laugh, then wind up being white elephant, secret Santa re-gifted come Christmas even if you did wind up scoring a bar, er, I mean cup.

via Akihabara News

mitsuwa autumn fair 2009

Posted by rameniac at 04:46 AM | 22 Oct 2009

Why am I starting to feel like this space is basically an advertisement for Mitsuwa? They keep having these festivals. By now everyone should have subscribed to their flyers and you all should know the drill. Mitsuwa is now having an Autumn Fair featuring that old standby Chibakiya and Goma-Ichi, a tan-tan men shop from Hawaii. I doubt Chiba-san will be doing his shark fin ramen this time around though as it's a bit too posh for these recessionary times.