Shinsengumi 2go, the no-nonsense faster food outpost of SoCal’s most popular purveyor of Hakata-style ramen, takes a left turn towards Tokyo with a limited-time trial run of tsukemen dipping noodles! Money can’t buy happiness, but for $3.33, you really can’t go wrong, can you?

Kitakyushu ramen is well-represented at Canal City Hakata’s Raumen Stadium 2. Stylistically, Kokura ramen shops might not be all that different from their famous neighbors to the southwest, but blow-for-blow, Murasaki is one noodler that can definitely hold its own against the Hakata elite! 

Canal City Hakata’s Raumen Stadium 2 is a bountiful bevy of prominent, predominantly Kyushu-area ramen shops! A star stand out on the food court, Isshin Furan swears by its Miyazaki stylings with a multi-hued menu of top-notch tonkotsu. Alliteratively speaking, of course.

Ramen in Fukuoka is typically served in smaller portions than in other parts of Japan. You can order kaedama and add extra noodles or, like, rameniac, simply adopt a bowl-and-a-half strategy. On the way back to the hotel from eating ramen, rameniac makes a pit stop for well, more ramen. Warning. Don’t try this at home, kids.

Rameniac burns a morning towing his luggage around Fukuoka’s Hakata district in search of the perfect hotel - wherever’s closest to the perfect bowls! First up, Aka Noren has been around for over fifty years, and the ramen is so old-school you might not even recognize the Hakata ramen it purports to have originated!

Hakata Shin-Sen-Gumi brings the flavor of Fukuoka to an otherwise arid city of dysfunctional pop tarts and baked, rappin’ hot dawgs. If I ruled the world, I’d just ship over an entire fleet of food carts, complete with drunken salarymen and grumpy old ramen masters. Until then, we’ll just have to make do with these guys.

At long last, rameniac gives a thumbs up/down/sideways to Daikokuya, arguably the most popular ramen shop in Los Angeles ever since Jonathan Gold gave it his seal of approval in the LA Weekly. Curious how you fend off hipsters to get a bowl of your very own?

Cafe Asa is the greatest thing to hit Los Angeles since… well, since my exchange student friend came for a homestay earlier year. But that’s another story. This hidden gem of a place recently appeared out of nowhere to thoroughly own most of the other ramen shops around town! The secret’s out starting now!

Rameniac takes his first, tentative steps behind the Orange Curtain to uncover the treasure trove of ramen shops in Los Angeles’ neighbor to the south. Does Chinese Restaurant Kohryu yield a pot of gold at the end of the 405 freeway?

“Made in China” is the scarlet letter for 21st century goods. What happens when you take an enterprising Kumamoto ramen shop, franchise it across Asia, and expand it into Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley? You might get a fiasco of ill-prepared portions. Or something like that.

Now that we’ve named the 22 popularized styles of ramen, it’s high time we began… at the beginning. Join rameniac on his pilgrimage to ground zero for tonkotsu ramen, deep in the heart of Fukuoka prefecture. Taiho, it’s off to Kurume we go! 

The venerable Hakata Ippudo will soon be making an all-out overseas assault on a very fortunate midtown Manhattan. What do jaded New Yorkers have in store for them? Check in with rameniac as he parts the red sea for a peak at things to come!

The gentrification of the ramen shop is upon us, and San Mateo’s Himawari is a prime example of what can happen when you let loose an interior decorator in your soupy pork bone kitchen. But can the food measure up to such an extreme restaurant makeover? Let’s find out!

Finally! Rameniac takes a seventh-inning stretch from his San Francisco chronicles to revel in the glory of quite possibly the best, most authentic example of regional ramen outside of Japan, certainly in Southern California at least. Presenting the food court phenomenon that is Santouka!

Santa Ramen inspires a cult-like following in and around the environs of San Mateo, California. There’s a perpetual wait to get in the door, but is this temple of Bay Area noodling worth it’s weight in m. glutamate? Check in with rameniac as he checks it out!

Something wicked is afoot in Mountain View, California, where mysterious sightings of a black-souped ramen have been reported! Special investigator rameniac is on the scene for a decidely close encounter with paranormal phenomenon…

After a twelve round bout with the flu, rameniac has finally returned for some serious slurpage at the surf-themed Ramen HALU! Dude, tune in to the good vibrations and catch a wave at one of the Bay Area’s most popular noodle shops! 

The Little Tokyo branch of San Sui Tei is so new, it doesn’t even have a proper sign up yet! Perhaps rameniac should have waited for them to get settled in before writing a review, yet that bowl of spicy tonkotsu ramen looks oddly familiar...

Koraku is Los Angeles’ original late night ramen joint, perfect for that post-party slurpdown. But although ramen is considered proper hangover food in Japan, can a few beers impair one’s judgement of taste? Let’s find out!

Kick things up a notch with rameniac as he samples the Chinese-influenced paiko pork cutlets and tantanmen-style noodles of Shisen Ramen in Torrance, Calfornia! Bam!