HALU ramen halu: surf's up
by rameniac | 04 Apr 2007
You are what you eat, and if you’ve got the skills, what you cook as well. Kumao Arai is a surfer, a relatively young Japanese ex-pat in love with the waves of Santa Cruz, California. Ramen HALU (or is it the other way around?) has been his pride and joy since 2003, and though I’ve never met the man himself, I’ve seen the photos and news clippings on the wall. I suspect the shop’s namesake bowl of noodles is very much characteristic of its creator - tough, muscular, full of life and of the earth, the water, and the sun.
Mounted surfboards run the length of this unassuming ramen shop next to a check cashing store in the heart of Silicon Valley. Painted seafood swim across the sea-blue ceiling encircling, of all things, the smoke detector. And “surf ramen,” as the locals call it, is exactly what you might want after a hard morning of hitting the waves out west.
There are, of course, the traditional assari-kei ramen varieties on offer at HALU - a shoyu ramen and a shio that is, based upon my sampling, fairly competent with a hint of sweetness. But “HALU Ramen” (yes, it’s capitalized), is very much the star of the show, a “man’s man” bowl of noodles in a rich, dual-broth shoyu-tonkotsu brew, a distant relative to the Yoshimura-kei ramen shops of Yokohama, Japan.
Although the portions aren’t particularly outsized, everything within a bowl of HALU ramen is larger-than-life, from the thick, firm egg noodles to the generous slab of chashu, brawny cuts of kikurage wood-ear mushroom, and enough spinach to satsify Popeye in a fistfight with goons. Order kotteri and you get an extra ladling of hot oil and lard; it’s enough to make one question the wisdom of an impromptu three-day ramen binge across the Bay Area. The first stop and I’d already hit the cholesterol jackpot. My arteries did protest.
But then again, rameniacs can’t all be avid surfers. And if this is what it takes to fuel Arai-san through a hard day of sun and fun, then he could do a lot worse. A bowl of HALU ramen is not perfect by any means, despite the obvious love that goes into its preparation. Made from combining a fatty pork bone soup that miraculously “flushes cholesterol out of the body” (according to the restaurant’s website, but doesn’t it really do the opposite?), a broth made with momiji chicken feet, and a soy sauce, niboshi, and katsuo base, patrons can be assured of slurping down a bowl made with the care and attention of a quality ramen establishment.
And yet something is slightly off. HALU soup has a pleasantly fishy wafu undercurrent, but the shoyu-tonkotsu flavor is a touch too straightforward, lacking that much-coveted subtle sweetness and teetering precariously on the edge of bland. It’s nowhere near sublime, but likewise far from a bad bowl of soup. Add a dollop of the tableside spicy miso for that extra kick, and it’s fairly good to go in the way Vietnamese pho is enlivened by a squirt of Sriracha.
If anything, Arai’s strength lies in his obvious gifts as a matchmaker, pairing noodle, toppings, and broth with verve. HALU ramen features an uncompromising and deliciously chewy egg noodle, enormous in girth and perfectly in sync with the hearty soup. I’ve certainly not had anything like it this side of the Pacific, and even in Japan, such a noodle would be lauded as a definite selling point. Conversely, Arai’s shio (and I would suspect shoyu) ramen boasts a distinctly thinner strand of noodle, an austere complement to a bowl much more delicate in nature.
Apparently, HALU also features limited-run, seasonal ramen variations. In lesser hands, I would never advocate attempting such a feat, but judging by the effort that goes into a single bowl of the namesake ramen, it’s fair to assume that the young surfer chef pays meticulous attention to detail. Like the elaborately orchestrated music of visionary Beach Boy Brian Wilson, perhaps there’s even a hint of genius lurking beneath all the oil and the steam.
| chef kumao arai puts forth a glorious effort in creating a rich shoyu tonkotsu soup made from pork bones, chicken feet, niboshi, katsuo and a shoyu tare. it needs depth, sweetness, and added dimension, but hey, it's a start. | 5 |
| thick, hearty noodles provide just the right chew, perfectly complimenting the shoyu-tonkotsu soup to create a Yoshimura-kei style shoyu tonkotsu slurping experience. | 7 |
| rugged, manly toppings, including astonishingly hearty cuts of kikurage and competently tender chashu. a bit unusual at first, but a good match for the muscular workout that is HALU ramen. | 5 |
| the lunch menu is fairly limited on side dishes, which are apparently quite good. i opted to go rich instead, filling up on kotteri ramen this go-round. | NA |
| surfboards, wooden fish, and painted marine life add flavor to standard japanese wood trim. a mild attempt at mood lighting and a shoyu and, uh, pine cone (?) decorated display earn points. | 2.5 |
| ramen HALU is a great effort by a young chef with remarkable attention to detail. san jose is lucky to have such an establishment, even if the ramen isn't quite sublime yet. | 4 |
375 Saratoga Ave.
11:30am - 2:00pm (closed tuesday for lunch)
| 17 |
