Monday, January 24, 2011

IPPUDO - EAST VILLAGE, NYC

CantStayJose had ramen fever. He talked about wanting to eat ramen so much in NYC and we had only been there for less than a day. I thought he was going to put a black fairing and t-bars on a black powder coated bowl and possibly make me Ramen in Arms.

There is only one way to bring relief to a fever this strong. There is no real remedy. Just temporary relief from the madness it brings its victims! So yeah, I mapped it out and we walked a few blocks down. Ippudo came recommended by Keino. He even actually used to work there like 20 years ago while he was in college.



So yeah, we strolled up and found the place. Unmistakably this had to be the ramen spot:
It's pretty fancy in there. My first time in NY and of course my first time in a NY ramen spot. Quite different from the Southern CA ramen-ya's.


Oh, check this out. I went downstairs to go powder my nose and saw this dude through a little window making noodles:


The place was loud, decorated to match and very very big-city like. I was trippin'.
We ordered the pork buns. I guess it's a Japanese-American twist on a Chinese favorite. BBQ'd pork belly, lettuce and mayo between a steamed Chinese style bun. The pork was very tasty, perfectly fatty, and yes I like the mayo in there.




I ordered the Shoyu Ramen, which is a soy-sauce base broth. It came with nori (seaweed), slices of lean pork, one piece of kamaboko (fish cake), bamboo shoots, onions and a decent amount of noodles. Personally, I thought the broth was a little too tasty, kinda boosted for us Americans to dig on, but that's cool. I can still dig it.
I had a side of pork too.
I should've listened to Keino's suggestion on getting the Tonkotsu Ramen, which is a pork broth. This style of ramen is from the southern most islands of Kyushu and it's Jose's favorite. He went straight for the shoyu egg as you can see below:
Service was great. The ladies did their best to give us the details of the menu. Oh, and I tried the broth out of Jose's bowl. It was well done and tasted Tonkotsu in every way. Damn, should've listened to Keino!

I was really surprised with the decor. Felt like a huge night time party and it was like noon.
Quite an experience. I was stoked to get a quick bite of ramen so far from home.

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