the ramen tour, stop #5: ramen yamadaya.

mere days after our stop at ramen california, c and i found ourselves at ramen yamadaya, located in north torrance on 182nd street, just off crenshaw. this made stop #5 on our ramen tour. we both ended up ordering combos - you pay a few extra dollars on top of the price of the ramen you order. c got the tonkotsu ramen with gyoza and kimchi fried rice, while i got the kakuni (pork belly) tonkotsu ramen with chicken karaage and chashu bowl. it was also choices, choices, choices when we ordered. which side dish? which rice dish? do you want thin noodles or thick noodles? we both opted for the thin noodles.



the side dishes came out first. the gyoza here was forgettable in my book. pretty bland and the worst part? soggy. i mean, really soggy. one side of the gyoza has the nice burnt crust, but the rest of it was just mush. when i bit into it, it just released some water and soggy filling. blah. however, the chicken karaage was really tasty and probably one of the best things i ate that night. c liked it a lot, too.



c's kimchi fried rice and my chashu bowl were the next items to come out. the kimchi fried rice was ok - but i could do better on my own. the chashu bowl didn't leave a lasting impression either - as it was just seasoned pork on top of rice and wasn't anything special. between the two, i think i preferred c's kimchi fried rice, but again, i don't think i'd go back for that.



the ramens came out last. i ordered the ramen with the pork belly and while good, i think next time i'll just stick to the regular cha shu ramen. the tonkotsu broth was flavorful and had some depth to its taste. also, you might want to consume the ramen quickly - the fat on the broth starts to skim on the surface. we were sitting right by the door too so that might have had something to do with the broth cooling so quickly.



c and i managed to finish our ramens and our side dishes - the gyoza and the karaage. the rice dishes were leftover and i ended up taking the both home, and combined them with some ingredients i had at home to make my own fried rice for lunch the next day.





ramen yamadaya * 3118 w. 182nd street * torrance, ca 90504

the ramen tour, stop #4: ramen california.

a few days after our ramen experience at shisen, c and i found ourselves at ramen california, located in the torrance crossroads. it wasn't very crowded when we walked in, so we were a little skeptical. compounded by the fact that we had both heard that their ramen isn't necessarily traditional. however, once we perused the menu, they did have some ramen in the traditional style, and still others that were the "signature" california ramen. c ended up ordering the chashu ramen - which came in a chicken broth. the chicken broth is the base for most if not all of their ramen broths. i got the masala ramen, one of their "signature" ramens. basically, it was the ramen noodles in a chicken curry broth. i got it with a side of cheese, which was topped off with crispy black garlic. they don't offer gyoza on the menu (hence, nothing to compare to the other places we have tried thus far), so we ended up sharing the italian style edamame - which turned out to be edamame tossed and coated with basil pesto.





c let me try some of the chashu on her ramen - while flavorful, it really didn't seem like the chashu that we're used to. to me, it was more like a ham with some asian spices coated on it for the sake of it. the broth was good though, and definitely a lighter, refreshing alternative to the porky, fatty tonkotsu of other places. the curry broth of my masala ramen was good, and the chicken on the ramen was so flavorful, and there was plenty of it on top of my noodles. the noodles here are also on the thin side. the one thing that was a little different was the spring greens sitting in my bowl. it definitely added a different texture to the dish.

in terms of the overall ambiance, it's another new experience. up until this stop, we've been going to eat ramen in tiny places that are sometimes kinda dark, and this place is bright, roomy, and airy.

after our visit to ramen california, i read some reviews on yelp that the tsukemen is the thing to try here. therefore, ramen california is definitely on my list of ramen shops that i would go to again.

as a sidenote - ladies, make sure you wear sunglasses when visiting the ladies facility - you'll need it to shield yourself from the neon pink walls.

ramen california * 24231 crenshaw blvd. suite c * torrance, ca 90505

the ramen tour, stop #3: shisen ramen.

a week after our stop at asa ramen, the ramen tour brought c and i to shisen ramen, in torrance. while over the years i've known many of my old co-workers to go to shisen for lunch or dinner, i myself had never been. i know it's mostly due to the fact that i'm not that big on ramen to begin with. (but let it be said that i'm enjoying the tour so far...)

after going over the menu for a bit (it's the most extensive menu we've encountered so far on the ramen tour), c decides to order the paiko ramen, i order the chashu ramen, and we also get some gyoza and daikon salad to share. our ramens are essentially the same, except for the protein. the paiko, which turned out to be deep fried pork - but not breaded, was seasoned with what i think was five spice. very tasty, but at the same time i know it's the kind of taste that i would get tired of quickly and not eat anymore after a certain point. the chashu was decent but not the best i've had. the signature broth is on the spicy side. i really liked the fact that there was lots of veggies in the topping, but i hated the fact that my noodles were like a big tangled mess in the bottom of my bowl under the soup and the veggies. lots of manipulation with chopsticks and swishing in the broth were required to set my noodles free for consumption.





the gyoza here was a disappointment. tiny, and a little on the mushy side. looking at the gyoza, it looks good - the skin has a bit of color on it and looks like it would be decently crispy. however, three shops down on the tour and the gyoza from gardena ramen is still my favorite. the daikon salad was refreshing, and the little bit of seaweed and katsuo (bonito) shavings on top of the daikon strands added a different yummy-ness to the salad. it was probably the best thing i ate that night.



i don't think i need to go back to shisen ramen anytime soon. or possibly ever...

shisen ramen * 1730 sepulveda blvd. #6 * torrance, ca 90501

get shaved.

lilikoi and melona with vanilla ice cream

seasonings #7: red o by rick bayless.

just last weekend, we had our 7th seasonings event. k chose red o by rick bayless as our restaurant to try. it was just y, k, liz, and myself at this outing, and we were all very excited as we had all tuned in to the very first season of top chef masters, and watched rick bayless make his way to victory. all of his dishes looked so pretty and tasty all at the same time. we were all so excited when we heard that he was going to open a restaurant here in los angeles. it's located on melrose right by the jonathan adler store.

as we walked in, i took in the decor and got the casual elegant yet laid back ambience. once seated, our server came to our table pretty quickly and took our drink orders, and got us started with an order of the chips and guacamole. i started off with an oro blanco margarita. yummy! and boy did it pack a punch! part way through the meal i felt a little light headed.





the guacamole was probably one of the best guacamoles i've had. the flavors were really fresh and bright, and just the right amount of heat. the chips themselves were good as well. alongside the chips, salsa roja and salsa verde were served. both were very tasty, and between the two the salsa verde was my favorite - offering a good amount of heat with a tangy zing, but the roja was also good, it was the kind of hot sauce that i would like to have on hand at home for whatever reason.



i started off my meal with the short rib sopes. the braised meat was tender and juicy, and sitting in the golden masa cups, provided a wonderful, savory bite. we all shared our first course - y shared her shrimp tostadita with me (another good one!) and i got to try some of liz's tortilla soup. k got the soup as well, but she also got the corn and goat cheese tamales and i got to try a bite of that, too.

for the main course, i ordered the chilpachole -(what i think is) a mexican version of bouillabaisse. it was served with fresh corn tortillas. the chilpachole was so good...a huge flavor blast in my mouth. it was served in an iron skillet and contained mussels which i don't really care for but the whole dish was very fresh and tasty. the broth was thick, smooth, and a touch creamy. absolutely fantastic!



for dessert, we decided to share the buñuelos and the flan. the buñuelos were served with a warm kahlua sauce and salted caramel ice cream. we were all underwhelmed by the buñuelos, but k and i couldn't get enough of the salted caramel ice cream on the side. the flavor of the flan was good, and the strawberries on the side had a little bit of a kick, as if they were macerated with a little bit of cayenne pepper or something spicy. but the overall texture was very firm - too firm in our opinion, to be flan. it was pretty dense and heavy.



overall, in my opinion of course, we had a great experience at red o, albeit the desserts. we could have skipped them, but the savory dishes more than made up for the lackluster desserts. we ended up having a dessert redemption by making our way to milk, which wasn't too far away. would i go back to red o? that's a resounding yes! but i'll probably skip dessert.

the ramen tour, stop #2: asa ramen.

a little over a week after our first stop at gardena ramen, the second stop on our tour brought c and i to asa ramen, which is, literally, across the street from gardena ramen. if you're familiar with sanuki no sato, then you can definitely find asa ramen. it's a tiny shop with only about 4 tables and 8 counter seats. on the menu, asa ramen lists two different kinds of broth for their ramen - kotteri (rich and fatty) shoyu, and assari (light and less fatty) shoyu. we placed our order for ramen - c got the assari shoyu and i got the kotteri shoyu, as well as an order of gyoza and an order of the original takoyaki (a doughy ball with a piece of octopus in the middle, usually covered with sauce, aonori sweaweed flakes, and shaved bonito) to share. after which, we noticed the "specials" board that advertised a shio (salt broth) ramen. perhaps on the next visit.





the noodles at asa are rather thin - and i'm sure if you let the noodles sit too long in the soup, it would be a soggy, mushy, mess. of course, c and i didn't let that happen as we quickly enjoyed our noodles. if you really like the fatty soup for your ramen, i highly recommend the kotteri, but if the fat isn't your thing the assari is just as good. the gyoza here was good, but not as good as the gyoza at gardena ramen. they were probably about the same in size, but the flavor of them didn't blow me away. the takoyaki hardly reminded me of the ones i ate as a kid, but still enjoyable. i think it's because as a kid, i loved them smothered in sauce and seaweed and here they held back on the sauce. they serve it with a dollop of mayonnaise on the side.



i'm not sure how long asa ramen has been here - but i've heard about them for over a year now. in the beginning it sounded like all they had was ramen and takoyaki - but they now had several izakaya style items on their menu, such as chicken karaage, and also about 4 or 5 different variations of their takoyaki. i think asa ramen is definitely a place i would go back to, for the noodles. and let's not forget that they are open until about 1a - with last call around 12 midnight.

asa ramen * 18202 s. western ave. * gardena, ca 90248

korean bbq night! @ moon daepo.

the ramen tour.

back in march, my friend c and i were having dinner at chin-ma-ya of tokyo in gardena. it was a cool night, the kind of weather that makes you want to eat a big bowl of soup. it was my first time there, and she explained to me that their signature ramen is tan tan men, it's good, and that we'd get to choose how spicy we'd want our broth. at the time i was trying to get over a cold, so i opted for spice level one, since i wasn't sure what to expect and what effect it would have on my nose and throat. it wasn't quite what i had thought it would be, but tasty nonetheless. for those of you that are curious, their spice meter for their tan tan men goes up to three, and their soup is kind of thick. as you can see in the picture below, it's topped off with spinach, soboro (seasoned ground pork), and menma (seasoned bamboo shoots).



this meal actually became the "warm up" for our ramen tour -- we decided that we'd hit the noodle shops close to our home digs. we verbally put together a rough draft list of the shops we wanted to check out. anything new to both of us went to the top of the list, then shops that only one of us had been to after those, and anything we had both tried previously rounded out the list. we both like noodles in salty soups - and we both have our preferences, and to be honest, ramen isn't one of mine. i much prefer udon or pho over ramen. but the idea of going to eat ramen - some in shops that at least i'd never been to, was appealing. i could add them to the list of places i'd been to, and of course, slurp bowls of noodles in a steamy, salty, and sometimes fatty, soup with a very good friend. as she was prepapring for a big milestone in her life, we decided that we'd start our tour after that event was done. and thus, a few weeks ago, we began our project tour.

our first stop was gardena ramen - located on the southwest corner of western avenue and 182nd street. (sorry, we were both so hungry we didn't take any pics!) c had been there many times for lunch before. it was my first time. she had told me beforehand that their menu was very minimal. and it was. they offer up shoyu ramen, miso ramen, gyoza, and hiyashi chuka - which is a cold ramen dish. for a dollar more you can double your noodles. she got the shoyu, i got the miso, and we shared an order of gyoza. it was just a simple bowl of noodles, with a great chewy texture, and the gyoza has been my favorite out of all the stops on our tour thus far as i write this. the filling was flavorful, and the gyoza skin was crisp and chewy.

i don't know how soon i'd go back for the ramen, tho. while good, it isn't great - but they are certainly a good value for the money. $6.50 will buy you a bowl of ramen, a decent portion at that. the yelp reviews are mixed and even my friend said that chashu on top has been off in her past experience. but at $10 for each of us, including tax and tip, it's been the cheapest shop on our list so far. but i'm sure part of the reason is because their menu has also been the most minimal.

chin-ma-ya of tokyo * 18537 western ave. * gardena, ca 90248

gardena ramen * 1840 w. 182nd street * torrance, ca 90504

not all sparkling water is the same.

where did that come from? about a week ago i was at target and wanted to get some sparkling water. i was just about to reach for the pellegrino and then the archer brand water caught my eye...and i'd never tried the archer farms (target brand) sparkling water so i thought i'd give it a shot since it was a little bit cheaper than san pellegrino (which i happen to like a lot). took it to work to enjoy during a day at the office, and blech! there's something about the taste that i just do not like. and it wasn't even the flavored kind...it was just the plain 'ol sparkling water.and it went flat really, really fast. not a good sign.

[caption id="attachment_39" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="archer farms sparkling water"][/caption]

but not wanting to waste any, i ended up combining it with some diet lipton green tea and ice to have it pass through my throat more pleasantly.

next time i'm sticking to pellegrino or the trader joe's brand.

that is...until i suck it up and by myself a sodastream...

seasonings.

[caption id="attachment_26" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="favors from the first "seasonings" dinner"][/caption]

my friend and fellow foodie k and i started seasonings back in the fall of 2009. some of our friends also share our affection and passion for food, and so it was an excuse for us to get some friends together once every few months and have a (hopefully) great meal and possibly try things that were new to most of us if not all. it didn't have to be a "nice" restaurant, but so far, many of them have been. (admittedly, sometimes, it's our desire to get a little dressed up that helps base our decision as to where we'll go...) this month finds us coordinating our seventh event. k is handling all the details for this one. how time flies! it seems like just yesterday that i planned our first event. for our seventh event, we're headed to red o by rick bayless, located in west hollywood. i'm super excited as i write this -- he won the first season of top chef masters and all his food just looked so good throughout that season. i've heard mixed reviews from a few people i know that have already gone. i'm a little uncertain as to what i can expect but i'm sure that no matter what, i'll have something to say in the very near future.

here's a rundown of our seasonings events thus far...

october 2009 - the foundry on melrose

february 2010 - jar

may 2010 - the tar pit

july 2010 - la street food fest

august 2010 - oc foodie fest

october 2010 - campanile

they were all fun and memorable meals/events and i'm sure my friends that participated in these outings all took away something different while sharing our love of food.

i'm at it again.

this time, i really intend to be good about this whole blogging thing. after a semi decent showing on blogger ages ago, and a slightly lesser version on the now defunct vox, and the other minor dabbles not even worth mentioning, i'm giving this another go. while my previous blogs touched on a variety of things - even thought when i first started that wasn't what i had intended - this one will be mainly about food. hopefully, good food. and my love of it. and my desire to try and eat is as much as possible.

i know it doesn't need to be expensive to taste good. there are days when i get a thrill from consuming the chicken soft taco from del taco or the chili cheese tots from sonic. there's also the nostalgia and impish delight that i get when having something i LOVED when i was a kid. on the other end of the spectrum, there are beautifully composed plates of food, or rather, edible art, that i sometimes wish i wasn't eating since it's so pretty on the plate - then when i deliver it into my mouth, the flavors are as gorgeous as it as when it was first set down before me.

for the past couple of years, i'd been toying with the idea of having a (yet another) blog about my food adventures and experiences - and i took a stab at it but i wasn't enthusiastic about it. but the feeling to blog again was recently brought to the forefront by a ramen tour that i'm currently on with my good friend (bff!) c. for about a month now, we've been going to at least one ramen shop a week near our home digs and trying out the food. we just had stop #5 on the tour. i'll divulge more about the tour in a future post.

while sharing my current and upcoming meals and food related points of interest, i also hope to include retrospectives on memorable meals or food memories that occurred before the birth of this blog. i should also mention now, that i apologize for any non-food related randomnimity that could show up from time to time. finally, i thank you for sharing this pursuit with me.

in pursuit of good food...

- ab