the ramen tour, bonus stop: kitahama shoten.

i tend to read the food blogs on oc weekly and la weekly pretty regularly. so on one particular reading session of oc weekly, i came across a snippet about the "gourmet food festival" at mistuwa marketplace at both the costa mesa and torrance locations. both locations were going to feature kitahama shoten ramen. once i read about it, i told c right away so that we could hopefully add it as a bonus stop on our ramen tour. so on the saturday morning of the festival, we stopped in at mitsuwa in torrance for an early lunch - and got in line for the kitahama shoten ramen. the line wasn't very long when we got there, so we were able to order pretty quickly. c ordered the shio ramen, and i ordered the shiro miso ramen.



it cost about $10 each...but imho it was totally worth it. the soup had umami - and you could taste the delicate shiro miso... i always thought the shiro (white) miso to be so light on flavor - and when i make miso soup at home i usually combine the shiro miso and the aka (red) miso. but the broth of the shiro miso ramen was so tasty... i consumed it all. the toppings included roast pork, marinated poached egg, menma (bamboo shoots), negi (green onions), and a piece of nori (seaweed).



it was so good, i ate it all.



they also had gyoza as part of the gourmet food festival, so we bought the two kinds being offered - veggie and seafood - and for the price, i expected better. they were both a bit of a disappointment even though they were cooked fresh. the skin was a little too thick, the filling a little too mushy. i could totally do better...i think.