Whatever I just ate, it was delicious...

I think that this is going to be the theme of the trip.  Since I don't speak Japanese, it's lucky that I will eat pretty much anything as long as it is delicious (except tripe, lordy I hope that there is no tripe hiding in any of the dishes I order).  That means that it's going to have to be eat first, identify later.  And my first real Japan food experience taught me that.

Being so busy this summer and having pretty much no time in between my Berkeley program and my Japan trip meant that I couldn't spend as much time as I would have liked to planning the Japan trip.  Normally I would obsess over where I wanted to go when and what I wanted to eat, but I didn't have time to do that.  Which means, be open to whatever I find wherever I find it, and keep my expectations in check.

However, that doesn't mean that a bit of research isn't in order.  I am staying at Shinagawa, and it turns out that my hotel is literally across the street from Shinatatsu Ramen Row, with 7 famous ramen shops lined up quite conveniently, all waiting for me to try!

Thanks to this very useful blog post, I was able to identify where and what I ate, after the fact.  I'll keep you in the dark a bit longer though, to recapture my experience better!

I first wander around the Shinagawa station, and walk in the opposite direction of ramen row.  I had a sense that I was going the wrong way, but I wanted to orient myself to the area anyway and saw a few interesting looking Japanese fast-food type places.  I walked less than a block though, before realizing that it was just too darn hot to walk around without a destination in mind.  Also, I was really hungry.

So I turned around and walked toward ramen row, and found it quite easily.  I spent a little time taking in the different signs, but felt quite overwhelmed.  So, I decided to rely on one of the more useful tricks of the trade when you don't know where to eat... social proof.  Which place looked the most busy?  Then I saw this:

Of course, I knew that this is where I must go.  Plus, there were about 8 people in line in front of this vending machine, mostly salarymen and women in business wear on their lunch breaks.  They would know where to go!





What to get, what to get?  How to use the machine?  My heart was racing but my stomach said 'go for it.'


I knew I wanted ramen, and the red on this button caught my eye:

I didn't know what it was but it looked good. I could see onions and roasted pork, so I was sold.  I pushed the button, got my little ticket, and stepped inside.  It was quite busy but very efficient, so I didn't have to wait long. A server greeted me in Japanese, and I quickly said, "aigo ga wakatimas ga?" "Do you understand English?" -- she indicated only a little, took my ticket, and told me, "wait."  I did.

A few minutes later, when some parties left, she led me to a seat and I waited some more.  I looked around at what everyone else was having, and it looked like the guy next to me ordered the same thing.  Good, I thought.

Then my bowl came:

Wow, it looks just like the picture on the vending machine!  Amazing, that.

I dipped my spoon in, and wow.  The broth was not what I was expecting.  It was thick, not really like a broth, but like gravy.  It was quite salty, but not as salty as my favorite broth, shio.  It had a slightly seaweedy flavor, not actually strongly porky.  Hm, I thought.  This is just okay.

Then I tried a bite of the noodles.  You can't really tell from this picture, but they were a lot thicker than what I was expecting, almost flat.  And, thank goodness, the noodles were amazing.  Really amazing.  They had a perfect chewy texture.  Then I tried the thick root looking thing, which I think was bamboo.  The onions added a nice hearty flavor.  Then another moment of truth... I bit into the pork.  WOW.  The flavor was ridiculous.  Really, really, really, really good.  Sometimes I flirt with vegetarianism but it's meat like this that makes that a pipe dream.  This is what pork was meant to taste like.  It must be roasted in some way to get the incredible caramelized rich flavor, but I don't think I could ever replicate it.  Ridiculously good.

So what was it?  If you clicked on the other blog post (Go Ramen) you already know, but in case you didn't, it's called Kumo Ramen, according to Go Ramen Kumo means cloud. I ate at Setagaya, with Chef Maijima Tsukasa at the helm.  Here's a sign in case you want to find it yourself!