An Amazing Bowl of Ramen
posted at 12:47 am
on Mar. 12, 2013
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I ate an amazing bowl of ramen recently, and I had to share.
The broth was tonkotsu, made up spicy, brown and opaque, lush with flavour. I ordered it with several extras: for starters, an medium-soft boiled egg sliced in two, floating like diving platforms along the edge of the bowl.
A large chunk of pork belly filled a third the bowl, so warm and soft I mistook it in my mouth for butter. Bean sprouts piled high provided crunch and refreshment.
The noodles were superb. Firm enough to stay wavy, but cooked just right so that they could slurp up into my mouth carrying the salty, savory broth.
Small diced green onions provided half the green, a sheet of nori provided the other half, and added a sea-freshness that put me back on the beach on the West Coast Trail, inhaling the salty air.
As an appetizer, I had a spicy tuna roll; it burned ever so lightly on my tongue. The cool, sweetened rice extinguished the heat, and the tuna was smooth and even, almost puréed by the sharp knife of the sushi chef. Each piece had just the right ratio of fish wrapped within, and absorbed just the right amount of shoyu.
A simple glass of water provided all the drink I needed to accompany this lunch.
I sat by the door at my small tippy table, reading Bel Canto on my iPad in the early afternoon calm, and watched the diners around me chat and pay and come and go.
As I was finishing up, a man came in and sat alone at the table next to me. He studied the menu, and when the waitress came, he ordered: tonkotsu ramen with pork belly and egg; and a single cut spicy tuna roll.
Wise man.
