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What started as a sort of tongue-in-cheek resolution back in 2016 has almost become a way of life.

There are still plenty of places in London that I want to check out, but now whenever I’m abroad I have this unyielding curiosity about their ramen.

With a few days to spare in The Big Apple, I set about seeing how New Yorker’s like their noodles.

First up was Ivan Ramen, which has two branches in NYC. One in the East Village (more on that in a later post) and the branch I graced in Gotham West Market in Hells Kitchen.

The trend in New York seems to be for this ‘market hall’ type food outlets – think street food, but inside. You might grab ramen, but your friends could get a burger, or fried chicken, or Lebanese food or whatever. A pick’n’mix of deliciousness.

Ivan’s Slurp Shop offers a relatively limited menu, but the choices all had something different to say, this is ramen with a modern twist. Hipster ramen if you will.

I had 25 minutes until I had to be at the Upright Citizens Brigade. So although I was tempted by the Triple Garlic Mazeman I opted for the sesame-heavy Chicken Paitan on the basis that it would be less offensive to the people sat next to me in the theatre for 90 minutes.

Within minutes I was presented with the creamiest ramen you ever did see. Now, I love a thick broth, but this was almost too thick to slurp! Take a second to go back and look at it…notice it’s lusciousness!

The rye noodles were interesting too, more like the texture of rice noodles than wheat ones; springier.

I only happened upon Ivan’s by accident, because it was literally the nearest place to the theatre. It felt like it was on the expensive end of the scale, but I’d definitely recommend it. Perhaps it was because it was late on a Sunday, but I was surprised it wasn’t busier.

Ivan’s Slurp Shop, I’m awarding you a very respectable 4/5!

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Last Saturday I took myself over to Spitalfields for the We ❤ Asian Food Festival.

Now, before I go on, a word about food festivals – in general, I think they are pointless. They’re usually overpriced and repetitive. However, at just £5 for a ticket which included a free drink, it seemed like a no-brainer, and the advert I saw mentioned there were ramen vendors! Say no more!

I did a full lap of the venue and didn’t see a single ramen stall. My stress levels were mounting.

But then, I spied a lady slurping on noodles from a box. There were ramen here somewhere, I just needed to find them!

Another lap and a half later I found Thousand Knives hidden behind a queue for a bao stall. Apparently, they have a fully fledged restaurant in Dalston, so that’s another one added to the to-eat list!

The menu options were limited, but this is essentially street food/take out noodles, so I didn’t mind too much.

I went for the signature pork ramen just as it comes, and was not disappointed. In fact, the quality of take out ramen consistently surprises me – the noodles were firm, the egg was soft (although a little cold). The spring onions could have been sliced thinner and ideally, there would have been another slice of pork. However, for £8, this is some of the cheapest ramen I’ve had in the UK.

I give them a solid RAMEN (3 out of 5), which for noodles in a cardboard box is actually pretty damn good!

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There’s no shortage of ramen joints in Seattle. After trying a few and an evening googling and reading TripAdvisor reviews I decided that the place I absolutely needed to visit was Danbo.

There were some really excellent reviews, and clearly, the word had gotten around – when I arrived at about 19:20 there was a queue to the end of the block.

I took myself on a little explore and found the Elysian Capitol Hill Brewery so stopped in for a beer; my strategy being perhaps it was the early evening rush and I should just give it a while.

Wrong!

About 45 minutes later (oh, ok, it might have been more than one beer) I trundled around the corner and, if anything, the queue had grown.

The beauty of travelling alone is that in such situations you don’t have the dilemma where you want to stay but don’t want to subject anyone else to waiting if they don’t really want to. No siree, I was committed to eating here!

I got chatting to a guy in front of me in the queue. This would definitely not happen in London!

Dan was a few years younger than me and worked at a car hire firm at the airport. He regularly eats at Danbo which I took as another excellent sign! He also gave me a wonderful spur-of-the-moment recommendation for the Pink Floyd Lazer Dome at the Pacific Science Centre, which I booked there and then for later the same evening. #Spontaneous!

Danbo offers customisation options on noodle firmness, broth thickness, spiciness and richness. I think I’ve said previously, if you get a bowl of ramen with perfectly read-to-eat noodles, then by the time you get to the last noodles they are overcooked. Opting for firmer noodles so they have some durability is definitely a top tip.

I went for the classic ramen and a side of yaki gyoza.

The broth was near perfection – leaving a slight oily residue on the roof of your mouth as a little reminder of the deliciousness, and a sweet nuttiness from toasted sesame seeds. The pork was soft and salty, and the egg yolk oozed into the broth just as it should.

It’s really hard to find fault with Danbo, other than the length of the queue, but that’s a reflection of how good the food is! There will likely be no surprise that I’m giving Danbo full marks, RAMEN (5/5).

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It’s that time again, time for another Ramen Review!

Heads up, I’m currently in Dublin, and writing this in an emotional and Guinness fueled haze, but I think that can only work out well for the ramen I’m about to review!

A few weeks ago I was in Seattle. I managed to find the time, in 7 days there, to squeeze in 3 separate ramen joints. The first in the hat trick of reviews is over here.

The second place was a freak accident, and by far the earliest I’ve ever eaten the noods. I was early for the St Patricks Day Parade, and apart from a bit on how they are being really good people, the Amazon Spheres weren’t free to get in, so I was at a loss for things to do.

Kiki Ramen wasn’t one of the places I had got on my google hit-list, but I had a quick scan of the menu online and there was a ‘breakfast’ option! Ramen with bacon – I needed that in my life!

The item that actually enticed me in was the Lazy Devils (devilled eggs kiki style – whatever that is) but sadly they were only available in the evenings. Undeterred, I found a table and perused the menu.

Somebody needs to take responsibility for bringing ‘brunch noodles’ to the UK. East London hipsters would lose their actual minds! The broth was a bit on the thin side, but let us look at the facts – bacon, egg, mushroom, fishcake…these were contenders for the perfect noodle.

The only other thing which let down the Kiki Ramen restaurant was that they appeared to be playing two TV stations at the same time which it was too early for my brain to process.

Definitely check it out if you find yourself in Seattle, and let me know how those Lazy Devils are!

I rate this RAMEN (4/5).

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After a long flight and a quick trip to Kerry Park to snap the picture (below) of Seattle’s iconic skyline, I was ready for ramen!

After being mesmerised by the view for a while, I turned to trusty Google Maps to find the nearest place that took my fancy and set off in the direction of the hipster-lite Belltown district.

I initially walked past Karaage Setsuna, I paused briefly to look at the menu, but decided to see what else might lie around the corner, but I soon doubled back. I think it was the smell of fried chicken that did it.

This is not a fancy place. The kitchen storage is in the restaurant, brooms and mops are scattered about. This is an authentic neighbourhood restaurant.

Karrage Setsuna roughly translates as “a moment of fried chicken”. Therefore it was a given that the signature chicken dish would be my starter, I added a side of spicy mayonnaise and chose the Ra-Min noodles (which I assumed to be a typo).

The noodles arrived first. A little on the watery side, rather than the thicker tonkotsu broths that I’ve come to prefer, but still very tasty, and the paper-thin slices of red onion added a crunch and a sweetness. My only comment was there was slightly too much coriander, which made it feel a bit more like pho than ramen.

That said, this restaurant pitches itself a Japanese-Hawaiian fusion, so a bit of a twist was to be expected.

The chicken arrived and was piled high. The chunks of thigh meat were a little larger than bite-sized, which made eating them tricky, but perhaps that says more about my chopstick prowess. The coating was salty and crispy, with the spicy mayo adding a good amount of heat.

There were other lone diners in the restaurant, which made me feel less awkward, and there is something very normal about eating ramen alone.

I have to also commend them for the addition of Narutomaki into the noodles. I always see the white and pink swirly fishcake always as an indicator of quality (even if I don’t know what it;s made of!).

I award Karrage Setsuna a grand total of RAMEN (4 out of 5), a thicker soup and this would have tipped into a 5.

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It’s been a couple of months since a ramen review. I did go somewhere not so long ago, but work has been crazy busy and I didn’t get chance to post about it; now I feel like it’s too late.

However, conscious that there were only two days of 2017 left, I wanted to squeeze in one last ramen adventure!

I took myself to Nanban in Brixton.

There were four factors which influenced this decision:

1. It’s only about 20 minutes from where I live
2. I have walked past it previously and always thought that it needed to be subjected to my pointless reviews
3. One of their dishes was recently voted THIRD BEST DISH in London
4. The restaurant is the product of former Masterchef winner Tim Anderson

I arrived at a half full restaurant at lunchtime. This time of year it can be difficult to decide if that is a sign to avoid, or that people still have leftover turkey to eat. I was shown to a bar stool and provided with an extensive menu, additional seasonal extras and special’s of the day.

I ordered a cocktail to sip whilst I waited; a plum bramble. I wouldn’t recommend this, I usually love a bramble, but the addition of plum wine was overpowering.

I think the first thing I noticed was the eclectic music choices. A fusion of Carribean and Radio 2 soft rock. As an aside, why don’t restaurants take a leaf out of Joe and The Juice’s book and curate Spotify playlists?

After a brief glance at the menu (I’d checked it out online first) I plumped for the Winter Chicken Karaage to start, followed by the Lamb Tam Tam Ramen. I also added an Onsen Egg.

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A brief interlude to talk more about Onsen Eggs…

The Japanese eat a lot of eggs. It’s estimated each person eats 320 eggs per year, which is almost an egg a day. With that many eggs to eat, they have a variety of ways to prepare eggs which go beyond the standard fried/boiled/scrambled options.

Onsen Eggs are cooked in their shells at 67 degrees. This soft-sets the yolk and turns the white into a delicate custard. Traditionally they would be cooked suspended in baskets at the hot springs (onsen) but a similar technique can be used at home.

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All the items arrived at the same time. The ramen broth smelt strongly of aniseed or sambuca.

I have no idea how they managed to get chicken as crispy as this. The only possible explanation is some sort of Christmas miracle. I didn’t really get much of the herby flavour, but there was plenty of yuzu mayonnaise which added a citrusy kick.

The broth was delicious. Creamy, thick, slightly spicy, deep meaty flavour. Heaven. I got to the bottom of the aniseedy flavour – a lone star anise lurking at the bottom of the soup, which blended perfectly with both the minced and sliced lamb.

This being my first Onsen Egg, I wasn’t really sure how to eat it. I tipped it into the broth. I’m sure that’s some kind of sacrilege. What was surprising was that the yolk was cold – I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not.

At just over £33, it was on the expensive end of the scale, but I justified it with the ‘it’s Christmas’ excuse that I typically employ between November and February.

I’m giving Nanban a solid RAMEN (4/5). It was a great way to complete the Ramen Resolution, and will definitely go back. Until then, I’ll be drooling over their food porn on Instagram.

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RamenResolution has reached the end of its year…

It’s been fun having a project and I’m sad it’s over. What’s surprised me most is that the process of writing has actually taught me quite a lot.

Writing food reviews is difficult! I have new found respect for food critics, who have to find different ways of saying things are delicious!

I also think I should have thought about my rating system more at the start. Just a score out of five is hard. It should have been more nuanced, but if I’m honest I didn’t really know what I was doing!

Have you enjoyed my reviews? I genuinely would be interested in feedback. I’m not doing this for any particular reason, other than to document my adventures, but it’s always interesting to know how it comes across and if there are ways I could make it ‘better’.

There is every possibility that, in the absence of any other resolutions for 2018, I’ll continue blogging about ramen, and might branch out into other things. Whether you’ve read this or not, Happy New Year, all the best for 2018, and in the words of Bridget Jones…follow me on Twitter.

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Confession: This is not actually a ramen review.

It should have been, but we panic-chose where we were eating and assumed (incorrectly) that an asian resturant in trendy Brixton Village would be purveyors of ramen-y goodness. We had spotted a free table, which at 7.30pm in London is not insignificant, so we plopped ourselves down before we had really studied the menu.

Instead, Mamalan is full on Chinese. We’d already gotten this far, and needed to be at a friends house soon, so we ordered the closest equivalent – noodle soup.

Obviously we also ordered a starter (and I think my new thing is getting a starter to share that I don’t fell quite so full afterwards).

The mama wings were spicy and tangy, with juts the right amount of heat for me. There was a strange vinegar on the table and we whacked a bit of that on too.

This was not ramen. The soup was far lighter and fresher. The noodles were different in texture. There were different vegetables lolling in the soup. There were wontons.

It was delicious, and it felt very nutritious, and like it was probably far healthier than ramen. But alas, ramen it was not, so sadly I have to rate it RAMEN (1 out of 5, and that’s just for the wings and the cocktails).

FYI, there is something to do with free noodles on their Instagram at the moment.

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I first visited Hare and Tortoise long before Ramen Resolution become my thing. In fact, long before I even really knew that ramen could be more than the little packets of salty ‘chicken’ noodles at all.

On my last visit, which I think would have been in 2012, I had a Katsu curry. I remember it being tasty, but as it’s been five years, it clearly wasn’t somewhere I was clamouring to return to.

I didn’t get to see much of this summer due to a variety of work things, but obviously there was time for some noodles here and there!

One of the warm evenings we took a stroll from Adam’s swanky crash pad to the Blackfriars branch of Hare and Tortoise. We were early and there was only one other family in there. We were outnumbered by staff by a ration of what felt like 12:1. I always find that a bit awkward.

The situation was improved when the sake arrived – unusually in a small bottle rather than a carafe.

We ordered our food. Hare and Tortoise seems more of a ‘typical Japanese’. It sells more than just ramen, and specialises in sushi and sashimi. I’m a fan of both, but that is not what RamenRevolution was all about! Our katsu prawns and ramen arrived simultaneously. The downside of this is that the broth keeps on cooking the noodles so once you get to them they were a bit too soft.

I opted for the Tantanmen ramen which had the added ingredient o peanut paste. This gave it a good mouthfeel, but part of me felt it was a shortcut rather than the long-boil broths which achieve the same effect.

Watch out, here comes the science…I discovered that the silken broths get that when the collagen in the animal bones starts to breakdown. I warned you, once you know the science it suddenly seems less delicious.

Overall Id say Hare and Tortoise was ok, but I think you can get better ramen, cheaper and in less formal surroundings. They might not be factors that you’re looking for, but ramen is essentially street food and I’m wary of places which try and pretend otherwise.

I give them a RAMEN (2 out of 5) which is my lowest score so far. It might be great for other things but in the ramen race both the Hare and Tortoise are trailing behind others.

Yes, I did just weave in an Aesop’s fable reference. That’s how I roll!