03/31/09 TUESDAY
So today was a slow start, slow but finished with a bang. After taking a 40-minute train to Kobe, we went to this place called the Mosaic Garden. I was thinking it was some awesome garden of art, but surprise surprise, it was just another mall. This country loves their malls. Sometimes they reach 10 or more floors, with at least 3 floors dedicated to food. This place was pretty much half restaurants. We left the “garden” soon, but June did get to ride a panda! And we stopped for a quick bite of gyoza.
Next, we went to an area of Kobe known for its sake breweries. Yeah, Sake! Unfortunately, we didn’t get out to the first sake museum in time, it closed 20 minutes prior. Luckily, the security guy gave us a map of all the sake museums in the area, so we headed east to another museum that was closing in half an hour. We snuck into a practically closed sake museum, just in time to see the old sake tools and do a quick sake tasting. We got to taste fresh sake and plum wine. Sake! Tomorrow, we’ll return for more. Afterwards, we walked along a beautiful man-made river with peaceful rocks up to the station to return to central Kobe.
Right outside the station was this Moffle stand! I thought, “Awesome!” Moffle is a mochi based dessert that is cooked in a waffle iron looking machine and you can sandwich anything you like inside of it. We had it with some chocolate. It was a real let down, the mochi was flavorless and the texture was not what I had expected, kind of chewy and stale crispness.
Around the corner was Chinatown. It was a short street of restaurants and vendors all selling noodles, dumplings, and whatnots. Tons of restaurants offered Kobe beef dinners for $40 and up. No thanks, too rich for my blood. But we did stop to eat a black pork bun that was pitch black.
As our appetites grew, we chose to find a restaurant called Ippudo, which June found on the internet last night, supposedly really tasty ramen. We walked up and down the street it was supposed to be on, but, of course, there’s no numbers on the buildings. So it took two employees in a supermarket to show us where it was in their directory. Aww, Ippudo, where do I start.
The restaurant consists of 3 large communal tables. Right when we got there, the dinner rush had just begun. The aroma of freshly cooked ramen and pork broth fills the air. They have an English menu which was written enticingly, not common to most translated menus. We chose 2 different ramen bowls. One was a classic pork broth blended with some new savory additions like this toasted oil which I can’t yet explain, but yummy, and some red mixture in the middle, they called the “umami-dama or flavor savor ball” which melts slowly in the broth as you eat it. I asked for double noodles for an extra $1.50. The other ramen was a spicy pork broth, served with a side of salted egg, nori, and seasoned rice. Both had scallions and braised pork. We also had to try the Ippudo sandwich, which is a slider of braised pork, spicy sauce, and pickled cucumber and lettuce. YUMMY!
Everything was delicious, Slurp!!! They also had some really spicy house-made pickles for condiments. We ate every last bite. And I tipped the bowl and finished both broths to the last drop. I’m still rubbing my stomach as I write this. Fortunately, someone had taken June’s idea of opening an Ippudo in the U.S. Mind you she just came up with it today, and someone had already opened one in NY last March 2008. We looked it up on Yelp! And they have a thumbs up. We will have to try it when we’re there. All I know is that Ippudo in Kobe has got to be one of the best ramen I’ve ever had. It tops Momofuku…what?! Yeah, I said it. Now I can sleep and dream about tonight’s dinner. Until tomorrow, may your broth have so much umami, you ask for seconds on the noodles.
No comments:
Post a Comment