The Unvegan

Artsy Noodles at Tsujita LA

December 8th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Artisan or artesian?

Have you ever looked upon a meal and thought it was just too pretty to eat? It happens to the best of us, and to be perfectly frank, a pretty-looking meal is often disguising a lack of flavor or creativity. So when my buddy and I decided to head to Tsujita LA in West LA for lunch, I was a little concerned that their claim of “Artisan Noodles” would make for a pretty meal, but little else. But when we showed up and found an obscenely long line of people waiting to get a taste of the noodles, I thought again. Continue Reading»

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Japanese, Los Angeles, ramen, restaurants, soup, tsujita la, West LA

Real Ramen at Ramen Jinya

May 10th, 2011 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Why spinach?

Sometimes nothing beats a good bowl of ramen. No, I don’t mean the Cup O Noodle that powered me through late nights in college. I mean real ramen in a real bowl, with some thick broth and some real meat. For lunch, I headed to Ramen Jinya in Studio City with some coworkers to see if their ramen could bring back my memories of drunkenly wandering the streets of Osaka for some noodles in a bowl. There are four signature pork ramen flavors, and although they were strangely out of the Hakata premium rich broth, I was already going with their Original Yokohama ramen, so luckily this didn’t affect me. Continue Reading»

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Japanese, Los Angeles, ramen, ramen jinya, restaurants, studio city

Currying Favor at Ajisen Ramen

October 26th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Curry in a hurry.

Not too long ago (at least in my head), Ajisen Ramen opened its doors at the Century City food court. I’m not sure where else this Japanese ramen chain exists in the US, but I do know it is a pretty popular and slightly upscale chain in the land of Asia. I decided to check it out to see how it held up against its Asian brethren and found that the menu was pretty similar to what I remembered from Asia. It had a variety of ramen options and some tasty-looking Japanese appetizers. Continue Reading»

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Century City, Chains, Curry, food courts, Japanese, Los Angeles, meat, ramen, restaurants

Spicing My Broth at Asahi Ramen

July 5th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Mix one part curry noodles...

For a little post-tennis victory Japanese treat, I headed to Asahi Ramen in West LA with my vanquished tennis foe to get some…ummm ramen. Now don’t be fooled by the name of the restaurant, as it apparently has nothing to do with delicious Asahi beer. Confused myself, I took the liberty of looking up Asahi on the old interwebs and found that Asahi is the name of about ten different towns and cities in Japan, so for the name to carry over into both beer and ramen isn’t that surprising. Anyway, enough with geography and economics, let’s get to the food. Continue Reading»

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Asahi Ramen, Beef, Curry, Japanese, Los Angeles, meat, ramen, restaurants, spicy, West LA

Japanese for Real at Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi

January 5th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

Drunk or not, this looks awesome.

For too long have I been subjected to people who believe the beginning and end of Japanese food is sushi. While living in Japan for half of a year, I believe I ate sushi once. This was not because I was avoiding sushi, but because sushi just wasn’t as prevalent as we are led to believe. Sure, you can find sushi if you are looking, but it is not as though every corner has a sushi place. Rather, it is much more common to find ramen. This isn’t your Cup O Noodle college hangover ramen, but a real, hearty bowl of broth with noodles, meat and more. Recently, some coworkers of mine were heading out to “that ramen place” in Gardena for lunch and I joined them, fingers crossed that this place would be the true Japanese food I’ve been waiting for. Continue Reading»

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Custom, gardena, gyoza, hakata ramen shinsengumi, Japanese, Los Angeles, miso, ramen, restaurants, Sushi, youtube

Rants and Raves

Man-Made Meat

December 2nd, 2009

I think it went something like this...

This has been a big week in the world of meat-eating. Scientists in Holland or the Netherlands or whatever you call it have grown the first piece of in-vitro meat. In layman’s terms, they grew meat in a lab without killing any animals.

Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

The taste of skiing?

Colorado is definitely a beer state, and not just because Coors comes from the Rocky Mountain State. No, it is also home to New Belgium (of Fat Tire fame) and seemingly countless other micro and craft breweries. While in Breckenridge for a ski weekend, I decided I had to at least try one of these, and because it turned out to be the only one available at dinner, my choice happened to come from the creatively named Breckenridge Brewery. The brewery, by the way, is actually no longer in Breckenridge, having expanded and moved to Denver in 1992.

‘ramen’

Artsy Noodles at Tsujita LA

Real Ramen at Ramen Jinya

Currying Favor at Ajisen Ramen

Spicing My Broth at Asahi Ramen

Japanese for Real at Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi

Rants and Raves

Man-Made Meat

Beer Me Some Breckenridge Agave Wheat

What is this?»

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