Jay Eats Worldwide

I had heard chef / owners of Animal Restaurant, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, were working on ramen.  I remember thinking that the proteins would be amazing and wouldn't be surprised if they created a new style of ramen.   It's good to have foodie friends that share info from around town. @BackyardBite  informed us that Animal's Limited Edition Ramen was at available on Mondays and Tuesdays (from 9 pm to close) at the bar only.  We arrived at about 8:15 or so and got our names on the waiting list, the bar only seats about 7-8 people.  I forgot to mention, there are only 20 bowls each night... Chopped Chili and Garlic  on the bar for ramen We were seated around 9:30 and after our drink order was taken, the ramen seemed to arrive right away. It was suggested to us that we have the ramen first and then order any additions after. See What Jay Eats... The Limited Edition Animal Tonkotsu Ramen $18 with pork belly cha siu...

Los Angeles has a lot of ramen places.  Depending if you like tonkotsu (pork broth), tsukemen (dipping ramen), or even a good shoyu (soy sauce), everything comes in a bowl. Last year, Keizo Shimamoto created a ramen item that you can eat without a bowl.  His creation, what I call " An American Spin on a Japanese Classic ", was introduced and people lined up for this new ramen item.  Not just lines in New York and Los Angeles, but in Hawaii people showed up hours before the pop-up opened ...  There are a lot of copycats out there, my cousin showed me an ad for one yesterday, I had to tell her it's a knockoff.  Well, the Ramen Burger West Coast now has a L.A. home! Photo Courtesy of Backyard Bite   Behind the line at Lock and Key is a small service window. Soon to be home to the much anticipated  Ramen Burger  by Keizo Shimamoto Jeff Shimamoto (Keizo's brother) invited us to  meet the crew  and see the beh...

RAMEN! March 29 - 30, 2014 Santa Anita Park Japan Cup and Japan Family Day Watch the festival commercial HERE March is National Noodle Month! What a way to end the month... Few will believe that there is actually a food festival for Ramen in the U.S.  This was the second year in Los Angeles and the largest ramen festival in the U.S.  14 ramen vendors from Japan, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Jose, and Los Angeles converged on Santa Anita Park in Arcadia on a sunny Saturday to begin this 2 day noodle fest.  I attended the 1st Los Angeles Ramen Yokocho in Torrance, IMO it was the wrong venue, but the ramen was good. Santa Anita Park is a great location, not just for 626 Night Market, but the infield venue was larger than I thought.  Today it was filled with boiling pots of broths, some taking up to 20 hours to make, and lots of fresh noodles.  Growing up, I often think of the dried packages of noodles and in 45 seconds, ramen is ready. ...

The 17th Annual Japan America Kite Festival The Largest Japanese Kite Festival Outside of Japan! Seal Beach, California It was a beautiful day at the beach, lots of beautiful kites. Usually I'm told to "go fly a kite", but today I was here for... Keizo Shimamoto's Original Ramen Burger! 500 Ramen Burgers on today's menu Paul Lam (L) grilling the Angus beef patties and Keizo Shimamoto (R) flipping the ramen noodle buns. The Ramen Burger is made with fresh ramen noodles formed in a bun shape and lightly grilled. With the Angus beef patty, Keizo has his secret shoyu glaze, arugula, and scallions. Makes for a tasty combination. Ahh, one of the coveted Ramen Burgers! It's wrapped in a beautiful origami-style wrapper I could've pulled some strings, but I had my wristband and stood in line. OK, there were 10 people ahead of me... This event, when you paid for the Ramen Burger, a wr...