Jay Eats Worldwide

I spent the day at the 2014 Los Angeles Ramen Yokocho festival tasting 8 different bowls of ramen, thanks to everyone who read my post.  After about the 3rd bowl, they started to all taste the same, since most of them did tonkotsu (rich pork broth) ramen. One place that doesn't have just the typical ramen menu is Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights, East of Los Angeles.  Chef Murakami has a menu with 31 different ramen offerings.  Some are interesting combinations, such as, kimchee ramen, menudo ramen, kamonegi ramen (duck and green onions), oyster ramen, and torikara ramen (with fried chicken wings).  My friend Keizo Shimamoto  introduced me to Foo Foo Tei via his blog GoRamen . See What Jay Eats... Ten-Shin Ramen #21 Crab Omelet Noodle Soup with Gravy    $9.80 The crab omelet sits upon the noodles, topped with scallions, fish cake, and flying fish roe. and in a more like a gravy broth.  I broke up the...

The other day I was visiting a friend's restaurant, he asked me for the name of a good ramen place for one of his customers. Before I answered, I asked a few questions. Although my friend didn't know, he called his customer Randy over to my table. I realized that this guy really didn't know too much except for the ramen lists he's seen online and the three main soup bases: Shoyu, Shio, and Miso. I explained that each region in Japan is known for their own style and taste. This opened the door to an hour long discussion of ramen. I don't claim to be an expert, but my friend Keizo is, he runs www.goramen.com. Keizo moved to Japan to learn ramen and has trained at Tokyo's hottest ramen spots. Just following his ramen adventure in Japan makes you want to try the number of places he's been. I'm not much of a traditionalist when it comes to some foods, so I'm not really a fan of shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt) , and miso ramen unless it has a twist ...

I was reading Nonstop Honolulu the other day and came across Mari Taketa's (@nonstopmari) "What is it about saimin?" Saimin is a noodle soup unique to Hawaii with Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino ingredients. Spending a lot of summers in Hawaii with my grandparents, I grew up with saimin and still love it many years later. Although there aren't really good saimin places in Southern California, I had to look for a noodle place that would satisfy my urge for this local favorite. A few months ago, my friend introduced me to Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights. Foo Foo Tei is a unique place that serves 31 different types of ramen or at least that is the base. My friend happened to read postings from http://www.goramen.com/ . OK, this is a small world, I know Keizo (@GoRamen) who heads the site and is the ramen master in my book. Keizo tried the 31 different ramens each day for a month, you can read about his ramen adventure on his site. I don't think I could eat that ...