Thursday, September 20, 2007

Tokyo Day 2 - Noodle Shop!

Tonight, we finally checked out a real Japanese noodle shop. We had planned to see Evangelion 1.0 after visiting Sega Joypolis, but we pushed it back until tomorrow because of the late hour. All we had time to do was eat, and we've wanted to try a real, authentic noodle shop for a while now. We found one in the same building as Joypolis, and figured it'd be worth a shot. If you want to look for it yourself after reading this, it's called "Yo! Teko-ya" and it's in the DECKS Tokyo Beach building, 1st floor. Here's a link to their official site.

My wife's obviously been to plenty of noodle shops in Tokyo, but not for a long while now. I never have had the privilege.

One thing I didn't know is that there are actually two separate kinds of noodle shop: ramen and udon. They're never mixed. Well, not in a "real" noodle shop, anyway. Tonight, we ate at a ramen shop - they're more common than udon shops, although there's also an udon shop in this same building (and it was packed).

Here's what I got:

It's a spicy pork ramen. It had an egg on it too, but I gave it to my wife. Here it is! (Broken, in the top left. Yeah, it's brown.)

Hers was some sort of vegetable and mushroom ramen with kimchi.

We both agreed that it was pretty frikkin' awesome. I have never had ramen like that. Even my wife, who's a ramen shop veteran, was impressed - she said ramen is usually not this good, even in Tokyo. I mean this ain't no "Top Ramen" or even "Cup Noodle". This is the real thing. Fresh, real ingredients and a lot of them. Perfectly balanced soup. And of course, a lot of noodles. This is a real meal. I don't think I can eat the instant stuff anymore.

The atmosphere was also appropriately dingy and cramped, although not dirty - just that sort of "urban rustic" feel that tells you that a place has been both designed for maximum efficiency and is also well-worn. Pretty much what I'd expect from a noodle shop. So I was pretty satisfied.

I gotta mention too that I may have also experienced my first bit of xenophobia from our waiter, although it's tough to say for sure. Every time he was dealing with us and heard my wife start to talk to me in English, he'd leave. It was actually a little strange. He was nice and all, but he'd just leave whenever he heard English. Some people might get pissed off and indignant about this (my wife kinda did), but you know what? I didn't care. It's not my country, and he didn't invite me here. If he wants to feel that way, it's his right. I got my food and it was good, and that's all I care about.

I leave you with this disturbing image:

2 comments:

  1. Slurping your noodles makes them taste better; much like racing stripes make your car go faster.

    ... or maybe its just cools them down (~_^)

    --
    Chris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:39 AM

    I happened to stumble upon this blog cause I'm eating ramen this saturday (the one near rockefeller center) :D

    ReplyDelete

About This Blog

This is increasingly not a blog about Alphabet City, New York. I used to live in the East Village and work on Avenue B, but I no longer do. Why don't I change the name if I'm writing about Japan and video games and guitars? Because New Yorkers are well-rounded people with varied interests, and mine have gone increasingly off the rails over the years. And I don't feel like changing the name. I do still write about New York City sometimes.

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