Diana's B-day + Ramen Binge Thereafter + Tokyo Thanksgiving

I am running super behind on posts.  What happened was that I got busy with school and super intimidated by the length of the Karuizawa one, so I kept procrastinating it.  I'm going to talk about some of the crap that's happened since, but I'll definitely have to leave some things out.

Warning: quality of writing may suffer as well.

About a week and a half ago was Diana's birthday.  Happy happy belated, Diana!  Izumi made reservations for like 12 people at Nijumaru in Ikebukuro.  I have a better idea of where Izumi works and lives now, so I understand why we will often head in the same direction at the end of the night.  V and I have been to Diana's place, so we solidly know where that is.  Only Miwa's left!  Although, Miwa definitely lives far since she leaves earlier than everyone else usually. 

Nijumaru is a similar setting to 270 Yen places with digital touchpad menus and private party rooms.  We all bought into the set menu with 飲み放題 - nomihodai - all you can drink.  I'm sure I've talked about nomihodai before, and it's pretty common practice here.  We had a two hour time limit and this is the one time that I think it has definitely been worth it.  Ha-san on the end of the table was plowing through those beers.

 

 See that collection of bottles on the end?  I totally drank a lot that day, but again failed at getting drunk.  Hmmm.

Totally forgot the names of everyone we met at the end, so I had to look them up...  Ha-san I had heard about before since he was an administrator at the language school Diana went to.  Actually that whole far end of the table is all Korean and I've been told I need to visit Ha-san's house to have his cooking.  I have no problem doing that.  Jinhee and Woo on the right are married.  They actually met in Japan and speak Japanese to each other.  Pretty sweet.  Next to them is Daisy, the life of the party.  On the left, next to Ha-san, we have Minako and her friend.  I hope we get to see all of them soon.  On our side of the table, we knew everyone with Miwa, Izumi, and Lokki.

We actually arrived a little late and gave Diana her present pretty much as soon as we got there.  Turned out no one else had given presents yet, which they did once the "cake" arrived.  I guess it was a bit of a party faux pas.  Diana was decorated accordingly and we ate her birthday bucket of ice cream and cream puffs. 

Once dinner was over we moved on to the obligatory karaoke.  Everyone rocked out a song and I performed a handful of heterosexual bro duets with Lokki.  V accomplished her Japanese karaoke dream with "God Bless America."  Word of advice: don't sing "God Bless America" at a karaoke.  It's terribly slow and a repeat of the first verse over and over.  I think that's what they do in general with songs like that; I was touched regardless.  I also have a private video on youtube of four girls singing "all I want for Christmass is youuu" and then pointing at me.

After karaoke, we all went our separate ways.  Ha-san missed his last train, and so Diana and Izumi felt obligated to stay up all night and party with him.  Not sure what happened to them; I supposed no one will ever know.  V and I felt less obligated and went home to rest after a long day of Karuizawa + birthday partying.

In the span on this post, V went to Chicago and came back.  Before she left though, I wanted to take her to try Ippudo.  She also wanted to have this parfait that she'd been eying forever.  We call it a parfait, but it's not really like your average Japanese parfait.  The ice-cream is soy based and the toppings are just red bean and mochi.  Probably the healthiest parfait on the face of the earth.  Still, super delicious.  This kind of stuff is the best: sinless pleasures.  There really isn't a good reason not to eat one every chance you get.  The same stall has tofu cheesecake.  We'll certainly give that a try.

I had gone to Ippudo before but at that time ate their second spiciest option with Wei.  It wasn't bad, but the pure blazing fury masks a lot of the taste.  After having the Mokou Tanmen Nakamoto X Ippudo fusion at the ramen show (along with Sung Jin and Wei eating it every week), I decided we needed to give Ippudo another chance.  Good thing we did.

Ippudo in Ikebukuro is actually in the same building as Nijumaru a couple days earlier.  On the way, we snapped a photo of the famous owl police box.  A lot of different places have theme animals it seems.  For instance, Shibuya has hachiko and Ikebukuro has owls.  Someone needs to explain the owl to me sometime, though.  Ippudo is a little bit different from other ramen places as the stores tend to be bigger and have table seating.  When we went for lunch, the bar was lined with salarymen, but all the tables were actually filled with students and families.  Pretty welcoming atmosphere overall.


I went for the akamaru this time.  It's called red, but it's not actually spicy at all.  Not quite a shoyu ramen, but definitely a darker flavor profile than normal tonkotsu and also definitely super delicious.  Top 5 ramen I've had in Tokyo.  Typical hakata-style long and thin noodles here as well, right up V's alley.  I don't even understand why the shiromaru below is Ippudo's signature dish since I thought the akamaru was way better.

I mean the white one was really good too, but was somehow a bit salty for how delicate it seemed. Still, Ippudo totally shot up my list of favorite ramen places.  I want it now and I will be back soon to give the spicy one another try at a slightly less suicidal level.

V left and I continued the ramen run alone.  That's what single guys to in Tokyo right?  Well, I'm not single but I will drown my lonesome self in ramen anyway.



This ramen shop just around the corner is the Nantsuttei Group's miso shop in Shinjuku. Sitting right next to Ramen Jiro, the only things I knew about is that it's miso ramen and pretty popular. Figured it was about time to check it out; nothing like Thanksgiving ramen, right? From the inside, you can immediately tell that it's a popular place by the boxes of prepackaged ramen they sell in the corner. Only a handful of ramen shops actually sell enough in the store to offer make your own at home box sets. Also, it's the only ramen shop I've ever been to that has J-pop background music. I hit the ordering vending machine while banging out to V's new favorite song: AKB48 - Heavy Rotation. I wasn't quite sure of what to order but figured that for my first time, maybe a straight up miso ramen was best.

What you get is a rich, salty, and fatty broth with normal straight egg noodles. I got my noodles a bit undercooked which was probably unnecessary; the noodles are thick enough to not overcook at all and mine ended up a bit too under. This ramen is totally type that would have put me off a few months ago. It is really heavy and the floating abura (fat) makes it abundantly clear how fatty it is. Fat. In fact abura is totally one of those things that I never associated with ramen. But most ramen comes from some sort of pork broth and chunks of fat are fairly common, even desired (no really, some people ask for extra). The ramen-eating me of today can handle all that crap. It's still rich, but nothing I can't deal with.

Yeah, it was delicious. Second best miso I've had after Musashi. And holy moyashi, there were almost as many beansprouts as noodles. V and I love ourselves some beansprouts. Nantsu miso is a delicious and burly meal. The spicy miso looks righteously promising and I'll be back for that. Otherwise, I'll probably just do Musashi for my miso fix. Too much other ramen to eat, ya know?

Went home and had a beer.  Yebisu Black is the best grocery store beer I've had yet.  Pretty solid.  Yebisu Red is a Fall seasonal which I may have to try before winter really sets in.

Thanksgiving is a really big deal in our family, strange for second generation Korean-Americans.  There are few things I enjoy more than a Thanksgiving feast.  Not having turkey was going to break my heart, so I signed up to eat with my classmates on Tuesday and the girls on Friday. 

First up was Good Honest Grub in Shibuya.  The restaurant was a bit of a walk from Shibuya Station and tucked away in an alley.  Three courses of a light salad, a thanksgiving dinner, and dessert that I suppose were pretty good and honest.  Pretty far from spectacular though.

Friday was dinner with Izumi, Fuyuko, and their coworker....(drawing another blank).  For an MBA student, I really should try to be better with names.  Loft in Roppongi was a step up in quality of food and price.  The salad was pretty amazing, and the entree was well constructed. 

Everything I ate on the two entrees were pretty representative of what you would typically eat for Thanksgiving with the exception of radish.  What's with the radish?  Neither really was representative of what Thanksgiving should be though.  I feel like if this ever happens again, I'll make an effort to get a whole dinner going myself.  Thanksgiving doesn't really need to be fancy at all, just good and comforting.    Catering a turkey and then making all the trimmings separately is a totally viable solution.  Thanksgiving was enjoyable, but only barely satisfactory.  Definitely missed the fam.

My consolation was poker at Casey's right after Friday's dinner.  With our 9 PM reservation, we didn't end up leaving until like 11:30.  I got home, hopped on my bike, tried to figure out how to get to the house, got lost several times and walked in on a game that started at 8 PM at close to 1 AM.  Bought in for 1000 Yen and sat down for a long overdue game. 

Poker was an awesome time with an awesome crowd.  A couple MBA students and a bunch of half Japanese undergrads just mixed it up over drinks.  I bought in twice and we were playing our last couple rounds when I landed a couple good hands in a row.  Played them hard and ended up going home with 5500 Yen (clear chip leader).  People played pretty well though; not that many got cleaned out and at 1000 Yen, nobody had any problem buying back in to keep the game moving. 

Didn't quite pay off dinner, but I suppose it came somewhat close.