What are we eating next week?

Next week, we're going back to basics. Let's check out Kourakuen (幸楽苑), a chain-store budget ramen from Fukushima prefecture. It has great variety, opens 24 hours, and tastes quite good. The type of set menu you see here will blow you away with the great value for money. Stay tune :)

Ippudo （一風堂) Fukuoka

Overview
Style: Fukuoka-style Tonkotsu ramen
Overall rating: 9.4/10.0
Location: Fukuoka (Origin), Tokyo, and New York City

I used to work late night all the time in Tokyo (and by late, I'm talking midnight or sometimes 2-3am. It was crazy. I looked back and asked myself from time to time how I managed to pull that off on a daily basis. Anywho, my point is that when you work late, you need a midnight snack to keep you sane and/or awake, either way. So one day my colleagues and I decided we were going to take a break and eat something. One of my colleagues is a Brazilian guy who speaks fluent Japanese (crazy, right?). He's 31 years old and likes to play stuff animals with me in the office (yes my colleagues are very cool). He brought us to this ramen shop in a little corner off from Roppongi crossing. He was telling me that this was the best ramen shop in Japan, and I was like, "this is completely overrated". Apparently it wasn't, as I found out later that the owner of this store has won the ramen master title from the famous TV Champion game show, with the original Hakata style all the way from Fukuoka. The ramen is not the kind that would get you hooked on the first try, but it can grow on you. The sophistication of the broth's flavor and the soft, juicy chachu pork remind you that this is no ordinary ramen.

The Signature Bowl
The must try is no doubt the Akamaru ramen (photos above). The tonkotsu soup is boiled from pork bone simmered with Miso and Sake to give that complex flavorful taste. It is added with a trace of roasted sesame oil to give that fragrant smells spurring your appetite. ALWAYS order with boiled eggs and extra scallions. If you're like me, you will also put in a generous amount of fresh grinded sesame seed and crushed garlic to add texture to the soup. It is recommended that you eat it with one special signature condiment, the kimchi sprouts. The kimchi sprouts actually taste quite good I always snack (a lot) on it before my food comes. But lucky me (and lucky you too) it's all you can eat condiments here ;) The noodles are soft and springy, and I like its medium thickness. The "deluxe" chachu pork with a little bit of fat is soaked in a special tare (sauce) until it reaches the perfect softness and the sauce flavor is completely absorbed into the meat.

What else is on the menu
They also have quite a variety of other flavors, such as the shiromaru ramen, with the original Hakata style tonkotsu broth and hosomen noodles. The one pictured here is the karakamen, one of my favourites here. (I feel the torture writing this blog by the way lol, just so you guys know. It makes me hungry). The soup is the same original recipe tonkotsu base added with miso paste blended with various types of spices to bring out the flavor. It is strongly recommended to slowly dissolve the miso into the tonkotsu soup while letting the scallions or the sprouts to simmer in. Then when you put the scallions or the sprouts into your mouth, you will taste the excellent flavor of the broth slowly dissolving into your mouth. Absolutely ecstatic! They also have various nigiris (rice balls), fried rice, and fried gyoza. The fried gyoza here is mini, bite-size, which I thought was cute. The pork fillings inside were somewhat so-so though.


Price range
Ramen ranges from 800-1000, depending on your choice and toppings (a few hundred yen for each topping). Gyoza is about 500 yen (if I remember correctly).

Ratings
Noodle: 10.0/10.0
Hosomen type. Nice texture.

Soup: 10.0/10.0
I would give it an 11.0 out of 10.0 if I can. The flavor, the fragrant, the texture. Absolutely how I like it.

Toppings: 9.0/10.0
All the basic toppings are there and they did it right. But no special toppings or anything.

Side dishes: 8.0/10.0
Too few variety. The fried rice and the gyoza fillings are very so-so.

Condiments: 10.0/10.0
I love the kimchi beansprouts, self-service crushed garlic and grinded sesame.

Atmosphere: 9.0/10.0
Nice atmosphere with some tables apart from counter seats, a bit cramp though. What is funny is that their wallpapers are made with noodle spoons! Who knows where they get the idea from, but well, a little creativity in your life is always a good thing.

Service and staff: 9.0/10.0
Food is fast. Staff is friendly. They're not too whiny when you keep asking them to refill beansprouts, which is nice :)

Menu variety: 10.0/10.0
The ramen variety is quite diversed.

Location: 10.0/10.0
They have a few locations in Tokyo, many branches in Fukuoka, and a branch in NYC. Very convenient.

Value for money: 9.0/10.0
For something of this class, it's not going to be the cheapest around, but again, there's no close substitution to this.

Overall Rating: 9.4/10.0

Location and access
Store: Roppongi store
Address 4-9-11 Roppongi, Minatoku, Tokyo 106-0032
Access 3 min walk from Roppongi crossing. Take subway Hibiya line or Oedo line and exit to the crossing. The store is behind the Vodafone showroom.
Phone 03-5775-7561
Store hour 11.00am - 4.00am. Friday: 11.00am - 5.00am. Sunday: 11.00am - 1.00am

Store: Fukuoka main store
Address 1-13-14 Chuuo-ku, Fukuoka prefecture
Phone 092-771-0880
Store hour Weekdays and Sunday: 11.00am - midnight. Friday, Saturday, and public holidays: 11.00am - 2.00am

Tenkaippin (天下一品) Kyoto

Overview
Style: Kotteri-style (thick broth gravy-like) ramen
Overall rating: 7.45/10.0
Location: Kyoto (origin), Tokyo, and Hawaii

The Signature Bowl
What you cannot miss when you step foot in this ramen shop is the Kotteri-style ramen. The broth is prepared by boiling many natural ingredients overnight with the star ingredient being "chicken collagen", which gives the soup its rich gravy-like texture and super tasty flavor. The noodles are hand pulled noodle made fresh everyday. They are hosomen type with cut edge and soft texture. The chachu pork is so so to me, but I think it's the soup that makes everything tastes really good. I love having mine with boiled egg and extra spring onions (I absolutely LOVE the spring onion soaked in the Kotteri soup. It's just so tatsy), and mixed in a generous portion of chilli garlic paste into the soup. The chilli garlic paste is perfect for brining out the flavor and add the extra texture to the soup.

What else is on the menu
They also have Assari-style (normal shoyu soup) ramen as well for anyone who's scared of collagen (but for all the girls and boys out there, regardless of what age, you know that collagen helps reduce wrinkles and crow feet, right? :). What I love the most about this place is their side dishes. They have quite good chinese-style fried rice, very good fried chicken and gyoza. I love dipping the crispy fried chicken into the thick broth. It gives a great blend of the crispy fried chiken moistened by the broth texture and the flavor of the soup. Some stores also have mentaiko (marinated roe of pollock) rice and pork with kimchi. Most people usually order the ramen with white rice. I have never tried this (it's just not my style and not my thing. I just kinda know that I'm not gonna be in love with it) but supposedly the way to eat Kotteri-style ramen is to finish everything in the bowl but leave the soup for last. Then, you mix in the white rice into the soup and eat it like a porridge. If you have tried it, let me know what you think.

Price range
The price here is very economical, with the basic Kotteri ramen for only 650 yen. Topping is about 100-150 yen each (egg, spring onion, chachu, corn, etc). They have all the combinations for set menu (you can choose your ramen with one or two side dishes) for something aroun 800-1000 yen.

Ratings
Noodle: 7.0/10.0
The usual hosomen type noodles. Nothing to complain but nothing spectacular.

Soup: 8.5/10.0
The collagen is supposedly very healthy for you, and the texture of the broth is one of its kind. Quite tasty flavor, but I have to say it's quite heavy on salty and is weak to present the dimensions from other flavors. A bit too rich to drink it all up.

Toppings: 7.0/10.0
Good variety, but very average taste.

Side dishes: 8.5/10.0
Good variety, and the fried chicken and fried rice are done quite well (although not top-notch).

Condiments: 7.0/10.0
They have chilli paste and chilli garlic paste as well. Once you mix it in to the Kotteri soup, there is nothing like it! But other than that the condiments are pretty standard here.

Atmosphere: 6.5/10.0
Nothing special here. Mostly counter seats with a few tables with somewhat very limited spaces for my legs and my belongings.

Service and staff: 7.0/10.0
The staff is quite friendly, but again, nothing impressive and it's quite average when you think of the great service standard in Japan.

Menu variety: 6.0/10.0
There are pretty much only two types of soup bases, then the rest of the variety is from your own combinations of toppings. It's a bit boring I have to say.

Location: 9.0/10.0
Very convenient with over 300 stores in Japan and also a Hawaii store.

Value for money: 8.0/10.0
The set menu is quite cheap. But to get a satisfied bowl of ramen, I felt like I have to add so many toppings (extra chachu (the normal bowl only comes with two thin pieces of chachu), egg, spring onions) that it ended up become a 900-1000 yen ramen sometimes.

Overall Rating: 7.45/10.0

Location and access
They have over 300 locations over Japan and one store in Hawaii!

Store: Kyoto store
Address Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 94 Shirakawa Maison 1F
Phone 075-722-0955
Store hour 11:00AM - 3:00 AM

Store: Shibuya store
Address Building, 30-3 Udagawa-cho Shibuya-1F Umeyoshi Building
Access 3min walk from JR Shibuya Station
Phone 03-5428-3650
Store hour 11:00AM - 3:00 AM

Store: Hawaii store
Address 617 Kapahulu Avenue Honolulu, HI 96815 (map)
Phone (808) 732-1211
Store hour 11:00 AM - 22:00 PM