Saturday, July 10, 2010

Koumen (A Ramen shop)

I often refer to a huge complex called Yodobashi Akiba in Akihabara because it is one of the places where people get together. You can buy books, have a coffee, buy cds and etc in the complex. And the 8th floor is where there are many kinds of restaurants, so I visited this Ramen shop on the floor called "Koumen" for dinner.

The origin of this Ramen shop dates back to 1995 in Ikebukuro. And since then it has expanded its business and now it has more than 10 outlets in Tokyo.

I was kept wait for a longer time than I expected, but while I was waiting I could enjoy seeing some music clips with this TV on the wall. I'm a huge fan of music as I told you before, and when I see some anime I tend to pay attention to the opening and ending songs of the anime. And I know much about heavy metal as well.

You can see two bowls of Ramen and its toppings. This type of Ramen is called "Tsuke men", and "Tsuke" means "to dip". You are supposed to dip the Ramen in the broth bowl under the saucer of the toppings. The yellow potato-chip-looking stuff is fried garlic.

I wished I could have neatly put in the bowl the Ramen and "Chashuu", which is this thick piece of boiled pork, dried laver seaweed (the black stuff) and etc. to make them look appetizing. As for the taste, I should say this broth had relatively thick miso taste, and Ramen was mildly chewy, which I liked, so I'd give it an A grade out of 5 (A-E).

What is different from the other Ramen shops is that this restaurant serves very unique desserts. This is a kind of cold Chinese dessert called "Annindoufu", and the white milk pudding went well with the strawberry sauce in the center. This was also REALLY good. 

I think I know less about Ramen than true Ramen aficionados, but I've tried more than dozens of Ramen shops so far, so I suppose I now know a bit about Ramen. And I'd like to try more of it in Tokyo, since the capital is the place in Japan where you can have superb Ramen.