It's not even Friday yet..... and I'm tired already. So - a food post.
After I first brought one of my very White American friends to a Ramen meal, he confessed to me later that he thought that I had fallen off my rocker. To him, ramen was a 10 cent packet of instant noodles that you ate when you were hungry had no choice. He equated it to his daughters' college dorm staple, and to bad food. After that first meal (we waited 45 minutes to get in), now every time we meet in the San Francisco Bay Area, he looks at me when it gets up to meal times and says, "Ramen??" with a hopeful grin.
The best "instant Ramen" is the Sun Noodle brand that we get here in the Pacific Northwest at the nearest Uwajimaya supermarket in the chilled foods section. In Southern California, it's available in the Mitsuwa Marketplace. To this foodie and ramen connoisseur Sun Noodles is much more than an instant meal - it's the best ramen you can cook at home. How good is it? How about good enough that patrons would queue up for if your restaurant served it? Not all of these Ramen Shops would admit to using Sun noodles, but thanks to investigative reporting, we know at least 29 shops that do.
http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/23/ramen-shops-sun-noodles-usa.php
And for the real ramen commoisseurs - here are the 21 best Ramen shops in the US.
http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/best-ramen-shops-ramen-noodles
My goal with Genesis is to find customers near each of these shops so that I can try them all, and see if any of them are as good as my favorite Ramen shop in the world - in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
After I first brought one of my very White American friends to a Ramen meal, he confessed to me later that he thought that I had fallen off my rocker. To him, ramen was a 10 cent packet of instant noodles that you ate when you were hungry had no choice. He equated it to his daughters' college dorm staple, and to bad food. After that first meal (we waited 45 minutes to get in), now every time we meet in the San Francisco Bay Area, he looks at me when it gets up to meal times and says, "Ramen??" with a hopeful grin.
The best "instant Ramen" is the Sun Noodle brand that we get here in the Pacific Northwest at the nearest Uwajimaya supermarket in the chilled foods section. In Southern California, it's available in the Mitsuwa Marketplace. To this foodie and ramen connoisseur Sun Noodles is much more than an instant meal - it's the best ramen you can cook at home. How good is it? How about good enough that patrons would queue up for if your restaurant served it? Not all of these Ramen Shops would admit to using Sun noodles, but thanks to investigative reporting, we know at least 29 shops that do.
http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/23/ramen-shops-sun-noodles-usa.php
And for the real ramen commoisseurs - here are the 21 best Ramen shops in the US.
http://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/best-ramen-shops-ramen-noodles
My goal with Genesis is to find customers near each of these shops so that I can try them all, and see if any of them are as good as my favorite Ramen shop in the world - in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.