間人 (Manin in Jiyugaoka)

間人


Apologies for the terrible iPhone photos. I was out, camera-less, for sushi with a friend, and he insisted on crushing a few bowls. Who am I to say no?


Manin is an above average (price-wise at least) shabushabu restaurant in the evenings, serving up thinly sliced 黒豚 Berkshire pork to be dipped in their homemade dashi. It looks fantastic, but it's a dinner only thing. Lunch is tsukemen.


The lunch sets all come with a rice bowl on the side. Seasoned whitebait on rice. Tasty.


The tsukemen is a simple affair, served in wooden trays often found at soba shops. Paired with a pork-infused dashi and you are good to go. I don't imagine many people know about this spot, but if you are in the area, check it out.


Website here.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mochi Ramen Bar in Vienna, Austria

Image
Mochi Ramen Bar Mochi Ramen Bar came recommended by a few people, so when I visited Vienna I had to give it a try. The menu is all over the place, with shio, shoyu, and miso all represented. The tonkotsu ramen sounded like something I should try, though in hindsight I should have read the ingredients list. I assumed normal tonkotsu. Never assume, even when you are in Japan. Foreigners tend to love miso ramen with corn and butter toppings, something you rarely see in Japan. When you do see it it is probably being slurped by some children. Corn in ramen, to me, is something for white people who probably grew up farming the stuff. Feel free to have some sake with your noodles. The addition of corn and sweet pickled daikon was something I would have avoided if I had known. The sweetness (of both yellow things) just doesn't match with creamy pork soup. It's too much, and you lose the most important part, the soup. To add insult to injury, the soup was at a less than ideal temperatur...
Read more

Tomita at Narita Airport

Image
日本の中華そば 富田 成田空港第一ターミナル店 Tomita is one of Japan's most famous tsukemen shops. The recent Ramen Heads movie means that many people around the world know about the shop. And while the shop in Matsuda is the real deal, they recently opened a branch at Narita Airport. Convenient! Keep in mind, this is not a carbon copy clone of the original shop. Part of what makes Tomita so great is that the master, Osama Tomita, is always there making sure every detail is perfect. This is what the Japanese call a shokunin (職人) or craftsman. People will wait up to four hours at the head shop for what is arguably the number one shop in all of Japan. Tomita at the airport, on the other hand, uses an off-site industrial kitchen. The whole thing was overseen by Tomita-san, but the experience is nonetheless different. That aside, this is one amazing bowl. I've had airport ramen from Sapporo to Kyushu, and this one is legit. Thick tonkotsu gyokai soup, heavy on the dried fish flavors. Underlying umami ...
Read more

山為食堂 (Yamatame Shokudo in Wakayama)

Image
山為食堂 Wakayama is known for this style. Heavy pork tonkotsu soup with equally heavy, often local, shoyu seasoning. This particular shop, Yamatame Shokudo, is picture perfect, and a great way to start a local ramen tour. This shop has been open since 1953. The most famous shop in Wakayama is Ideshoten , a must-hit for anyone on a ramen mission in the area. Keep in mind, though, that there are dozens of other quality shops around. If you need a guide (and you probably do), check out the Wakayama Ramen Taxi. They will have you sorted in no time! This was part of a trip I took to Wakayama to check out the ramen taxi. The entire writeup is here: http://www.ramenadventures.com/2017/12/wakayama-ramen-adventure.html Huge thanks to My Secret Wakayama for the opportunity. https://www.mysecretwakayama.com/ 和歌山県和歌山市福町12 Wakayama-ken, Wakayama-shi, Fukumachi 12 10 minute walk from Wakayama-shi Station Open 11:00-17:00 Closed Sundays
Read more