Tag Archives: ramenporn

Brooklyn, Fusion, Ramen, Restaurant Reviews

Talde

November 25, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

NOTE: THIS JOINT IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I primarily came here because I was frantic to try the Thanksgiving ramen that was recently added to the seasonal menu. We ended up trying the kimchi ramen too, as well as a few other items, because, well, we think Dale Talde is pretty awesome from the handful of times we’ve met him and from his kickass appearances on the Top Chef shows.

I started with a massive 33oz Asahi beer. Manly.

Then we had some wings. These were sweet and spicy. They had a nice batter but that got soggy due to too much sauce without enough crisp underneath. The flavor was excellent with the cilantro and peanuts on top, and the buttermilk ranch dipping sauce, but I was hoping for a bit more crispiness.

The Thanksgiving ramen was a turkey stock filled with wavy egg noodles, sliced turkey, sliced stuffing, cranberries, mushrooms, and spinach dumplings. It was then that was topped with gravy.

spinach dumpling

The flavor was unique and definitely Thanksgiving-ish. The tangy cranberries gave it a burst of brightness that you typically get from pickled items in a traditional ramen dish, and the dumplings were a nice bonus that was not expected. I just wished there was dark meat along with the sliced white meat.

The kimchi ramen was spicy and bold. The pork was tasty, and the kimchi was pickled spicy style. A nice bowl of noodles (also wavy egg noodles). However this bold flavor may be a bit overwhelming to have an entire bowl for yourself.

Last was the Filipino pork dish. Essentially this was thin sliced pork meat, non-expertly grilled and served in a clay pot that wasn’t hot enough to get the rice crispy, yet just warm enough to sap the liquids out of the wet pork to make a puddle of meat juice on the bottom. That made for wet, soupy rice. The “6 minute egg” (aka poached egg) was nice but it only made for an even more soupy bowl of rice. We decided this dish would be better if we took it home and fried it up in a hot cast iron pan to try to get some texture into the rice. Not a successful dish. Sounded so good from the menu description though.

TALDE
369 7th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Ramen, Upper East Side

Mei-Jin Ramen

November 8, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I saw a write-up about this joint that mentioned their beef broth. Beef broth seems to be a pretty rare item in the NYC ramen world. I only know of three (and a half) places that offer it: Takashi (midnight ramen), Ganso (which I have not tried yet), Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen (this is the half mark, because it is technically not ramen), and this joint, Mei-Jin.

So I ordered their namesake ramen, which is a beef flavored miso broth. It was nice and creamy, and had a great beefy flavor with just the right amount of kick to it. The wavy egg noodles were cooked perfectly al dente as well. The only down side was that one of my slices of beef was too tough to even chew, so I left it in the bowl at the end. Bummer.

Another good thing about this place is the space – even as it was getting busy in there the place was large enough to sit more people than most ramen spots, as it has three rooms.

Here they are slinging the shit up:

UPDATE 9/1/17

I stopped in with my wife for a quick bowl of ramen. We started with the fried lotus chips. These were tasty, but overpriced at $6.

My wife got a really interesting curry-soy pork ramen. Delicious.

I went with the washu beef ramen, which is make with a beef bone stock and slices of wagyu beef. This was hefty at $22 a pop. While I may not get it again based on price, I am really glad I did get it, because it was one of the most flavorful beef ramen bowls I’ve had in a while.

MEI-JIN
1574 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10028

Jin

October 19, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

I had heard good things about Jin, a ramen joint way up on Broadway near 125th Street. My wife and I were on our way home from a trip to the botanical garden, so we stopped off for a bowl.

It was pretty good. I had the tonkotsu broth with the spicy shit on the side. Noodles were a little over cooked, but the components and broth were all pretty good. Even with just a little bit of the spicy blob, this thing packed some kick. The spicy paste is also rich with a fermented garlic flavor as well. I’ve had better, softer meat in other places, and some of the mushrooms were a bit chewy, but otherwise I did enjoy it.

My wife had the green curry coconut chicken ramen, which was really nice. Different, spicy, and lots of flavor:

On another trip I’d like to try the kim chi ramen.

JIN
462 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10024

Chelsea, Food Halls, Ramen

Mokbar

September 24, 2014 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Today I officially published my ramen page, and I guess it was off to a good start, because the Mokbar Twitter account responded to my tweet about it, telling me I should give their food a try. I asked for a recommendation, and they suggested the cold brisket ramen in tomato broth. It sounded very enticing, but it was ultimately no longer available (I guess it was a seasonal item). No matter though; the rest of the menu was saliva-inducing anyway, and there were several other things I wanted to try.

The joint is tucked away in a nice little corner of Chelsea Market, a great place to explore and do some food tasting. They basically have bar seating only, but it’s not too cramped. Here’s a look at the table setting and some views of the kitchen:

My wife wanted one of the alcohol slushees, but they were out of those too. Doh! We settled on these:

I ended up ordering the classic pork broth ramen. It had great depth, a strong garlic flavor, firm wavy noodles, and yummy mushrooms. I ordered a poached egg to go with it. They forgot it at first, but the problem was quickly remedied. Take a look:

As you may know, I do not like my scallions cut in this way, but these were easy enough to brush aside, so not a big deal. I wish there was a little bit more pork in the bowl, because it was so damn good!

My wife had the chicken thigh ramen with kimchi cucumber. This was a thicker broth, but the soup itself was lighter than mine.

We also grabbed an order of the kimchi trio. I thought this was a little pricey at $12 for three small dishes of stuff that is typically free at most other Korean joints:

The first was pickled daikon, which was nice and crunchy with great spicy flavor:

Next was kimchi cucumber, also very good, and also in the chicken ramen that my wife had:

Last was a bacon cabbage kimchi, which was really nice and smoky.

The damage was a bit high for a ramen joint, but we did sample a lot of stuff. I thought it was worth it to try something different and unique. I definitely recommend this place for those of you who are looking for a new twist to ramen. Everything was really tasty!

MOKBAR
Chelsea Market
75 9th Ave
New York, NY 10011

carnivore connoisseur