So cal Ramen

I reviewd ramen maniacs list again, as I've been travling throughout orange county and Los Angeles learning about ramen shops. My father joined me on some of my trips and after a lot of ramen consuption we have made our conclusions.


To begin with so you know what I'm talking about, my rating system is different that the sites. Certain things I find more important and others less important. For instance, i don't care about the ambiance, I could care less if it's a picture of mt fuji or some crazy guy puts up a picture of hiroki tojo. If the Ramen is good, the ramen shop is good.

My list is as follows;

Soup-this is huge, this is the bread and butter of the ramen maker. Does he make his own soup? How long does he simmer his stock? 1 day? 3 days?? It has to have good consistency, it has to be a the point, where if you add just a little bit of anything it really affects the soup. Miso or kara miso curry and flavors like that do not get sampled when I eat ramen. the flavor is so strong that you cant screw it up. Do not talk to me about good soup if you're eating miso ramen.

Noodles- These things need to have some kick. They will always absorb the flavor of the soup but they should have some texture themselves. Old style ramen is when an extra egg is used to make the noodles richer. Modern ramen tends to change and modify the noodle for a certain desired affect. Here in california the water thats typically used is not as available, however, the noodles should still be as the italians say 'el dente' to the tooth. It should not be soggy, it should not be to fat, but it should have body.

Chashu- This topic I'm putting in here, because time and time again my ramen experiece is ruined by bad pieces of chashu. This will ruin the entire bowl of ramen. Char siu is a chinese blend of spices that is used to cure pork. Japanese (with most things) took this recipe and changed it. They took out the spice kept the flavor and put it in their ramen. Chashu pork, should fall apart as soon as you pick it up with your chopsticks. It should have a small bit of fat on it and it should melt in your mouth because it's so soft. It's such a simple ingrrew edient in the ramen but it makes the biggest impact.

The rest of the ingredients- its hard to screw these up, you add them at the end make sure they're cooked thoroughly. Simple right? You'd be suprised how many places screw this up

Gyoza- This kind of goes hand and hand with good ramen. The great ramen shops typically make great ramen. I don't want a nub, it needs to be big, it needs to be full of flavor it needs to be unique. So far none of the ramen shops can do it, dim sum places have the best gyoza. It makes me want to cry cus gyoza goes so well with great ramen.

With all that being said, between my father and i visiting 6 out of the 10 best ramen shops in southern california, with intent to visit the last 4, We both think ramen in southern calfiornia is not great, it's not special its lacking. Thats right, I said it, the Japanese ex-pat's agree, the nissei, the sansei, or anyone else that came to america to make ramen have not done a good job. I guess that if you're making great ramen in Japan, you don't have a reason to bring that trade to america. I'd very much like to see it change, I hope you enjoy the southern california ramen, because ramen is good, esepcially when it's not make made out of a package, but if you want great ramen you have to go to Japan.