On the short train ride from Sakae to Nagoya, I talk myself out of a second bowl of ramen for the day. Then on the stairs leading towards Nagoya Station concourse from the Higashiama subway, pangs of hunger strike me coinciding with the realisation that I've missed my connecting train. Ignoring the fact that my complexion's already considerably oilier than thismorning, surely thanks to my Kuma-chan pilgrimage at lunch time, I decide to pay a visit to the ramen professor.
Now if you can imagine a bespectacled Doc from Back to the Future churning out ramen rather than wormhole seeking Deloreans, also much less chatty and super fast and efficient, you'll have a reasonably acurate mental sketch of this legendary Nagoya pavement chef.
To ensure you comprehend my word picture, here you can watch him in his element (or rather hunched over gas rings) whipping up a ramen typhoon, oodles of noodles, menma, charshu revealed from trick wooden drawers all for a mere ¥500 a bowl.
So how does it taste? Classic syoyu ramen, springy hosomen noodles, pipping hot steaming in the chilled Friday eening air. I drank all my soup. 'Cause I'm a guts. I'm now on the (next) train home and crazy thirsty. But you're not meant to drink all the soup, so my bad.
The ramen prof gets 11/10 for gruffness, 12/10 for sheer uber tornadic (typhoonic?) speed 10/10 for lifting the spirits of work weary Nagoyans on their way home. 7/10 for the ramen eating experience itself.
I always wanted to try this place, but never quite got around to it. If I'd have known I'd be chipping in to help purchase a new flux capacitor to return Doc to his own time, I'd have been there every night!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the inevitable 'Fushimi Ramen' review! (You know, that place. Ippudo, or something... Why we called it 'Fushimi Ramen' is beyond me. It's actually closer to Osu, no?)
Closer to Sakae I guess. Cheers for your comment. I hope you're keeping some kind of record of your life and times in Ol' Blighty.
ReplyDeleteRE: Ippudo, I'll write it up sooner or later. A couple of joints in the 'kaich are ahead in the queue. I also want to pay a visit to Robot Ramen in Osu: http://www.ramenadventures.com/2009/11/robot-ramen-in-nagoya.html Take care in the land of the low grey sky, J.