Ramen! Ramen! Ramen!

We went to Mitsuwa again yesterday. Even though the percentage of gaijin is higher than when we first started going, it's still like a vacation into another culture. For the Japanese businessmen it's designed to be as much like home as possible. Pleasantly, for us, it still has the charm of the reverse effect.

I usually play it safe, with fried things and rice, like a version of chicken katsu. However, this time we were in the mood to for something new and ate at the ramen shop, Santoka in particular.

I had the Tokusen Toroniku Ramen. Ramen in pork bone stock with "special" pork on the side; cheek meat. All the elements, most lightly smoked, were on the side; good for a finicky eater. The stock was amazing; fatty, creamy, and vaguely fishy. You just knew it couldn't be good for you, which made it good. I also tried the miso soup, which was good though probably healthier. They're famous for their salt soup, but we didn't try that. The pork was melt in your mouth. I even ate most of my veggies. I'll get it again. Probably from now on. It was really good.

Anime geek confession time. While I wanted to have Japanese food prepared for Japanese people, it didn't hurt that it looked almost exactly like what the cartoon character Naruto lives on. Complete with the little swirly fish cake used as a garnish. The name naruto can refer to that particular garnish and there are many elements that the character creator added to allude to his favorite food. The ramen shop in the show is taken from a real place that the creator enjoyed in school.