GoGo noodles

I picked these noodles up at the Korean supermarket on my last trip to San Diego. I’ve never seen potato noodles before so it really caught my eye. The soup base was nothing out of the ordinary but the extra chewy noodles were highly enjoyable. Another good thing about these noodles are the big pieces of dehydrated vegetables, among them were chili peppers, green onions and shitake mushrooms so I didn’t really have to add a lot. Inspired by the serving suggestion, I julienned the green onions which was a nice change in texture. A little more work but worth the effort.

Since the Myojo ramen soy sauce flavor was sooo good, I had to try the soybean flavor. This had a nice mild miso flavor and the broth was smooth and rich. Again, the noodles tasted as close to fresh as instant ramen can get. The texture was perfectly al dente and chewy. I came pretty close to having all the toppings in the picture and added a little extra….a pat of butta! I’ve seen butter on the ramen menus and decided to try it at home and it’s so sinfully good. I would highly recommend it.

Overall, this was a very disappointing experience. You would think that the ramen should be pretty good if it’s part of the store name. They had some interesting ramen varieties like fried crab leg (still in shell) with roe ramen, combination mushroom, seafood ramen and ma po tofu ramen. The only ramen that looked appetizing was the crab leg ramen but it was still in the shell and we didn’t feel like doing the work. We ended up ordering the nori with corn ramen which turned out to be okay. The broth wasn’t half bad but the noodles were awful. I’ve had instant ramen noodles that tasted better. We also ordered the agadashi tofu as a starter and that was good. The batter wasn’t gooey and the tofu was soft. Ironically, the tofu was the best part of the meal at Genki Ramen.

Agadashi Tofu

Nori & Corn Ramen

Genki Ramen
3944 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94118
415.752.2663

Los Angeles is the best city to experience great Vietnamese cuisine. This past weekend we were in L.A. and couldn’t leave without stopping by our favorite Vietnamese restaurant Bordard’s. We’ve only been to the Westminster location (the one behind the 99 cent store). The food is awesome but the service sort of sucks and you feel like you’re eating in a cafeteria. On this trip, we accidently stumbled upon their newest location in Garden Grove. Turns out that this is their more upscale restaurant. The restaurant had a nice warm ambiance with modern touches. The first thing that struck us as odd was their incredible service! Not only was our waiter helpful and attentive, the entire staff was amazing. I have to admit that we were a little concerned that the food wasn’t going to be as good as their Westminster location but to our relief, it was! I’m not sure if the prices are more expensive here but we are willing to pay extra for the ambiance and the service.


Nem Noung Coun – Roasted Pork Spring Rolls
Droool. These are the best spring rolls ever with the best dipping sauce ever. Rice paper filled with nem noung which is Vietnamese grilled sweet pork patty, mint, lettuce, carrots, cucumber and a fried roll of egg roll wrapper for a nice crunch. And the sauce is incredible, I’ve never experienced sauce like this, it’s so good you can drink it. It’s a complex eggy gravy sauce with so many layers of flavors. It’s a little fishy, garlicky, spicy and sweet. I think there’s even bits of meat in there.

Bun Ca – Fish Noodle Soup
You don’t see this dish often on Vietnamese menus so any time it’s offered, I order it. However, not every place that makes this dish make it well. Brodard’s makes the tastiest fish noodle soup.

Vit Xao Mang – Fresh Duck Noodle Soup

Brodard Chateau
9100 Trask Avenue
Garden Grove, California 92844
Telephone 714.899.8273

If you are a fan of Nissin UFO Yakisoba, you’ll definitely like these noodles. As you can see, the instructions are printed in English and even better, there are pictures! I had so much fun making these noodles because I felt like I was making Yakisoba noodles from scratch.


After I carefully peeled back the cover exactly to the dotted line, I found 4 seasoning packets, one of which I had never seen before: mustard mayonnaise! Who would have thought that the secret ingredient to Yakisoba is mustard mayonnaise?? Yum. Another nice surprise was when I poured out the contents from the dry vegetable package to find such huge pieces.


So after the noodles and dry vegetables cook, there’s a nifty built in spout where you pour the water out without sacrificing a single noodle. Sooo cooool!!

BEFORE

AFTER – Not only were these noodles really fun to make, they tasted so good! The noodles were perfectly al dente and the mustard and mayo added an extra creaminess that I didn’t find with the Nissin UFO Yakisoba.

*Product of Japan

Buy a 12 pack right now:

Okay, don’t laugh but this was my attempt to make Laotian rice noodle soup. I realize now that the noodles are a wee bit thicker than it’s supposed to be….but considering that this was my second time making the noodles from scratch, I was happy that these turned out edible. The ingredients (rice flour, tapioca starch and boiling water) are simple but making the noodles are a challenge. Aside from not cutting the noodles the right size, I don’t think I kneaded the dough for as long as I should have because the texture was a little off. Despite the sub par noodles, the broth came out pretty tasty and was also simple to make. I started by adding a whole stew chicken to a pot of water. If you don’t have a stew chicken, you can use thigh meat. Then ginger, a stalk of lemongrass goes in the pot and some salt. A neat little trick that I learned is to pound the stalk of lemongrass to release the aromas and tie into a knot before you add to the stock. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours. The longer the better. So simple but soo good.

Don’t be fooled by the word soba, these are not buckwheat noodles. Okinawa soba is just the style of ramen from Okinawa! That’s all I know. The soup has a strong bonito & seaweed flavor and the noodles are different in that they are flatter, thicker and a bit chewier. I’m not sure why but I really like the wavy shape, it makes it extra slurpy and fun.

*Product of Japan

I’ve heard rumors about ramen in a can and never thought I would actually be able to try it anytime soon….UNTIL…Ayako was kind enough to bring me back a can on a recent trip to Japan. It’s been sitting on the dining room table for quite a while now. I guess I’ve been waiting for the right moment to pop it open…and so tonight…I guess it was time. The few words on the can that were in English declares that the ramen can be eaten hot or cold. I decided to eat them hot. My first impression when I poured the noodles into the pot was that it looked like rubber bands. And my first impression was right because it had the texture of rubber bands (if rubber bands were edible). Anthony researched and found that canned ramen is generally made from a type of yam used to make Konnyaku jelly. The reason that they use yam is so the noodles have a longer shelf life. This was a very interesting experience that I’m not sure is for everyone. The soup wasn’t bad, it tasted like chicken broth or canned Chinese shark fin’s soup if you can imagine that. There were 2 slivers of bamboo and a chunk of real chicken (that was dry). I have mixed emotions about canned ramen. It wasn’t as good and fun as I expected. Maybe I would feel different about it if I had eaten it after it rolled out of a vending machine piping hot.

*Product of Japan

I was in San Diego last week and found a Japanese supermarket called Mistuwa Marketplace. As I perused the instant noodle isle the Marutai Nagahama ramen caught my eye. I was enticed by the picture of the creamy white broth and when I picked up the package to read the ingredients I was intrigued to see pork oil listed instead of palm oil. After some online researching I found that Nagahama ramen is basically pork flavored ramen. Hakata ramen is a Chinese style noodle that is thinner and firmer that was created in Hakata City on the island of Kyushu. Apparently, Nagahama ramen is essentially the same thing as Hakata ramen, Nagahama is the name of the district in Hakata where this delicious concoction was created. Another key characteristic of Nagahama ramen is it’s rich concentrated broth which is made from pork bones. I can only imagine what the fresh version of Nagahama ramen tastes like because Marutai’s instant version kicks ass.