GoGo noodles

My dear globe trotting friend is the one who introduced me to this restaurant or I would have never found it otherwise. Tani’s Kitchen is tucked away in a small strip mall in Daly City and only serves a handful of patrons at a time, I think there was room for 20 people? Because the restaurant is so small it makes so much sense that this restaurant predominately serves to go orders.

When we were seated the first thing I noticed were all the signs! No cell phones please! I think I’ve seen this sign at the Japanese dollar stores.

A lot of rules for a such a little restaurant! No shopping carts please! I guess that’s been a big problem in the past? Love it!
Curry Udon:

I was in the mood for curry udon so I decided to indulge myself and I indulged indeed (say that five times fast). What I really like about the curry udon are the noodles! The udon noodles are sorta flat which seemed to hold on to the curry broth better than the round udon that I’m familiar with. The curry broth was also very delicious because the consistency wasn’t too thick or too thin – it was just right! Ooooo…and it was spicy but not like tongue numbing hot it was slow and gradual spicy. It’s the kind of deep curry spice that slowly creeps up on you with every bite and then before you know it you have a runny nose – all characteristics of a yummy bowl of curry udon.
Salmon Skin Salad:

Salmon skin salad was goood. The salmon skin was crispy, the flesh was fatty and savory and went so well with the light tangy dressing. This dish made for a great appetizer and would’ve been great as a main dish too.
Fish Tempura Special:

We were very fortunate to get the last serving of this fish tempura special.

 

 
I began another afternoon standing in front of the noodle closet trying to figure out which noodle to try. Finally, this udon…or U-dong as it says on the packaging caught my eye. I put a bit of a chinese twist on these korean noodles by adding a tea egg. There were also some tasty looking mushrooms in the fridge (I think these are trumpet royales?) so I decided to add to the udon as a meat substitution. When I opened the noodle package, it was the usual, there were two packets, one seasoning and one dehydrated assortment of veggies and sesame seeds. And same cooking routine for all korean instant noodles, I cooked the noodles for an extra 5-7 minutes because I like the noodles more tender (korean instant noodles tend to be thick and chewy.) I had no clue what “pojangmacha” means so I did a little research on the web and found out that a pojangmacha is a small tented restaurant or a restaurant on wheels that sell a variety of inexpensive snack foods. Most popular as a late night destination for snacking and drinking. FUN! I wish there were pojangmachas in the states. Now that I know what pojangmacha is, I still can’t figure out exactly what makes this “oriental” style though. Well, whatever it is, it’s mild and a bit seafoody. Definitely has a strong onion taste as well.

Woke up starving one morning…er…afternoon and what better way to satisfy my hunger than with a tasty bowl of noodles? After standing in front of the the noodle closet for what seemed like forever because I could not decide, (everything looked so good!) I finally chose the spicy seafood flavor udon from Nongshim. The fun thing about this noodle is the round shape that fits perfectly in the pot. As with all Korean brand instant noodles, I find the noodles are on the very al dente side so I like to cook for an additional 5-7 minutes. This gets the noodes soft and chewy just the way I like it. The additional cooking time allows the noodles to soak up a lot of the broth. Because these are udon style noodles, they are a bit thicker which makes it a perfect broth soaker upper. Yum. The broth has a very strong seafood taste but the spicy is more on the mild side. The dominate flavors that come through are squid and garlic. I added only a handful of dried shitake to the soup and garnished with purple cabbage and green onions.

I love instant bowl and cup noodles! So easy to make, cooks fast and no mess to clean up. I had that msg craving this afternoon so I went to the noodle basket that I got on my birthday to see what I could cook up. As I dug through the basket, I found quite the variety of treats, there were filipino pancit noodles, korean noodles, vietnamese pho ga….and then I hit gold! A japanese curry udon bowl! Drooool….my mouth watered as the boiling water hit the seasoning powder and the aroma of delicious curry wafted up my nostrils. The wait was excruciating but finally…it was time to enjoy. Peeled back the lid to find that the soup was not as thick as the picture on the lid. Noodles were wide with a soft, almost spongy texture that soaked up the oh so good curry broth. I liked the big pieces of dehydrated carrots, scallions and pork! Yum yum.

Donated to the cause by Nat and not attacked by her cat. Sunday morning before the hangover kicks in, I’m hungry and want a quick fix. I chose these noodles because all you have to do is pour in hot water, cover and you’re done! No pot, no bowl, no mess to clean up. The hot water dispenser is my best friend. I peeled back the cover and was surprised to see such a thick piece of gluten or tofu wafer or whatever it is. The aroma of bonito filled my nose as the water hit the seasoning. After about 5 minutes, I peeled off the entire cover and found a tasty meal. The tofu thing was a little sweet and absorbed a lot of the broth. I like the noodles a lot because they are wide and slurpy. Thanks Nat! These were awesome.

Sister, this is my first blog about udon so I dedicate this to you. Unfortunately, Chikara hot & spicy brand noodles were not great. Anthony complained that there wasn’t enough msg which I sort of agree with. Also, to my disappointment, the soup was not hot & spicy as the package claims. I rate udon by how soft and chewy the noodles are and despite the fact that I cooked the noodles for about 15 minutes, they still didn’t turn out as soft and chewy as I prefer. Even though I doctored these noodles up it was still OK….edible…but nothing to write home about. The truth is that I have yet to find really good instant udon except for this one time when I bought a package at a random asian grocery store, the problem is that I can’t remember the name of the brand OR the store I bought it from. Oh well, my quest continues for the best instant udon noodles.

The toppings I added were onion, cooked cabbage, chilis, daikon and a raw egg. I don’t usually add raw eggs to instant noodles but since the noodles were cooking for so long, the soup was hot enough to cook the egg.

*Product of Japan