GoGo noodles

noodle lovers of the world unite!

Gardena, CA: Umemura Home Made Ramen Noodle

April 27th, 2009

Woke up late and missed breakfast…AGAIN, so I was starving! What better way to satiate ones hunger than with home made ramen noodles? I’m not sure why it was so hard finding this place, maybe it was the growling stomach that distracted our focus. When we finally arrived, I was happy to see that 98% of the customers were speaking Japanese…good sign. Scanned the menu and the umani ramen caught my eye….and thought to myself…”so that’s what that was!” The crab omelette ramen at Gyoza No Osho in Hawaii with the gravy on top is umani style. I love learning new noodle facts on my noodle adventures.

This is the umani ramen, topped with an oyster sauce gravy and stir fried vegetables. When the waitress set the bowl in front of me, I got a big whiff of bamboo and was a little fearful that I had made a bad choice. But to my relief, the broth did not have a strong bamboo taste. Overall, the umani ramen was reminiscent of chinese chow mein, it has the same toasty wok flavor. The noodles were delicious! If you look closely, you can see the inconsistency of the fresh noodles. Umemura gets extra kudos for cooking a perfect egg! A first for me.

In contrast, the soup of the cha siu ramen didn’t smell like bamboo but it tasted like bamboo. Besides the mild bamboo flavor, the shoyu broth was pretty darn good. Overall, both broths had a very clean and wholesome taste. You can tell from the richness and complexity of the soup that the ingredients they use are fresh.

To top it all off, the gyoza was fantastic! The skin was thin and the filling was not processed beyond recognition. You could see bits of cabbage and meat and the slight imperfections were a clear indication that these were homemade.