Ippudo 一風堂

The visit to Ippudo definitely warrants coming out from the hiatus of food-blogging. It's been almost six months! Did you miss me? Finally got to try out this restaurant! It's been on my list for years...thanks to Scam for organizing! Anywho, Ippudo was rated on Yelp with 4 stars from thousands of reviews. And this is yet another one. Some background on Ippudo. It's a Japanese Ramen Brasserie, also known as Hakata Ippūdo, is a ramen chain that first opened in the US back in 2008. It was expected that the wait would be long...but little did we know it was 3 hours! Maybe because it's a Friday during dinner rush in NYC? Good thing we got each had 2+ shots from a bar in the area, and then hung out at the Ippudo bar, so we were having a good time. This had better be the best ramen I've ever had.


The sign was unique. Everything else around Ippudo had cement, but its store front had bamboo (or was it wood?). The characters in red says Hakata, and the black characters say Ippudo.


The wall behind us. I can't read the characters, but thought it was an interesting decor.


My cocktail: Calpico High. Tastes just like the Japanese Calpico yogurt drink, but spiked! The alcohol taste was very light, but after the shots from the first bar, it took me a while to drink even half of the glass.


The pointy chopsticks with pointy ends. I usually don't like using pointy chopsticks, but these surprisingly didn't tire my hands out even though they felt weighted.


The soup spoons they distributed to us. They look more like serving spoons.


Appetizer: Hakata Buns

Yelp reviews seem to have more mentions of these buns than the ramen itself. They remind me of the Vietnamese Tacos I had at the Cheesecake Factory a few weeks ago, but the pork was definitely tastier. It tasted like a spicy version of the Chinese pork belly dish. There's a piece of crispy lettuce sandwiched in between as well, which took away some of the oilyness from the meat. The buns themselves were also very soft and fluffy.


Appetizer: Avocado and Tofu Tartar - Avocado and tofu with kelp and seaweed, served with sesame and kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) dressing.


Close-up

The avocado and tofu textures are very similar, and the crunchiness from the kelp and seaweed helps adds contrast when you put everything in your mouth. At first I thought the kuromitsu was soy sauce, and the sesame was peanut butter. The dressings made this appetizer perfect.


Akamaru Modern - 'The original tonkotsu' soup noodle with Ippudo's special sauce, pork belly chashu, cabage, kikurage, scallions, miso paste & fragrant garlic oil.

I like the soup base with a strong pork flavor, and the red glob of miso wasn't overpowering. The pork was also very tender.


Shiromaru Hakata Classic - 'The original tonkotsu' soup noodle with pork loin chashu, kikurage, menma, 1/2 boiled egg, red pickled ginger, sesame & scallions.

The half boiled egg tasted very smooth! I wish I could make eggs like that at home.


Miso Ramen - Soy bean paste flavored ramen noodles in tonkotsu soup with pork belly chashu, cabbage, spinach, manma, ginger & scallions

We were allowed to order separate toppings and additional servings of ramen for a lot less than the original bowl, only catch is you can't finish your soup when you order seconds. Somehow, we forgot to order dessert.

The final verdict...would I go back to Ippudo? Yes. Maybe not until I try the other ramen places in the NY and NJ area though. But the drive into the city and the wait significantly brought down the points I would've given to Ippudo. Good thing we found free street parking, otherwise it would've been lower. I would say it's better than Santoka and Batten. Most likely the best ramen I've had so far.

Gobble Gobble

As one of the two holidays my parents have off in a year, we've decided to have lunch at Mitsuwa and buy groceries for dinner tonight at HMart in Little Ferry. First, let's start with pictures of us that we took with my awesome camera!!!!

My parents...


My brother...


Me...


My brother & me...


And now for the food!
Surprisingly, Boom Boom Chicken was open! Got an order of chicken wings from them, half mild, half spicy. The spicy flavor was too much for me, so I just stuck with the mild side. It's probably the best chicken wings ever! It took about 25-30minutes from the time we called in to order to when we actually got the food. But it was worth the wait. It came with a side of Korean pickled radish and a can of Coke. We got an order of B - large "Gold Chicken" that has wings and arms. I still can't get over why they call it "arms"...hahaha. Mild ones are not spicy at all, and the outside is so so crispy...almost like a cracker. According to the description in the store, the mild flavor is with soy sauce and garlic, spicy is sweet and hot. The chicken gave off strong sweet and garlic aroma in the car, and not the bad kind either!



On the way to Mitsuwa, we stopped by the Parisienne bakery on Main St., just down the road from Boom Boom Chicken in Fort Lee. There's a Beard Papa cream puffs shop in there, so we got some puffs. Too bad they didn't have any special flavors today, only the regular kind. In the bakery, we got some vanilla pudding, cream bread, and pear pie.

Here's the other bread we bought from Parisienne bakery. It's got vanilla/regular cream sandwiched in the middle on one half, and mocha cream on the other half. My cousin loves it so much she asked us to buy two for her.


So we finally got to Mitsuwa...there were a decent amount of people there, but not nearly as much as the amount of people that shows up during their special fairs.
In any case, here is our lunch! My dad, brother, and I all got ramen from Santoka. Their ramen came with bamboo, seawood, scallions, one piece of naruto, and a pickled plum. The soup flavors available were Shio, Shoyu, Miso, or Spicy Miso. I ordered the regular Shio (salt) Ramen that came with two pieces of pork.


My brother got the Toroniku Shio Ramen...special pork cheek meat that almost melts in your mouth. I think that's why they put the meat on a separate plate.


My dad got the Shio Ramen + salmon roe rice set...


My mom got a platter from China Table Tokyo Hanten. The Tofu Steak + Seafood. We got to see them make the tofu steak, they put it on the flat grill, add some water, then cover to let it sizzle so the steam can cook the tofu while it browns it...almost like how you'd make gyoza. The green + white strips were seaweed salad and shredded radish with mayo...my mom at first thought it was vermicelli. The small cup next to it (even though it looks like tea, was actually soup). The tofu was a little bland, it could use some seasoning. The seafood was a little too saucy and on the sweet side...nonetheless, my parents said it went very well with rice.


After lunch, we walked around Mitsuwa. Stopped by the bakery within Mitsuwa: St. Honore bakery. Of course, there special Boloniya bread was sold out for the day. The bread is also fluffy, and has a hint of vanilla extract. The price recently increased by $1, but it still sells out everyday! They also limit people to buy only 2 per group. I placed an order for a Mont Blanc Christmas cake. It's normally $30, but if we order before 12/15, then it's $24! So we'll have to pick up the cake on 12/24...hopefully I'll remember because I paid for the whole thing already!

Tried a new ice cream item today..milk tea popicles. The packaging was super nice...it even says "milk tea ice" on it.


Here's a picture of the individual popicle...it was very cold. But tasted like rich, creamy milk tea. The inside is filled with cream, although I can never bite into a popicle because it's so cold.


A picture of some of the snacks we bought. Why does Japan get all the cool KitKat flavors? Grape? And McFlurry?! The HiChew candy were on sale...and the seafood-shaped crackers just looked cool!


Also got these snacks...Pizza flavored Doritos. The packaging says Cream Cheese and Smoke Fresh Ham "Italiana" flavored. Also had brown sugared Cheetos...never tried those before either. I like how Japanese once again has better flavored American products. The crackers underneath are similar to the ones we used to get, except it's got assorted apple and honey flavors (I think that's why there's apples and honey on the packaging, right?)


Ahh...this one we bought last week from somewhere, and forgot to take a picture. Pancake flavored koala bear cookies!!!


We went to HMart to buy food for tonight. We are having Korean BBQ at home! Bought a grill top for our gas burner that we use for hotpot usually. More pictures to come later from dinner.