Bay Area Menu Files: Ramen

Tanpopo (Japantown, San Francisco, CA)

Much like Dandelions, a Relic from my Childhood

I visited here with friends early last year as a day trip to San Francisco for YL’s birthday. It was late afternoon and we had just finished exploring the Exploratorium. And we were dying for a bite. Did we mention we came extremely early in the morning because it was free museum day for the Exploratorium?

Anything to save a couple bucks and satisfy the hunger pangs.

So we headed off to Japantown, with our stomachs leading the way.

We ended up at Tanpopo, which was miraculously still open for lunch, even though it was creeping close to 3:00 PM at this point.

Tanpopo is a small restaurant with a handful of tables and a countertop for solo diners and people who just likes interacting with the servers there or watching the television while they’re eating. Even though it was late in the afternoon, the restaurant was roughly 60% full with families, group of friends, couples and a few elderly couples.

The restaurant is bright and friendly with grass green walls and dark tables. The servers went with a similar color scheme with their bright yellow or should I say dandelion colored shirts and black aprons.

We were seated near the front of the restaurant, in front of a window, which gave us a good view of the outside. While they’re well known for their ramen, it was a hot afternoon, so I wasn’t in the mood for steaming hot noodles.

Instead I went for the Hiyashi Chuka. Hiyashi Chuka literally translates into “chilled Chinese,” which makes me think that this originated from the Chinese’s Liang Mian (“cold noodles”).

Tanpopo describes it as a “cold noodle salad with chashu pork, egg, cucumber, carrot, crab stick, fishcake and red ginger.” It all comes together with a tart sauce and you mix it well before you dig in. Hot mustard is optional if you want a kick in your noodles as well as the lemon wedge for you know the zing!

The dish looked as beautiful as it tasted, with the vibrant colors and the different textures. The noodles were chewy and cooling and paired well with the finely sliced toppings and sauce. For such a late lunch, it most definitely hit the spot.

TIP: There’s a $5 minimum order per person.

Next time, I’ll try their ramen. Since that’s what they’re known for. Where do you usually eat when you’re in the Jtown area?

Tanpopo

1740 Buchanan St

San Francisco, CA 94115

1Comments

, by Amy

In Bay Area, Food

Ramen Seas (Sunnyvale, CA)

Ramen Seas, Ramen Do

What do you do when you’re indecisive? And can’t seem to decide what restaurant you should review?

You throw all the names into your TARDIS cup and let "Sexy" decide for you.

I'm finding many ways of using this gift from PC.

Or at least that’s what I did.

Drum roll please!

And the lucky winner was Ramen Seas! TADAH!

So earlier this year, (if I have to estimate, some time in March), my friends and I wanted ramen and decided to try out Ramen Seas in downtown Sunnyvale. It was a Friday night and downtown Sunnyvale was full of families and couples wandering down the streets.

When we arrived, the restaurant was at capacity, so we had to wait for a table. Perfect time to browse the menu outside and figure out what we wanted to try. Since they’re called Ramen Seas, they’re known for seafood based broth over the more typical pork bone broth.

Once seated, I was able to take in the entire restaurant. The interior feels very warm and welcoming, with the dark tables and walls. The color combination between the black and red gives everything a calming and welcoming effect. Up against the right side of the restaurant are huge blackboards with menu items written in liquid chalk alongside flyers in blocky Japanese brush strokes.

Hidden under the blanket of bonito flakes.

We started off with the takoyaki as an appetizer. Six piping hot octopus balls with a very generous amount of bonito flakes on top. In fact, there was so much bonito flakes that I could not shoot a decent photo. All you see is bonito flakes and some vague resemblance of takoyaki on the bottom. There were good sized chunks of octopus in each of the takoyaki and cooked to perfection.

And now for the main star of the show, she needs no introduction: ramen.

I chose the small miso ramen, which has a rich garlicky broth with chashu, egg, bamboo sprouts, spinach, wood ear mushroom, green onions and sesame seed.

And well? It was definitely rich and garlicky. The RICH should be underlined and bolded because it really hits you during that first sip. It’s also heavy and oilier than I would’ve like. The flavor is strong and bold though. There’s no complaints in the “lack of flavor” department, but I found myself overwhelmed a few bites in.

The soup has so much umami that it coats my mouth and left me feeling like I consumed a large rather a small.

PC also had the miso base but with clams. She also came to a similar conclusion about the miso being on the heavier side.

Meanwhile, YL picked the clear winner by choosing the seafood ramen with a seafood and pork based soup, clams, scallop, shrimp, seaweed, wood ear mushrooms, spinach, green onion and sesame seed.

The broth was perfect and jam-packed with umami flavor without the heaviness from the miso broth. I guess it was a good thing that I went for the small bowl rather than large because we went for milk tea after that too.

Peach Jelly Sake Cocktail

YL also ordered a drink while she was there and it was one of the most interesting alcoholic beverages I’ve seen for a long while. It’s called the peach jelly sake cocktail. In the photo, it looks just like a regular drink, but the moment you lift the glass and tilt it to the side, you notice the viscosity.

What do I mean by that?

It’s thick and moves like a slurry more than a liquid—like water, but doesn’t have quite the consistency of jello. So it was alcoholic jelly with two lone pieces of peach at the bottom. It was unique and quite pleasant to the palate without being strong on the alcohol.

From a pricing standpoint, the bowl of ramen can be steep compared to other ramen places in the Bay Area. However, I think their taste is unique. You don’t see many ramen shops out there that concentrates on seafood. Only pick the miso if you really want something that sticks-to-your-ribs.

Have you tried Ramen Seas? What’s your verdict? List your favorite ramen shops suggestions in the comments below!

Ramen Seas

173 S Murphy Ave

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

0Comments

, by Amy

In Bay Area, East Bay

Bodo Lucky Japanese Restaurant (Fremont, CA)

Summer Days Spent Slurping Down Ramen

To my knowledge, I believe that Bodo is not a Japanese word, but my friend and I threw caution to the wind last summer when we decided to grab lunch last minute, when the company I previously worked at had a shutdown day.

So let me set the scene. Late summer. Middle of the week. It must have been about 11:30 AM in the morning and I woke up not too long ago—sitting on my chair in an albeit confused, but hungry state. At that time, it wasn’t all that unusual to have shutdown days at the company, but I never really knew what to do with my day off. Usually, it was in the middle of the week and that meant most of my friends were at work, so needless to say it was—odd.

It was about lunch time and I knew I wanted to eat, but the leftovers from last night did not look appetizing. And while the idea of binging on chips and snacks was appealing, I decided to refrain from a college habit I abandoned and made up my mind to go out instead—like the adult I am or aspire to be (I’m still working on that part). The idea of eating by myself didn’t bother me, but it soon dawned on me that one of my friends also had the day off.

After shooting her a quick message, she agreed to join me for lunch. We somehow agreed to go to—now looking back, the least Japanese sounding restaurant, ever—Bodo Lucky Japanese Restaurant for some ramen (in the middle of a hot, summer afternoon, nonetheless) and I went to go pick her up.

Bodo is located near a very popular highway change intersection on Warm Springs Blvd in Fremont. Other familiar and popular restaurants and shops in the area include: T4, Aberdeen Cafe, Gong Cha, 99 Ranch, Marina Market, Tea Papa and more. It’s a very heavily Asian— specifically Chinese based area, but there are a lot of companies in the area that helps fuel the lunch crowd.

And boy was there a lunch crowd. We managed to skip the initial rush and got seated quickly in the small restaurant, but there was already a large group eating and another large one coming in while waiting for others.

Their menu was pretty simple with no frills. They give you the choice of having a free drink or having a free dessert. I took the free drink option, which was iced milk tea (although you can also have it hot), while my friend opted for the free dessert after her ramen, which was a refreshing bowl of almond tofu. If that doesn’t already clue you in on whether or not this is an “authentic” Japanese restaurant, it isn’t.

Iced milk tea and almond tofu is very distinctly Chinese. Yes yes, Japanese people drink milk tea and eat tofu too, but when was the last time you saw milk tea and almond tofu as part of the menu in a Japanese restaurant?

Bonito! Wriggle wriggle!

For starters, we tried their Takoyaki ($4.75). They give you five pieces with a heaping stack of bonito flakes. There’s definitely takoyaki under there—they’re just hidden. The takoyaki was piping hot (like it should be), with big pieces of octopus in each one. SOLID takoyaki.

For the big eaters when ramen simply isn't enough.

Moving on, I ordered the A2 ($8.49) with a shio base. It came with half of a half-boiled egg, cha shu, quail egg, spinach, nori, negi and a very generous handful of bean sprouts (spot the similarity? Bonito flakes, now bean sprouts). If you don’t like bean sprouts, you would want to tell your server before you order. It’s not listed on the menu, but trust me—there’s a lot of bean sprouts.

I wasn't joking when I mentioned the bean sprouts.

Instead of painfully eating around it, just ask them to leave them out.

I’m not picky when it comes to bean sprouts, but now that I think about it— they’re not really an “essential” topping for ramen. Now if we were talking about Pho, that’s another story. The shio soup base was salty, but light— not as full bodied and umami as what I expect the shoyu would taste like, but pleasant.

Or maybe because there were so many bean sprouts that it didn’t feel greasy or as heavy as other tonkotsu broth.

Don’t let the picture fool you, but there were a lot of noodles— or were the bean sprouts clouding my judgement? Well my memory is a bit fuzzy now, so unfortunately I can’t answer that question. But if I do visit anytime in the future, I’ll try to update this post.

They filled up quickly as we ate, but the servers didn’t rush us.

They have all a variety of flavors!

When we asked for the bill, they also gave us a cup full of Dums Dums as “dessert,” which I thought was a nice touch. Seeing the Dums Dums gave me such nostalgia. I use to eat them often back in elementary school. And whenever I paid a visit to my cousin’s house, she would always offer me one-- or two five. Before we left, there were one or two parties waiting for a table, which goes to show that they have a large lunch crowd.

While Bodo Lucky Japanese Restaurant isn’t going to make my list of mindblowing, delicious must-try ramen houses, they’re pretty good. I feel like I would definitely visit often if I worked around the area.

Beansprouts? Yay? Nay? And favorite ramen shop, go!

Bodo Lucky Japanese Restaurant

46260 Warm Springs Blvd.

Fremont, CA 94539