The Insider on Japanese Noodle Joints

My brother, a foodie in training, has been on the hunt for the best Japanese ramen houses in NYC ever since he found this blog that ranked the top ones to try. He checked out Ippudo, which was ranked 2nd on the blog's list and has been raving about its ramen and pork buns ever since. Intrigued by the idea of having the best ramen in th city, my fiance and I decided to jump to the top of the list and check out Ramen Setagaya.

Ramen Setagaya is a ramen chain from Japan. There are two locations in NYC - one specializes in salt-based broth (supposedly a special salt from Vietnam), and the other, soy sauce based broth. We went to the former location, which I believe is operated by a Korean staff. I could've been wrong, but I swore I heard them speaking Korean to each other. I wonder if it's any less authentic because of that.

Although we were impressed by Ramen Setagaya, it wasn't a perfect experience. We ordered the Tsukemen, which came with noodles and a broth with grilled pork belly. It was tasty, and the pork was soooo good!!! However, the broth was a tad too salty and greasy, and it was only lukewarm.

Let me tell you how good the pork was. For the first time since my return from the Hong Kong trip last year, I was very very happy to have converted back to eating pork. The pork belly was thinly sliced into small pieces, grilled and tossed into the broth. There was a good amount of fat in the meat, but I didn't mind it at all because it was so tasty. As for the noodles, they were very similar to fettucini. This was the first time I had ramen this thick.

Other than the Tsukemen, we also ordered Oyako-Don, which is rice topped with minced chicken and raw egg, and Seafood Gyoza (since we didn't want to get all porked out with Pork Gyoza). The taste and texture of the chicken in the Oyako-Don reminded me of corned beef. There were pieces of pickles in there that added an interest to the dish. Overall, it was pleasant.



As for the Gyoza - don't even bother. They totally skimmed on the filling, which was a tad below average. It was the skinniest Gyoza I had ever seen.

Given that my brother was very fast to proclaim Ippudo as the epitome of Japanese Ramen joints in the city without even trying Ramen Setagaya, I went ahead and asked for an opinion from a native Japanese (my hairdresser). Her pick? Ippudo! She agreed with me that Setagaya's broth is too salty.

I am now dying to try Ippudo! I'm so excited at the prospect of having something even better to try. I would still return to Ramen Setagaya any time though. The pork, the pork!

Wedding Wednesdays: A Present Every Day

The little RSVPs cards have been rolling in every day. I've been opening them like they're presents because once in a while, I get sweet messages and comments from our guests on the cards. This one made me especially happy and warm:

And this one made me burst out in laughter (it still does!):

Thank you all for lighting up my day! It really makes a big difference when I'm under house arrest with a bunch of study material.

Daisy May's

I'm not a meat lover, but according to my fiance, the carnivore, Daisy May's is on the top of his list (next to Dinosaur BBQ) for restaurants that serve great barbeque ribs in NYC. I had take-out from there before, but never stepped into the place. As soon as you step in, you see a lot of sides, cafeteria style...that really brought back some (awful) memories from the good ol'school cafeteria.

So, here's how it works: you go in, order what you want, pick up your food and proceed into the communal/cafeteria-style dining room, complete with a TV. I guess they figured that it's not a pretty sight eating ribs anyways, so why not make a very casual dining room - that way, no one would be embarrassed to lick their fingers.

We ordered some Kansas City Sweet & Sticky Pork Ribs, Memphis Dry Rub Pork Ribs, Tennessee Whiskey Beer Can Style Chicken, and a bunch of sides. I had a few bites of the ribs (that's right, I'm a convert now after my Hong Kong trip), and thought both types were good. I preferred the Sweet & Sticky ones better though - I liked biting the sweet exterior and into the meat. I wished I had more to say, but I'm not a meat expert.

As for the chicken, I've had it twice now, and I wasn't impressed both times. It had flavor, but was dry - I got half a chicken, and all parts of it was dry. End of story.

The sides were good, and the sweet tea was nice (a tad too sweet for my taste). I think I may prefer to have their ribs at home instead - I'm not a fan of cafeteria-style dining. The horror, the horror!

Wedding Wednesdays: If Timing Weren't an Issue

I had wanted branches like Cherry Blossom or Dogwood as centerpieces at our wedding, but they're only in season in April and at the latest May. This photo was from 3 years ago when I revisited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in late April. Aren't they so dreamy?


They're fluffy and so romantic when their tiny petals are carried through the wind. They make such wonderful wedding arrangements as centerpieces or the focus of the escort card table.

Above, from Projectwedding.com

Above from MarthaStewart.com

Above, from Brides.com

The weather in April & May would be have been the ideal wedding situation than the summer heat too. Oh well...

Butter Can Make or Break an Omelet

Literally.

Granted, my fiance doesn't have the right sized pan (it's a tad too big) for making omelets, but they shouldn't look like this:




And this is what it looks like after a pad of butter in the pan:

Wedding Wednesdays: "Bad Bad Bad!"

Apparently, we had picked a bad date on the Chinese calendar when we decided on the date more than 2 years ago. So, to my surprise (not really), my mother's reaction to our printed invitations was BAD.

It's bad because the actual date ("十三" 13), the date according to the Chinese calendar ("廿一" 21), the year 2009 and even the hour of day are all odd numbers, which aren't good because a wedding represents the joining of two people, an even number. This also relates to double happiness "囍", which is essentially 喜 (happiness) put together with another 喜.

In our defense, the Chinese calendar for 2009 had not been published at the time (precisely 2 years and 2 months ago). June ("六") is an even number, and so is Saturday ("六"), the sixth day of the week. On top of that, half past the hour is 30 minutes, an even number. So it ain't all THAT bad right? Like all things in wedding planning, it's hard to please everyone, especially when it comes to tradition.

Not only did this make me feel bad, I feel pretty bad physically...we had our engagement shoot (tiring!) and I had fried chicken & fries for dinner over the weekend, which made my stomach feel bad (sickening) because I have been really good with my diet. Bad bad bad...

"Aha. Look What I've Created! I Have Made..."

...scones without a mixer!

Yes, it's possible! And I didn't even have a pastry cutter (I used a dinner knife).

I needed to use up all my fiance's butter, sugar and cranberries before he moves out of Boston, so I figured that it would be perfect to make scones. He didn't have all the equipment needed to make these guilty pleasures, but I managed anyways. Besides, this wasn't the first time I made scones without a mixer. It just took a lot more time and patience. That meant keeping the dough (and butter) cool while working slowly by popping it in the fridge ever once in a while.

I followed Ina Garten's recipe for Cranberry Orange Scones. It's not the traditional dry scones, this recipe is more like a cream scone. The only thing(s) I didn't do was use heavy cream and do the drizzle at the end. I figured with all that butter, it didn't need any more fat and calories. Plus, my fiance had only low fat milk. That worked just as well for our taste (and diet).

The scones weren't too moist or too sweet, so they were perfect with a bit of jam. Even without the proper equipment, I managed to make them crumbly as traditional scones are. This is another trusty recipe in my collection of cookbooks, and is one of the few recipes that I don't dare to enhance or change dramatically.