Pepperoni Ramen Pizza

Found this very interesting article on different ways to eat Ramen on BuzzFeed. There are a total of 27 different type of recipes for you to make at home. Some of these recipes are questionable in my opinion (like the one pictured above)  but some actually look pretty good!

Here’s a list of what I would try and some that I wouldn’t dare to touch.

Would try:

• Thai Shrimp Noodle Soup
• Sirloin Snap Pea Stir Fry
• Crunchy Ramen Snack Mix
• Broccoli Ramen Noodle Salad
• Ramen Noodle Chicken Chimichangas

Will not try:

• Cheesy Chili Ramen
• Pepperoni Ramen Pizza
• Ramen Cacio e Pepe
• Savory Ramen Chocolate Bar

Something about cheese and ramen just doesn’t go right for me. Chocolate is definitely a iffy ingredient to add to ramen too. Click here for the link.

Which ones on the list would you try? Which ones on the list are you unwilling to try? Let me know!

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Beef Chow Mein

One of my favorite all-time Chinese dishes is your typical and very common Beef Chow Fun or Beef Chow Mein. For those that don’t know the difference, Chow Fun is the wide rice noodles and Chow Mein is thin egg noodles. From the picture above, you can see that it’s not neither one of the noodles because when I went to the store to get some Chow Fun, they ran out. This noodle was the only type that they had left. Even though the package said it’s “Chow Fun”, I knew it wasn’t really Chow Fun. I mean, c’mon, I am The Noodle Guy after all.

After having my dinner mind set to have Beef Chow Fun, I decided to buy this noodle anyway and make it from a recipe I found online. To be honest, to my fans and followers, I would have to say that I shouldn’t have made it with this type of noodle. I should have just waited the next day until my grocery store restocked with the real Chow Fun. The noodles really make a difference with this dish. So if you do plan on making this, make sure you find the wide, flat rice noodle that is usually next to the refrigerated produce and/or noodles section. It’s fresh and wrapped in saran wrap with a Styrofoam bottom.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces flank steak
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons dark (thick) soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 pound fresh chow fun rice noodles (pre-cut to 1/2 inch wide)
• 3 green onions, cut into 1 1/4-inch lengths
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, smashed or mashed with a knife blade
• 3 cups bean sprouts, rinsed and drained well
• 3 tablespoons canola oil, divided

Directions:

1. Cut the beef with the grain into 2-inch wide strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Transfer to a bowl. Add the cornstarch, dark soy sauce, and sesame oil. Stir or massage to coat the meat well. Set aside.
2. Separate the noodles into strips. Some may break into shorter lengths. Set aside on a plate. Smack the white sections of the green onion with the flat side of the knife, then put into a small bowl; add the ginger and garlic. Keep the green sections in another bowl to add separately.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the white pepper, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, oyster sauce, and water. Put this seasoning liquid near the stove with all the other ingredients.
4. Heat a large wok or nonstick skillet over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes in 1 to 2 seconds. Swirl in 1 tablespoon of oil, then add the ginger, garlic, and crushed sections of green onion. Stir-fry for 15 seconds, until aromatic, then bank on the side. Add the beef, spreading it out into a flat layer. Sear, undisturbed, for 1 minute. Add the black beans, then stir-fry the beef for 30 seconds, until barely cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Rinse and dry the pan well.
5. Reheat the pan over high heat, swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, then add the noodles, spreading them out to a thick layer. Sear, undisturbed for 1 minute, until a tad crusty. Dump in the bean sprouts, then vigorously stir-fry for 1 minute, until the sprouts have slightly softened. Some noodles may stick to the pan.
6. Return the beef and any juices and add the remaining green onion sections. Stir to combine, then pour in the seasoning liquid. Stir-fry for 1 minute to heat through and finish cooking the beef. Pile onto a platter and serve immediately.

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Nongshim Udon Noodle Soup Package at Costco

I went to Costco the other day to do some monthly shopping and saw these udon bowls for sale. Being The Noodle Guy, I had to try this. This wasn’t expensive at all. I think I paid about $7.00 for the 6 bowls. I have always been a fan of Nong Shim. I know that it got some bad rep overseas for their recall on some of their packaged ramen but the recall never was in the States. One of my favorite packaged ramen is actually Shin Ramen made by Nong Shim.

Nong Shim Udon Noodle Bowl

Now onto the review…

This bowl of noodles was actually pretty good. Probably not the best udon anyone has ever had but for a packaged udon, it’s pretty damn good. The noodles were thick and chewy and not soggy. The broth contains no MSG or trans fat as it states in their packaging. The broth was surprisingly tasty with no MSG added. The ingredients they have are your typical Nong Shim ingredients with green onions and a few pieces of preserved vegetables. I always add some kind of ham in my ramen to make it more hearty.

Overall, I would give this bowl of ramen a 7.5/10. The serving is pretty big for packaged ramen and I can see how someone can eat this for lunch and be full. However, this thing takes a little more time to prepare than other packaged ramen. You have to boil the noodles first with hot water, dump out the water, and then put hot water in it again along with the packaged seasoning and ingredients. You have to do this because of the thickness of the Udon noodles.

If you see this at your local Costco, I would definitely say give it a try. You won’t be dissapointed! I think its a whole lot better than the Maruchan Ramen you find at your local Safeway or Lucky grocery stores.

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Italian Ramen

I came across this recipe from one of my coworkers. He was flipping through the pages of Food&Wine magazine one day and saw this interesting recipe and thought he would share it with me. I haven’t had the time to make it yet but this is a recipe for Italian Ramen!

The angel hair pasta represents Italy, the soft boiled egg and chile oil evokes Japan and the recipe is from Gerard Craft, an Food&Wine Best New Chef in 2008. Just going over the recipe, it seems like its a similar recipe to my Macaroni Soup Recipe. However, it takes a lot longer than my recipe to make because you actually roast a whole 3 pound chicken in this recipe. As far as the ingredients, it’s very similar except for the eggs, chilli oil and angel hair pasta.

This recipe looks like a good meal for a cold day and I will definitely try making this in the near future.

Ingredients:

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Tsukemen Ramen at Waraku in San Francisco’s Japantown

Yesterday, I stumbled upon yet another article talking about new Ramen restaurants to try in the Bay Area. For those noodle lovers living in the Bay Area, I’m sure you have noticed Ramen restaurants popping up at new places almost on the daily! I love that there are so many new Ramen shops opening because that gives me more places to try!

But in this specific article, it talks about a Ramen dish I have yet to try: Tsukemen Ramen. I heard that this type of style is very popular in parts of Japan. Instead of having everything inside a bowl with the yummy broth, Tsukemen Ramen is served with all ingredients outside with a rich, flavored broth to dip on the side. I don’t know about you but that sounds delicious to me! The noodles are said to be thicker and curlier to catch and soak in the broth more.

This article also talks about several new Ramen shops that have opened up in the Bay Area recently. I have definitely bookmarked this page and will try to visit some of the newer Ramen restaurants. I will be definitely putting up some reviews if and when I do.

But in the meantime, check out the article here!

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Hu Tieu Kho (Dry) Soup on the Side

Dalat Restaurant is one of the more popular restaurants in San Jose that specializes in Hu Tieu Dry noodles. Hu Tieu dry noodles is a dry rice noodle dish topped with a lot of seafood, fish cake, pork and vegetables. It’s served with broth and a bowl of sauce on the side. Last year, I did a review on a restaurant that serves the same dish in San Francisco. Check it out here.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Dalat for awhile now from my friends and coworkers. They praise about their famous dry noodle. Ironically, I use to live down the street of this restaurant when I was going to school at San Jose State University. I remember coming here once but I ordered Pho because I wasn’t aware of Hu Tieu back then. Now onto the review…

I’ll start off to say this wasn’t as good as Pho Ha Nam Ninh in San Francisco, in my opinion. The noodles were a little soft and it was the wider type of rice noodles which made it harder to chew and spread. The sauce, which usually makes or breaks this dish, wasn’t to par with Pho Ha Nam Ninh. It didn’t have a lot of extra ingredients in it like the garlic, oil, pepper, shallots etc. It looked and tasted too much of regular soy sauce. The broth on the side was just OK. It was a little on the sweet side. However, a bright spot was the seafood in it. The seafood was very fresh and HUGE! It even came with a lobster claw which was delicious and fresh.

I understand why people would like this place if they love seafood or if they like ingredients over the noodles and sauce. But I’m a noodle guy and I judge most dishes by the noodles and broth and this dish wasn’t up to par with my favorite, Pho Ha Nam Ninh. Overall, I would give this place a 6/10. The service was “bleh” and the place wasn’t that clean. I’m sure there are more dry noodles to try in the South Bay and will definitely be trying more. Look for more “dry noodle” reviews in the future!

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Pho Tai Nam @ Pho 2000

Came to Pho 2000 on a Friday afternoon during lunch and it was packed. We even had to wait for a table. I’m not sure if they are really always this busy or maybe it was because the original Turtle Tower, which is right next to it, was closed due to their move. Nonetheless, Pho 2000 has a solid 4 stars out of nearly 300 reviews, so I wasn’t surprised that it was busy during lunchtime.

HUGE Stock Pot for the Beef Pho Broth

While waiting in the front, I saw the pot that they make their broth in and it was HUGE! Just look at the picture above. I swear it was more than 5 feet tall and probably 3 feet wide! You can fit a small person in that pot! Seeing this pot just made me feel better about this place. You know they are true to cooking their broths as I saw all the bones and beef boiling on top of the broth. I was so fascinated because I never seen the back in a Pho kitchen before but got to see this because Pho 2000 makes their broth in the front of the restaurant.

After about 5 minutes of waiting, we were seated and handed our menus. The cleanliness at this place was your typical pho restaurant. The tabled smelled of fish sauce and the seats were old and worn out. However, I didn’t expect anything more at a Pho restaurant. Anything more would be a plus.

After my pho came, it smelled delicious! The meat looked fresh and the broth looked clear yet dark with a very thin layer of oil on top. In other words, looked like a pretty damn good bowl of Pho! I took a sip of the broth and it was indeed delicious. Full of flavor and did not have any MSG taste to it. But then I took a bite of the noodles and was instantly disappointed. It was very soggy. I just don’t understand how a Pho restaurant can overcook their noodles! You’re a noodle restaurant, you should know soggy noodles are not good for you and your customers! I actually would rather prefer my noodles to be undercooked.

Anyways, enough of the rant. I was just really disappointed with their noodles because everything else was so good. So overall, I would rate this your average 7/10 Pho restaurant. If they improved their noodles, this would definitely be 8-8.5 out of 10. I just hope this was a one time thing. I will most likely be coming back to try it again.

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Tonkotsu Ramen

So during my recent trip to New York, my friends recommended this ramen place that was close to their apartment. They already admitted that it’s not the best but it will get my noodle soup fix. And since it was 30 degrees and snowing during that day, we decided to come here for lunch to warm us up.

When we walked it, it looked really nice and was more spacious than most other Japanese restaurants I visited in New York. It had many tables and quite a few workers. We sat down and received our menus. The menus were your typical ramen menu with a large selection of ramen, sides and toppings. My friends told me we have to try their side rice dishes. They even went on to say that this is the best fried rice they have ever had. So of course that was a must-add to my ramen. What I ended up ordering was the Tonkotsu Ramen with a side of fried rice (Char-Han), which came out to a reasonable $12.

Fried Rice

When the food came out, the ramen looked like your typical, run of the mill, ramen. The broth was very creamy and smelled good. Toppings didn’t look too exciting as you can see from the first photo. However, the fried rice looked very good. The rice was the thicker type of rice like they use in sushi which I prefer with my fried rice. Just looking at my meal I knew I couldn’t finish it.

The ramen was actually pretty good. It was exactly what my friend said it would be. It’s not the best but if I lived in New york and I was in a hurry, I would definitely come here to get my fix. The broth was tasty, creamy and had a good amount of pork flavor. The noodles were just average. Didn’t seem to be homemade but it wasn’t overcooked and had a good texture to it. The meat was just average as well. A little on the dry side. It was not seasoned and slowly cooked like what I am use to. By the time I finished my ramen, I was already pretty full. The portions here are perfect, especially if you order a rice plate on the side. I only took a few bites of the fried rice because I was already stuffed from the ramen. The fried rice did taste really good but I wouldn’t go all the way to say it was the best fried rice I ever had.

Here are some other photo’s I took of Menkui Tei:

Beef Curry over Rice

Alchohol placed across one of their walls

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Chicken Pho (Pho Ga)

Last night, after deciding what to eat for dinner, my wife and I decided to make some fast and easy chicken pho. We didn’t want to take a lot of time in making the real chicken broth so instead, we compromised and made our own variation of chicken pho that took only 40 minutes to make! The finished product was really good too! I think it was better than my last try at chicken pho. So if you’re short on time and is craving for some chicken pho, you should definitely give this recipe a try. This recipe serves 2 large bowls.

Ingredients:

• 1lb of wide rice noodles (I used the dry kind)
• A rotisserie chicken from Safeway, Lucky’s or Costco (shred the meat for the chicken topping)
• 4 cans of chicken broth
• 3 tbsp of fish sauce
• 1 tbsp of coriander seeds
• 1 tsp of white peppercorns
• 4 star anise
• 1 knob of ginger (charred on stove top)
• 1 whole onion (charred on stove top)
• A bunch of cilantro (stems only)
• 1 tbsp of chicken bouillon powder
• 2 small sugar crystals
• Extra fish sauce to taste

Directions:

1. If using dried wide noodles, soak the noodles in warm water for 20 minutes.
2. Char the onions and ginger on the stove top until the skins are slightly burnt. Make sure you don’t burn down the house! Set the ginger and onion aside after you are done.
3. Pour the cans of chicken broth into a large pot along with the fish sauce, corriander seeds, white peppercorns, star anise, cilantro, charred ginger and charred onion.
4. Bring the pot to a boil and turn down the heat to let it simmer for 15 minutes or longer if you wish.
5. In the meantime, boil a large pot of water to cook the noodles in.
6. After the water is boiling, put the soaked noodles into the pot. Make sure you don’t cook for too long. I cooked mines for about a minute.
7. After the noodles are firm to your taste, take them out quickly and drain.
8. Place the noodles into their individual bowls along with the shredded chicken.
9. Pour broth over the noodles and top it off with cilantro and jalapeno’s.
10. Enjoy!

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