Author: Pearl L

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lunch at bamboo garden


lunch at bamboo garden Originally uploaded by jadepearli.

at least I think it’s called Bamboo Garden. The only signs on the outside are in Japanese, so I’m really not 100% certain. At any rate, this little place is on Cravens Avenue in Downtown Torrance, and it has the best soba noodles around. Made fresh from scratch, their noodles are soft with a little bit of pushback, not too doughy, and not slimy in the least bit. The kake broth is flavorful but not overpowering, and the smoky fish essence lingers just a little bit in every sip of soup.
I normally shy away from discussing authenticity, because every cuisine is so bastardized that there’s not really an ‘authentic’ anything, but i do think there’s something to be said for eating where the locals eat. I’m almost always the only non-Japanese-speaking person there, and although they do have an English menu, I think there’s only one copy of it in existence. This isn’t a huge point, because the place only seats about 20 people total and you place your order at the counter. There are, however, three copies of the Japanese menu, so eat that! Interior decor is natural and tasteful — no heavy laquers, no cheesy ‘modern Asian’ metallics, just clean, functional, organic-feeling. The place is always overflowing at lunchtime, with Japanese businessmen sitting on the plastic lawn furniture outside, ties thrown over their shoulders, slurping away at their noodles.
Pictured here is a variation on my usual order, the hot kake noodles with a bowl of brine shrimp tempura. i normally get the inari sushi as a side instead, but they ran out that day. I also apologize that this picture doesn’t really do the meal justice because i forgot to snap a picture until about halfway through the meal. (darn.)
Definitely worth trying at least once. Thank you, Masa, for sharing this terrific place with me!

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Lunch at Shin Sen Gumi


Shin Sen Gumi ramen Originally uploaded by jadepearli.

So i finally got my camera attachment for my phone to start working, and of course the most interesting subjects to me are food and edibles. So let the food-blogging begin!

Here’s my lunch from the middle of last week, a savory bowl of ramen from Hakata Ramen (aka Shin Sen Gumi). Hands down, this place has the best ramen i’ve ever ever ever had. To compare, a couple of weeks prior I had gone back to another place ramen place i used to frequent many moons ago, near Mitsuwa in Torrance, and ordered a bowl of shiro ramen, just for old time’s sake.

I could barely get through it. Their noodles were hard, with a terrible chew consistency, and their broth was pure MSG. I went through three glasses of water while trying to eat my noodles. In the end I was more full from the water than from the noodles.

I hadn’t remembered the place being so bad! But I guess the truth was that I really had no comparison at the time.

Shin Sen Gumi is a small chain of restaurants dedicated to bringing the ‘best of Japanese cuisine’ to audiences here in the LA area. They have one ramen house (Hakata), a yakitori place, and a couple of other ones I haven’t really come across yet. However, the ramen place is probably their biggest success.

Now what makes Hakata Ramen special? First of all, the noodles are amazingly soft and pliant, and their chew texture is pure bliss. It’s essentially al dente for ramen. Like them a little harder or softer? Just check the box on the order sheet. Personally, I like them a little softer than normal.

Secondly, the soup is a perfect compliment to the pork-flavored noodles. It is a special dark (and slightly creamy) pork-flavored broth, which can be adjusted in strength and thickness to suit your tastes. Want a little more flavor? Ask for extra soup base. More essence of pork? Extra oil! My preference is extra soup base and standard thickness, but Jer prefers light oil and standard strength broth. But that’s just us. :)

It’s located near the corner of Redondo Beach Blvd and Western, right by the Hanmi Bank and Target. It is well worth the trip. I’m going back later this week, for my combo A, with the little baby mini dumplings pictured. mm tasty.

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this is what happens when you have no content

you end up running a really boring blog.

~-~-~ random updates ~-~-~

stuff in the changer/on the ipod:
killers
interpol
postal service (yea, still… and needless to say i’m glad the USPS settled)
death cab for cutie

haven’t listened to the new modest mouse all the way through yet, nor the mirah album i’d been looking forward to so. shame on me!

i got a camera attachment for my siemens s56 phone. now i’m just waiting for the bluetooth usb dongle to swap the images off. hopefully pictures will be coming soon.

saw ‘national treasure’ with kipp and jer this past weekend. fun flick! can’t believe right-wingers are saying it got such negative reviews because the reviewers were ‘unpatriotic.’ geeze.. it wasn’t a terrible movie, but it’s not great just because it has some patriotic themes.

saw ‘the incredibles’ twice in the week before. loved it loved it loved it. edna is my new wallpaper.

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mini-vacation

i’m using a lot of the word ‘mini’ lately. am i just feeling small?

just got back from a weekend + 2 days in vegas. the boss was kind enough to let jer and me go for the weekend leading up to a meeting i was helping run on tuesday. i can’t tell you what it was for, because after all, what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.

but i can tell you about the food. the rio seafood buffet (ha, i spelled that ‘buffett’ at first, like jimmy! that’s what you get when you see that awful cheesy neon [wait, that’s everything in vegas] ‘margaritaville’ sign every day for three days) was as awesome as ever. aladdin’s spread was not as ridiculously expansive, but still quite flavorful, and the quality is close to what i remembered. and the jer and pearl vegas experience is complete without a nathan’s hot dog. actually, strike that. no vegas outing is complete without a trip to Fat Tuesday, but this trip was work-related, so it doesn’t really count.

in more depressing mortality news, ODB is dead. hey, dirty, baby i got your money, don’t you worry. may he rest in peace. :(

in more depressing political news, condi rice has been nominated to fill colin powell’s vacated seat as sec of state. the counts of people stepping down in the current bush administration are now approaching Clinton’s numbers, but I don’t recall the shaking up of his cabinet at such high levels in such highly touted roles in the administration. I’m going to have to double check that, though. (to be continued)

off to bed i go. i put my sarcasm to rest for the evening.