Instant ramen all dressed up

Our favourite instant ramen is Sapporo Ichiban. For lunch, I sometimes "dress it up" with toppings similar to those you'd find in the authentic ramen shops in Japan.

I cook the ramen noodles, which takes three minutes, and ladle the cooked noodles and broth evenly among two bowls. Then I add toppings, such as chopped fresh spring onion, nori strips, hard boiled egg, peas, corn or shredded roasted chicken.

There is a wonderful movie about ramen called Tampopo. It's a Japanese movie about a woman's struggle to turn her downtrodden roadside ramen shop into the best in the business. It's really funny, a "ramen western" as the director describes it. It's also full of delightful subplots of the different ways people enjoy food. For example, a grocery store owner tormented by a customer who loves to squeeze food (especially in the soft cheese aisle). I highly recommend this movie, and so do others — it rates 100 on the tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes.

Shikiji, a ramen house in Calgary

Miso ramen at Shikiji on beFOODled's Flickr page.

There's one thing that puts the ramen at Shikiji in a league of its own: You get a facial while you eat!

Ramen here is served in a bowl that's honestly at least 10 inches wide. Every time I leaned over to slurp up a noodle or hunt for a slice of BBQ pork, I got a steamy miso facial treatment. I could have literally dove in and swam around, like Rool, the brownie in Willow who falls into a barrel of beer and can't believe his good fortune :)

There are four ramen choices on the menu: soy, miso, BBQ pork and shio. The difference, I think, is mostly in the broth. My bowl, which must have held several litres of miso ramen, cost a mere $11.60. The first thing the server brings is a little mortar filled with sesame seeds and a pestle for grinding them up. You can grind the seeds while you wait, and then sprinkle them over your soup. The only thing missing was a boiled egg.

How I wish Shikiji was in Ottawa, but alas, it's a little gem that belongs to Calgary. It's one of the many places that makes this city sparkle with a great but still largely unacknowledged culture.

Aside from the delicious noodles, there's a full menu of every Japanese favourite you could imagine, from edamame and gyoza to donburi and sushi. Below is a photo of the bento box that S's mom ordered.

Shikiji Japanese Noodles and Sushi
1608 Centre St. N.E.
Calgary, AB T2E 2R9
Tel: 403.520.0093
www.shikiji.ca


Bento box at Shikiji on beFOODled's Flickr page.

Totoya - Ottawa's No. 1 ramen

Totoya is Ottawa's No. 1 ramen, but I must add it's also the only source of ramen in the whole city. Regulars of beFOODled will know how much I love ramen and won't be surprised that I consider this dearth a strike against Ottawa's restaurant scene.

But back to Totoya. It's a very nice, clean place. The wait staff are very friendly. My favourite dish is the ramen, which is very good. S and I order it at lunch because unfortunately it's not always on the dinner menu. You also have to go before 2 p.m. because the restaurant closes then and re-opens at 5 p.m. for dinner.

We have also been here before for Totoya's all-you-can-eat sushi evening with Squeaky, Calimocho, MV and DV (aka the Christmas elf for all you former CWFers). This special night happens very infrequently, but for $26.95 you are constantly offered platefuls of sumptuous rolls. I discovered spicy salmon and salmon-skin here, although tuna and BBQ eel are still my favourites :).

Calimocho also introduced us all to the pleasure of drinking cold beer and sake at the same time this evening ;) Totoya offers a cold, cloudy sake that's very good with beer, and oddly enough, made in Calimocho's home state of California.

Totoya
297 Dalhousie Street
Ottawa, ON K1N 7E5
613.241.2224

Sushi Hibiki in Calgary

Sushi Hibiki is a tiny restaurant that has the best tempura in Calgary, according to S's parents, who are Japanese restaurant aficionados. But of course I opted for the ramen because it is one of my favourite Japanese foods and hard to find where I live. I finished this whole bowl and really enjoyed it. It was nice and light, and I really liked the addition of the hard-boiled egg (not all restaurants offer eggs with ramen). Another bonus: A bowl of ramen at Hibiki also comes with a three-piece side of sushi.
It's also very affordable — I forget how much this ramen was, but it was definately under $12, which is what I have to pay in Ottawa for ramen that, although with egg, is devoid of an interesting side.
Hibiki is very clean, quiet and newly renovated. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an interesting decor, and like many restaurants in Calgary, it lives in an anonymous strip mall. But it is cozy, the staff are friendly and the service is good, and the ramen is delish.

Sushi Hibiki
6-630 1 Avenue NE
Calgary, AB T2E 0B6
403.264.1211

Kintaro in Vancouver

Kintaro is a ramen noodle house in Vancouver where I have made a yearly pilgrimmage for two summers now. S took me and again we have to thank BJ for enlightening us to its modest yet majical flavours. I always get the medium miso broth, and this summer I also chose the fatty pork. (I live large!) Medium refers to the fat content in the broth. Fatty pork means there is a fat strip around the pork medallion. This probably lends a good flavour to the broth, but next time I will get lean pork as I filled up fast on this ramen and couldn't finish it.

Kintaro seems to get mixed reviews. Some people say it's better than places in Tokyo, others are quickly turned off for many reasons. Personally I like it - the ramen is good and cheap, and I have a nostalgic attraction to hole-in-the-wall restaurants because my parents took me to these kinds of places I was young.

On the downside, there is always a lineup at Kintaro, and once you get in, the decor is non-existant and there is no air conditioning. You must eat in a cramped, very steamy and uncomfortably hot place, often next to people you don't know. There are other quirks, too, like the two very insistent signs outside that say "no public washroom," and yet once inside one can't help noticing that every customer disappears into rooms in the back that obviously are washrooms. I found out that if you wait too long for the women's line, they even usher you into the men's (and presumably vice versa). If you're bothered by these kinds of contradictions, Kintaro is not the place for you and you should stay tuned for my next ramen blog on location in Calgary :).

But Kintaro is always busy and I can see why. I still like you, Kintaro, and I'll be back for another medium lean soon ...

Kintaro
788 Denman St., corner Robson
Vancouver, BC
604.682.7568

Ramen in Montreal

Ramen in Montreal at Sakura Gardens on Flickr by beFOODled.

One of my favourite Japanese dishes is a kind of noodle soup called ramen. This is the ramen I had at Sakura Gardens, a Japanese restaurant in Montreal. Besides noodles and broth, it comes with spring onions, wakame (a kind of seaweed) and pork. The pink-rimmed discs are little fish cakes. Where we live, there's only one restaurant that serves ramen and only for lunch, so I rarely get to have it. Sakura's ramen was so good, I ate the whole thing!

Sakura Gardens
2114 Rue de la Montagne
Montreal, QC
514).288.9122
www.sakuragardens.com