usa :: new york :: general

[the_state]

actually, momofuku is the place i might recommend, if you've never had a ramen in your life. i figure it might be a very easy ramen for people to eat. but that's like eating cup-o-noodles, too.

you might want to venture out now and try places like menkuitei, setagaya ramen, santouka and minca. and see for yourself what you might like and what you don't. but if you've been following this thread, none of these places are considered "great". eventually, the road will lead you to japan...

they serve ramen? what?!

i've been to momofuku and liked it a lot. i don't really understand the hate, but then again i'm a born and raised american crakkka. i probably wouldn't know good ramen if it took a left hand twilled dump on my head.

[Chicken]

you might start to see the difference once you start eating ramen at other places. for me, it's a little difficult to fully understand your point of view, because i was born and raised in japan and grew up in the ramen culture.

[mizanation]

i'm sure momofuku is good for what it is. i'm sure i'd prefer it over some of the crappier ramen offerings in nyc.

[Chicken]

i think it is pretty good. and i can actually kind of enjoy it.

but it ain't ramen.

[peteyross]

but were you the same guy who said sapporo east was good?

For their Curry! But then again, I don't eat curry too often. Plus, Sapporo East is a restaurant that should be taken with a grain of salt. For the dirt cheap price, what they offer is decent. If someone was looking for a good restaurant, I wouldn't send them to Sapporo East.

Sobaya is a good restaurant (my first comment that it sucks is just reactionary) but I don't believe it to be nearly as good as the others mentioned.

Edit: and for the record I would recommend Sobaya long before I'd recommend Sapporo East.

[the_state]

i think it is pretty good. and i can actually kind of enjoy it.

but it ain't ramen.

explain. please.

[Chicken]

hmm, how would i explain to you about sex if you never had sex?

[mizanation]

sapporo east's curry is not bad. their ramen sucks.

but then again, it's not hard to make an acceptable japanese curry.

[peteyross]

haha, does anyone stick up for curry? There's gotta be a message board somewhere with people discussing the merits of curry.

My best use of curry ever was when I was stuck in Sakae (Nagoya) in the middle of the night, hungry with no money in my pocket. I went to some place that gives you your meal for free if you put down 2 kg of curry. So I got myself a seat and handled my business.

[mizanation]

i'm a curry fanatic, especially south asian curry. curry is one of the greatest foods ever.

japanese curry is, for the most part, a lot less sophisticated than indian curry. japanese curry is in fact, british curry that has remained in japan since the 1800s. the original form of british curry was british stew mixed with "curry powder"--a mix of indian spices. curry powder did not exist until the british wanted to bring something back to england to add to their stew. since british stew is often thickened with a flour rue, this is where we get the origins of japanese curry. as with all things, the japanese refined curry over the past two centuries creating its modern form. since then, british curry has disappeared in england, replaced with more south-asian curries made by indian, bengali and pakistani immigrants. an example of a "modern" british curry is "balti" which is a curry style developed in birmingham.

it's very easy to make decent japanese curry, or rather, it's very hard to fuck up japanese curry. it's similar to spaghetti in the u.s.

[the_state]

ok. that works.

[corporategrunt]

haha, does anyone stick up for curry? There's gotta be a message board somewhere with people discussing the merits of curry.

My best use of curry ever was when I was stuck in Sakae (Nagoya) in the middle of the night, hungry with no money in my pocket. I went to some place that gives you your meal for free if you put down 2 kg of curry. So I got myself a seat and handled my business.

I love curry, but finding good curry in New York is equally as hard as finding good ramen here. I have tried a decent amount but most places seem to use generic gyomu-yo curry (industrial/restaurant use). B-kyu (B class) japanese food (think curry, ramen vs. sushi, 5 course french for A) in general is hard.

I want to try go-go curry. btw, go-go curry got its' name from Hideki Matsui's jersey number 55, but Restaurant Nippon in midtown east actually got its curry recipe from Matsui's mom. Apparently, Matsui wasn't digging the curry at Nippon which is a reliable japanese place, the restaurant owner asked Matsui's mom what can be changed and she gave them her recipe...so some peeps who know, call it Matsui Curry and say it is one of the lesser known but decent curry in NY...i need to try that shit too.

[peteyross]

Don't forget Jamaican curry and other Southeast Asian curry. That stuff is the bomb. I was more referring to Japanese Curry...of course other real curries are more complex (correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't any real curry powder in Japanese curry is there?). I would never group Japanese curry in with another type of curry but that's an interesting bit of history.

[mizanation]

no, there is real curry powder in japanese curry. the stuff you make at home uses curry rue blocks that are dissolved in the pot. you can also make japanese curry using curry powder, the most popular brand being S&B. it's probably a decendant of the original british curry powder of long ago. it's actually very similar to curry powder you can find in any indian grocery.

the biggest difference is how japanese curry is made. south asian curry is made and then eaten right after. japanese curry is aged, sometimes for a long, long time. also, japanese curry sometimes use fruits and other sweetening agents that you don't usually find in most south asian curries.

[Chicken]

funny though, many japanese people swear by instant curry like s&b. like many people swear by instant ramens like sapporo ichiban or umakatchan.

guilty pleasure, i guess.

[herpsky]

I love Ginza Curry. It's so good. pshshshshshhshshshs

I think I'm gonna make some curry today.

[mizanation]

i love instant ramen and consume ridiculous amounts.

these days, my favorites are sapporo ichiban--miso flavour. i also like charumera.

[herpsky]

I once read an article about the science of aging curry.

You know curry always tastes better the day after you made it.

Apparently, cooling down the curry makes the amino acids (the ones that contribute to the taste) to condense

and i forgot the rest... maybe one of you can fill me in.

[mizanation]

yeah, i don't know why but even south asian curry always tastes better the next day.

some japanese curry houses age the curry for like a week, boiling the curry once a day.

some places keep curry sauce that has been aged for years, constantly adding more ingredients. i haven't eaten this kinda curry yet. would like to next time i'm in japan.

i don't know what the science is, but curry always tastes better the next day.

[peteyross]

At what point does the next day become the last day? Can you age it for weeks?

Also to bring this thread back to the real topic, how long does it take to make various different kinds of ramen stock?

[mizanation]

it takes hours.

[Chicken]

i think many good places prepare their stock overnight.

usually the main ingredient is chicken carcass.

but different places have their own little secrets.

this might be a telling story about the ny ramen scene, but my gf and i boiled a bunch of chicken bones for few hours and made our own ramen once. and i'm sure i'm biased, but it was the best ramen i had in new york. kinda sad because we're no experts.

[the_state]

you cannibal, you.

[peteyross]

it takes hours.

that's all? I was hoping days at least. Tonkotsu only takes hours? That's wack.

[coleslawyum]

I've tried to make ramen soup a couple of times.

For the most part I use chicken backs and ham hocks. Then depending on how I want it to taste, I add different vegetables to it to alter it. Onions, leeks and carrots make it sweeter, while stuff like garlic and ginger give it a spicy taste. Then after that most ramen chefs create a soup base which is usually top secret and aged. these ingredients can include stuff like dried seafood, garlic, cloves, salted pork fat, dried seaweed, soy sauce, miso etc. etc.

The soup base is then mixed with the soup body when served with the noodles. Thats how you get the large varition of tastes.

Anyway, it takes many tries to find a good and unique taste. But once you find that jackpot, you guard that recipe with your life.

By the way it takes hours for the body of the soup and years for the base.

[fre-co]

I had a curry in the Fujiya hotel, Hakone. I think that was a years old aged curry pot and it was very fucking nice.

Miz did you ever order the ramens from rakuten that I recommended?

edit: oh i was a bit slow with the curry talk....

[mizanation]

no, i never got the chance to order those kits. i always put it off because i figured i'd be in japan in a couple months to buy them--but a couple months turned into a year. now, it's looking like a few more months before i can go to japan.

at any rate, the kit that i was looking forward to getting was the ippudo kit. luckily ippudo nyc will open up in january.

hey fre$co, do you ever eat curry on brick lane? i had the best curry of my life there. balti-style, served in the simmering pot it was cooked in. mmmm.

[jubei]

back to curry talk:

I'm a relative noob when it comes to Japanese curry, but I'm a big fan of Katsu-Hama's Katsu curry here in midtown. It's within walking distance of my office so I sneak over there once or twice a week for my fix... anybody else eat there?

[mizanation]

sounds gooood.....

[Chicken]

and then derailing from ramen even more, i sometimes prefer chicken katsu over ton katsu, especially when i'm in japan. but in the states, they almost always cut out the chicken fat, so they turn out dry and boring. oh, not to mention it's also sacrelig to get rid of pork fat from tonkatsu too.

i am very bummed about this.