I met up with some of my ramen-hunter friends to talk about the 2019 Hyakumeiten, a list of 100 famous shops in Tokyo. This list is curated by Tabelog, one of Japan’s popular food ranking sites. We talk about how many shops we crushed, discussed our favorites, and raised some money for a couple…
ZenPop Japanese Ramen Pack Check out the YouTube video! Instead of just doing an unboxing and eating of this tasty instant ramen pack, I packed a couple into my cycling pack, donned my cycling jersey from 1998, and rode around 75 kilometers into the distant reaches of western Tokyo. Grab your own pack here: https://bit.ly/3lQSmqH…
東京ラーメンショー2019 The 2019 Tokyo Ramen Show, held around the first week of November, featured some collabs, some out of town shops, and some souvenir swag. Same as every year. I only went twice to try a couple interesting collabs. Nakamura and Setagaya did a spicy fishy ramen. And Kikanbo teamed up with Nagi for a…
大つけ麺博2019 Remember 2019? I do. I didn’t go as hard on the annual Grand Tsukemen Fest as I normally do, as I was traveling a bit in the month of October. It was unfortunate, as this year’s lineup was insane. Usually, we have five weeks with nine shops each week for a total of 45…
Mugiane x Little Pearl Popup in Washington, D.C. For the second time, I helped bring a ramen shop from Japan overseas for a popup event. This time was with Muginae, one of Japan’s most famous and celebrated shops in recent years. Two hour waits every day, number one on Tabelog, Michelin status, I was actually…
It’s time for my annual best-of list, where I look back over the year at my favorite bowls. Thirteen shops made the non-Tokyo lists this time. My non-ramen job takes me far and wide around Japan and gives me the opportunity to really try some excellent shops. Head over to Best of Ramen for the…
It’s time for my annual best-of list, where I look back over the year at my favorite bowls. These 14 shops are all in Tokyo, and all are highly recommended. Head over to my dedicated best-of site Best of Ramen for the details and maps. As always, this isn’t a best-of list in the traditional…
Tabelog Awards 2019 Tabelog is Japan’s internet portal to the vast number of restaurants across the country. The site serves up general information, like addresses and hours, but the most popular feature of the site is the user reviews. Shops are given a ranking, with five being the highest. Shops with a ranking above four…
http://bestoframen.com/ My best-of lists live here now! If you don’t want to check it out, here is my list of memorable Japanese shops I visited outside of Tokyo and wrote about in 2018. 金澤濃厚中華そば 神仙 (Shinzen in Kanazawa, Ishigawa Prefecture) 麦の道 すぐれ (Sugure in Aichi Prefecture) らぁめん りきどう (Rikido in Gifu) もっこす (Mokkosu in Kobe) 五福星…
It’s time for my annual best-of-my-year list. Here are the shops, but for a more manageable view of things, head over to my dedicated best-of site: www.bestoframen.com Hope everyone had a great 2018, full of memorable bowls. 純手打ち 麺と未来 (Mentomirai in Shimokitazawa) 亀戸煮干中華そばつきひ (Tsukihi in Kameido) 中華そば 吾衛門 (Goemon in Hachioji) ソラノイロ Factory & Labo 麺庵…