Five Minutes Was All It Took for Some IPPUDO!
Tomorrow was a rollercoaster of emotions. There was a snowstorm (see below) BUT school was not cancelled. After trekking through the wasteland outside my apartment, I arrived on campus to check into my flight to Napa TO SEE IT WAS CANCELLED. I checked to see if there were other available flights to prevent a total disaster of my weekend. There were only flights going out on Friday but, naturally, these were all sold-out...UNTIL SUNDAY!
LOOK AT THIS NONSENSE! Winter, you're not cute anymore. Please stop.
In order to combat this disappointment, Christine suggested we go to lunch at Ippudo (http://www.ippudony.com/) and take advantage of whatever perk terrible weather is; in this case, it is an incredibly short wait time!
We started with the Hirata Buns. They are steamed buns filled with pork or chicken (we picked pork) served with Ippudo's original spicy buns sauce.
Hirata Buns
These were incredibly delicious! I could have eaten several of them but I didn't want to be a complete animal, so Christine and I split an order and had one each.
While reading the menu and picking what to order next, we each ordered a Sapporo Light.
The shot glass for the beer adds something for sure
Out of the different Ramen styles available, I ordered the Akamaru Chashu. This is the original silky "Tonkotsu" (pork) soup noodles topped with Ippudo's secret "Umami Dama" miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage mushrooms, scallions and fragrant garlic oil.
Akamaru Chashu
This was delicious! Ippudo is certainly worth the hype though I am not an expert on Ramen. I have been happy at many other spots, including Ramen Setagaya and Minca, so I'm not sure if I would bother coming back here if the wait was over 30 minutes. It is good but to my unrefined palate it may be a *tad* overhyped.
Cheers,
Liz