Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon

2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

After a brisk hike up the Diamond Head Crater, we decided to walk over to Marukame Udon for some lunch. We were warned about the line-ups at this place but since we went at such an odd time – 2 pm, the place was nearly empty. We walked right in. Marukame is a Japanese noodle shop chain, the shop at Waikiki is the chain’s first overseas restaurant.

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

The noodle restaurant is set up cafeteria-style, you grab a tray, place your order at the counter, pick out some tempura from buffet trays beside the cashier, pay for your meal and seat yourself in the dining room. It’s no surprise that it’s one of the most efficient service setups, leave it to the Japanese to optimize service speed and efficiency for a sit-down food such as noodles.

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

I was starving after our Diamond Head hike but I was also steaming hot from the heat outside so I was torn between getting the cold udon noodles and the soup noodles. At the end, I opted to get the hot ontama udon: soup noodles with a soft boiled egg. My boyfriend ordered the Niku udon: hot soup noodles with seasoned beef. The udon noodles are freshly made in the shop, men behind the counter scoop out the fresh noodles and pour on broth and dress the noodles as each order comes in. It’s cool to watch the assembly line as your bowl of noodle moves along and more ingredients are being added to it.

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

I was the most excited about the tempura buffet, I had one thing in mind: spam musubi! I was disappointed to find that buffet tray empty but thankfully, a lady behind the counter was making fresh ones as we approached.

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

I have never had al dente udon noodles except maybe a few times at Guu in Vancouver. These udon noodles are a total game changer in my books – the texture was chewy and bouncy and totally absorbed the salty flavour of the broth. The egg was runny and soft and totally hit the spot.

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

The spam musubi was the best I’ve had on the island. I become obsessed with these gigantic fusion sushi and there are so many versions of them wherever we went. I loved that Marukame’s version features a thick cut piece of spam seared on both sides on top of perfectly cooked sushi rice.

Spam musubi, Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

The tempura we ordered were great compliments to our noodle bowls. I loved the inari the best, soft tofu wrapped around flavourful rice. The fried fish cake was salty and delicious, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The shrimp was tender on the inside and wrapped in the crispiest tempera crust. These shrimp were more tender than Giovanni’s, and more like the west coast shrimp that we’re used to.

Assorted tempura, Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame Udon, 2310 Kuhio Avenue, Honolulu, HI

Marukame is a great stop for a cheap but delicious meal. If you don’t go during peak lunch and dinner hours, you should be able to avoid line-ups. Another thing to remember is that they take cash only. I would rank Marukame as a must-visit in Honolulu.

Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Ha Long Bay

430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Who says you can’t find good pho downtown? Dennis introduced me to Ha Long Bay located between our two offices near the downtown core.

Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Since I’ve never been here before, I had to follow the first rule of a first time visit to a pho house: order the #1 Special. The Special at any pho house is the benchmark item that sets the bar for the rest of the menu. This is because the Special usually has a bit of everything, most importantly, those thin slices of silky beef. If instead of paper thin slices of beef, you get big slabs of meat with your #1 Special pho, you know you’re at a bad pho house.

Spicy thick noodle soup with beef and pork, Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Our piping hot bowls of noodles came to the table, steaming and fragrant. Dennis ordered the spicy noodle soup with beef and pork. His bright red bowl of spicy noodles definitely smelled strongly of chillies and spices. I hate bean sprouts, which worked out great for Dennis because he really went to town with them, dumping the entire side plate of bean sprouts into his bowl of noodles.

Spicy thick noodle soup with beef and pork, Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Dennis enjoyed his noodles and said they were flavourful and perfect for the cold, rainy Vancouver day.

#1 Special, Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

My #1 Special pho: noodles in soup with rare beef, tripe, flank and beef balls was delicious! Totally hit the spot for my pho craving. The noodles were al dente, the soup was flavourful, and mostly importantly, those thin slices of beef were the perfect texture and flavour. Bright pink until I dunked them into the hot broth, the beef was tender and tasty.

#1 Special, Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

The giant chunks of beef balls were scrumptious as well- sort of the Vietnamese version of mystery meat. The pieces of tripe were on the skinny side, I happen to enjoy big, thick, chewy pieces of tripe (like those huge strips of it from Kent’s Kitchen in Chinatown) but all in all, this was a good bowl of pho outside of the pho capital of Kingsway Avenue.

#1 Special, Ha Long Bay, 430 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka 1690 Robson Street, Vancouver

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

1690 Robson Street, Vancouver

I have been hearing endless stories about Hokkaido Ramen Santouka so I had to go check it out for myself. We went early on Saturday so there wasn’t a line up. I was amused by their cute Halloween display behind the plastic ramen noodle bowls in the front window. I loved their little cut-out ghosts and pumpkins smiling happily in a wonderfully cross-cultural window display. Although, what is it with Japanese food establishments and plastic food displays? I’ve heard there’s even a little town in Japan devoted to selling plastic food displays. It’s on my ‘must-see’ travel list.

Upon entering Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, we could already smell the warm and rich broth and the noodle chefs behind the window in the open concept kitchen were already busy cooking away.

I confess that I came here with a Ramen Elitist so he took care of the ordering. I was just happy to eat anything with pork in it and bouncy, chewy noodles. I know most people eat ramen for the incredible broth, but I’m in it for the texture and taste of the noodles.

I was not disappointed by the noodles at Santouka. We both ordered the Toroniku Shio Ramen, which is simmered pork jowl and salt seasoned ramen. The noodles were excellent, almost as firm and chewy as G-Men and definitely more al dente than the noodles at Ramen Jinya. Something about the thick and firm texture of the noodles at Santouka keep them from getting soggy during our entire meal. Even the noodles that I dug out from the bottom of my bowl at the end were still chewy and springy.

I prefer these springy, curly noodles at Santouka over the straighter noodles that Ramen Jinya often serves.

Despite their distinct chewy texture, the ramen noodles still soaked up the salty broth perfectly. The Toroniku Shio broth was one of the cloudiness that I’ve seen, and definitely one of the most flavourful that I’ve ever tasted. It was salty with a subtle and smooth creaminess to it, it was definitely comfort food for a cold Saturday. With the Toroniku Shio Ramen at Santouka, the toppings: pork cheek, bamboo shoots, wood ear, green onions and pickled plum are served separately so you can add as much as you want into your bowl of ramen and broth or just eat the toppings as appetizers. I barely added green onions since I’m not a fan but the pork cheek was delicious in the noodle broth.

The pork cheeks were so tender that I barely needed to chew them. The slices are thinner than at Ramen Jinya but we definitely got more slices at Santouka. The pork meat was very flavourful with a great salty char on the outside and moist, melt-in-your-mouth meat in the middle.

The little red pickled plum was intensely tart, it added such a memorable burst of flavour to contrast the comforting creaminess of the broth that it really took this bowl of ramen to the next level. So when you find that tiny red plum on your side plate of toppings, make sure you dunk it into your noodles and wait till mid-meal before eating it. Then get ready for a surprise explosion of tart sweetness that also awakens your taste buds to the rest of the meal.

I loved their handy broth spoons with a smart ridge for balancing on the edge of the bowl.

For appetizers we had to order a hard boiled egg, cooked to perfection with a gooey, half-runny yolk. I loved the natural sweet yolk flavours mixed in with the mild taste of the boiled egg white.

Our pork gyozas also did not disappoint. The gyoza skin was thin, tender and delicate, making the pork fillings the star of the show. The pork fillings are slightly fattier than at G-Men and Ramen Jinya. I actually prefer fattier, moist dumpling fillings. Oink. There was also a sweetness to the gyozas at Santouka which I loved.

I loved the ramen at Santouka. The service was pleasant and speedy. I will totally return.

No. 1 Beef Noodle House, 4741 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby

No. 1 Beef Noodle House

4741 Willingdon Ave., Burnaby

Nothing hits the spot on cold Vancouver days more than a steaming hot bowl of noodles with beef brisket and rich broth. You can get delicious beef brisket noodle soup at No. 1 Beef Noodle House in Burnaby, they do take out too. Tucked in the corner of a plaza across the street from BCIT, this little noodle house also serves bubble tea and other Taiwanese treats.

We ordered the strawberry black tea and the sesame milk tea, both with pearls. Both drinks were delicious, the tapioca pearls were at just the right consistency, chewy and bouncy. The deep red strawberry black tea wasn’t too sweet, I could definitely taste the slight bitterness from the black tea. It was balanced out by the sweet and tart fruity flavours of the strawberry.

The sesame milk tea was sweet with some grittiness from the ground sesame seeds. The drink was rich and creamy with a nice layer of foam on top.

Slurping on cold drinks definitely was not helpful on a cold day though. So thankfully, the service was pretty fast and our beef brisket noodles arrived shortly after our order.

I love the big round and deep wooden spoon that comes with the bowl of noodles. It’s very handy for slurping up the warm and tasty broth. Also, wooden spoons always make me think about fairy tales and I’m a sucker for fairy tales.

The noodles in this dish are nice and thick, absorbing all the incredible flavours from the beef brisket and the broth. The noodles are also cooked perfectly and even after soaking in the broth, the noodles are still chewy and al dente. The fresh green onions also add a great crunch to the dish.

I didn’t know what to expect from the beef brisket, after all, I only thought this place was a tea house doubling as a noodle house. But lo and behold, the brisket was actually amazingly tender and fell apart in my spoon. I barely had to chew it, the meat was that soft. The beef was also well seasoned and tasted wonderful.

We also ordered two appetizers that were served at the same time as our noodles. The first was my favourite order at Taiwanese tea houses, crispy salty peppery chicken. Basically, the Taiwanese version of chicken nuggets. They came to the table piping hot. Although not as salty as the nuggets from Well Tea, these nuggets still had that lip smacking, salty quality that is addictive and delicious. It’s hard not to devour the entire plate all at once.

The deep fried squid tentacles were also finger licking good. The chewy texture of the squid contrasted with the crispy coating. The coating was similar to that of the chicken nuggets, salty with a hint of pepper and spices.

The service is pretty good at No. 1 Beef Noodle House so I will definitely return. I have to remember to bring cash or debit next time though as like most Asian establishments, they don’t take credit card.

Thai Son Restaurant, 230-2800 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, Canada

Thai Son Restaurant

230-2800 East 1st Ave.

Vancouver, Canada

Still seeking refuge from the cool weather in Vancouver, we decided to go out for pho. There are 3 top pho restaurants in the Lower Mainland which are hard to top: Bao Chau on East Hastings near Playland, Pho Tam in Whalley, Surrey and the award-winning Cambodian restaurant, Phnom Penh on East Georgia on the edge of Chinatown. However, we decided to try something new this time, Thai Son in the 1st Avenue Marketplace Plaza in East Vancouver.

Rule number 1 at a pho restaurant, if it’s your first visit, always order the house special beef combo pho: Pho Dac Biet. This is rice noodles in broth with beef balls, tripe and slices of beef brisket. You can’t go wrong. Pho Dac Biet is every pho house’s staple dish like a cheeseburger at a burger joint. So you can tell a lot about a place by how their pho dac biet is prepared. It’s usually listed as menu item number 1 at most pho houses. Actually, also at most pho houses, the menus are so humongous, that when the waiter comes, you just quote the menu item number. Don’t even try to pronounce the actual name of the dish. Waiters at these places are pretty impatient, and customer service is not a priority. But that’s part of the charm of dining at ‘hole-in-the-wall’ establishments right?

All the noodle dishes usually come in small and large. You can’t really tell in the picture below, but the large on the left really is significantly bigger, there are more ingredients and broth, and the bowl is deeper.

There are 3 components that make a good pho: al dente noodles, flavourful broth and freshness of ingredients. The noodles at Thai Son were definitely al dente, with a good chewiness and flavour soaked up from the salty broth. There was also a hefty amount of ingredients, a nice layer of brisket and plenty of beef ball chunks on top of the noodles. I can’t say that the brisket was entirely fresh and tender though. There were some well cooked slices but generally, the meat was a little bit tough and chewy. The beef balls were on the leaner side. The tripe was nice and springy, it was sliced a little too thin though. I like tripe to be sliced thick enough so that I can hear the faint crunch of it as I take a bite. The broth was good but nothing special.

I don’t use pho toppings but it is traditional to sprinkle some bean sprouts on top of the noodles and squeeze some fresh lime into the broth. The only problem is, at Thai Son, they serve lemon wedges instead of lime. I suppose lemons are cheaper this time of year than limes? But any true foodie knows that limes provide a much tangier, more concentrated sour citrus hit of flavour. Lemons are sweet and might not coax out the intricate layers of broth flavours in the pho.

The spring rolls here were large and flat. I am used to the big and round, deep fried spring rolls at Bao Chau. However, I have been told that the rounder style of spring rolls are Cambodian style and these flatter spring rolls may be more authentic Vietnamese style. One thing is for sure though, Thai Son totally skimps on ingredients when it comes to spring roll filling! The filling was a little bit mushy, and really only seemed to be comprised of  ground pork and some mild seasoning. The spring rolls at Phnom Penh are chock full of pork, some vermicelli and even bits of crab meat, in other words, they are chock full of flavour. I can’t say the same about the Thai Son spring rolls. The filling was a little bland. The spring roll shells were very crispy though.

The rice dishes that we ordered were grilled pork chop with shredded pork with an egg on steamed broken rice (Con Tam Bi Suon Ga Trung) and grilled lemon grass chicken on steamed broken rice (Com Tam Bi Ga Uop Xa).

The portions on both rice dishes was substantial. If you’re wondering what broken rice is, it’s exactly what it sounds like, ground up pieces of rice kernels, steamed. It reminds me of rice texture in congee though. The shredded pork was the most interesting. It’s not exactly shredded pork meat, it’s shredded pork skin, and has the texture of fried jelly. I liked it, it was salty and crunchy. The pork chop was sliced a little bit too thin for me. It cooled down very quickly so when I got around to eating it, it was cold and a bit tough. The lemon grass chicken was tender though. The meat was marinated perfectly, and cooked just right.

Now, the other staple in pho houses: traditional Vietnamese style, French pressed coffee. We always order it iced. It comes to the table with the press on top of the cup, already filled with a couple of teaspoons of condensed milk. A big jug of ice is served with the coffee. Here’s what you do: when most of the liquid has been extracted and dripped out of the coffee grounds in the press, gently press down on the top of the press to squeeze out the last of the coffee, then fill the glass with ice and mix until the coffee and condensed milk are blended.

The coffee at Thai Son was great. I can’t say that it was aromatic, but it was better than average. The coffee was both strong and smooth and the condensed milk added a creaminess and sweetness that finished off the meal nicely.

G-Men Ramen Shop, #1101-3778 Sexsmith Rd., Richmond

G-Men Ramen Shop

#1101-3778 Sexsmith Rd, Richmond

British Columbia, Canada

Opened by the owners of the famous Gyoza King, G-Men Ramen Shop is everything that it’s cracked up to be, well, except for the supposed ‘Melty Pudding,’ but more on that later.

I have a huge soft spot for ramen noodles, I survived on the stuff as a starving intern at a publishing house during my university days. Something about the thick, curly, chewy noodles is both extremely comforting and very addictive. So I am always on the prowl for a good ramen joint. In Vancouver, there are two places to go for amazing, top notch ramen: Kintaro (recently reviewed by my fellow foodie blogger at I’m Only Here for the Food) and G-Men. The name makes it sound like a superhero comic book, and this place really should be considered the hero of ramen, churning out quality noodles in flavourful broth and topped with traditional Japanese ingredients.

I ordered the classic Tonkotsu Ramen: thick ramen noodles cooked in pork soup and topped with BBQ pork, seaweed and black wood ear mushrooms and green onions. I also requested an extra topping of cheese. I love the fact that cheese is so prevalent in Japanese cuisine such as ramen, sushi rolls (Philadelphia rolls) and appetizers (oyster motoyaki). Cheese is nearly non-existent in other Asian cuisines.

The Tonkotsu did not disappoint. The noodles were as thick as promised on the menu, they were firm but chewy and soaked up all the delicious saltiness in the broth. I know how much the slice of cheese in the picture resembles a Kraft cheese slice but the melted creaminess of the cheese really added a comforting texture to the noodles and a creamy cloudiness to the broth. I’m not a real fan of black wood mushrooms but the strips in the Tonkotsu gave each mouthful of noodles some more depth; the crunchiness in the mushrooms also contrasted nicely with the gooey melted bits of cheese sticking onto the noodles and pork. The slices of BBQ pork were tender and I could definitely taste the BBQ smokiness but the pork was sliced a bit on the thin side. Kintaro definitely serves their Tonkotsu with thicker pieces of fatty pork.

We also ordered the dinner special, the Tan Tan noodles: noodles cooked in pork soup and flavoured with house made spicy sesame and peanut sauce. They weren’t kidding when they said spicy, the spicy heat from the noodles really hits you in the back of the throat and unsuspectingly prickles the taste buds. The ramen noodles in the Tan Tan were perfectly al dente though and as much as the sauce was spicy, it was balanced by the fresh, crisp crunch of the green onions, the mild saltiness from the seaweed and the nutty sweetness of the peanut sauce. The heaviness from the peanut sauce did make this dish much more filling than the Tonkotsu though.

We were almost too full to eat the gyozas- which we thought was mandatory since we were dining at a restaurant opened by the owners of Gyoza King. The pork gyozas were perfectly pan fried, nice and crispy on the bottom and moist and flavourful on the inside. They were a tad heavy on the chives but other than that, I loved that they didn’t ‘over-stuff’ these delicate little gyozas with filling.

We were about to get the bill when I noticed a sign on the wall advertising ‘homemade melty pudding, limited time only.’ I am a dupe for two things: anything melty (cheese, chocolate, cream) and anything offered for a limited time. There were even dates under this sign that stated this supposed special pudding was only offered during the holiday season, the waitress told us that the pudding was only made in anticipation of the new year. In her broken English, she also said something about caramel. I was sold! So we ordered one pudding to share between us. First off, when I saw the word melty, I was really expecting something thick, creamy, gooey, rich and warm not an ice cold jelly-mold. After one spoonful, my friend gave up but I forged on. And after a few more spoonfuls in the shallow little cup, I finally unearthed the liquid caramel sauce at the bottom. And upon flipping over the bottom bits of this pudding to discover the golden caramel bottom, we concluded that this so-called ‘melty’ pudding was really a reverse creme caramel. That’s really how it should have been advertised!

I don’t usually discuss utensils on my blog but I love the spoon that came with the Tan Tan noodles. The holes allow the spicy broth to drain out so you just have one perfectly seasoned spoonful of noodles to gobble up, minimizing slurp and splatter. Genius! I really have to find out where these spoons are sold!

All in all, I really liked the ramen at G-Men, and I think I will become a regular customer.