陸 尾山台店 (Riku Ramen Oyamadai)

The first encounter I had with Jiro style ramen was a challenge! Let me start at the beginning. Jiro ramen is a style (coming from an original shop, but there are MANY spin offs) which generally has a lot of toppings like cabbage and bean sprouts piled resembling a mountain plus thick slices of pork. It is very popular here and there are many shops that feature Jiro style. A Japanese friend of mine found out about my little project here and asked me if I had tried Jiro style before. I hadn't so he took me to one of his favorite places in Oyamadai. When I ordered the large size he laughed and asked me if I was sure. Undaunted by his laughter I replied with confident YES! We ordered and as we waited my friend taunted me and continued to ask if I was sure I could finish my order. My confidence was unbroken but then our order arrived:

It looked ok, the bowl was a little bit bigger than most, but the toppings were not mountain size like most other Jiro ramen places I have heard about. I began my quest to finish the ramen. What I noticed right away was that this ramen had almost no broth. It was mostly noodles, which were very thick. The broth was a salty delight and extremley flavorful. It reminded me of certain tsukemen broths that I have had. The pork was cut thick and also slightly dry but it wasn't a huge detractor from the overall bowl. I kept at it for a long time, but I didn't see an end in sight. It was as if the bowl kept replenishing itself. I wondered it was a magic curse, or if we had entered an alternate dimension. My friend laughed again, and said something about how he told me to be careful. As much as I was determined to finish, I was unable to complete my quest to defeat my first bout with Jiro style ramen. Defeated, I finally pushed the bowl away. Riku Ramen has excellent service and a delicious soup base. Their toppings aren't too much, but I warn you to get the regular. 4/5 bowls for the slightly dry pork.

As always a map:

Soba in Ueda at Senbonzakura

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Ueda for a teaching event. After doing some research I discovered that Ueda and the surrounding areas are famous for soba. Speaking to several teachers at my school, one who had grown up in the area confirmed that, indeed, the soba there is famous and possibly better than most places "because of the water". Whatever the reason was, I wanted to try this local culinary gem. It was a cold misty day in Ueda, perfect for a hot bowl of soba:

Often served cold with a dipping sauce in the summer, soba is also served hot when it looks exactly like this outside, at least I have a hard time when it's cold out eating cold food. I was taken to the restaurant with my guide and a friend. The place was actually one that I had seen on tabelog before going, 千本桜 (Senbonzakura). It had caught my eye while looking at different offerings in Ueda because one of the dishes comes with a giant kakiage (basically a mix of ingredients fried in tempura batter). We ordered and patiently waited for our food. For some reason it took a really long time. While I don't like to be too impatient, I feel like our food took longer than it should have, so the rating on customer service here is not as high. It was possibly a very busy day for them so I try to look past this inconvenience and focus on the food. When my soba finally came I was excited to dig in. *UPDATE* For some reason I can not locate the picture of the soba, but please read was is described below.

:(

This picture does not do the kakiage justice. It was truly huge! What I enjoyed about this soba was the lemon. I had not seen it served that way before and it changed the way that I cook soba at home. The soba itself was delicate and cooked perfectly. So other than the slow service, I enjoyed my time here at Senbonzakura. Perhaps the saying "good things come to those who wait" is true. However, I still have to give it 4/5 bowls because of the length of time it took to get my bowl.

In case you are ever in Ueda and want to visit here is the map: