Curry Festival @UNU

Long time, no noodle. I was on holiday during the end of December and the beginning of January. When on Holiday I find it hard to blog. I was also in the US, and my main culinary conquests were pizza, Jewish deli food, and Mexican. All three things are difficult to locate in Japan, and I was into satisfying my homesick palate. On my return I really wanted ramen. I stopped at a favorite local shop. But what to do about a new review? Every weekend the Aoyama area has a farmer's market. If you like trying samples of fresh vegetables and other treats I suggest you go! They often have special food based events and this past weekend was the curry festival. I scoped it out and after sharing some cheesy nan and curry with my friends I landed at the "curry ramen" stall:

This was offered by Ikiba, a very cute and cozy cafe nestled in the hustle and bustle of Harajuku. Generally Ikiba does not have ramen, but I have been there before and their food is quite delicious. Being the only ramen offered at the curry festival I went for it. It was a cook your own adventure, meaning you put the noodles into the steaming hot water yourself and then with the aid of their chef finished a lovely bowl of ramen.

The noodles were a flat wavy type I associate with Chinese dishes. Cilantro and a little chili oil was added to round out the flavor of a robust pork curry. Amazing! I am sad that this was a one time offer during a special event and now I might be in search of more curry ramen dishes. If you haven't been to Ikiba and you need a break while in the Harajuku area I highly recommend it! 5/5

Here are maps to both the farmer's market and Ikiba!

Farmer's market



Ikiba

麺屋すみす (Menya Smith Aoyama Ichome)

My goodness, what a strange month and a half. I lost an SD card full of pictures and I want to use it as an excuse for my limited posts! I really did loose at least 3 full entries due to this very reason, but I guess I will just have to return to some of the shops...the ones that I liked. Tokyo Design Week is held every year, but this is the first time I had the opportunity to attend. Here are some highlights from TDW!

It was super fun, but afterwards I was exhausted and in need of some sustinence. My prescient mind had already found a shop and saved it on Google maps, so I was off to find Menya Smith. It is tucked away in a kind of food court mall hallway, though unattached to an actual mall (I really have no way of describing this other than that) near other ramen and food shops. In fact, I almost went to the wrong place! But then I found Menya Smith. I really wanted Shio, but the friendly staff person informed me they were out and suggested that I try the "new taste". That sounded like a good idea as any so I pressed the button and entered Menya Smith. This is a minimal shop, no condiments on the table, but nicely designed with both counter and table seating. It was all very wooden and quite cozy, but we know how I like a good condiment selection. And indeed I did ache for just a bit of pepper. 

Served with thin noodles, spinach, a slice of what I belive was poached pork, thinly sliced negi, a chinese style meatball and woodear mushooms, the bowl looks incredible. However, now I know that the better a bowl looks may or may not indicate anything about taste. I wanted more pepper! But there was none in sight. It was an extremley delicate broth, and I did slurp the bowl dry! It actually had this weird effect of being so delicate that I wanted more! There was a really nice hint of negi and I suppose they felt the amount of pepper was appropriate (allllmost). So, despite my inclination towards deeper flavors, I quite enjoyed Menya Smith's "new flavor". I am not sure I would return as the type of noodle is not my favorite and nor was the serving size (a little on the small side!). Overall Menya Smith gets a 3.5/4.

Here is a map and a link to the tabelog.