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

Ramen Girl's Festival -- ソラノイロ Japanese Soup Noodle Free Style

The weekend before last Yokohama held a Ramen Girls Festival. In the past ramen was a man's world, but this festival celebrated equal ramen rights for all. I guess! It was held outside beside Yokohama's red brick warehouse. I will use just about any excuse to visit this area of Yokohama because I find it to be enchanting, especially at night:

As you may have inferred from the pictures I arrived in the late after noon and didn't leave until evening. This was because the festival was very busy and each ramen shop represented had lines of hungry customers. The first line I wanted to get in was for a different shop, but the men helping heard the crowd informed me that by the time I got to the ramen (roughly 2 hours) it might be sold out. I don't think this festival was properly organized as it may have been easier to sell tickets to each individual vendor from a ramen style machine, have a set number of tickets for the amount of food, and close the vendor's area when/if they sold out. This misfortune was actually a stroke of luck. The line I ended up in was for ソラノイロ Japanese Soup Noodle Free Style, chosen because of its colorful broth and unique toppings. I assume that to appeal to girls the festival chose shops that were supposed to appeal to women's traditionally assumed appetites. In short, women like vegetables...right?! Well I do, but I don't think it's because of something that stupid. After waiting about an hour and a half I got to turn in my festival tickets plus some extra cash to get all the toppings.

And it was well worth it:

Immediately I saw why this shop was calling itself Free Style. The ramen was topped with cherry tomatoes, sweet potato, a delicious egg, shredded cabbage, mizuna (water greens), cheese, barley, chashu (pork), and a sprinkle of black sesame. The best part was the surprise of the color of the noodles, a bright orange. Actually that wasn't the best part as this ramen was all around delicious. The broth was a delicate tomato and carrot base and the toppings mixed well. I was surprised, but I actually really enjoyed the cheese!

What I liked about the ramen festival was that on the flyer each vendor represented had their shop details listed so that if you missed out on one or wanted to return to another you could easily visit. While I didn't get to visit the shop I would really like to in the future. Here is a link to their site. After scanning the menu I want to return as soon as I can! 5/5

While I didn't visit their shop (located in Chiyoda between Hanzomon and Kojimachi stations) I will map it for you!