Foodie

Gluten-Free Vegan Ramen?!

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Hi everyone, Joan here!

So… I recently switched over to a gluten-free way of eating. Why? Because it turns out, verified by my doctor, that I have a gluten sensitivity and is the reason why I have had  skin issues for years. I’m not gonna go into too much details on that but it’s been about 3 weeks that I have not had bread, pasta, noodles or anything that has any wheat in it. So what does this mean for my ramen blog?!

When I announced some years ago that I have also switched to a plant-based diet, people asked the same question. Not to worry, there are still options out there and I have experimented on my own on how to make a gluten-free vegan ramen. Check out this recipe that I have made, inspired by Silverlake Ramen’s Vegetable Ramen recipe with a few of my own adjustments. You can do this gluten-free or with wheat noodles.

Gluten-free Vegan Ramen

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Cultural Enrichment in DTLA

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Hi friends, Joan here!

Long time no see! But I just went to a new ramen spot over the weekend and wanted to quickly share about it.

One of the things that I love about LA, especially Downtown LA, is that you can transport yourself to different countries within a 1 mile radius. I brought my friend, Elena, who’s originally from Saint Petersburg, Russia, and has not visited DTLA yet.

As I was googling ramen spots that had vegan options in Little Tokyo, I stumbled upon Okiboru House of Tsukemen. It’s summer, it’s hot… and tsukemen will hit the spot! Heh. That rhymed. Anyway… Okiboru was located in China Town instead.

Welcome to China… Town

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Post SoulCycle Ramen

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Hey everyone!

It’s been a while… but I thought I’d write a quick post about something that got me sooooo excited.

I tried SoulCycle for the very first time after being invited by my friend Matt for almost a year now. But that wasn’t what I was actually excited about.

I forgot my workout socks… don’t judge me.

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Vegan Ramen

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Hey everyone! Joan here.

I know it has been a while, but I’m back in the blogging world. So much has changed for me since my last blog post, hence why I have not written. To make it short, I moved out of Santa Monica (not too far, still on the Westside,) became a vegetarian, and have not been eating a lot of ramen. My dietary decisions was based solely on having a healthier lifestyle but it did not necessarily mean that ramen would be completely out of the picture!

Very few places I have been to have great vegetarian ramen, and I have yet to find a vegan one! However, I found a vegan spot two weeks ago during a road trip to San Francisco.

After an entire day of San Francisco-ing, (Andytown Coffee, Haight Ashbury, Painted Ladies, Mrs. Doubtfire House, Palace of the Arts, Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street) we stumbled upon Shizen Vegan Sushi Bar & Izakaya in the Mission District. Although we originally planned on trying the sushi, I could not resist when I saw ramen on the menu.

img_3969 Spicy Garlic Miso Ramen Continue reading →

Anti-Vegetarian

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Hello friends,

Joan here. I’m doing something that I haven’t done in a long time… write a blog post shortly after a ramen run! AGH!

Saturday night, I had a ramen dinner with my brother, Mark, who’s visiting LA for the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Ramen Hayatemaru in West LA and I was craving their awesome tsukemen. Also, Hayatemaru is not only great at ramen but they have amazing appetizers. We started off with some gyoza and spicy cucumbers. Be careful, those cucumbers definitely had a kick to them!

IMG_3619 … well you can have good gyoza at Hayatemaru!
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Drums and Ramen!

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Hey guys,

A few months ago, a bunch of friends and I met up at the NAMM show (National Association of Music Merchants for those who don’t know )at the Anaheim Convention Center. Well, I’m not a big gear head that needs to know and try all the new stuff out. But going to NAMM was just an excuse to hang out with your good friends and hit odd things that we most likely would never own.

NAMM At NAMM with friend and fellow drummer, Sarko Manchez

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Meet My Wang

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Hey all,

This is another late post but I cannot move forward with my blog without introducing you to… my Wang. Jonathan Wang.

He’s charming, he’s funny, he falls asleep in the blink of an eye (literally), AND he loves noodles as much as we all do. We all love our Wang!

IMG_9459Meet my Wang Continue reading →

Epic Cousin Ramen Run

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Hey everyone!

I know this is a few months late, but I still have to write about it! And since Ramen Week (50% off sale on ramen) starts today, this is an opportune time to post this overdue blog post! :-/ There was a big ramen sale back in June where participating ramen shops all over LA sold ramen for 50% off! My cousins and I planned a big Pinsan Ramen Run (pinsan is cousin in Tagalog)!

There was so much going on that night, and ramen, that it is best to just summarize the evening through photos. But the best part is at the very bottom of this blog post!

Our first stop was Hayatemaru in West LA. There was, of course, a very long line and we had to wait for almost an hour! We hung out at the restaurant next door to have some beer and it was quite obvious the server there was annoyed by us.

IMG_9277Causing mischief and drinking lots of beer next door

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