Restaurant Review

Pre-Apocalypse Ramen

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Hello friends, Joan here!

We are living in strange times, aren’t we? Now that we’re all stuck at home, I hope everyone is using their time to rest, practicing healthy habits, but also being creative and learning. This is definitely a good time for me to catch up on blogging!

Before businesses started shutting down and people going on self-quarantine due to COVID-19, my husband and I were in the Covina area for a meeting. Since we were out there and I’ve been eyeing a ramen spot in Covina for a while on Instagram, I took this as an opportunity to try Artisan Ramen Kono.

I love simple menus

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A Bowl Fit For A King

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Hi all, Joan here!

Just sharing a quick post of a spot I found on a whim as I was driving home from visiting family. I’ve been eyeing some new spots out in the San Gabriel area but wanted to save them for another time. Anyway, I found a place called King of Ramen in Pasadena on my way home.

I’ve never heard of this place, nor are they on social media. But I was intrigued so I gave it a try!

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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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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 →

Egg Drop… Ramen Soup?

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Hey everyone, Joan here.

Back in 2011, Tanya and I both lived in the Inland Empire and it was not always easy to travel to LA just for ramen. Then we found a little gem, the Shogun Restaurant in La Verne, that served a nice bowl of ramen. You can view the old blog post here.

A year later, we found out that they had stopped serving ramen and our hearts were broken…

I recently found my way back to Shogun Restaurant with some friends after a church gig. And to my surprise, ramen was back on their menu! I ordered it of course, but unfortunately, it was not the same.

IMG_4519Tonkotsu Ramen… Egg drop soup style Continue reading →

DOUBLE Ramen!

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Hey everyone,

Not too long ago, I went out for ramen with my buddy Marko, (aka Sarko Manchez). We met up at Silverlake Ramen, but it was a Friday and the wait was going to be over an hour. We were starving and did not have the patience so we looked up another ramen spot and found one about 2 miles away in Koreatown. And just my luck… it turned out to be the Original Ramen Burger!!!

IMG_6031

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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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Return to Foo Foo Tei

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Hey everyone,

The first time Tanya and I went to Foo Foo Tei in 2011, (see old blog post here)  it scared the crap out of us! First of all, it was in the evening and driving into a creepy neighborhood made us really nervous. Second, we were not very pleased with our ramen experience back then so we haven’t gone back since.

Now that I’m older, wiser, stronger and can probably kick the crap out of an old creeper, I decided to give Foo Foo Tei another try!

IMG_2849 So many ramens!

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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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Never Too Early for Ramen

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Hey everyone, Joan here.

Just a quick post for you about another ramen spot in West LA. Forget Little Tokyo, (even though I love DTLA) the Westside is definitely where all the good ramen is at! All within a 5 mile radius.

I finally got around to checking out Ramen Yamadaya in Westwood. I’ve been to the other restaurants of its chain so I had an idea of what to expect there. My friend, Lisha, and her cute son Iari (ya-ree), joined me for an early ramen lunch. I don’t normally eat ramen so early in the day (11 am), but I was starving and had not eaten breakfast. Lisha is a very talented photographer and took some photos for this blog post!

IMG_1084 Ramen Yamadaya

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