This time around we have Taketora, the "tiger in the bamboo." Nope, sorry, I couldn't tell you if it's crouching or not. In this case, we might read "tiger" as a metaphor for ramen, and "bamboo" as a metaphor for the dense thicket of cabaret clubs in central Kabukicho, ground zero for "evening entertainment" in Tokyo.
Fortunately, unlike many of its neighbors, this tiger is awake during daylight hours. I feel like Kabukicho is one of the great unsung ramen zones of Tokyo - sure it's plenty sketchy at night and weirdly dead while the sun is out, but all those denizens of the dark have to eat, and they seem to choose ramen with some frequency. There's a branch of Jirô, the great Hitotsubo, the tasty Tonchin (review coming soon), and plenty of other serviceable joints.
On this particular day, I shared Taketora with a gaggle of young and fresh-faced big haired hosts out on their lunch break - well-coiffed dudes designated with the task of relieving females of their cash with coy looks and overpriced champagne. To be more precise though, I wasn't really sharing the space with these dudes at all, since behind the counter there are a few "private rooms", because nothing says romancing a professional like a tete-a-tete over ramen, right?
I wasn't prepared to give Taketora second shrift, and in fact I'd walked by a number of times without noticing it - in general photo menus are a bad sign when searching for good ramen. But the meal started out right, with a nice warm towel handed to me by a pretty girl with a bad dye job - what do you think this is, NOT Kabukicho? Hot towels and pretty girls with bad jobs are literally what keeps this town running.
It was good notices from one of my favorite ramen critics, the equally well-coiffed Takahashi Jôji that convinced me to give Taketora a try; the shop's only been open a year and change, but I've yet to be led astray by a Takahashi rec.
Next up was a small dish of fried noodles to snack on while waiting. Sâbisu sâbisu! Or, for the non-Japanese speakers reading the blog, "service, service!" Taketora is one of those new-fangled "ramen dining" restaurants, so they offer lots of little bonuses to give you a feel-good experience, including a free upgrade to large size and a free topping at lunch time. But all that's moot if the ramen is no good, right?
Fortunately, Taketora's bowl is quite tasty, a new school shôyu (soy sauce) soup that manages to avoid resorting to the cookie cutter post-tsukemen boom mildly fishy mode. Rather, the broth is a blend of quite strong but not overly oily chicken and pork soup with a shôyu taste at once deep, light, and almost sweet. It's important for soy-based shops to have a good shôyu supplier, and Taketora seems to have found one I haven't tasted before. I dug it like I was digging the decent jazz on the stereo. Big, chunky and flavorful bamboo hunks, an extra egg-half, and sippable soup. I wonder what the hungry hosts in the next room thought?
Taketora's noodles are somewhat unusual for ramen of it's type - rather than go with the medium thick straightish, whiteish noodles in vogue with new school shôyu, Taketora uses very yellow, curly noodles made with raw egg, not dissimilar from those you might find in a bowl of Sapporo ramen. They stayed chewy and firm all the way through the (generously sized) bowl, so I think some of the yellow color might also be due to a high kansui (alkali water) content.
"Are you familiar with tiger oil?" the waiter asked me. Umm, is this some kind of Chinese medicine sex vitality thing? Far from it, the shop's trademark "tiger oil" comes free alongside your bowl, and is a tangy but not overpowering garlic oil to drizzle on top. Nothing mind-blowing, but it's nice to mix it up halfway through. This was a solid bowl, and I found myself slurping down to the dregs. You could do a lot worse than bagging this tiger when bush hunting (oh god!) in Kabukicho...
7 comments:
surely you're joking about the private room behind the ramen counter... like you couldnt wait to get to the love hotel, or maybe this is cheaper?? very confused (but also a little bit aroused?)
The new New Old Style Keisuke has some private rooms in back too.
By the way, have you ever had a normal dining experience in Kabukicho?
Pengobatan Penyakit Kutil Kelamin Orang yang menderita penyakit jengger ayam, biasanya tidak menimbulkan gejala, namun kutil itu secara tiba-tiba tumbuh disekitar kelamin Selengkapnya
Obat Ambeien jika sudah terkena penyakit ambeien ini maka ada beberapa makanan yang di pantang atau di larang dan di jauhi oleh penderita penyakit ambein, seperti makanan pedas, makanan yang mengandung banyak lemak, dan minuman yang mengandung alkohol pun tidak di anjurkan untuk di konsumsi pada penderita penyakit ini. Baca Selengkapnya
Obat Wasir sudah Parah Ciri ciri penyakit wasir adalah akan mengeluarkan fases yang berdarah. Fases yang beradarah, ini bisa terjadi pada siapa saja, bagi yang sudah mengalami penyakit wasir. Jenis gejala inilah yang bisa memicu terjadinya penyakit wasir ini datang dan muncul. Baca Selengkapnya
Keluar Nanah dari Sekitar Kemaluan Kita tahu kencing nanah pada pria yang masih baru, gejalanya nyata. Dari liang penis pada pria atau dimulut vagina pada wanita, menetes nanah menyerupai susu kental manis yang biasanya meninggalkan flek di celana dalam. Nanah umumnya mentes waktu bangun tidur pagi hari. Kita menyebutnya morning drip. Baca Selengkapnya
Obat Sipilis Alami Pengobatan sifilis sangat mudah dilakukan dengan memakai antibiotik. Biasanya dengan menggunakan suntikan penisilin. Baca Selengkapnya
KEnapa Kemaluan Bernanah _ Obati segera penyakit gonore atau kemaluan bernanah anda dengan obat herbal gonore atau kemaluan bernanah dari De Nature Indonesia, Sudah banyak pasien kami yang tersembuhkan, Atas ijin Alloh. Baca Selengkapnya
Jual Obat Kanker Serviks Stadium Lanjut _ Penyakit kanker rahim adalah sejenis kanker yang 99,7% disebabkan oleh human papilloma virus (HPV) onkogenik, yang menyerang leher rahim. Baca Selengkapnya
Jual Obat Kanker Usus Besar _ Salah satu cara untuk pengobatan penyakit kanker usus besar yang paling tepat yaitu dengan obat herbal Baca Selengkapnya
Nice article, delicious uuh.
Please visit our to website JElly Gamat Qnc Original
may be useful for all, helpful article once and pardon me permission to share also here Cara mengatasi tukak lambung
really very interesting news and of all the news that I read only your blog that I like most and really very accurate news
http://www.sinidomino.com/
I would like to thanks for sharing high value and informative article with us. And i hope you'll sharing more idea's and keep writing more like this one.
cara mengobati asam lambung
cara mengobati herpes
cara menyembuhkan liver
cara mengobati keputihan
cara mengobati fungsi ginjal rusak
cara mengobati vertigo
obat penghilang bekas luka
Post a Comment