New York is probably my favourite city in the United States. If you’ve recently done a hotel search here, you’re safe to conclude that it’s everyone else’s too.
Decent hotels begin at US$300/night for a weekend!! So for my last trip to NY, when I made my pilgrimage to Ippudo NY, I wound up staying at a hostel in the Upper West Side. US$30/night for a bunk in a 4 bed room. It wasn’t bad and it was clean. The latter characteristic is the exception rather than the rule for low cost lodging over there. And speaking of low cost lodging…
Expedia has ran some adverts offering cheap lodging in New York for under $60.00. Better read this story before you buy your plane tix and book a “hotel”. BEWARE!
Ippudo Story NY
After my first visit to Ippudo Shibuya back in March, I vowed to eat this delicious ramen again! Even if I had to travel all the way to New York! It’s only 5+ hours to JFK from SFO…
So last weekend, I did that. Flew to New York. To eat and drink. Actually, I was in New York for a different event and wound up with some time on Sunday morning to visit Ippudo NY. It’s just north of Astor Place station on the 6 line. Astor Place should be renamed to “ramen place” because this is the station that leads to St. Mark’s place and the East Village. Or as I call it, “ramen central” for the United States. All the good ramen shops are here in this small area of Manhattan (with the sole exception of Ichiran, which has opened up a branch in Greenpoint), both home grown (Momofuku) and from Japan (Ichiran).
There’s no doubt about where you are when you see the front door. It has that rustic feel like the Tokyo location. Until you actually walk through the front door.
As you walk through these doors, you will be transported to Japan…
Then all of a sudden, it’s not rustic anymore. It’s very modern in a neo-japonesque kinda way.
How modern! How big! How modern!
As with all things American, it’s big! Compared to the Shibuya location, it’s at least four times as big. Comfortable chairs and big tables. However, the menu is roughly the same. Which is a good thing. This time I went for the Akamaru Shin-Aji with the signature red glob of pork fat in the middle of the bowl.
the noodles are hiding under the broth…
You’re supposed to stir it up. This is how the broth changes after you stir it up. And I was transported back to Japan and better days. Springy noodles. Rich pork fat reinforced broth. Wonderfully tender (albeit a bit small) slices of roast pork. Garlic and negi in excellent proportions. And a second helping of noodles. Yes, I was very happy consuming lunch. After I finished my bowl, I was experiencing pork overload. Didn’t mesh too well with the slight hangover I was nursing.
orangish porky broth goodness!
Ippudo NY has a cash bar in the front of the restaurant that has various beers (Kirin, Sapporo) on tap as well as Yebisu in bottles and featured sakes.
Now that’s a lotta bowls…
The hella cool thing is that they have a 2 for $6 happy hour beer deal during the week. That includes Yebisu! I had one to balance out my system, which was dealing with a wine induced sneaky hangover and tonkotsu broth overload when I needed to go to the bathroom, which was downstairs. Besides the bathrooms being nice, I discovered something else on my trip to the bathroom…
Two long glass slits next to doors that say “private”. What are they doing inside these mysterious rooms? Why they’re making broth! And noodles! From scratch!
Mmmm…broth!
Here’s the dough…
that turns into noodles in your soup!
So, yes you can get authentic Hakata ramen in the United States. Well, you can get authentic Hakata ramen in New York. This is a “must visit” place when you’re here on the island.
Ippudo NY
65 4th Avenue
New York, NY 10003
1-212-388-0088
http://www.ippudo.com/ny
Ippudo Story Tokyo
During my recent Tokyo visit (late March), one of my friends sent me an email clipping from Urbandaddy that was about a Japan based ramen chain that was opening up a branch in the East Village. I skimmed over the article (“hmm, that’s interesting. New York gets ALL the good food”) and then left the hostel for the day. Later that night, I would be one of 100 or so A’s fans inside Tokyo Dome watching the A’s lose to the Red Sox, much to the delight of the rest of the crowd inside.
I met up with my friend Takeshi later that night after the game. He told me over the phone that he wanted to take me to one of his favorite ramen shops that’s nearby his work. So I jumped on the Yamanote and got off at Ebisu. It was a 10 minute walk to the Shibuya branch of Ippudo.
Ippudo is a Fukuoka based ramen chain that specializes in Hakata style ramen. If you’ve been patient and are a long time reader of my ramblings, you don’t need an introduction to the creamy, decadent richness of Hakata Ramen. Ippudo is considered by many as being one of the top purveyors of Hakata Ramen in Japan.
So we walked inside and took a seat. Ordered from the small menu. The ramen came out. Takeshi ordered the standard Akamaru Shin-Aji, with a big glob of red pork fat in the middle to be stirred into the broth for that extra measure of pork flavor goodness.
See that red glob? You stir it into the broth…
I, being the purist, ordered the Shiromaru Moto-Aji, which is a pure white broth (no extra pork fat) with pork belly. Delish! The garlic and the negi add a nice kick to the broth which should be classified as a a food group. The noodles were springy and tasted fresh and snappy. They were proper Hakata style, meaning thin egg noodles. Yum!
Look at this bowl. Now imagine it empty 20 minutes later. Burp.
Even at 2200 on a weeknight, Ippudo was 80% full, with a rustic old-school kind of feeling. They were definitely going for the nostalgic look of “back in the day”. It was a great nightcap as this Tokyo trip was winding down.
As we were leaving the restaurant, I picked this up.
Ippudo was opening a location in the East Village! Then my brain began to wake up. When I got home, I pulled up that email that my friend sent me. And yes, it was about the New York location of Ippudo opening up. What were the chances of that? I get an email about Ippudo NY opening up in the morning and I wind up at Ippudo Shibuya at night with a flyer about Ippudo NY opening up.
Talk about coinkidinks…
Ippudo
1-3-13 Hiroo
Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo
03-5420-2225
http://www.ippudo.com
Testing…?
Just finished subjecting myself to webhosted grief…
Upgraded to Movable Type 4.2. Got template issues (but strangely enough, the back end seems to be working fine). That’s why the site looks like crap.
Am working on it, but the lack of responsiveness from the MT boards is making me seriously look at jumping to Word Press…!