Curry Ramen and Tonkotsu Ramen at Ramen Tei

Ramen Tei, Sukhunvit 33/1 (Japan Town)
Curry Ramen and Tokotsu Ramen

Price: 180 baht (US $5.83)

Ramen Tei is an institution that has been around in Bangkok's Japan Town for as long as memory serves. Targeting the large Japanese expatriate community, they serve authentic an authentic menu of ramen in typically Japanese surroundings.

When stepping into the restaurant, the entire staff will greet you with a hearty "irrashaimase!", while you can choose to be seated at normal tables, at the ramen counter or of course, at the tatami tables.

Their ramen doesn't come cheap though, starting at around 180 baht (US $5.83) for a bowl. Their tonkotsu ramen is excellent:  the soup is hearty and creamy and stays true to its Hakata origins, and one bowl will fill you up. It comes accompanied with the usual condiments, including a few slices of Japanese roasted pork (chashu), cabbage and other vegetables.

Having always come here to have the tonkotsu ramen, I decided to go for the curry ramen. I am quite a big fan of curry, and while living in Japan, I often went around different shops just to sample the different and unique varieties of curry on sale.

The curry ramen is basically ramen soup, with thick curry poured on top. When mixed together, the curry is watered down to the right consistency for ramen. It comes with vegetables and thick chunks of pork.

The flavour is strong and the meat is well marinated. For such as strong tasting food such as curry, its surprising to see that the texture and flavour of the ramen is well maintained.

If you have deep pockets, then Ramen Tei comes highly recommended. For a taste of the Japanese ambiance in the heart of Thailand, watch the short video below.

Ajisen Ramen - Japanese noodles in Thailand

Ajisen Ramen proves that chain stores can still make decent noodles at a good price.

Tenderloin beef ramen: 135 baht (4.08 USD)
Bottle of water: 15 baht (0.45 USD)
Ice: 5 baht a glass (0.15 USD)

Ajisen Ramen is a Japanese fast food chain selling Japanese noodles with chains across the globe, which actually makes decent noodles.

I’ve often found that noodle chains tend to taste more artificial than your traditional local family run stores, as they take shortcuts to make the same bowl of noodle over and over again, but Ajisen Ramen was a rather pleasant surprise.

I ordered the beef tenderloin ramen, which came in miso soup-based broth accompanies by cabbage, bean sprouts and other vegetables, along with half a boiled egg.

The broth was delicious and the taste didn’t burn your tongue or throat when eating it. The beef tenderloin had been broiled for so long it was soft and crumbled in the mouth. It had obviously been marinated well, for the taste of the beef itself was excellent, slightly sweet and savory.

At first, I was afraid that the noodles themselves would taste industrial. Here, they were slightly chewy and absorbed some of the broth flavour into it. The texture was good while it didn’t taste pre-processed.

It was a very good meal, and I intend to go back. The prices are reasonable, and a decent bowl of ramen starts at 79 baht (2.39 USD). For that quality, it’s a good deal, although more quantity would have been helpful as well.

There are several branches of Ajisen in Thailand, and the one we went to was on the 6th floor of the MBK shopping complex.

Gyudon (Beef Bowl), Japan's answer to McDonald's

Beef bowl: Delicious! Fast! Cheap! Japan’s answer to fast food and hamburgers.

Gyudon (beef bowl): 380-630 yen (4.13-6.86 USD), depending on size ordered

Gyudon is cheap. The Japanese answer to McDonald’s and its burgers, gyudon is basically thinly  sliced beef and onion stewed in a special sweet sauce, made up of soy sauce, dashi (fish stock) and sweetened sake. The concoction is topped over fluffy Japanese rice and can be served with ginger, a freshly cracked raw egg and a bowl of steaming hot miso soup.

Weighing in at only 380 yen (4.13 USD) for the normal bowl, 480 yen (5.22 USD) for the large bowl or 630 yen (6.86 USD) for the super large bowl, it’s a cheap eat available everywhere you turn in Japan. In fact, you may even weigh the current economic condition by looking at sales of gyudon – the worse the economy is, the more bowls it will sell.

Yoshinoya, Matsuya and Sukiya are the leading gyudon chains in Japan, and like McDonald’s, are located in just about any corner of any Japanese city. They are open 24 hours a day, providing food to hungry salarymen in the mornings and afternoons, and food to drunk people in the wee early morning hours.

Unlike the Yoshinoyas in other countries such as America, the gyudon store setup is normally like a bar where a series of counters greets the casual customer. Orders are taken by the employee who will then literally shout it into the kitchen, where like a chorus it is repeated in enigmatic fashion. The employee will then slide you a cup of hot tea while you wait.

It’s not exactly food for the super health conscious due to the amount of sodium in a bowl – they will often simply fill the existing pot with more ingredients instead of emptying it and washing it out, allowing salt to gradually accumulate over the course of the day. It will fill your stomach, so if you’re ever in Japan on a budget, give it a go and remember to just shout “gyudon omori kudasai!”

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The video below shows you what a typical ordering experience at Yoshinoya is like, about 1.5 minutes into the video. The store here is the first Yoshinoya store in Japan, which is in Tokyo near the Tsukiji fish market.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomoda/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Osechi: giant bentos for the New Year

In years past, New Year in Japan would mean closed stores, family get togethers and new year feasting on intricately prepared bentos, designed to last the days before and after the roll over.

By Karn G. Bulsuk

Osechi New Year Bento: Starting at 10,000 yen (100 USD) up to and beyond 100,000 yen (1000 USD)

Osechi, or Japanese New Year cuisine was designed to deal with the fact there used to be nothing on sale during the new year period. Japanese housewives would spend a week preparing foods which could be stored for a few days, and would pack them into bentos for the whole family to eat the days before and after the New Year. I made the small one in the picture above in a cooking class, and it took the entire day even with things already prepared prior to the session.

In modern Japanese, this tradition still exists but many families opt to buy osechi bentos instead of spending time and effort to make them. They normally start at around 10,000 yen (100 USD) and can reach for the sky, especially if the bento is made by renowned chefs or restaurants.

It’s still a nice time to spend with family, and like the turkey of Thanksgiving or the minced pies of Christmas lore, osechi is a heartwarming start to the New Year.

They drink green tea like water

In Japan, not only is green tea everywhere, it is also readily available for free if you know where to look for it.

By Karn G. Bulsuk

Green tea: Free

In Japan, you can buy green tea in every single form for an affordable price, which isn’t surprising since the country consumes the most green tea in the world.

There are many grades of green tea – stuff you buy in bottles for 100-150 yen (1.10-1.60 USD), packaged green tea leafs sold in supermarket or the finest green tea, which can only be bought in specialized stores and can fetch prices as high as the most discriminating wines.

This particular type of tea is always served complimentary in all restaurants and cafeterias.

The one pictured above in Osaka University dispenses Hōjicha (ほうじ茶), a light type of green tea. There are several machines dispensing a variety of green teas as well, giving you a surprising number of options. You can also choose from hot and cold tea, making the dispenser useful year round in a country which dips below freezing point during the winter, but can hit temperatures in excess of 30 degrees Celsius in the summer.

During the summer, cafeterias without automatic dispensers will normally use a large thermos dispenser which contains a massive volume of tea. They will switch tea types depending on the season. In the winter, they will normally serve hot Hōjicha or ban cha, cheap common teas. In the summer, they are known to serve mugi cha, which is a type of roasted barley tea and is considered to be a nice, cold refreshing drink drunk in the summer heat.