Week 3/52
Three new things for the third week of the year! Adventure #1: Tonkotsu kotteri ramen from Ramen Yamadaya in Torrance.
Tonkotsu kotteri ramen w/chashu, Hanjuku egg, black tree fungus, bamboo, green onions, black garlic oil, and thick noodles. Every dish comes with spinach and ginger on the side.
SO. RICH. The pork-based soup is creamy and flavorful, and not at all overly-salty! The kotteri option gives you the black garlic oil and that extra layer of fatty goodness, which is literally lip-smacking goooood. (All the fat and collagen extracted from the boiled pork bones leaves a nice shiny, sticky coating on your lips. My description sucks, but I swear it’s awesome!) A nice thing about Ramen Yamadaya is that they let you choose thick or thin noodles for all of their ramen bowls, a choice that not many places will offer you. But the best part? Fresh garlic. They’ll give you whole cloves of garlic and a press, so you can add that fresh, spicy flavor to the already garlicky (from the black oil) broth!
Adventure #2: Orange Dream Cream from Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt in Torrance.
Single-scoop of Orange Dream Cream in a sugar cone. The portions are a bit bigger, but once again I forgot to take a picture before eating. =[
95% of the time I go to Handel’s for their Banana Cream Pie ice cream (which is super ridiculously good), but I think I might have to start going 60/40 on my flavor repertoire now that I’ve tried this. It’s just like those creamsicles everyone used to eat as a kid (vanilla ice cream with orange sherbet), but this one has so much more depth! You really can taste and appreciate the flavors and textures of this homemade goodness versus those store bought popsicles. Even if you aren’t a fan of this flavor combination, I REALLLLY encourage you to try Handel’s! They have over 50 flavors each day, with a lot of different options to satisfy your frozen dairy fix. The employees are also really friendly, helpful, and patient since they know that with such a huge flavor menu, people usually want to try a few different flavors. With such a huge selection of flavors as well as a friendly staff, you really can’t lose! Unless you’re lactose intolerant. In which case I’m very sorry.
Adventure #3: Anti-ramen noodle soup, found here.
Rice noodles with bok choy in a soy, ketchup, rice vinegar, and Sriracha broth.
I wanted to try adding ketchup to a noodle broth ever since I read about it on A Cozy Kitchen (which was only just yesterday, lol), but I have to say I’m not a fan! Wa waaa. Maybe next time I should add less vinegar or more soy sauce or something, but the acidity and flavor of everything just wasn’t doing it for me. There are a ton of other delicious-looking recipes from that food blog, so I can’t wait to give those a try! And if you ever try making noodles with ketchup and it ends up being spectacular, let me know what you did so I can try again!
