Halu Ramen

I met up with Judy and Anna for a quick bite to discuss Judy's upcoming wedding, and to quickly go over with Anna the next days' bridal shower plans. They suggested to meet up at Halu Ramen, which was supposedly pretty decent. I'm always down to try somewhere new in San Jose (back when I was living there, I thought Chili's was fine dining. Yeah. I've learned.).

Halu Ramen's interior was cute, but a bit cramped. Anna was saving us a table by the time we got there so we didn't have to wait any - sweet!
I ordered a strawberry Ramune "marble soda". I don't think I've had one of these since high school. I don't know if everyone has had one of these, but the basic concept is, the bottle has a little marble in the top, and you push it down with a little plastic ring, which forces the marble in the top area, and lets you drink the soda. The marble then rolls around when you tip the bottle up to sip. It's totally gimmicky, and the soda itself is not amazing or anything, but it's still kinda fun. I hadn't had strawberry soda in ages so it was a treat.

I ordered the small size Halu Ramen. It consisted of the broth, ear mushroom, green onion, bamboo shoots, a tiny amount of chashu, an egg and seaweed. The broth was super salty. They only gave me one piece of chasu, wtf. The egg was awesome though, worth the extra dollar to add it, as it was all runny on the inside. The noodles were much thicker than usual ramen noodles, like a cross between regular ramen and udon.


Anna ordered "The Works" plate on the side, for her ramen, which consisted of cabbage, ear mushrooms, chashu (more than I got, definitely, probably because they didn't try to hide it in the broth), corn, seaweed, bamboo shoots and spinach. This looked really tasty, especially all laid out on a plate.

This is the ramen that Anna ordered with her "works" plate, you can see some of the ramen noodles. She requested less salt in her broth, which was the way to go, I think. If I come back, I'm getting less salt for sure.

It was a cute little place but I like some of the ramen I've had in LA better, and of course, Japan. Still, those boiled eggs are awesome, and might come back just for those.

Halu Ramen
375 Saratoga Ave # M
San Jose, CA 95129
(408) 246-3933
http://www.ramenhalu.com

Daikokuya Ramen

After a goodbye drink over at Tom Bergin's (home to the Irish Coffee!) a few of us decided to go out to eat some late night grub. Kurt suggested Daikokuya, which I had only heard good things about, so we made the trek to Little Tokyo.

A bit of a wait later, we were seated in a small booth. The place was hopping - tons of people waiting, a small amount of space to feed them in. We were handed laminated menus, held together by binder clips...

Kurt suggested we get the combination - the ramen, plus a small fried rice. He insisted that this fried rice was some of the best around. Also, he insisted that we get the extra "pork back fat" added to our ramen soup. Trusting his recommendation, we ordered as we were instructed. Noticing our surroundings, there was some funky old Japanese themed posters on the walls, an old TV that relied on its' tired bunny ears antenna for its' broadcast, and the kitchen in full view of anyone who was willing to look up. We soon got our food...

The salad that came with the meal - it had overtones of a coleslaw. Shredded cabbage/iceberg, with a creamy tasty dressing. The dressing is what made it pretty good - I kept going back to this salad inbetween bites of my main meal.

Which came right after that. A huge bowl of ramen, with a pile of negi (green onion), a whole soy sauce boiled egg, pork slices, that delicious back fat ridden broth, with fat floating on the top like jewels in an ocean. It really was good - the noodles had a good bite to it, with a perfect amount of green onion in each bite. There was a huge quantity of noodles too - I usually run out of noodles before I run out of everything else, but it was not the case here - I was totally full before finishing all the noodles. And the broth! A deep hearty flavored broth, made with pork bones (bone marrow is such a great flavor), and made even better witha scoop of mashed garlic condiment. This is definitely comparable to some of the ramen places I had in Japan.

The fried rice did not disappoint as well. It was very flavorful, good amount of that greasy sheen that good fried rice has, bits of onion, egg, pork shards...it's a tasty bit of rice. I might just go back here just for this rice...

This place usually has a long wait time to get in, but it's pretty worth it. A must try if you're a fan of ramen.
http://www.daikoku-ten.com/