銀座 朧月(目黒処)
ぎんざ おぼろづき
Ginza Oborozuki
Shio tsukemen: 16 / 20
Chūka soba kiwami: 17 / 20
(中華そば 極み)
To finish my Tokyo-shio-tsukemen run, what other place to go than one of my favorite tsukemen restaurant: Ginza Oborozuki (see my former reviews here and there) - this time at the Meguro branch. I ordered the shio tsukemen (obviously), and my friend the chuka soba. Let's start with the former.
Broth: It had a strong herbal taste, and uncommonly, contained octopus and cokles. Despite not being so fat and adhering little to the noodles, it transferred a decent amount of taste to them.
Noodles: Thick, wich a kind of square-ish section, very mochi mochi.
Meat: Some slabs of meting chashu, not bad.
Toppings: Some thin rectangular menma, mild, salty and very soft. And here again as in Toka, the key ingredient is the yuzu koshio. You also get a sudachi that you can press in the broth for some zing. Finally, there were two sheets of nori (not the gigantic one I had in the mother shop, alas), which harmonized very well with the broth.
Soup wari: It brought some more herbal taste, and even a kind of buttery texture.
No surprise here, it was very similar to the one I tried in the Ginza-mother shop. But let's turn to what was the real novelty of the day, the chuka soba. This is a limited edition (gentei / 限定) from this shop, and as the waiter was bringing us the dish, the smell reminded me of something...
Broth: A strong niboshi shoyu broth, with a kind of pungent and roasted taste enhanced by square onion bits. Hmm, I’ve seen that somewhere else...
Noodles: Very yellow and a bit too soft for my taste.
Meat: Two small slices of a quite good chashu - very firm, this fits with my impression of déjà-vu...
Egg: Half a very well cooked egg, on the hard side.
Toppings: Some menma and nori sheets, the same as in the shio tsukemen - what a beautiful harmony between those nori and the roasty broth...
...and then, the illumination came: of course, this bowl is a copycat of Nagi's ramen! All the key components are present: the roasted niboshi-shoyu broth, the squared negi (although a bit less punchy than at Nagi), the firm meat… There are some minor changes, but Nagi's soul is there. Well, Nagi's ramen is a wonderful bowl, one of my favorite in Japan, so one cannot get really wrong by copying it. But I would recommend to go to the original - even more perfect, and in a great setting! - rather than to the copy...
More info on ramendb.
ぎんざ おぼろづき
Ginza Oborozuki
Shio tsukemen: 16 / 20
Chūka soba kiwami: 17 / 20
(中華そば 極み)
To finish my Tokyo-shio-tsukemen run, what other place to go than one of my favorite tsukemen restaurant: Ginza Oborozuki (see my former reviews here and there) - this time at the Meguro branch. I ordered the shio tsukemen (obviously), and my friend the chuka soba. Let's start with the former.
Broth: It had a strong herbal taste, and uncommonly, contained octopus and cokles. Despite not being so fat and adhering little to the noodles, it transferred a decent amount of taste to them.
Noodles: Thick, wich a kind of square-ish section, very mochi mochi.
Meat: Some slabs of meting chashu, not bad.
Toppings: Some thin rectangular menma, mild, salty and very soft. And here again as in Toka, the key ingredient is the yuzu koshio. You also get a sudachi that you can press in the broth for some zing. Finally, there were two sheets of nori (not the gigantic one I had in the mother shop, alas), which harmonized very well with the broth.
Soup wari: It brought some more herbal taste, and even a kind of buttery texture.
No surprise here, it was very similar to the one I tried in the Ginza-mother shop. But let's turn to what was the real novelty of the day, the chuka soba. This is a limited edition (gentei / 限定) from this shop, and as the waiter was bringing us the dish, the smell reminded me of something...
Broth: A strong niboshi shoyu broth, with a kind of pungent and roasted taste enhanced by square onion bits. Hmm, I’ve seen that somewhere else...
Noodles: Very yellow and a bit too soft for my taste.
Meat: Two small slices of a quite good chashu - very firm, this fits with my impression of déjà-vu...
Egg: Half a very well cooked egg, on the hard side.
Toppings: Some menma and nori sheets, the same as in the shio tsukemen - what a beautiful harmony between those nori and the roasty broth...
...and then, the illumination came: of course, this bowl is a copycat of Nagi's ramen! All the key components are present: the roasted niboshi-shoyu broth, the squared negi (although a bit less punchy than at Nagi), the firm meat… There are some minor changes, but Nagi's soul is there. Well, Nagi's ramen is a wonderful bowl, one of my favorite in Japan, so one cannot get really wrong by copying it. But I would recommend to go to the original - even more perfect, and in a great setting! - rather than to the copy...
More info on ramendb.
