My thoughts are with Japan these days, and my heart and prayers go out to them during this time of disaster. With that in mind, I think about the time I went to the Japanese ramen restaurant, Ippudo in New York City, when Joe and I went back there for a visit. My sister and our friends kept insisting that we go. And everyone would say, “and you need to get the pork buns.” I distinctly remember it being 100 degrees with 90% humidity, so we were in no mood for a hot steamy bowl of ramen noodles. But everyone and their mom kept telling us to go, so we sucked it up and went, and waited for a long time to be seated.
I’ll be honest. If you’re from California, there are tons of ramen spots that are comparable, such as Orochon in Japan town, in downtown LA. So you might be like, “been there done that.” But nonetheless it’s still quite tasty. The noodles were nice and chewy, which I like, and the broth was rich and nice, although we were surprised at the price. It was around $14-$17 for a bowl of noodles! We were used to getting a bowl of Japanese ramen for about $7.00 in CA, so we just shared one, and got extra noodles. I guess that’s New York for ya.
But the stars of the show were indeed the pork buns. Again, everyone told us to get them, but we were still hesitant. I mean, how good could an appetizer of pork buns be, and was it worth $8? Well let me tell you in 5 words: we wished we had more. In fact, if we go back there again, we may skip the ramen altogether and just go for 2 orders of the braised piggies wrapped in soft pillows.
Then we decided to sweat some more and go walking through Soho. We had to duck into at least one air-conditioned store every block because we were just MELTING.
We found this one store that caught my attention because of all these vintage sewing machines. Remember? This used to be my life before food. They lined both walls floor to ceiling. Amazing. It was too hot to shop. Could there be such an excuse? Yes, in this case, the thought of trying on clothes that other people tried on in that sweltering nastiness seemed less than appetizing. So we decided to trot along to my old school and re-live the memories.
A lot of blood sweat and tears went down in this place. It was the best of times and the worst of times. In the end, it made me what I am and I’m thankful for the experience and training. I miss my class mates. I wonder what they’re up to.
I also have very fond memories of the restaurant, L’ecole, which is attached to the school. Before we were allowed to graduate, we had to serve a term cooking in the restaurant to actual paying patrons. My friends decided to support me and came to eat here one night, and Joe joined them. I was allowed to step out of the kitchen in my chef’s whites and hat and come out to greet them. They were also treated as a VIP table for the night and got extra goodies such as bonus appetizers and special desserts.
But I was always sad that although I cooked there, I never got to eat there. So when we were dating, as a surprise one day, Joe told me to get dressed nicely so we could go out to eat. He ended up taking me here and I got to enjoy the restaurant as a customer. Then he took me to the top of the Rockefeller Center where he proposed to me and had all my friends and family waiting there to congratulate us. Sweet memories. New York, New York, you will always have a special place in my heart.
