Santouka's Limited Edition Awase Aji Ramen

As luck would have it, I had planned on driving down to OC today so you can probably imagine my excitement when I read edjusted's ramen alert this morning. If you can't imagine it, well...nevermind. Anyway, I'm really busy and I should be working right now so I'll keep this short. (And shhhh, don't tell my boss.) Stay tuned to edjusted's blog for a more professional review.


The Awase Aji Ramen is a mixture of Santouka's Miso, Shio, and Shoyu with a little bit of fish powder and pirikara. Its "chibi" size comes with a bowl of rice so you can add it to the soup after you've run out of noodles. We'll get to that later.


Mmm...not bad! The mixture of the three produces a complex flavor with a subtle sweetness and a mild kick. The chashu was juicy, the egg was rubbery, and the specially marinated menma had a good smoked flavor.


"Yeah...we just chillin' on this chashu raft in a pool of ménage à trois ramen."


It is recommended that you dump the rice in the soup "chazuke-style" after you've slurped up everything. Oooh...I may have to start doing this with all the ramen I eat. Not bad at all...


Unfortunately, the Awase Aji Ramen is limited to this weekend only and there are just 20 bowls per day. You should probably get there early if you want to try it (11am open) because at 10:50am today the line was almost reaching Italian Tomato. Ganbatte!


I'm starting to like these limited edition ramen. Santouka, keep them coming!!

Only 4 more days...

Ramenramenramen Alert! Costa Mesa Santouka doing it again!

Breaking ramen news straight from OC's favorite ramen blogger, edjusted of ramenramenramen.net. Read about it here. Peace...I'm out.

Santouka's Limited Edition Toromi Shoyu

I received a ramenramenramen alert last week in the form of a text message declaring a limited edition Toromi (Gravy) Shoyu Ramen being served at a Santouka near you (thanks edjusted!). And by "limited" they sure do mean it. They will be serving just 20 bowls/day until Sunday (3/8). So with 3 days left, you only have 60 chances to visit your local Santouka and give it a try. You better get there early too because 20 bowls can disappear in a flash (especially when I'm hungry).


I'll try to keep this brief cuz I know you're in a hurry to get in line. (If you can, check out edjusted's blog for a more detailed post.) I'll get straight to the point. Until today, I've never been completely satisfied with a bowl of ramen from Santouka! I'm a sucker for gravy and this was undeniably amazing. Individually, the toppings (menma, chashu, abura-age, minced pork, negi, goma, caramelized onions) may not have been great, but as a team they were coached by the John Wooden of ramen--a.k.a. Toromi Shoyu.


Yum!


Yum! Yum!


Ooooh...can you feel the gravy inching meticulously down your throat? Mmmm...


Darn...all gone! One down, nineteen more to go...hahaha...j/k I won't hog them all for myself. Now you better get out there quick! Hurry...run!


I still don't know why the Costa Mesa Santouka doesn't provide proper renge spoons...oh well.