Two days ago, I got a call from Brian at noon that went something like this:
bmac: yo! what ya doing?
me: sleeping.
bmac: my bad. you know hide-chan ramen? the one with the shop in new york?
me: yeah
bmac: well i'm in omotesando right now and they're doing a collabo with some clothing brand called mastermind japan.
me: oh yeah?
bmac: it's 3000 yen tho...but you get to keep the bowl! i'm in line right now, u wanna come?
me: hellz yeah! but **** i gotta get therapy on my shoulder soon.
bmac: well they're doing it for 3 days so you should go check it out.
me: fo sho!
So on I went on the third and final day after corralling Shuga and Nobo. But there was one problem. The bowl for the "Japan Black" was sold out and the bowl for the "Japan Cool" was on the verge of selling out. So we were warned.
We could still order the "Japan Black" for 1000 yen without the bowl, but the three of us didn't want to leave without a bowl and decided to take our chances with the "Japan Cool", even though we all wanted to try the black. The cool was an all vegetable based broth with several vegetable toppings. It was surprisingly impressive.
This may have been a blessing because I didn't really enjoy Hide's tonkotsu in the past. There's no doubt tho that Hide himself is a mastermind. He knows how to work it.
Topped with fresh avocado, eggplant, sweet potato, and more, this salt-based broth really blew my mind. I am now a fan.
When I'm on my deathbed, this is the bowl I would use to eat my last ramen.
Speaking of blessings, we got the last three bowls!!! Hellz yeah!
But since the ramen had no meat and we were still hungry, I persuaded the guys to head across the street to Kua 'Aina to get a burger. Finally, a quality burger.
Back at Bassanova, I created a new yuzu pepper ramen. ikeru! haha.
Who's the master now??... bwahhahaha.
