Drill...man...

Day 969:

GCP in the morning...

And pizza?

Haha...time to get drilled! At Basso Drillman (BASSO ドリルマン) of course.

Chuukasoba!!

For new school shoyu ramen, I'd have to say that this was right up there with the best. Jiraigen-level.

Hey look who's back in Tokyo? What up Hiro!!!

There's only ONE ramen world and we are ALL living in it...

Underground kings...

Day 840:

Tokyo Underground Ramen Ganja (頑者) in Ikebukuro.

Noukou (thick) Tsukemen.

I'm not a big fan of thick fettuccine-like noodles but the soup here is classic Ganja. The underground never had it any better.

Ikemen (池麺) KINGKONG in Ikebukuro. Yup, back to back baby!!

Torofuru Tsukemen (トロフルつけめん). At first I thought this was a truffle tsukemen, but on second thought I think it's a tropical fruit tsukemen. haha. Yeah it was a little sweet...

But the noodles were really on point. I don't recommend adding the fruit vinegar on the table tho. It made the soup taste like a really bad ponzu. And I love ponzu!

Anyway, these crunchy cartilage-type thingys were texturely pleasing. What did I just say?

Cheese senbei!!

Dee-lite!

Mister An...

This is what happens when you get too friendly with the late night conbini clerks...haha.

Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken...

Day 648:

Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken (東池袋大勝軒本店)...I finally made it! When one speaks of the origin of Tsukemen (aka Morisoba), only one shop can claim such eliteness. You've probably heard about it, read about it, or even seen it on tv, but there's nothing like experiencing it first hand. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to visit the original shop before it closed, but the new shop is just as worthy. (Side note: The Indian restaurant next door had a longer line.)

On occasion, you still might find Yamagishi-san sitting out front greeting customers, but he was absent on this day and replaced by another old man with a cane.

So here it is, Morisoba. With tsukemen having evolved in many ways over the years, this felt like I was slurping a bit of history.

The noodles were a tad soft, but nevertheless amazing.

The soup was tangy, mildly sweet, and screamed Taishoken.

Thank you Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken for opening the door to tsukemen!

FYI: There are two big players in the ramen world when it comes to the name Taishoken. Higashi-Ikebukuro (HIT) and Eifukucho (ET). Both have been around forever and both have influenced hundreds of shops around Japan. If you're walking around Tokyo and happen to see a shop with the Taishoken name, chances are they have roots leading back to one of these two. In any case, don't get these two mixed up as they are quite different. With HIT being the founder of tsukemen, you won't find this cold dipping noodle at ET. And don't dare ask for it.

Sayonara DNo!

Day 427:

Tokyo just won't be the same without you.

With DNo gone, BMac called me up to go grab a bowl in Ikebukuro. Having already tried King Kong earlier in the week, Brian wanted to check out the shop next door which had a line twice as long.

Mamiana (馳走麺 狸穴) is another new tsukemen shop on the scene serving another bowl of gyokai-based tsukemen.

Yeah this stuff is good, but someone needs to take it up a notch cuz they're all starting to taste similar to me.

Anyway, the noodles here were great.

And the chashu was tender and fat.

But the sweet hanjuku egg was the star.

The yuzu added when asking for soup-wari was a nice touch, but I might lay off these thick gyokai broths for awhile.

It was cold outside. So what better than to stay inside and cook up some kimchi nabe. We planned on ending it with kimchi ramen, but we were too full. Perhaps tomorrow.

Seriously though, I'm gonna miss my best friend...