Dai Tsukemen Haku 2011 Pre-Stage...

Day 690:

Ahh the memories... It seems like only yesterday that I was working at this event. Anyway, Tsukehaku is back! And it's opening day!!

The "Pre-Stage" features brand new tsukemen from 8 popular shops. No, I'm not gonna try all eight...at least not today.

Hiroshi, the tsukemen beast, joined me on this historic day. For there was only one "dream collabo tsukemen" that we were after.

But why come for just one bowl? I think we can do at least two.

For the record, this was the shortest line.

Houkiboshi (ほうきぼし) is a relative newcomer to the ramen scene. Known for their Tantanmen, the most famous thing about Houkiboshi is....

...the 18-year-old female manager. Yeah dudes, stop drooling. Anyway, I'm not sure how much of the management she actually does, but Houkiboshi seems to have got our attention.

And the Tantan Tsukemen wasn't bad either.

In fact, it's spiciness was just right and the handmade noodles were mochee-mochee.

Alright, enough stalling. Let's get down to business.

The real reason we came was because of this Ganja X Rokurinsha X Tomita (頑者X六厘舎Xとみ田) collaboration--A Dream Tsukemen Collabo!

Wait a minute...3 hour wait?!!

la di da di daa...

hum ho hummm... Look! It's Ohashi-san, Mita-san, and Tomita-san!

Almost there!

After waiting 3 hours you bet I'm paying an extra 300yen for all the toppings.

Let the dream collabo begin.

The noodles are from Ganja. Firm, crisp, slippery and slurpable.

The shrimp wonton was a welcome surprise.

The egg was average, but after 3 hours it hit the spot.

The dream collabo did not disappoint. Although I may not wait 3 hours to try it again, it was definitely worth it.

Tsukehaku lasts until 10/16 with new participants interchanging weekly. If you like tsukemen, then you should definitely go.

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...

Good times make for bad decisions...

Days 7 & 8:

I arrived at the Tsukemen Event and decided to take one last video of the surrounding fairgrounds before we got started. It was a pretty cool setup. It also makes me wonder if something like this would work in the States. Can you imagine if 8 popular ramen shops showed up in LA for a couple weeks to serve some of the best ramen from Japan? Hmm...maybe someday.

Tuesday was much like Monday. We all pretty much got used to the system we had going so everything stayed smooth throughout. I even got to work all the stations, including the boiling of the noodles. And Rokurinsha was back so I couldn't pass up a free bowl. It was so damn good!


After we closed up on Tuesday, a couple of the guys wanted to go grab a beer. I decided to go too because these guys know a lot about ramen and I wanted to try to pick their brain. Well, this may not have been such a good idea. One beer led to another, then another, then another, then...

...we were all of a sudden eating at Ramen Jiro in Shinjuku at 3 in the morning. And since it was already so late (or early), I decided not to go home and just stayed out all night until it was time to go back to work Wednesday. I made a bad judgment call and I ended up paying the price for it.


It was also pouring rain, but the Tsukemen Event continued. Amazingly, people still showed up. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I could not function right. I felt like jumping into this huge mound of back fat. My apologies to those that picked up my slack.


This concludes the Tsukemen Event. To begin working at something like this the very next day after my arrival was crazy, yet awesome! A couple days in, my brother asked if I was still jet-lagged. My response: "What jet-lag?" This was definitely a great experience of being thrown into the fire, but I'm sure glad it's over. I'm exhausted and tired, but tomorrow is my first day at Ivan's shop. And also my birthday...

Slowing down a bit...

Day 6:

It slowed down a bit at the Tsukemen Event, but we still sold 800+ bowls.


I got to work some more stations too with the hardest one being the noodle strainer. It's very physical but tons of fun!


Today I ate at Shinpuu, a Hakata-style tsukemen that reeks of pork bone but tastes delicious. The soup was smooth and the thinner noodles were nice too.


Some coworkers wanted to go grab a beer after, but with my birthday coming up I decided to go home and get some rest.

Meeting the real master...

Day 5:

I have no pics to prove it, but today I met the master. I met the real Sano Minoru and for 5 minutes he stood a couple feet from me while Ivan explained his soup. He was definitely as intimidating as his Ramen Nazi nickname implies. Though I did manage to see him smile...just once. Sano-san would only be attending the festival for two days--today and yesterday. I got to try a sip of his tsukemen. I don't remember exactly what it tasted like, but I knew that it was good. Sorry, no pics of that either.


The rest of the day was crazy as usual and we once again sold over 1,200 bowls. On my break, I got to try the tsukemen from Ramen Jun (らーめん処潤). It had a tangy goodness that changed when you added the miso.


The back fat sprinkled on top was also the bomb. Is your mouth starting to water?


Anyway, that was Sunday. Only three days left of this tsukemen event. Now it's time to rest.

A Message From the Master...

Day 3:

This is Ivan's booth at the Tsukemen Event. It's like those portable buildings we used to have in school but with kitchens. This day was pretty intense. It opens at 11am and doesn't close until 9pm and it was just non-stop work for 10 hours straight. Although it's tough, it's just so damn fun!


The ikemen dude showed up in the morning and I was able to take some pics of him posing for pics with the Setagaya master. Honestly, the guy is a bit annoying to me but I still thought it was cool to see him.


Here is the inside of our portable. I'll post some cool video later on but this is basically where the magic happens. haha.


I ended this rough night back at Bassanova cuz I wanted to show a ramen chef from Okayama what I thought was good ramen. Afterwards, he said it was better than Jiro. Damn!

Working the ramen dream...

Day 4:

This was one of the busiest days yet. We sold 1,200+ bowls in the 10 hours we were open. Yeah, it was pretty crazy.


Just look at all the people!


Luckily, Ivan also invited fellow ramen bloggers Nate and Brian to help out. Without them it would have been crazier! So for just one day, the three of us were Go Tsukemen!, Tsukemen Adventures, and Waseda Tsukemen. Okay nevermind I'm tired dammit. haha.


Here's a quick snippet of what the day was like. I am the one making the negi and mizuna salad that goes on top of Ivan's tsukemen. I'll post a better video some other day, but for now this is just a taste.

This was the highlight of the night. It was when the master chef of 69 'N' Roll One looked over at me while taking this picture and nodded with a quick smile.


Here's to an awesome day of tsukemen fun. It's too bad Nate and Brian can't join me for the rest of the time. We could sure use the help.


I can't keep my eyes open so I'm gonna call it a night. If you want some more pics and detail, check out Brians latest post!

The cure for jet lag...

Day 2:


The best cure for jet lag is not sleep. It's working for one of the most popular shops at the biggest Tsukemen Event to ever hit Tokyo. And if you're wondering why this post is coming to you late, it's because my body just said f.u. soon after I got home last night. Haha.

It began at 4:30am when I awoke to the cold crisp air and headed straight for the heated toilet seat cover. Okay that was tmi, but man those things can really warm you up! Anyway, upon arriving at Ivan's shortly after 5:30am, my new coworkers and I spent the next 8 hours preparing for the next day. We boiled and peeled eggs, roasted tomatoes, cooked the soup, shredded chicken, and countless other things one needs to do to serve a thousand bowls a day. It was grueling but 楽しい (enjoyable) at the same time. And it didn't take long for us to develop that team camaraderie we needed to work through the organized chaos. I also taught everyone the fist-to-fist motion as a new form of banzai and we were soon becoming friends entrenched in battle. The people I work with are extremely cool and have taught me so much just in these crazy two days.

When prep was mostly finished, two of us were sent to go deliver supplies to the Event and also get thrown into the assembly line of making tsukemen. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pics while I was there because we had to carry 200 eggs by train (with 2 transfers) and I wasn't about to do that with a heavy dslr around my neck. The Event was hectic but also enjoyable to be a part of. And I did get to try the lobster tsukemen of Keisuku. It was good, but Ivan's was better. And I'm not just saying that cuz he's my boss! haha.

So that was my 14-hour day in a nutshell. I would elaborate but I gotta do this all over again today. Actually, I'll be meeting Ivan and the crew at the Event in about an hour and spending most of my day there. I'll take my camera this time and possible take some video too. For now, I'll let you just stare at the only pic I took on Day 2.


See you later.