After work tonight, Root and I stopped by Nihon Noodles on South King Street for dinner. Located in the building where Bunmeido used to be, this ramen shop opened recently, and only came to our attention a couple of weeks ago. Sharing parking with a couple of bars, the small parking lot was full to over capacity with double-parked cars. We luckily found street parking. Keep this in mind when you come here. Outwardly, the storefront didn’t really match the ramen shop atmosphere, and on entering, the interior was even more unnatural. White marble walls and dark marble tables with indirect lighting and icicle Christmas lights seemed more at home in a lounge or bar. Perhaps when they moved in, they inherited the décor from the previous occupants. We were seated quickly and given water and menus. I wanted the Hakata ramen, but I figured I’d try a combo to get a taste of some of their other offerings. My Noodle Combo came with three “Yokohama gyozaâ€, a mini curry rice, and a standard size bowl of Hakata ramen for pennies under $11 USD. The ramen alone would have been about $8 USD. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Nihon Noodles Ramen’
Archive for the 'Review' Category
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Unlike “Oyster stouts†which generally don’t contain oysters, but were meant to be quaffed with oysters, milk stouts – also known as sweet stouts – are actually brewed with the adjunct of lactose, a sugar derived from milk. This sugar is indigestible by the brewing yeast, so it remains intact in the brew after fermentation, retaining its added flavor and nutritional value. The lactose generally imparts a mild sweetness to the stout, and adds a moderating smoothness to the flavor. This sweet stout from Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture in central Eastern Honshuu, Japan, is a fine example of this relatively unusual variety. On opening, there is very little carbonation – only enough to generate a moderate but short lived head. The color is a deep, opaque, coffee brown. There is a distinct sweet aroma. The initial taste is lightly bitter. The lactose imparts a smoothness to the middle, moderating the bitter and smokiness from the dark malt. The malt is present, but moreso as an aroma rather than a flavor. It isn’t sugary sweet, but the combination of the roasted malt flavor and the lactose, yields a taste almost reminiscent of coffee with cream, especially in the finish and aftertaste. The mouthfeel isn’t thick, but it is smooth. This is a warm, flavorful, and smooth beer. Excellent. I look forward to trying their other offerings. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hitachino Nest Beer Sweet Stout’
I saw this the last time I rode my bike to Foodland for Wernesgruener. I forgot about it until I saw it pop up in the Foodland sale ad today, so I did a little online research. The official Speight’s NZ site indicated it was not sold on the USDM because of some issue with registering the name. Was Hawaii not part of the USA again? It was a twelve pack, which worried me a little – if it was just a six pack and it sucked, it wouldn’t be too bad to finish – suffering through twelve bad beers would bite! My apprehension stemmed from having tasted Steinlager, the only other beer from Aotearoa available here that I know of. The weather was terrible when I came through the Wilson Tunnel, so I headed straight over to Foodland to grab some. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Speight’s Gold Medal Ale’
That is a general statement, however the statement all beer is good is not true. Fortunately the past couple I’ve had were good. Here’s my quick take on them.
Echigo Stout – Sorry, image lost somewhere. Echigo’s dark beer. Like many Japanese beers, a very clean tasting beer. On the flip side of that, not much distinct flavors either. Has the smoky flavor of a dark, but not very strong. Makes it a go good with food. Not worth the $4 price of admission though. 2 out 4 monkeys.
Serious Madness Winter Seasonal Black Ale – Yes I know, it’s not winter. A California microbrew. This is a dark beer, no doubt about it. Creamy dark goodness, very much like Guiness Stout. Excellent. 3.5 out of 4 swigging monkeys.
On a shopping visit this past week to Marukai, spotted something new, a sparkling soda version of one of our fave J soft drinks, Momo no tennensui. We like to call it heavenly peach water because of the ten kanji, but really tennen means natural. We love it because the flavor is of real peach, and it’s not as sweet as your typical soft drink. So when I saw this soda version, I had to grab it. Unfortunately when it came to checkout time, it wouldn’t scan. I guess it was so new it wasn’t in system. After going to the customer service counter, they said it was $3. Ouch. I decided just this one time I needed to try it. The veridct? A refreshing carbonated version of the Momo no Tennensui we love, but at $3 a pop, that’s sticker shock way in excees of the highest vending machines in Japan.
2 out of 4 empty wallet monkeys at this price point, I can’t see them being able to sell much of this if that is the correct price. If it were a reasonable normal price, then it would be 3.5 out of 4.
Root, Fabio, and I dropped by Raraya tonight for some noodles.  Root and I saw a menu item that we had never seen before – Hiyashi gomadare ramen. The summer heat made something cold sound very attractive, so we both tried it. Volumetrically, it is similar to having the Tsukemen. The goma (sesame seed) sauce is creamy, and slightly sweet. The loosely wrinkled noodles were topped with cooked spinach, corn, char-siu, wakame, three pieces of nori, and half of a seasoned egg. I got it as a rice set, which added a chawan of rice and a plate of kimchi for $2 USD on top of the base $10 USD. The flavor was interesting. The sweetness threw me off a little at first, but I enjoyed it. The value meter needle hangs a little low on this – It was a little light for the money. As a postscript, I ended up having a slight histamine reaction in the bronchial area, usually an indication of the presence of MSG. I hope they’re not starting to cut corners…
Give it a try
Two-and-a-half grinning dining monkeys out of four
A few months back, Jarrel at McBike got in an initial shipment of the Giro gloves. Since Hawaii always gets the stepchild treatment, the first ones received were the “less popular†colorways, the larger, more profitable accounts on the contiguous 48 getting all the good stuff first. For full-fingered MTB, there was the lighter Xen and the burlier Remedy. Root picked up a pair of the Xen gloves and reviewed them a couple of weeks back. There was only white in the Remedy, so although they were designed pretty well, I held out for either another color or for something nice to pop up on Chainlove. I had three sets of gloves, so didn’t really need another pair. On Tuesday when I happened to pass by the glove rack, lo, there were more gloves! Apparently, part of the fill-in order arrived and there were black Rampage gloves. They looked awesome – like something straight out of Mechanical Violator Hakaider. Continue reading ‘Giro Remedy MTB Gloves’
This should go under a category of what the heck have I been doing until now?! I finally purchased and setup an air compressor for the garage a little while back. Bought the bargain 14pc kit with it. This past week used the 1/2″ impact to take off the wheels on the hachibroku. It was almost fun! After a few impacts the lug nuts spun right off, it went by so fast I felt like a racetrack pit crew person. Continue reading ‘To Air is Good’
I was looking for something on the various data discs that Root had passed along to me (many in unimaginable multiplicity), and went and rewatched some old anime, and watched some stuff that I never got around to. Here’s a brief summary:
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou – Root has been a fan of Ashinano Hitoshi’s original manga since it started in the mid nineties. I’ve never actually read any of it, but after seeing the two old and the two older OAV’s, I’ll probably track down the tankoubon at Book Off the next time I’m in Japan. The inevitable comparison is to Amano Kozue’s Aqua/Aria works, both in style and general “feel†and pacing. The only thing that bugs me about the very well-crafted setting is the mysteriously still-functioning infrastructure, like the street lamps that even function in the submerged former Yokosuka and Kamakura alongside traffic signals. I guess somewhere out there, there are still people maintaining these and keeping the powerplants running. I realize these elements are there for sentimental effect, but still… The original OAV’s are great examples of traditional cel animation. Those are definitely worth a watch. The second OAV’s are marginal in animation quality, and seem to be more of a marketing tie-in. The various characters that appear don’t get enough screen time for any kind of development, so it comes across as a series of cameos. Continue reading ‘Anime Briefs – Cleaning out the Closet’
I’ve been a long time fan of Ditama Bou’s manga works, and after seeing the premium sale Kiss x Sis anime episodes that shipped with preorder special editions of the manga tankoubon, I was not surprised that Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! was picked up for a TV anime. This isn’t my favorite among his works, but I really doubt the world will see an animated version of Super Love Potion (complete with the bloody sheet scene, right Roy?) anytime soon! Root passed along the first episode to me and I watched it with a certain level of anticipation, but also with a palpable level of cynicism, since I’ve seen some wonderful manga stories turned into terrible anime properties. Continue reading ‘Anime Briefs – Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!’