Here’s one of the nice things about almost everyone being able to speak English in Malaysia: I walked into Goh Signature Centre completely at random (it looked busy, which was good enough for me). I had no idea what to order, but I was able to ask the woman in the restaurant what their specialty is.
Discovering this particular restaurant was just one of those lucky accidents — it happened to be around the corner from my Airbnb in Fukuoka, and every time I walked by, it looked busy and smelled delicious.
I’ll admit that the two bowls of tonkotsu ramen I’ve had so far in Fukuoka threw me for a loop. I love that style of ramen… or do I? The two bowls I sampled in Fukuoka (the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen) were one-note porky in a way I found vaguely unsatisfying.
Though Hakata Ikkousha is a chain (and apparently they’ve just opened a location in Toronto), they serve some seriously acclaimed ramen — it’s frequently called one of the best bowls in Fukuoka.
Despite my undying love for ice cream, I’ve been dragging my feet on trying Cremia, the Japanese soft serve that everyone raves about.
It recently occurred to me that I was about to leave Japan without having yakitori (skewered meat, traditionally cooked over charcoal). Obviously, that wouldn’t do.
Tonkotsu ramen — in which pork bones are boiled down for hours and hours until you wind up with a rich, creamy soup — might be the most famous style of ramen.
After my absurdly horrible ramen experience at the Sapporo airport, the Food Gods clearly decided to take pity on me, basically dropping an amazing pastry right in my lap.
I should have known that the airport ramen wouldn’t be very good. I mean, it’s airport ramen. Any rational person would tell you that it’s not going to be very good.
Aji No Karyu is mostly notable for being the ramen joint that Anthony Bourdain went to during the Hokkaido episode of No Reservations. That’s certainly the reason I wanted to try it.