Restaurant: Orochon Ramen

In Japan, noodle slurping's the norm. In the US, it's considered rude. At Orochon Ramen it's irresistible.

Food: 10/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10

My subjective Grade: A
Best for: A lunch time savory, salty fix
In a perfect world I'd dine here: Weekly



Details:
Weller Court 3rd Floor
123 S. Onizuka Street #303
Los Angeles, CA 90012
www.orochonramen.com

There's been a lot of fuss made about downtown LA and the loft revival. Many are saying that Downtown is going to be converted into a hip place to live, and, more importantly, investors are beginning to buy into the idea and invest in cleaning the city up. The result is a bizarre juxtaposition: You get expensive luxury highrises that look out onto skid row. In the humble opinion of this LA resident however, the city's a long way from being habitable.

That said, Little Tokyo is a bastion of convenience and comfort in an otherwise dicey city. Within Little Tokyo lies Weller Court, an unremarkable building from the street-side that actually opens onto a three story open-air shopping center/plaza (and home to several great restaurants). It's one of the very few places in LA where you can eat your meal outside without being hassled by a single pan-handler.

It's also home to the best ramen I've ever had.

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Food: 10/10

• Ramen is the unsurprising key to Orochon Ramen's success. For those whose experience with ramen has been limited to Cup'O Noodle, I hope I can express to you the full spectrum of ramen available. Cup'O Noodles and the like are to ramen what chicken bouillon cubes are to your grandma's homemade chicken soup.
• Orochon has other items on its menu, but there's really no need to order any. If you look around the place, every face is going to be firmly rooted a few inches above an enormous bowl. Orochon proudly explains that they begin with pie water (they claim it's the purest water available), add a blend of 13 spices, and make every bowl to order. For the consumer this means a choice of one of three bases (miso, salt, soy sauce), one of nine levels of spice (finishing the hottest bowl in a set time-limit lands your Polaroid pic a place of envy on their wall), and up to nine toppings (ranging from melt-in-your-mouth Cha-Shu pork slices to bamboo shoots). Of course, the above are added to a mix already including a healthy serving of ramen noodles, tender pork, wood-ear fungus, and more.
• The end is a savory, filling, euphoric meal. And leftovers.

Atmosphere: 7/10

• Orochon has a small cafe feel to it. Unfortunately, during peak hours it draws quite a crowd. For the consumer this means two things:

1. They've crammed as many tables as they can into the place, so you'll be slurping shoulder to shoulder with everyone else in the joint.
2. You're going to have to choose between waiting inside (standing) in the very little floor space available (and risk getting bowled over by the scurrying waitstaff) or waiting outside with any other groups milling about in hopes of rameny sustenance.

• Still, once you're seated it's not like you'll be looking up from your ramen bowl, so it hardly makes a difference to me. If it's available, the outside seating and view of the Weller Court are quite nice.
  

Service: 7/10

• It may take a little time before the waitstaff acknowledge you (at which point they'll tell you to write your name on their waiting list). Everyone's quite nice, but they only have a few waiters handling the crowds. Don't expect a refill; you're going to have to fight for that second iced Oolong tea.

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Eating Orochon Ramen:

Iced Oolong tea. Miso base. Number seven (non-spicy). Cha-Shu Slice x 2 (one for there, one for the leftovers), corn, bamboo shoots, garlic.

It's that easy. Now it's time for me to polish off yesterday's leftovers.

Recipes: Taro Chicken

Read on and once again I'll explain to you how to boil things in a pot.

Taste: 9
Cost: 8 (higher scores = cheaper eats)
Ease: 10
Overall: 27/30 = 90%

Details:
From a random website...
Click Here to view Recipe

• Exotic/Hard to Find Ingredients?: Yes; you might have to go to your local Asian market to find taro. The taro I've used is fozen, pre-peeled, and pre-boiled which saves quite a bit of time.
• Preparation Time: almost none
• Cooking Time: 2 hours
• Alterations: I substituted 2% milk for the coconut milk & chicken broth for the water. I also left out the greens and the lemon juice (as I was a bit nervous about introducing lemon into a pot full of milk). I've only made the dish once, so I don't know how it compares to the recipe as stated.
• Tips: I generally make recipes harder than they need to be (in the name of flavor), but a easy stew like this really shows that there's a time and a place for a quick and easy dish. I had some pre-cut raw chicken breast "strips," canned tomatoes, and frozen taro which saved quite a bit of time.
• Suggested Accoutrements: This is a complete meal in and of itself.

That's right. This is my second recipe review, and I think it's time to move past boiling a single ingredient in a pot. It's time to start boiling four at a time.

Last night my wife and I finally sat down and watched Whale Rider (which was an awesome movie). We've been holding onto the movie for a couple of weeks now, so I can't claim to have planned to pair it with a South Pacific dish. Still, it made a certain amount of sense, and it turned out to be a perfect after-movie-meal (we just set in on the stove and it was ready when the movie ended).

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Taste: 9

For those who haven't had taro before, all I can readily compare it to is a potato. But better. In fact, as I think about it, nearly every starchy tuber I can think of tastes better than potatoes do. I suppose they must be indestructible crops, because I can't imagine any other reason why so many people would inflict such a bland tuber on themselves. By the way, taro is an excellent base for a number of desserts. I'm a big fan of taro or ube ice cream (... I'm not sure which is which though there's a discussion about these ingredients here. Regardless, the flavor reminds me of shortbread)

Other than that, this is a simple, hearty stew. It tastes good but wasn't all that exotic to my tastebuds.

Cost: 8 (higher scores = cheaper eats)

A few of the ingredients (ex: curry powder) could be costly for those who don't have these things on hand.

Ease: 10

Another simple dish. If you go with pot-ready ingredients (precut chicken tenders, canned tomatoes, etc), all you have to do is dump them in and set your stove to low. In about an 1h 45m the dish is ready and the chicken's just about ready to fall apart. I didn't even bother to defrost my taro, and it turned out quite well.

Overall: 27/30 = 90%

A simple dish, I think this one's best for an easy night in. I'll definitely be making it again.