le blog de tranny

I venture to say that the fact that ramyun makes up such a large part of my diet is partially justified by my asian heritage.  But we all know that it’s really because my love for savory foods is closely rivaled by my love for instant gratification.  My affinity for the stuff is primarily confined to two ramen genres: the Korean kimchi variety and the Japanese pork variety.  Growing up in Orange County my mom and I would often grab lunch at Ebisu in Fountain Valley, where I would usually order the shoyu ramen with sliced pork.  I haven’t really found a solid ramen joint around here so nowadays I usually make it at home (and given how cheap and easy it is to do so, it seems pretty silly not to).  During my first years living on my own during undergrad, I would often make imitation ‘kimchi ramen,’ which involved the very classy combination of Oriental-flavored Top Ramen, kimchi from the Korean corner store, and a poached (if I was lucky enough not to break it) egg.  Nowadays, when making ramyun for myself at home, I usually opt for the Nong Shim Kimchi Ramyun, available both at Berkeley Bowl and Koreana Plaza.  (In searching for the name of this brand, I stumbled upon a blog which appears to be dedicated entirely to sampling different varieties of store-bought ramen lol.  If I’ve recently made a trip to Koreana plaza, then my homemade ramyun is particularly fruitful and even worthy of sharing with friends:

A recent visit to Momofuku noodle bar in New York reminded me of how much I really do love a delicious pork ramen.  I arrived expecting a run-of-the-mill low maintenance noodle bar and was quite surprised to find a pretty high brow menu.  Once again, I have to backtrack on my professed hatred for asian fusion and declare Momofuku an asian fusion success!

Above: Momofuku’s Cider-Soju Slushie and Kimchi Jar

Momofuku Ramen with Pork Belly & Pork Shoulder

Ohhhhhh yeahhhhh.

The pork belly was kind of tough, to be quite honest.

But Matt and Jane recently bought the Momofuku cookbook so an attempted replication is definitely in order!

BTW, this blog is about to get so much more legit.  In my first splurge as a salaried employee of a private firm, I purchased a (really) nice SLR-quality camera.  Hopefully said camera (and all parts required for it to function) will be here in time for our Cinco de Mayo fiesta on Wednesday.