American Ramen Battle 美國拉麵比拼 (English / Chinese)

Saw @saywha ’s Food Blog parody, I believe I have to take out my ramen photos that has been promised to share long time ago, to echo his nice job! You know, he is now heavily ramen addicted! (Well, probably more serious after reading this story LOL .)

在看完了 @saywha 的開玩笑食物博客後，我就記起我早前說過要分享我的拉麵相片。你懂的，他需要這些相片去緩解拉麵癮嘛！（看完本文應該會加劇）

The ramen battle is in the West Coast, and the participants are chained Japanese BBQ restaurants VS long established Japanese managed local ramen. ~~Battle? No, not comparable.~~

這個拉麵比拼是在美國西岸，參加者是著名日本燒肉店，及本地老牌日本人主理的拉麵店。~~比賽？沒有得比吧！~~

Let’s check out!

Ramen in Famous Japanese BBQ Restaurant 著名日本燒肉店

I am not going to name this famous Japanese BBQ Restaurant, partly because I believe it is the REAL FAKE. The ramen looks good in the menu, and I am a bit dry with the BBQ. Ordered mine, and quickly feel I am cheated.

我就不會在這裡打出餐廳的名子了，因為我覺得這家分店只是有名而無實的。我看餐牌的是候是有點期待，因為好像很好吃，又因為燒肉期間覺得口腔有點乾。送到來之後，我深感被騙了...

1st, look! There is ONE PIECE of Beef. No vegetables. There are 2 pieces of egg - what? 2? Japanese ramen should have 1 only. I looked at that piece of beef, feel strange; later realize this is in fact a BEEF JERKY. I am still fine with it, because the spirit of ramen is on the Soup and Noodle.

一看，就只有一塊牛肉，沒有疏菜。有兩塊蛋.....點解會是兩塊....日本拉麵多是一塊或一整隻。再看一看那塊牛肉，怪怪的，之後我就知道了，這塊是牛肉乾來的。也算了，拉麵的靈魂是麵跟湯嘛...

The noodle is like instant, no, worse. Good instant is better than this. What about the soup? Gamy…….my goodness…. I rather eat instant ramen…. ~~Not to mention to weird BBQ chicken with Italian source…Italian source in Japanese BBQ, dang, those chief in Japan should yell~~

但那些麵就好像即食麵的麵條一樣，好質素的即食拉麵都好過它吧！湯呢？有羊臊味....真的太過份了....我真的情願自己煮即食拉麵了！！~~也不用提在背後的那些燒雞，綠色的意大利醬是甚麼混帳的事？給日本師傅看到肯定氣得要殺人~~

Local Japanese Managed Ramen 本地日本人主理

5 minutes driving away, I arrived in a Japanese managed Ramen Restaurant. Like a typical family owned restaurant in America, everything looks casual.

五分鐘車程後，我就到了一家日本人主理的拉麵店。店鋪就像一般家庭營運的餐廳一樣，很普通的。

There are only 4 different Ramen with 4 different choices of Soup. I picked up 2 most expensive one with Salted Soup (Shio) and Pork Soup (Tonkotsu).

餐牌內只有4種拉麵及4種湯底可以選擇。我選了最貴的兩款，並分別要了鹽味及豬骨味湯底。

I think I do not need to explain too much on these 2. Everything was great, and proper favored. Ingredients were traditional Japanese style, and the taste was comparable to all the ramen I ate in Japan. The size of ramen was approximately 2 pieces of ramen in traditional ramen restaurants in Japan. 2 pieces means you finished the 1st round of noodle, and order a refill.