While in New York, I managed to meet up with my former Junior Editor at Shanghaiist (she’s done food reviews too, like this one of Souper Fresh in Shanghai). She’s currently studying for a Masters in Journalism up at Columbia and we had a nice chat about the state of journalism jobs today. The state being more or less unchanged from when I was living in the city: crap! We also had a fun early lunch at Ippudo.
Ippudo is a ramen shop located near Cooper Square – I think I went there once while I was a student back at NYU but completely forgot about it until this time around. The lines are supposedly really long – when we went at around 11am, it was already half full. By the time we finished our meal, there were quite a couple of parties waiting in the tiny lounge area.
To be honest, but I’m not completely sure why people are willing to wait upwards of an hour for a bowl. Well, I can’t really figure out why anyone would wait upwards for an hour for any type of food, especially when there are perfectly good alternative options just a couple of blocks away at St. Marks.
Not saying the ramen wasn’t good though.
I ordered the Kuro Kasane: “Authentic “Kasane” tonkotsu & chicken soup noodles. Topped with pork loin chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage musrooms, red pickled ginger, naruto, scallions, and fragrant “Black” garlic oil.”
Kasane refers to a method of layering pork slices. The pork chashu was tender and blended with the noodles (handmade, just chewy enough) and accouterments well. But by itself, the broth was a little too oily and salty.
My ex-Junior Editor got the Wasabe Shoyu Ramen: “Soy sauce and vegetable based noodle soup, topped with bean curd, wasabi, menma, nori, scallions, and wasabi infused oil.” She said that while she enjoyed it, she too was a little baffled by why people would wait in line for it.
I got a taste of her dessert – Macha creme brulee with a green tea sorbet on top. Now this was pretty fantastic – I liked the way the caramelized sugar worked with the deeper flavors of the tea.
So to go or not to go to Ippudo? Well… the price makes it so that it’s a little more expensive than a regular lunch meal. if you haven’t tried it before, then it’s worth trying to tick it off the list of “Greenwich Village Restaurants Everybody Talks About.” If you’re lucky enough to come when there’s no wait time, head on in – otherwise, it’s central enough so that other places purveying ramen goodness aren’t much more than a hop skip away.
Ippudo // 65 4th Ave, New York NY 10003 // telephone: (212) 388-0088
elaine is eating 