Well, I almost got killed trying to make my way to Mitsewa last Sunday, my goal being to have a bowl of ramen at Santouka and then get all the ingredients I needed to make my own ramen after taking a class at JASC on Ramen in early February. I am obviously still alive to tell the tale (thanks be to whatever cosmic thing was there for me) but as I exited on Arlington Heights Rd. an IDOT snow plow truck did a double whammy on me. First, it was spraying so much salt that my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with it and if that was bad enough, just when I put on the brakes to try and get behind him, he dropped his plow on the snow between the left and right hand lanes and it all came on my windshield, three to four inches of super heavy, dirty nasty snow. I hope to never be in that seat again. couldn't see a thing, knew I had a minivan on my ass, ugh. But I didn't die, so hey, what's not to love?
So I pulled into the Mitsuwa parking lot kind of um, shaking. But I am totally with Vital Information. And maybe I am clouded because I did mutter after major deep "I didn't just die" breaths, and then I truly said out loud, "This ramen better be good."
To be fair to the Santouka stand, I have been there before. I thought it was exciting the first time, but since the wonderful Ramen Wars have been set into place in Chicago, I have not thought it was the best. I am a big fan of Takashi and Wasabi on Milwaukee. Haven't been to Misoya in Mt. Prospect but that's on my list! Again, I am going back to VI: It was fine, it didn't suck but it wasn't great at all. It was just "meh." No depth, nada. There were two Latina young women who gave their table up to me, they had obviously ordered the Spicy broth and when I saw that in their bowls, I thought, maybe I had should have ordrered that for more depth and flavor. Was it spicy? I asked. "No," they said, "It was fine but it wasn't spicy and we wished it was even more so."
I will go back to Mitsuwa for super specific ingredients but I won't go for Ramen.
bjt
"eating is an agricultural act" wendell berry