Gumshara Ramen, Chinatown & Ichi Ban Boshi, Galleries Victoria - A tale of two Sydney Ramen Houses

Ramen Cravings - once it hits you on a cold winters night, it is the hardest to shake off. I know that when the cold gets into my bones I most certainly become a slave to ramen hallucinations. Some of you may find this familiar.. your sitting at home, minding your own business and watching SVU - then you get a bit chilly. As you search around the home for a spare blanket in the ad break.. you notice a big steaming bowl casually following you and tip toeing around behind you. This is how the ramen cravings creep.  You think your safe...but in the blink of an eye that imaginary bowl of salty and eggy noodles has jumped behind you and has got you in a chokehold. There really is no escape now!

I have two game plans to help combat these very common hallucination and I am a firm believer that all cravings must be appeased, imaginary ramen wrestlers have quite the grip on the old chokehold. Gumshara Ramen at the Eating World Complex in Chinatown and Ichi Ban Boshi at the Galleries Victoria CBD are two distinct places where one can conceed to the cravings and get a ramen fix. They are very different from one another and many people are divided as to which they prefer. Admittedly, there will always be a faithful following at each venue. 

 Gumshara Ramen is traditionally speaking, the more authentic of the pair. This is where the hardcore ramen aficionado's flock to. Before I start waxing lyrical - I need to stop to acknowledge my ramen illiterate readers. Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup. No, it is not "just like fancy maggi two minuite noodles". Ramen is a delicious, salty, hearty, eggy, broth based noodle soup and studies have shown that is the lifeforce of human kind. 

 Gumshara's legendary tonkotsu broth is an intensive labour of love - pork bones are boiled for days to create the thick, collagen enriched miso base. This thick, cloudy and super rich soup coats each noodle strand and in a matter of seconds you slip into a delicious food trance. if you listen closely you can hear your belly thank you after every spoonful. I was lucky enough to order the pork spare rib with my tokotsu ramen ($14.50) there is a 10 serving limit each day. And of course, to add to the collagen richness I couldn't say no to a gooey soft boiled egg topping.

 Demos had his eyes on my pork rib slab but was content in the Tokotsu ramen toppeD with BBQ pork ($13) slices and load of chilli oil and flakes.

MONSTER BURGER!!! Tokyo, Japan

One day we decided to take the trip to Odaiba, Tokyo's man made island. This place is way out there and is pretty much an example of what happened in Tokyo during the good times in its economic history. 

The buildings gives a good indication of this considering that they are some of the craziest and outlandish architectural designs - gigantic balls, inverted pyramids and so forth.

Odaiba is also home to theme parks such as Muscle Park, the Toyota History Museum and Display Showroom (where you can take an computerised car for a spin) and a number of outlet malls. After walking around Odaiba all day and checking out the Toyota museum we stumbled through Muscle Park and found the MONSTER BURGER!

This was pretty much the coolest burger ever in terms of fast food. I mean come on - MONSTER BURGER!!!!! We decided to give the burger a go, it would be considered pretty un-Australian not to. 

The burger comes in a cool package - the Monster Box. Also accompanied with a little mini Monster Burger cardboard cut out toy with a launcher you assemble and use to vault the cutout over the tower.

Now the burger itself is pretty big. Consisting of 3 parts - A chicken burger, a bacon burger and a beef burger with bacon. Pretty hard to eat in one go so splitting it up is the strategy to pursue. As a meal set it cost us 1,250 YEN.

Taste-wise, it was nothing spectacular. We opted not to get the teriyaki sauce with it - didn't think it would go well with the tart flavour of japanese mayonaise. The best part was the fried chicken fillet, it was indeed very crispy and has the right amount of spice. The burger section was not the best, the combination of tomato sauce and mayo caused the bread to go soggy. After all the walking around in Odaiba it was still pretty hard to get through. As difficult it is to eat (and finish) how can you say no to such a quirky creation? Only in Japan! If only we had time to try out the mega burger from lotteria...

Kampai!! Under and Above ground bars in Tokyo

What better way to end long days of shopping and sightseeing than with a trip to a bar, or Izakaya as the locals refer to. One that we frequented was conveniently located across the road from our Hotel - Monterey Ginza. Japanese Bar Gotts was the best izakaya in town. A tiny room about 2 floors below street level, we found ourselves with a friendly bartender (Tane) who tried to speak as much English as we did Japanese. In the few nights we were there we made friends with the locals and ended up drinking late into every night.

Going through bottles of sake like water, sinking glass after glass of brown sugar brandy and chugging down that much plum wine (of which only Tane knows how many bottles) it was simply the best fun ever. Add to the mix an affordable assortment of Japanese Bar Snacks (the salted edemame and sweat potato with sesame ice cream were standout faves) only japanese spirits and wines and you have yourself a good all round Japanese bar. There was no absolut or jager in sight, which was a great break from other touristy bars.

Tane is also quite good with carving ice and if you visit make sure to help him practice his English in the hope of being able to net himself a good Aussie girl when he comes to visit down under.

And now from Ginza, to Shibuya. What is a trip to Japan without a tiny bit of Karaoke? After climbing up about 4 flights of stairs as we have done so many times previously on our adventures around Tokyo - we find find this little bar. Generally speaking most of the bars in Tokyo are small and have a metre long bar table where patrons sit behind and knock back a few or 50 depending on how the night pans out. As it so happens this bar only had 2 patrons - Gianna and Demos.

We ordered some plum wine from the bartender and had a drink to kill some time before heading back to Ginza. The bartender proceeds to pull out this 5 litre juice plastic bottle from under the bar and pours a cloudy liquid into ice. The plastic jug had all these little green shrivelled plums (from all the alcohol content) bopping inside the bottle. Truly there is nothing more delicious than homemade plum wine - strong and sugary sweet, the perfect liquid courage for what was about to unfold..

The bartender couldn't speak English that well but somehow managed to coax us (mainly Gianna) into singing karaoke..it was indeed a spectacular version of Lady Gaga's Pokerface - and there is video evidence.

Tokyo has an affinity for Jazz bars with that classy american old world charm. Most bars littered around the streets of Shibuya, Ginza, Shinjuku, Omotesando seem to be very dimly lit, fitted with dark timber furniture, long elegant bar tables, bartenders looking sleek in black and white complete with suspenders and most importantly - jazz music.

Its like stepping back into a Japanese 60's esque parallel universe, and it works. The bars are old school and the drinks are traditional but you can chill out after a crazy day shopping and running around over a strong classic cocktail - so strong as it so happens in this case where we dont exactly know where this place was or what exactly we drank..

Locating the illusive Golden Gai area in Shinjuku was a bit of a task. Our best advice is to take the East Exit of Shinjuku Station, head towards the Hanzomon Shrine and Turn left when you see the red wooden posts that signify the entry to a shrine. Follow the path down through the dark lane littered with trees. You know you are there when you come across the 4 very narrow lanes of 2mx2m square rooms that make up the Golden Gai.

The ultimate cluster of bars for the Japanese, the Golden Gai is the area that locals go to have a drink and avoid all those pesky tourists that come and do noting but piss off the locals with their inconsiderate ways including not speaking Japanese (look at us, carrying on like we are locals). Baka Gaijin

These bars without doubt are some of the coolest bars most people would ever come across. All decorated in different ways with all manners of posters and trinkets. The majority of bars here all have cover charge and tourists will find that most are somewhat awkward for tourists to stop by and have a drink. The few that welcome tourists are usually the ones written about in travel guides.

One such bar we found was Le Jette. No English is spoken here, although the owner is fluent in french. This little tiny bar is apparently one frequented by photographers, journalists and even famous directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola.

Decorated with hundreds of french film posters and rows of books upon books and knik knacks and all other crazy zany memorabilia. They serve the best apricot wine as well.

Unlike other Golden Gai bars, this one is quite welcoming to us Gaijin - Just as long as you are not claustrophobic. So yes, thats a run down of our favourite izakaya experiences. When in japan, just roll the dice and walk up or down that narrow stairwell - there will be sake waiting for you on the other side.


Just a word of advice though, maybe skip the reggae bars that litter the red light district of Rapponggi. The music is fun, the drinks are strong and cheap - however....you may come across an oddly assorted group of colourful individuals who will ask you if you indeed want to pass the dutchie to the left hand side!!

Oh Tokyo - Domo Arigato. Kampai!

Yakiniku in Shinjuku - Tokyo, Japan

Ah sizzling meat - what more can anyone ask for? Yakiniku is a cook it yourself BBQ, where you order your meat and some vegetables and then go on and cook the meat over a little bbq built in to a table. The beef and vegetables are all cut into thin bite-sized pieces that grill quite quickly. After you cook it on the hot plate/grill, dip it in tare - a soy-based sauce flavoured with sugar, sake garlic and sesame; you eat it and enjoy.

The good thing about Tokyo is that there is no shortage of yakiniku restaurants, just follow the smell while walking around the streets and odds are you will end up finding a local hotspot with no problem.

Doing so one evening in Shinjiku we found a place. We went up some stairs and got seated in a small traditional private room. We stumbled into a lovely restaurant - Omoni Tei in Shinjuku. Technically, we didnt stumble - but rather, walked up a few flights of stairs to get to the dining area.

Lucky for us, our waiter provided us gaijin with English menu to guide us through the different kinds of meat on offer. which consisted of tongue and innards we decided to stick with ordering beef kalbi (cuts of boneless short-rib beef), rosu (thin sliced ribeye), Pork Rib and something a bit Australian - Gigantic Juicy Prawns.

Chugging down some Asahi and cooking your meat is truly an enjoyable experience, especially when the meat melts like butter in your mouth. Mixing the different dipping sauces and experimenting with the time it takes to cook your meat makes the eating experience that much more enjoyable because of the interaction involved.

Omoni Tei Shinjuku

1-7-5 Kabukicho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Access via JR Shinjuku Station East Exit

Eating (in) Japan

There is always that time after an awesome holiday where you find yourself with a mood a little bit on the depressed side. And now, as i finally catch up with my blogging it has hit me again - oh Japan, how we miss you already. Having been able catch up on work, sleep, masterchef australia and my regular living pattern, I now hope to catch up on my backlog of blogging. 
Tokyo was simply a food and fun lovers paradise.We spent 5 nights there, and it was everything we expected and more. Language was not a problem at all - our rumbling tummies did all the talking.We landed at Narita airport at about 5am Tokyo time, and by 9.30 am we were off roaming the streets with out hungry tummies! First stop was Ueno, where we decided to roam the winding streets of the Ameyayokocho Arcade - Once a WWII Black Market, now neverending maze of all things fun and japanese!

It was hard to decide which rabbit hole to venture into - between Patchinko parlours, Pubs, Gaming Rooms and love hotels, restaurants are scattered all around Ueno, tempting you with plastic food displays (handy - if like us, you cannot read japanese) Phrasebook in tow, We were so excited to have our first meal in Tokyo.

I cant tell you the name of the restaurant, or the exact underground address . It looked like a popular place for lunch, businessmen slurping away on their noodles and smoking away indoors - most importantly the food was just awesome. Just stick to the point, smile and onegaishimasu (please) arigato (thanks) system.

We succeeded in ordering a lunch special of some sort. I had some tasty tempura prawns and a side of soba noodles delicately sliced pieces of fish cake. Demos ordered the Oyakodon, which is a rice bowl with chicken and egg cooked through it. Definitely comfort eating after a long flight!

And nothing says we are on holidays then a beer before mid-day! Kampai!

Our next big meal was merely a few hours later, this time in Shibuya.  How did we find this Yakitori restaurant? We followed the tempting and irresistible smell of charcoal and meat out of an exhaust vent!

Food Safety Regulators note, they serve raw chicken! Chicken Sashimi is quite popular in japan - but we were not game enough to order this, citing fear of salmonella for obvious reasons. However, the chicken skewers below were raw in the center. We then proceeded to drink lots more of beer with the belief that beer kills all germs! With the salty flavour of yakitori dishes, and its chargrilled taste - its hard to imagine any other food that goes perfectly with beer.

Sasami - skinless chicken breast 

Garlic Rice and Tebasaki (Chicken Wing)

HaHatsu (Chicken Heart)

Tsukune (Chicken Meatballs) with an egg yolk.

Domo did not fear salmonella, he eats live chickens for fun.


p.s. I havent even finished the eating adventures of day one. Ah, I will get through the backlog of blogs.. Sayonara for tonight!