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muckefuckMy coworkers, not being food assholes, were so taken aback when I told them last Friday that ramen was trendy now that they thought I was taking the piss. I've mentioned the proliferation of hot noodle spots around the Old Man enough times now that when Turtle and Turtlewife got in contact about supper club again, he naturally suggested we try one. It seemed a happy marriage since they are car-enabled and my research told me that some of the best places are out in the 'burbs.
We narrowed it down to two of them: Santouka and Misoya. We were originally leaning toward the latter, since it's open later, but when we heard that neither of them had ever been to the Mitsuwa shopping centre which contains Santouka, that decided it. We were incredulous as first; after all, literally the only thing I know about Arlington Heights is that it has a Japanese mall (known as Yaohan before it changed ownership in '91) and it's the only reason I've ever travelled there. And Turtlewife works in Elk Grove Village! (I felt chagrinned that we were making her commute on her off day, but she was happy to learn about someplace cool just minutes from her workplace.)
We got there about six and Santouka was the only place with a line. We even felt a little sad for the Chinese place we were queuing in front of, with its bored-looking cashier. The offerings are pretty simple: four styles of broth ("salt" [shio], soy sauce, miso, and spicy miso) in three sizes with a smattering of sides. We each plumped for a different broth so we could a taste of them all. In addition, Turtle ordered salmon rice and I got the rice with nattō since it was something only two of us had ever tried before.
The broth was amazing. On balance, I think I preferred the shio that I ordered for myself, but there definitely wasn't a bad choice. They all had an unctuous depth which indicated a lot of animal parts had gone into making them. The sliced pork was velvety, the soysauce eggs were luscious, and the noodles were miles away from anything I've ever fixed for myself. We all ordered medium bowls but probably would've been satisfied with small (particularly as we wanted dessert).
The sides we could've done with out. I didn't even taste the salmon rice, since it was made with salmon roe and I already know I hate that. Turtle called it "too fishy" and didn't finish it. As with most legendarily awful things, the nattō failed to live up to its reputation. My first bite was innocuous, though the unpleasant did build as I ate more. Both Turtle and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monshu said it was exactly as they remembered it; most of it went uneaten.
We'd hoped to stroll around a bit before to let our bulging bellies settle before the next course, but, as it was Sunday, the matcha café was closing at 7. I got the "Matcha Spinner", which is milk and crushed ice with matcha, topped with a scoop of black sesame ice cream I kept telling everyone was squid. It was too much, but I doggedly finished it all. The Old Man was holding out for Hello Kitty!-shaped cookies at the bakery, but it looked like it had barely withstood a concerted raid by an elementary school. "Everything I want to buy is sold out," he groused, and left with nothing.
Turtlewife wanted to browse the candy aisles, and I was happy to agree. They had a sale on karinto, so I left with a bag of the traditional brown sugar flavour (pictured in the background to the Zwetschgenkuchen photo). It's not bad, but I didn't find it half as appealing as Scooter did when I shared some the next day. If the girls got anything, I didn't see it. I was too distracted by the crowd of geeky teens packing their shopping baskets like luggage. (As I commented to my companions, "At first I thought it was Otaku Night. Then it occurred to me that every night here is probably Otaku Night.")
We narrowed it down to two of them: Santouka and Misoya. We were originally leaning toward the latter, since it's open later, but when we heard that neither of them had ever been to the Mitsuwa shopping centre which contains Santouka, that decided it. We were incredulous as first; after all, literally the only thing I know about Arlington Heights is that it has a Japanese mall (known as Yaohan before it changed ownership in '91) and it's the only reason I've ever travelled there. And Turtlewife works in Elk Grove Village! (I felt chagrinned that we were making her commute on her off day, but she was happy to learn about someplace cool just minutes from her workplace.)
We got there about six and Santouka was the only place with a line. We even felt a little sad for the Chinese place we were queuing in front of, with its bored-looking cashier. The offerings are pretty simple: four styles of broth ("salt" [shio], soy sauce, miso, and spicy miso) in three sizes with a smattering of sides. We each plumped for a different broth so we could a taste of them all. In addition, Turtle ordered salmon rice and I got the rice with nattō since it was something only two of us had ever tried before.
The broth was amazing. On balance, I think I preferred the shio that I ordered for myself, but there definitely wasn't a bad choice. They all had an unctuous depth which indicated a lot of animal parts had gone into making them. The sliced pork was velvety, the soysauce eggs were luscious, and the noodles were miles away from anything I've ever fixed for myself. We all ordered medium bowls but probably would've been satisfied with small (particularly as we wanted dessert).
The sides we could've done with out. I didn't even taste the salmon rice, since it was made with salmon roe and I already know I hate that. Turtle called it "too fishy" and didn't finish it. As with most legendarily awful things, the nattō failed to live up to its reputation. My first bite was innocuous, though the unpleasant did build as I ate more. Both Turtle and
monshu said it was exactly as they remembered it; most of it went uneaten.We'd hoped to stroll around a bit before to let our bulging bellies settle before the next course, but, as it was Sunday, the matcha café was closing at 7. I got the "Matcha Spinner", which is milk and crushed ice with matcha, topped with a scoop of black sesame ice cream I kept telling everyone was squid. It was too much, but I doggedly finished it all. The Old Man was holding out for Hello Kitty!-shaped cookies at the bakery, but it looked like it had barely withstood a concerted raid by an elementary school. "Everything I want to buy is sold out," he groused, and left with nothing.
Turtlewife wanted to browse the candy aisles, and I was happy to agree. They had a sale on karinto, so I left with a bag of the traditional brown sugar flavour (pictured in the background to the Zwetschgenkuchen photo). It's not bad, but I didn't find it half as appealing as Scooter did when I shared some the next day. If the girls got anything, I didn't see it. I was too distracted by the crowd of geeky teens packing their shopping baskets like luggage. (As I commented to my companions, "At first I thought it was Otaku Night. Then it occurred to me that every night here is probably Otaku Night.")
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