Coffee and Raamen....

How cool would that be, Seattlites? Nutrition and your jump-start all in one. Like steak-flavored Q-tips. (An old joke by....? Goes like this: "Hey, I like meat. I like clean ears: Steak-flavored Q-tips!")

Check out this great website: Coming Anarchy for coffee raamen! Looks like there's more than a full cup of java after all the noodles are slurped up. Wonder what the cook does with the pork.

Ando Packs It In.

Our man, the inventor/creator/innovator of instant raamen and Cup Noodles, Momofuku Ando, has decided, at the tender age of 95, to retire. Egads! Is nothing left sacred in this world when a man has to give up his sole love and joy just because he's pushing the century mark? Actually, according to my sources, he wants to retire. Wants to spend more time doing the things he really enjoys doing, no doubt, whatever they may be. After spending time in jail for tax evasion and coming out nearly penniless and definitely jobless at age 48, he turns hard noodles, a packet of spices, and hot water into a billion-dollar empire. Not too shabby. I hope he gets to spend a few more decades in leisurely retirement knowing that without him hundreds of thousands of mostly male college students would've starved to death.

Kitakata Kura Raamen

Kitakata Raamen
Originally uploaded by Tedori.

Today's lunch spot. The food was both good and not-so-good. It tasted good at the time but later kept coming back to me and I felt heavy all afternoon. Did it have just a smidgeon of MSG? I wonder because MSG (called Ajinomoto, after the company that sells the most of it) gives me a headache and I had a small one for a short period after eating here.
However, you can choose your noodle here: thick or thin. I took the thick and they were quite tasty. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday gyoza is half price and, anytime, if you order rice when you order the raamen, it's free. Otherwise, I think it's 200 yen.
If for any reason you're interested in owning a franchise, check out this Franchise site. But if you're more interested in finding how many stores they have and where and you want to practice your Japanese reading ability, check out this Kitakata Kura Raamen site. (I discovered, for example, that it is from Kitakata City in Fukushima Prefecture.)

Kitakata's interior

Kitakata's interior
Originally uploaded by Tedori.

Right after lunch, the cashier is grabbing money left and right. I got there at 12:40 and left at 1:00. It's clean and welcomes children, not a common sight in most raamen places. It also had nice music that wasn't too loud. The workers, on the other hand, had to yell whenever a customer came in, (いっらしゃいませ!) or left (ありがとうございます!), and when they put in an order (野菜 一丁!), all of which is common in most sushi, raamen, yakitori-yas and other cheap traditional restaurants. The other thing was, every time someone cleaned a table they yelled "Table Number 5. Clear!" And I kept thinking, what is this an aircraft carrier? So, needless to say, the help spent a lot of time yelling.
This cashier cleaned tables, took the money, and seated people. I wonder if he was the owner/franchisee or just hired help.

Menu on the Wall

Menu on the Wall
Originally uploaded by Tedori.

Now you can read and practice your Japanese while you read. The first three kanji from the top are the name of the store: Kitakata. 喜多 is Kita. 方 is kata. Kitakata =喜多方. The Happy Way (?) Below the 喜多方 is raamen (ラーメン). The third raamen from the right is onion raamen, (ネギ = Negi = leek). The first one is the Kitakata Raamen shop's specialty, which I didn't try. It's the cheapest at about 525 yen but it has four or five slices of fatty pork. The rest are about 700 to 900 yen. I tried 味噌 (miso) 野菜 (yasai = vegetables) ラーメン which is the 7th from the right, almost directly under the light. You can just make out that it costs ¥714.
(By the way, prices used to NOT include the 5% sales tax. Now they do. So a price that used to be ¥200 is now listed as ¥210. To make it more convenient for shoppers to figure out how much they'll really have to spend. I have a feeling Women's Groups had a big influence on this decision.)

Kitakata's Miso Vegetable Raamen

Kitakata's Miso Vegetable Raamen
Originally uploaded by Tedori.

Two pieces of pork and more vegetables than most raamen. I liked it. The only thing about the restaurant I found interesting was the bill came before the food, so you knew how much your meal cost before you even got your meal. This raamen cost 714 yen (what's that in real money? $6.00?) The veggie raamen had bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, cabbage, mushrooms, and miso. With thick noodles.