Had ramen for lunch today - the perfect way to fill up after a 31km run from Yokohama to Meguro-ku -only 4 weeks to go until the Tokyo Marathon 2010!
Pictured above are a few ramen restaurants near Naka-Meguro. I like the name of the one bottom-left - "あいうえお". The one bottom-right is pretty popular - they've even had to paint a yellow line on the pavement to mark where to queue. I'm always surprised how restaurants like this (which don't look like anything special, and are small, dark and dirty) become so popular. Perhaps it's been featured on TV or in some magazine for one of its ramen dishes, or maybe some famous talent ate there once. A crowd always attracts a crowd, so maybe they hire a few people to stand outside every day!
The menu at the restaurant top-right is pretty interesting - you get to design your own ramen. You can choose 4 out of 8 toppings, plus how spicy it is etc, and as the sign says, you end up with 392,000 possible variations to choose from - you could have a different ramen every day for over 1000 years!
Do you have any restaurants near you where you can design your own dishes?
Joseph
