Gastro Monkey // 美食家

Folks, the main reason Noodle in a Haystack caught my eye was their clam ramen that they had their first year of business (while I have come to love their other ramen offerings, I was still sad about the one that got away). I am happy to report back that I have finally tried it and it was fantastic. I am a huge clam fan and can put away a few pounds of clams in one sitting (it's all shell weight, anyway). Tried as I might, I could not get a reservation while they served that original clam ramen. When I heard that it was going to make a comeback, I cleared what I could of my July in anticipation of that weekend that I would head out to the Bay to get some. Thankfully my schedule worked out with the last Sunday of July! In case you missed it, I have posted about Clint and Yoko's ramen in detail here: Noodle in a Haystack Shio Ramen Then, there's this post also: Noodle in a Haystack Duck Shoyu and Foie Gras This post will focus on the July seating of their shio bu...

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that Noodle in a Haystack is my favorite ramen restaurant/pop-up in the States. You can find my previous blog entry here . I broke down the reasons why it's worth making that elusive reservation, and what makes Clint and Yoko's ramen so great and unique. So, I'm not going to repeat myself. What I want to do this time around (and next time because I assure you it's not my last visit), is show some pretty pictures and introduce one of the other ramen seatings that they had. They have a few different ramen varieties in rotation which depend on what they feel is fresh. They had a shio clam ramen I wanted in on a few years ago, but they stopped making it because they didn't like the clams they were using. They finally brought it back (don't worry, if you aren't able to go, I will definitely report back!) for July 2019. For how long, I can't say though. So really, if you see something you like, BOOK IT. Th...

Noodle in a Haystack is a ramen pop-up that I have been following for about a year now. Through following them, I learned that they had been working on their yuzu shio ramen for a few years now, and that they started making their own ramen because the local selection wasn't great , especially after having gotten used to the ramen in Japan (I was pretty excited to know that I wasn't alone in this assessment, or that others have suffered from culture shock moving back to the States!). Before I went to Japan and had real  ramen, I wasn't that picky. After having Ichiran and a few other random places, I just wasn't able to eat ramen anywhere. Santouka became the only place that I would go to, but their ramen is only tonkotsu. I personally prefer miso ramen, so the tonkotsu is too heavy for me to enjoy frequently. At first, I wasn't sure about going to Noodle in a Haystack because it looked like it was $50 for ramen. Let me explain why it's more than just ramen,...

I like celebrating the boyfriend's birthday all month long. He mentioned wanting to go to Hitachino Beer & Wagyu. They opened in March, but it was so limited you had to sign up for Owlie Mail and enter a lottery. It didn't work out for us during that time, so finally in May, when they full on opened and started taking reservations, I was able to get us in.  Parking is all street so get there early. If they are as strict as their email confirmation, you have 15 minutes after your reservation time before they give away your seat and charge your credit card. There was a ton of traffic on the way there that day, so plan accordingly if you are driving from further away! Since I got lucky with parking, we showed up about 20 minutes before our reservation. They told us we could stand and wait, or hang out at the bar.  At the bar, we hung around just relaxing and checking the place out. The decor is simple, which I like. On the wall are wooden boards that list their beers....