Japanese Ramen

Place: 丸金拉麵. Beijing.

Grilled eggplant, Japanese ramen with milky tonkotsu (pork bone
broth), chashu (sliced pork), and dried seaweed.
 
The ramen was just a little overdone, with a slight hint of the much
dreaded alcohol. The ni-tamago (half boiled egg) was just a little bit
underdone with the underside of the yolk being slightly runny. The
grilled eggplant was adequate but not spectacular; I suspect that it
was finished over smoke-less coal.

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Japanese Pork Chop Rice

Place: 丸金拉麵. Beijing.

Japanese pork chop rice. I settled with this bowl after being told
that the ramen noodle shop ran out of...you guessed it...ramen and
soup. The pork chop batter was just a little bit over-seasoned (too
much pepper) than I would have liked, but the rest was sufficiently
charming with a welcoming balance among different flavors. Not quite
good enough for Omotesando, but good enough for Chaoyang.

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Korean chicken soup with ginseng

Samgyetang, or chicken soup with Korean ginseng. The chicken is
stuffed with glutinous rice and slowly cooked in a broth of Korean
ginseng, jujube fruits, goji berries, ginger and garlic, and finished
off with freshly chopped scallions. The result is a nutritious, subtly
delicious broth with a soothing finish. Most importantly, it feels
like the gentle, self-healing touches of a loving mom when her child
was sick. Beijing.

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Korean Gamjatang

Nakji bokum (spicy stir-fried octopus with veggies), gamjatang (pork
bone and potato soup with chili spices), fried rice in gamjatang
cast-iron pot.

 For the gamjatang, the body of the potatoes absorbs the meaty tones of
the pork bones and spines, while the inherent starch blunts the sharp
acidity and pungency of the chili spices, yielding a robust amalgam of
flavors on the palate. After the potatoes, bones, and much of the
liquid are consumed, leaving only bits and pieces of veggies in the
cast-iron pot, rice is then added and heated. When the rice starts to
form a nice crust on the inner wall of the cast-iron, it is removed
and promptly eaten. The crispy rice is optionally moistened by a bit
of spicy soup. The result is heavenly. Beijing, 2009.

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