Gogyou (ramen)
This has just been a crazy weekend of awesomeness, eh? Oh! look at my new glasses!
Perhaps it takes me some time to tell you about these events (jon pointed out that I hadn’t blogged for two full weeks. eek.) because we have jam-packed weekends and then you have to… well… okay. I’m just lazy. Friday night we yakiniku’d with the gang, and saturday we were a little worse-for-wear but we persevered because there was a lot at stake! There were dinners to enjoy! And sunday… Sunday finds us at the top of another adventure. A fresh inning, if I may.
But first, what kind of addict would I be if I didn’t coerce my friends into seeking out-of-the-way ramen shops with me?
I was skeptical when I first read about Gogyou and their “burnt ramen” – a technique that literally chars the oil on the top, and the ramen that follows is served black. Part of me was worried that it would be too gimicky, but part of me (the louder part, i guess) was totally interested in what it could possibly taste like. And since it was just a few metro stops away from our hotel that morning, we decided to give it a whirl.
Is it telling about us that the only time we’ve been to Roppongi (the all-night clubbing district) was at noon and for noodles? While most of this ‘hood isn’t really our scene, Gogyou did a fantastic job of catering to the upscale clientele of the area without too much douchery. It’s just ramen, right? Why be uppity about it?
Needless to say, the ramen was good. I had the burnt miso, and jon had the burnt shoyu (soy sauce). Julie still remarks on how shockingly different the two bowls were; jon’s being a bit salty-stronger in flavour and my miso being really sweet and mild. They both had a cool ashen-campfire flavour that lent depth and an unexpected way to stain your clothes. Good thing they’ve got that covered.
But lunch is over and it’s time to get out of this town. We have an afternoon date with the Dragons.