Rei-men to go from Karami Ramen

Man.....this says it all for the past Sunday.

In Bay Park no less.....a 114 in El Cajon? What is going on? And with the Valley Fire raging away....all the evacuations and during the midst of a pandemic.....can we just turn the calendar over to 2021 now?

I needed to head out to Nijiya to do some grocery shopping, I decided to go ahead and continue trying take-out from all of the places in the strip mall. Next up....

Before you think I'd gone off the deep-end.....it was a 102 degrees on Convoy; Karami was doing their Reimen. Which I've had before. And though I left thinking it was quite mediocre, it seemed like a decent remedy for the heat on this day.

I placed my order, went shopping at Nijiya, and returned to find my stuff bagged and ready for pick-up.

Just for the heck of it; I ordered the karaage as well; which I though was fairly decent on a previous visit, In terms of packaging; well, the cheapo two part cardboard container had leaked so I lost some of the broth in the package.

At least things were nicely separated. First thing I did after getting the containers our of the saturated packaging was to put my thick ceramic ramen bowl in the freezer to help keep things chilled.

I had a taste of the karaage; which wasn't bad at all. I didn't expect it to be super crisp; and it wasn't. But it had a very nice savory-salty-mildly sweet flavor that I enjoyed. I really didn't need the sriracha mayo thing at all. I'm looking forward to having this again....when I'm ready to eat in.

As for the ramen...….

Not having to worry about a cold ajitama in the reimen works to Karami's benefit here. The egg was nicely marinated; if anything, the ajitama from Menya can be too salty at times. Loved the curly and nicely prepped noodles; which still had that nice chewy-crunch to it. For some reason, I really enjoy corn in my reimen (do you remember what one of the Gaijin customers at Ichiro's called it? I still have to stifle a laugh when I order this). But, much like the previous time I had this; the broth was super salty and had a weird tininess...….that; while I don't want to insult the place; tastes like mass-produced stuff. Bummer, because I'd enjoyed this much more than the last time I had it. But I just couldn't finish that broth.

Oh well.....at least I can look forward to having the karaage again when things get back to normal.

Karami Ramen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)430-6300
Current Hours:
Mon - Fri 1130am-3pm, 430pm - 9pm
Sat - Sun 1130am - 9pm

Speaking of things getting back to normal....so we now have the Valley Fire; which as of the last time I checked the news had burned over 17,000 acres and was under 5% contained. I took this photo of the sun from my driveway. Though it's not as bright red as what I took in 2007 during the Witch Fire; it still looks other-worldly.

To all our "FOYs" out there, we hope you are safe, in good health, and managed to keep cool during the record heat of this Labor Day weekend.

postscript:

With all the craziness that's going on these days; I thought I'd end with a Frankie pic. I was changing our beddings this weekend. As usual, I remove the sheets and such a pretty much leave them on the floor while I put on the new set. When I turned to grab the beddings for the washer; I noticed someone had made himself at home...…..

I don't recall F doing this before. It really cracked me up.

Have a safe and productive week!

Comments

[kat]

aw frankie:) stay safe & cool!

[Kirk]

Yes, he's really good at getting comfy Kat!

[Som Tommy]

Oh, I have to try the fried chicken at Karami. I do like the cold ramen there. Still waiting on that CAB write up haha

[Kirk]

I know you do ST! I've already punished myself with not one; but two CABs....just waiting until the shock wears off! ;o)

[Junichi]

Just had the negi-pon fried chicken at Menya for lunch today. It was pretty good. The regular version is a little dry but gets an added boost with the added ponzu, mayo and onions.

[Lynnea Fleming]

love the Frankie update--such a cutie, as always! I'll admit I've been making some version of cold noodle dish(hiyashi chuka or cold udon or somen) at least once a week...thankfully it cooled down a little this week!! That cold ramen looks so refreshing!

[Kirk]

So it's like Tori Nanban Junichi? One of my favorite things.....you're tempting me to dine in!

Cold noodles are great for this weather Lynnea! And as always; Frankie thanks you for the kind words!

[Soo]

That's good the garage wasn't bad.

[Kirk]

No, parking wasn't bad at all Soo! Just kidding. The Karaage's flavor was pretty good.

[Junichi]

Their version was simply karaage sitting in a ponzu oil mixture covered in mayo and a ton of chopped green onions. It wasn't bad but nothing like tori nanban.

[Janfrederick]

No rush on those sheets. :)

[Kirk]

You got me craving tori nanban now Junichi!

Absolutely no rush at all Jan! ;o)

[dancing]

Frankie is SO SUPER CUTE! =) And wow I do remember the hot weather and orangish sky (due to nearby wildfires) that week. It seems like a year ago but it was only like two months ago. Also feels like I haven't had time to catch up on reading my favorite blogs (like this one!) and online stuffs in ages. It's kind of fun to catch up on a bunch of your posts at one time though (except that it usually means work has been super busy if it's been a while... that and I always get EXTRA hungry reading about and looking at all the wonderful food!!!). Anyway, always nice to see Frankie but he's so super cute in this pic. Thanks for sharing the photo! =)

[Kirk]

I tend to think of this year as one loooong month of March Dancing! And so...today is March 254th...