One of the reasons that I've kept on blogging all these years are the great "FOYs" and the wonderful comments, emails, questions, and recommendations I receive. There's just no way this blog would have existed for nearly 20 years without all of you. Yes, it's a large part a "food/travel diary", but the interactions are what keep me motivated to continue. And in spite of sometimes taking a while; I do try to check out places that are mentioned in your comments. I try not to forget these. And here are two visits that would never have happened without those comments.
The "Crazy Garlic" Ramen from Buta Ramen:
In my last post on Santouka and HiroNori, FOYs ST and Franklin mentioned the "Crazy Garlic" ramen from Buta Ramen. After my visits; I've considered Buta to be a "second tier" shop. They have catchy names for the fusiony ramen; like "Soul You" for shoyu or "Tahini Old School" for tonkotsu. I'm probably not the target audience for their ramen. But what the heck; it had been over 5 years since my initial visits; so I guess I needed to see if this "crazy old school" would feel like a Buta?
I as happy to find parking on this day. This parking lot on Linda Vista Road as almost attained the same notoriety as those along Convoy and some of those along University in City Heights.
The nice gentleman working pointed me to a table and handed me a menu. I took note of this on the menu.
And I went ahead and ordered the Crazy Garlic Ramen. Which arrived in just a few minutes!
First thing I noticed was how foamy the broth was, like it was kept at a rolling boil instead of a simmer. It was also on the thin side and seemed more like a thickened, slightly bitter, shoyu based broth. Like the tonkotsu I had here before, it also had a slight "metallic" tinge to it.
As for the garlic "chips"? Well, I expected something crisp, not bitter, hard, and plastic like, which this was. It was not fun eating those!
The chashu was a bit on the chewy side and lightly flavored, but not bad. The noodles were actually cooked decently and had a nice "springy pull" to them.
As a whole not my favorite bowl of ramen, but I'm glad I tried it.
I'm probably just not into these hipster type of ramen?
So, ST and Franklin, I know you mentioned that it was your coworkers who loved this. It's been a couple of months since you both commented and I'm wondering if you've managed to try this and if so, what did you think?
Buta Japanese Ramen
5201 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92110
The Vegan Soy Ramen from Nishiki (Mira Mesa):
Way back in November of 2023, in the comments of the post on the Veggie King Ramen at Nagi, FOY DavidG commented:
"As for the veggie ramen, this is the 2nd best I have had in SD. the Nishiki veggie ramen is so good, I don't understand how the broth is vegetarian. better than anywhere else i have ever tried. i'm curious what a meat eater like yourself would think of Nishiki's veggie ramen?"
Yes, I know it took long enough, but I finally decided to try the veggie ramen at Nishiki out. It's a good thing that I checked the menus online as I was headed to the Kearny Mesa location, which does not serve the "Vegan Delight"! I immediately changed plans and headed on over to the Mira Mesa location, which I hadn't been to before.
Wow, I remember when this was Spicy Hut!
I was greeted as I entered and said I was fine with a counter seat.
The nice young lady handed me a menu, but I told her I already knew what I wanted and ordered the "Vegan Soy Karaage Delight"
I rather enjoyed sitting at the counter as I could watch the kitchen in action. Those folks were working hard.
My ramen took a while; but I enjoyed watching the action.
The pseudo tonkotsu bowl arrived seaming hot. There were some...well, interesting things about this bowl. My least favorite was the "impossible chicken karaage". It seemed to be sort of soybean based; but the texture was not to my liking; it was spongy and super chewy...think thick nylon sponge and had no flavor.
The eggless noodles were perfectly cooked, I really didn't miss the eggs....probably the best prepared I've had at Nishiki, so no qualms with that.
Not quite sure what to do with the slice of tomato? How much acidity, sweetness, will one slice of tomato provide for a bowl of ramen? The cabbage added a slight sweet-bitterness and was blanched. The corn also added some nice textural contrast and sweetness to the bowl.
As for the broth, it was mildly savory tones, and decent saltiness; not bad at all. I did miss the umami forward tones and while there were many "dots of oil", you can see it was on the thin side. I missed the tongue coating richness of a decent tonkotsu broth.
In the end, I think I prefer the Veggie King Ramen from Nagi. Though this wasn't bad at all and the staff here were really nice. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I preferred this to the Garlic Ramen at Buga, which I think says a lot.
Nishiki Ramen (Mira Mesa)
9460 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Thanks for the recommendation DavidG!
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