Lunch at Hokuyu, a ramen restaurant, or should I say, ramen counter? We sat in a line in front of this red counter and watched hungrily as two men and a lady boiled up our ramen and fried up our gyoza (potstickers). When they were finished, this is what we got. The angle of this photo doesn't do justice to the enormity of the bowl of noodles and vegetables that you see here! For a long time, I ate and slurped and swallowed and shoveled, and all my efforts made no difference to the amount of food in the bowl. Koji helped a little, but not much; mostly he just ate up all the wontons (that I had ordered for me!) and ignored the noodles, which were the real problem. A tasty problem they were though; Kumamoto is famous for ramen that is nestled in tonkotsu (pork marrow?) style broth, and now I know why! Oishii!
posted by jcm