noodle soup – Page 7 – Michael Eats

A Tasty Bowl at Musoshin Ramen

Published on August 5, 2021 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 9 Boustead Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.musoshin.com/

I think ramen might be my favourite dish of all time, which means the last year and change has been a long, sad, ramenless slog.

(Yes, there is instant ramen, but that’s not even remotely the same. You could also make it yourself, but that’s an all day project and it’s never going to be as good as what you can get at even a half-decent ramen shop.)

Well, ramen is finally back in my life, and, of course, it’s delightful. Musoshin is actually a small Japanese ramen chain (they have three locations in Kyoto) that recently opened in Toronto, and yeah, it’s good.

I started with the karaage, which features very crispy pieces of juicy boneless chicken thigh; this was maybe slightly too salty, but was otherwise packed with flavour and was top-notch fried chicken.

Next up was the ramen: I went with the namesake Musoshin Ramen, which features a porky tonkotsu broth — it has a very rich, roasty flavour with a lot going on (is it made with seafood, too? Because it definitely has some subtle seafoody notes). It borders on being a bit overwhelming in its flavour, but it never crosses that line. It’s very tasty.

The noodles were quite good, too, with a springy texture and a satisfying level of thickness. The egg costs extra, but it’s nice and creamy and worth the two dollar surcharge.

The chashu, on the other hand, is the bowl’s clear weak spot. It was pretty dry and had a very pronounced gamy, leftovery flavour. Everything else is delicious enough that this doesn’t really matter, but it’s a bummer nonetheless.

I had the strawberry mochi for dessert, and it was the perfect way to end the meal. Featuring a full strawberry surrounded by sweet red bean paste with a chewy mochi wrapper, this was a delightful mix of chewy and creamy with a perfect level of sweetness.

Classic Pork Ramen at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Published on May 20, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 190 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://noodlebar-toronto.momofuku.com/

Apparently Momofuku has been open in Toronto for eight years. I was under the impression that it was more like three or four years, which doesn’t seem like a huge difference but kind of shook me to my core.

Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but seriously: where does the time go? It’s like one second you can comfortably call yourself young, then the next second you realize that you’re practically middle-aged, and when the hell did that happen??

But I digress. We’re talkin’ about noodles here.

I tried the classic bowl of pork ramen at Momofuku back when it opened, and my recollection is that it was tasty enough, but nothing particularly special.

It’s better than I remembered. I don’t think anyone is going to call it the best ramen in the city, but it’s a top notch bowl of noodle soup.

The broth is quite tasty, with a nice porky flavour. It comes with a scoop of sweet chili paste on top; the bowl really gets going once you mix that in. It adds a nice sweet/savoury punch that does a great job of complementing the porkiness of the broth.

The noodles are nice and chewy, and the toppings are all great — in particular, the delightfully fatty thick-cut chashu is super tender, and the egg (which is a Japanese-style soft-boiled egg — a.k.a. onsen tamago — rather than a standard ramen egg) adds a silky richness that compliments the slightly sweet broth quite well.

I tried a couple of other things. There was the fried calamari, which is tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, with a tasty mayo-based dipping sauce on the side. And it’s hard to go to Momofuku and not get one of their buns; I tried the shiitake buns, which feature meaty mushrooms tossed in hoisin sauce. Hoisin is one of those things that could make basically anything taste good, so yeah, it was good.

Unique Pumpkin Ramen at Momofuku Noodle Bar

Published on April 1, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 190 University Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://noodlebar-toronto.momofuku.com/

The pumpkin ramen from Momofuku Noodle Bar is extremely untraditional, and extremely delicious.

From the menu: “kanpyo, cheese, scallion pesto.”

An aside: I’m not sure if I’ve ranted about this before, but menu descriptions that consist solely of a dry recital of ingredients fills me with an unreasonable amount of rage. Admittedly it’s not a huge issue in this case — it’s ramen, so you know that the dish is, at its core, soup with noodles in it. But these types of descriptions almost always tell you absolutely nothing about what the dish is going to be. I know that it’s the way that all the young and hip restaurants are doing it, but if all the young and hip restaurants were jumping off a cliff, would you do that too??

I digress. Shoddy menu description notwithstanding, it’s a tasty dish. I’m guessing the pumpkin is blended right into the soup, which is satisfyingly rich and creamy. And the add-ons are great; in particular, the crispy breadcrumbs compliment the ramen quite well. Or at least I think they’re breadcrumbs? Maybe I should check the menu to see what they are oh wait I can’t.

Whatever they are, they’re nicely seasoned and add some crispy contrast to the bowl.

Everything else works just as well, from the zippy pesto to the gooey cheese. And the kanpyo (a traditional Japanese ingredient made from a type of gourd) brings some meaty substance.

The noodles are slightly underseasoned and bland, but are otherwise perfectly firm and chewy. It’s an odd bowl of ramen, but it’s very good.

I tried the Citrus Pie for dessert, which the menu very helpfully describes as “yuzu, lemon, lime.” It’s basically a lemon meringue pie.

It’s tasty enough; the desserts here are generally not on the level of the savoury dishes, and this was no exception. The creamy, citrus-packed filling was actually very good, with just the right amount of tartness that doesn’t overwhelm. But the crust was a bit on the soggy side, and the meringue was unpleasantly grainy.

Amazing Ramen at Nobuya

Published on March 11, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 285 Royal York Road, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Ramen-Restaurant/Nobuya

Generally speaking, if Suresh Doss recommends a restaurant, I immediately add it to my list of places to check out. The man has an almost supernatural gift for sniffing out unsung gems, and his recommendations are always stellar.

But I was particularly excited after reading his write-up on Nobuya, in which he raves about the ramen and calls the karaage “some of the best fried chicken you’ll ever have.”

Nobuya is an interesting place. The restaurant is decked out in sports paraphernalia, and is entirely a one-man show. It’s staffed entirely by the owner, who shuttles back and forth between the small dining room and the kitchen. As you might expect, the service is leisurely, but very friendly.

I started, of course, with the karaage, which was a bit of a let-down. It’s well seasoned, with a nice light crispiness on its exterior. But the best versions of karaage are made with juicy dark meat; this was made with dried-out white meat. It certainly wasn’t bad, but the dryness was a bummer.

But of course, the ramen is what you’re there for. They have a few varieties on offer, but the owner identified the Tokyo ramen as his favourite, so that’s what I ordered.

Tokyo-style ramen is very, very different than the rich, hearty tonkotsu ramen that’s so omnipresent in the city; it has a much lighter consistency and a delicate flavour which makes it a very refreshing change of pace.

It’s also seriously delicious, with a complex meatiness, a very mild fishy funk, and a subtle sweetness to round things out. It pulls off that delightful magic trick you’ll find in the best bowls of ramen, where every spoonful seems to bring something new to the table.

The many toppings — things like garlic, green onion, and pickled ginger — only amp up the already delightful flavour. It’s fantastic.

But then there’s the noodles. I’m assuming this was a one-time mistake (the bowl was too delicious for it to be anything but an unfortunate glitch), but the noodles in my and my dining companion’s bowl were overcooked to the point of mushiness. Given how good the rest of the bowl was, this was particularly unfortunate. But I guess if you’re one guy running an entire restaurant on your own, little slip-ups are bound to happen.

The chashu wasn’t great either, with a slightly tough texture and a gamy flavour. But again, that soup was so damn good that it really didn’t matter.

Mediocre Khao Soi at Imm Thai Kitchen

Published on March 5, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 651 College Street, Toronto
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Immthaikitchen/

Khao soi is one of those dishes I have a hard time resisting. The combo of the creamy and vibrant curry soup, the chewy noodles in the bowl, and the crispy fried ones on top add up to a dynamite mix of flavours and textures.

At Imm Thai, I tried a few of the starters before I got to the soup: spring rolls, fresh rolls, and fried sweet potato. The two types of rolls were both about what you’d expect, but the sweet potato really stood out. The thin strands of potato were crunchy and addictive — they were basically like a freshly-fried version of Hickory Sticks, and I couldn’t get enough of them.

The khao soi, on the other hand — i.e. the reason I wanted to visit the restaurant in the first place — wasn’t the best. It was fine; I certainly didn’t dislike eating it, but it is absolutely, positively not in the same league as the best bowls of this particular dish.

The “soup” itself is the biggest issue. And yes, in this case, the word soup definitely needs to be in quotes — the thick, sludgy liquid here was at the consistency of a particularly hearty gravy.

Of course, the broth in a bowl of khao soi is supposed to be a little bit richer than a typical bowl of soup, but this version took that two or three (or four or five) steps too far.

The flavour, too, was a bit one-note, with none of the delightful complexity that makes the best bowls of khao soi really sing. The crispy noodles on top were nice, if not quite as abundant as you’d like, and the pieces of chicken (you can also pick tofu, shrimp, or lobster) were all dry, personality-free chunks of white meat.