G-Men Ramen

Ming took me to a ramen joint in Richmond tonight. I already liked it when we drove up to it because ... there's so many parking spots! Free is good too. (The only ramen places I know are in downtown where parking spots are limited). G-Men is its name. And it's located in the Continental Plaza. (Yes, you can run next door for some Pearl Castle bubbletea afterwards).

I loved the decor. Because there simply wasn't much. Much like any other ramen joints, there was a curtain at the door and special items posted on the wall. We sat on tall stools ( I guess for Ming, not-so-tall stools) at the bar table. (There isn't a bar but that's the best I could describe it). It brought me back to the ramen place I visited in Tokyo. It was just like that. We sat at a long bench. All the chopsticks and spoons were in a bucket on the table and we poured our own water.

strange decorations.

I ordered the Tonkatsu Miso Ramen. I added one of their options of butter and corn. Because well, I love corn. It didn't take too long before our food arrived.  It had a lot of toppings - the bbq pork, green onions, wood ear mushrooms, and seaweed. Oh, and the butter and corn. I had to fish out the block of butter. Shum would probably scream if she read this as she loves to order double butter.

Ming's Tonkatsu Shoyu Ramen. Didn't take a picture of mine but it looks the same.

I loved the soup. Y'see, I don't know if I'd go back to Kintaro a second time even though my friends continue to rave about its flavour and authenticity because I find Kintaro's soup too oily. I could also see the pieces of fat from the meat floating in it. I instantly lost my appetite a little. So, no matter how I noticed that the Japanese people hung out there at Kintaro and I could see the authenticity with the big pots of broth stewing (as well as smelling it in my clothes afterwards), I couldn't see the appeal that everyone else saw. Needless to say, I haven't been back a second time.

But, at G-Men, the soup was just perfect. This also comes with a comparison with Menya. I preferred Menya over Kintaro simply because the soup was not as fatty. However, I could also see why people have said that Menya's soup doesn't quite measure up. The flavours aren't quite there. Well, G-Men has it all. No floating fat in my soup and it was perfectly rich and creamy.

I also really enjoyed the pork. And that actually says a lot. I'm not a big fan of pork. Good pork to me is hard to come by. I'm quite picky even with Chinese bbq pork. I almost never order pork chops (except for the chinese style baked ones) because they're generally too dry. And like Kintaro, there was a lot of fat hanging off of their pieces of pork. Or, sometimes I find pork to be under or over seasoned. Anyway, I'm not picky in that I'd complain about pork to death... I simply just rarely eat it. But, surprisingly the pork was really good at G-Men.

It looked so good (and I was hungry after work) ... I could wait to dig in when the steaming bowl of goodness was set infront of me. I was so into eating it, I barely took any photos. In fact, I forgot totally until Ming reminded me while I already had chopsticks and spoon in hand, "Don't you want to take a picture?". Oh. Right.

And even at that... I don't have good ones. I wanted to eat!

Another thing... I didn't understand it at first, but I was given a porous spoon. I was thinking, what am I suppose to do with this ... I plan on enjoying the soup. But later, I realized it was to help fish out my corn and other goodness without taking in only spoonfuls of soup. Clever!

It was mmm mmm good. I was stuffed. Ming wanted bbt but of course we couldn't go next door to Pearl Castle. He was craving Dragonballz. I'm not sure I know anyone else would who drive across town just to get their bbt when it could have been so readily accessible. But I guess, hey, when you gotta satisfy a craving, you gotta satisfy a craving. (Okay, I only wrote that last bit 'cause I know he reads this. Ha ha. )