Japan

The now-common sushi-ya in the US is all well and good, but there's so much more to Japanese cuisine than sushi...

Has anyone stumbled across a ramen-ya in the US? Or maybe a shop serving donburi?

Chris

There are tons of them in San Francisco's Japantown. Last weekend I had ebi-furai curry rice at Osakaya which was pretty good.

Not my photo, but shows some of the window display:

Nom nom nom...

I've been to the left coast twice (Santa Clara and Seattle), but neither provided much opportunity to track down anything of interest.

Fortunately, I did just find out about a ramen chain that actually has two locations in Toronto (about a 90 minute drive for me) and a location in Vancouver:
http://www.ajisen.ca

It even calls out corn on the menu! It must be a Japanese place then!

Chris

Heck, we've got those on every street corner ! They're not too bad. Kinda hit-n-run but okay. Almost cafeteria style, not what I'd call fine dining but some good dishes on the menu. If they use the same vinegar in Norte Americano the cucumber strips in vinergar is really good, I always get those.

nothing like that around here. there are even very few places that serve more than basic types of sushi, although they are very good at what they do serve.

What's kind of funny is even the tiny town of Sisters, Oregon (where my parents retired, population 959) has one called SOBA Noodle

Heh, yeah, hamei, fine dining is exactly what I'm _not_ looking for when looking for ramen. Interesting note about the vinegared cucumber. I'll keep an eye open for them if/when I make it up to one of the ajisen in Toronto. I could certainly see it as being a Japanese thing, especially if it's a rice vinegar.

If I do ever end up on the left coast with some time to kill, it'll be a tough choice, between stopping by the SanFran area or Granite Falls, WA...:
http://www.tsubakishrine.org/home.html
The head priest there probably knows me by name at this point...

I wish we had something like that here. The best thing I seem to have near the university is a sushi shop and a Chinese buffet. Both are nice but after a while it does not appeal you as much any more.
This kettle and cup crap is starting to get tiring and a little costly. I need a real bowl of the stuff. (starts to drool)