You may have guess this already, but just in case you didn’t… I love ramen. The rich saltiness of the soup, the chewy goodness of the noodles, the tender meat that melts in your mouth – a meticulously prepared bowl fills my senses with nothing but pleasure. No doubt you’ve seen my reviews of purveyors of the most venerable noodle (don’t worry, there will be many more). Juzo Itami’s film, Tampopo, is a love letter to this classic Japanese dish as well as a somewhat quirky look at the connection between food and Japanese culture. The storylines are fused together, much like the Rashomon-ified tales Traffic, Babel, or Crash, etc., but in a much different and almost perverse way. Makes for a good watch and definitely made me crave a bowl of ramen.

That’s a young Ken Watanabe right there, learning the proper way to enjoy a bowl of ramen. His expression alone speaks volumes about the reverence Japanese folk have for their food. Tampopo easily and beautifully showcases their love affair with foods of all kinds. Food-centered movies have been starting to pop up more and more in American cinema (Ratatouille, No Reservations, Spanglish, etc.), but they are still way behind their Asian counterparts in both presentation and creativity. Even Stephen Chow’s take on the food scene is more revealing (and hilarious) than its American brethren.

The major storyline features a trucker and his partner (Tsutomu Yamazaki and Ken Watanabe, respectively), who set about helping a widowed ramen shop owner create the ultimate bowl. Their quest to reach the pinnacle of noodle making is an interesting view into a culture that values and celebrates meticulous excellence and commitment to the perfection of craft. Interspersed among the major story are small vignettes, which feature a gangster and his lover utilizing food as an erotic tool, a course on table etiquette (I loved this one), a dying wife cooking one final spectacular meal, and many more. Itami beautifully covers Japan in its entirety; one shot features hobos hamming it up and enjoying the scraps of fine dining while another reveals the insecurities of salarymen seated at a fine French restaurant.

I’m not a food critic and I’m not a movie critic, but I loved this film. Granted I resonated to the fact that it was about Japanese food and ramen, but Tampopo whisks you away to a place of wonder and astonishment. Easily one of the best foodie films out there, and one of the more interesting foreign films. Itami constructs a wonderful film that reveals so much about Japanese culture with food as its language. Watch it!

Tampopo
Directed by Juzo Itami
Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Ken Watanabe
Released November 23, 1985

Ah yes, the near-mythical Santa Ramen. This review is going to be quick and dirty. Simply put, Santa Ramen is the best ramen you can get in the Bay Area. No exceptions. Some places may be close, but nothing can top the king of ramen in the Bay. Seriously. See for yourself. You’re going to have to wait in line, but trust me, when the noodles hit your lips, it’ll all be worth it (our house goes once a week, no joke).

The shot’s a bit dark, but yes, that’s the menu. The hastily scribbled English and Japanese show you how barebones this place is. There’s only one side, one dessert, and everything else is noodles. Three broths to choose from – soy sauce, miso, and pork – and a myriad of toppings for you to choose from. You must get the kakuni (stewed pork). There is no exception to this rule unless it’s already sold out, which happens every freaking day. If you don’t plan on going when it opens, don’t plan on getting the stewed pork. Roasted pork doesn’t even hold a candle to the rich, melt-in-your mouth deliciousness of its stewed cousin. I got the pork broth with the kakuni, of course. Simply wonderful. I actually wanted to drink the broth. Every little drop. I didn’t, though, because I probably would be having MSG seizures. The bowl is around $10, so definitely a bit pricey for ramen, but you can’t top it. Enough talk from me, start lining up now; with all the hype surrounding this place, Santa Ramen definitely lives up to it.

Santa Ramen
805 South B Street, San Mateo, CA 94401
650-344-5918
Be prepared to wait. A long time. Geez, that pork is delicious.

*edit* Santa moved to a new location on El Camino Real and 20th Ave, just south of the 92. The place is a lot bigger, almost three times the size of the original place. The line’s still long, but the noodles are just as good. We’ll have an update complete with pictures soon!

Ah, another ramen shop. I’ve always had a soft spot for the local store that peddles their own version of the classic comfort food. As someone with Japanese blood, nothing hits the spot than a perfect bowl of ramen. Delicious noodles, sinfully rich broth, melt-in-your mouth pork. Put them all together and you have a dish that will dazzle the tastebuds. Maybe even dehydrate you a bit. Well in any case, Maruichi has all the ingredients for success, but can’t quite put it together.

This one’s gonna be short, because not much can truly be said about a bowl of delicious ramen. It has to be tasted, savored. One can have all the best ingredients and it would still taste like the nasty nasty if they weren’t properly mixed. I ordered the Maru Ichi Ramen special and chose their specialty, the Kuro Ramen (literally meaning black ramen). The special comes with beansprouts, fish roe, egg, stewed pork, chashu pork, and nori. Kuro Ramen is special because it has browned garlic, which gives the broth its dark hue. I had a chance to order this before at the ramen museum in Japan and it was pretty fricking delicious, so I wanted to see if this place could get it right. Damn, not even close. Don’t get me wrong, the bowl was pretty good. The noodles were hand-made and the broth was tasty, but it was missing something. The essence of taste for a lot of ramen comes from the preparation that goes into each painstaking step of making that bowl hit the counter. Maru Ichi didn’t have it. There was no love in them noodles.

All this is unfortunate because Maru Ichi brings a unique take on ramen to the crowded Japanese food scene, but is unable to execute it. The ramen is good, but nothing that makes me salivate the way the Santa does. Make sure you bring the cash, because that’s all they take. The service is decent, nothing special, but it’s a ramen shop, so no complaints. The place heats up for lunch, so be prepared to wait if you’re out on Castro around noon. Probably one of the better ramen shops in Mountain View, but not in the Bay Area.

Maru Ichi
368 Castro St., Mountain View, CA 94041
650-564-9931
Don’t be tempted to order fish roe; it just melts away and makes your broth even saltier. Seriously.

Nestled in Lomita of all places is a pretty good steal for very different lunch. iL Chianti is a Japanese Italian restaurant. Yes, you heard it right. Japanese Italian. No, it’s not penne with natto or pasta carbonara alla tofu, but Italian for people with a Japanese palate. Since noodle making is a staple of Japanese cuisine, pasta seems like a obvious and natural extension for the Japanese.

I had a chance to check out the place with the folks and the interior was impressive; clean, open, minimal – a typical restaurant in Japan. The staff was all Japanese, which made it very handy for my parents and me. iL Chianti is actually a part of a small chain in Japan, so I guess this shouldn’t be too surprising. Gardena and Torrance have other established Japanese Italian places that I have had a chance to sample, but they mostly serve that weird fusion stuff with hot dogs, natto, etc., which I’m not a big fan of. The place and the food is nothing like Italian Tomato and its other Japanese Italian fast food brethren in first look, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.

I ended up ordering the lunch special, which only cost 10.50. Great deal, and gave me the chance to sample a variety of their offerings. An Italian bento box, I suppose. I ordered the spicy tomato spaghetti with beef and was pleasantly surprised by the rest of the small dishes that came with it.

They first brought out a small fish consommé, which was perfectly light and flavorful. The small salad, which was basically mixed greens with a miso-based sauce was decent, a little salty, and nothing special. The grilled halibut coverd with a wasabi-cream sauce was overcooked, but the sauce was delicious. Sadly, the rubbery fish that could have been. The squid-ink risotto was wonderful, with a very mild and earthy flavor – you have to request this as they didn’t offer it as an option and I have a feeling they might have hooked it up only because we were Japanese. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and the sauce was spicy, but not overpowering. I enjoyed the smaller dishes – tomato risotto, spinach frittata, and some sort of puff pastry lasagna – as they were a great complement to the main dish, although they lacked one thing. Heat. Too bad they were lukewarm. The meal was finished off with a small blueberry panna cotta, which was deliciously simple and sweet. Can’t believe I just ate all of that for 10.50.

My biggest regret was not reading the menu fully. You can order a drink from the menu with your lunch special and this includes wine and beer – no cost! Sigh, next time, no tea. I definitely must try some of the other dishes such as the mentaiko pasta and the Greek pasta. The specials are listed on the wall in Japanese, so that might pose a problem for all you non speakers, but the waitstaff seems to be cordial and helpful. iL Chianti is definitely a place catered to Japanese expats, but seems to attract a relatively diverse crowd. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to try Italian food with a twist.

iL Chianti
24504 Narbonne Ave., Lomita, CA 90717
310-325-5000
Open lunch and dinner. Closed Mondays. Japanese a plus.