dilly dally ramen

i understand the allure of staying on the east side especially since i reside there....cuz driving out west only means the eventual murderous trek back home on the 10 to the 110 to the 101. i'm not speaky code. i'm speaky bad southern cali traffic.

so imagine my anxiety when i had to meet a friend out at the westside pavillion for a class project and still found myself out there at 5pm, the start of commuting hell. holy crap, do i go, do i stay? red pill, blue pill? going meant potentially getting caught up in an hour's worth of traffic. but staying meant having to come up with a good dilly dallying plan. santouka ramen?! oh heck yeah!

so i called up a hungry friend and off we went to santouka ramen located in mitsuwa market (i love this market! such a great place to pick up japanese snackies!) for an early-avoid-bad-traffic-dinner.

if i can recall correctly, santouka is one of four eating options at mitsuwa's tiny food court, not counting the countless things you can pick up at mitsuwa's prepared food section. anyways, i zoned in on santouka and went in for the kill. looking at the plastic foods in their display (i love japanese plastic food art!) swayed me to choose the miso chasu ramen. the salt ramen just sounded...er, too salty? was i wrong to have skipped over that one?

anyways, here's the miso chasu ramen in all its glory. the miso broth was a tad too salty for me and the fatty chasu was well, just too fatty! i know right?! when was i ever adverse to fat? hell must have frozen over cuz i felt a little chilly when i ate it. i thought the broth was tasty and the ramen was aldente, but in a head to head ramen wrestling match between the three ramen houses i've tasted so far, daikokuya, orochon, and santouka, daikokuya would still reign supreme. there is something mighty complex about daikokuya broth. santouka would be running in for the bronze medal.

though i may not purposely drive out to the westside to eat at santouka again, it served as a great dilly dallying plan. by the time we finished eating and i finished shopping for snackies at the market, i was able to zip home on nearly empty freeways with a belly full of warm ramen to boot. not bad for this silverlaker who hates badass southern cali traffic.

Santouka Ramen
3760 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-1101
http://www.santouka.co.jp/

price: $
verdict: it's aight