Ramen : Zundo-ya in East village

Ramen could be said a new fashion in New York as well as in Asian countries.
I found a TIME OUT's article about  the new opening of a ramen restaurant in East village in NYC.
Actually, I didn't know the name of the restaurant, Zundo-ya.
But, the shot of a bowl of ramen in the article looked good, and made me to decide to go there.

The restaurant was so crowded that I became sure it's good.
This is the ramen that I ordered.

It had very rich soup made with pork and authentic noodles of Hakata style ramen.
I liked it.
I ordered Karaage that is Japanese fried chickens and Gyoza.
They were so good.

There were two guys coming to my next, who were likely vegetarians.
And they asked a staff if they had any vegetarian ramen.
The restaurant had a vegetarian ramen, but it was cold ramen.
So the guys were considering that, they decided to go out without any order.

In my opinion, one of the important things that makes ramen perfect is its broth.
The broth is usually made from pork meat and bones or fish.
So it is food far from vegetarians.
I think It's a challenge for ramen chefs to make beautiful vegetarian ramen.

Anyway, their ramen was worth eating for non-vegetarian, and good for vegetarian if you don't mind cold ramen.
(I'm not sure if it's good as I didn't eat it, but sometimes I eat cold ramen especially in summer.)
This is the first step to come into the United States market for the restaurant that was founded in Himeji that is close to Osaka in Japan.
I wish them a good luck.

Zenzai is a perfect food in New Year!!

I wanna show you some new-year things in Tottori in Japan.
It is Zenzai.
I cannot feel it as "new year" without it.

zenzai

The white object in the middle is mochi that is sometimes called rice cake.

The soup is red beans sweet soup.

It's common to eat mochi to cerebrate new year anywhere in Japan,
but the flavor and sauces are different.
It depends on the food culture in each region.
In my home region, Tottori Prefecture, Zenzai is a typical new year food.
It's said that it came from the traditional offering to gods gathering to the shrine in my home region.

Mochi, the important material in Zenzai, people usually buy it.
Of course I bought it in New York City.
Thank gods it's big international metropolis!!
There're some Japanese food supermarkets in the city.

However, our family usually make "Mochi" every year.
It may be very rare to make mochi at home because we need time, power and space to make it.
Here is shots from my family"s mochi making.

Mochi tsuki

Mochi tsuki

Our mochis are round shaped.
The ones in Tokyo are square shaped.
It doesn't matter if it's round or square?
Ummm, it could be kind of a part of identity.
If you see people who would say mochi is round, it's south westerners.
A people who say mochi is square, they're easterners.

Happy new year!!

Happy new year 2016!!
When I woke up, there was already fire works and a head line of happy new year on TV.
Yes, I missed out the moment that the countdown at Times Square hit 0:00 a.m.

Almost a year ago, I was in Tottori in Japan to celebrate the new year.
I can say new year celebration is the most traditional, cultural and big event in common in my country.
On the last working day of 2014, I told my appreciation to my clients and colleagues, cleaned up my desk more carefully than usual, and went back home to prepare for the trip to my hometown.
The whole city had entered the "Japanese" mood of welcoming the new year.

When it enter the new year's holiday, people go back to their home town to see their family.
On every new year eve my family have a big party with various foods and alcohols brought by each family members.
When we're stuffed and drunken enough, the temple bells start to sound.
The new year is around the corner. The bells usually start around 11:45 pm.
The temple bells are beaten 108 times which is the number of human bad desires in Buddhism.
As we listen to the bell sound, we welcome the new year.
And think that eating too much and drunken are one of 108.

In 2016, I have new year’s resolutions.

One of them is, starting this blog.

I was born and raised in Japan, and now living in New York City in the United States.

I love this city. 

I love the tolerance of this city that swallows various cultures and values,

I love the energy of this city moving forward to its better future,

though there are many problems it holds.

This city gave me new perspectives to see the world and my life.

At the same time, I got another point of view to see my home country and home town.

I realized, “Oh, it is such a beautiful place!”.

And I wanted to people around the world to know what it is like in my country and home town and visit Japan. 

That’s why I started this blog.

I’m going to write something about Japan and something about Japan that I found in New York City.