#Kamitoku noodles

[agentfugu]

Right after work I booked it over to EastHonoluluFoodFestival. The boys were working an event and ur just there vibing with them. Enjoyed the all you can eat and drink specials while they went back2back with the music.

Katsu sando 808 - Tonkatsu & portabello sando

Kamitoku ramen with the beefy shoyu lite noodles.

These were the highlights of my night. So good 😮‍💨

P.s. I’m typing this on 22 hrs no sleep 😵‍💫

[gingerhaole]

You know sometimes you have a meal at a restaurant and it hits you right in the brainpan, so good it stays with you forever? A few of mine:

Italian wedding soup at the Macaroni Grill somewhere between Cleveland and Mentor

Udon in duck broth at Sansei on the Big Island

Madras curry with everything in it at Himayalan Kitchen in Honolulu

Lobster shu mai with bone marrow risotto at Lucky Belly in Chinatown

Beef bone shoyu ramen at Kamitoku Ramen in Shirokiya

Salt and pepper squid at Little Village Noodle House in Chinatown

Sometimes it’s circumstantial. I was starving and heartbroken when I had the Italian wedding soup, and it was just right. Sometimes it’s art. When I tell you that fucking lobster shu mai was so decadent, liquid marrow running down my chin, Hedonism Bot would have said it was too much. Four bites was all I could do. Sometimes I try to make a dish myself so I don’t have to wait to go back out to have it. I’ve learned to make a pretty great okonomiyaki, but some stuff you just can’t do outside of a restaurant kitchen. You can’t make tandoori without a 900 degree tandoori oven.

The salt and pepper squid I thought about for a long time. I’m only a casual squid eater, it was the special that day, but it was, to me, remarkable. Turns out it’s an incredibly simple dish: squid, rice flour, salt, pepper. The squid hood is halved, scored, and cut into squares that are fried so they curl into little tubes. It’s very pretty because of the scoring, and they only fry for 30 seconds or so, so they’re light, crisp, tender and really succulent.

Finally I decided to do it myself. I bought whole frozen squid, which was more upsetting to gut and prep than I expected, not just because I really like squid as animals. They’re fascinating, intelligent, and even friendly. But they’re also the most sustainable protein in the ocean, maybe the world, and Alton Brown dedicated two episodes of Good Eats to squid alone. I respect them on the plate.

So you pull out the head and guts, their bulbous little eyes staring into the void. Some of them are full of eggs which congeal into a clear jelly. Some of them leak massive amounts of black ink, which I understand is a delicacy but is not my cup of tea. You pull off the fins on their hoods, and then peel off the skin membrane, which is bizarre because sometimes their chromataphores still fire and shift a little bit. Then you have to cut the clean hoods open, score each one in a crisscross pattern, and cut them into roughly equal pieces. I did the entire Sea-Pak box of like two dozen squids, so it took long enough for the particular fish smell to start to put me off the idea of eating them.

You mix up a batch of rice flour with an assload of pepper and salt (more than you think you’ll need), dredge each piece, and then drop them one-by-one into 300 degree cooking oil. Wait until they’re just golden, scoop them with a spider, remove to a draining plate and voila. I also made a batch of sweet chili sauce which was OUTSTANDING, but gilding the lily.

I’m not sorry I did it. They were exactly as I remembered them from that day in Chinatown: succulent, light as tempura, delicious. It was fun because J and I worked in tandem to prepare them, so we shared the trauma and success. But we won’t do it again. It’s always good to know where your food comes from, especially when eating animals, but it was messy, grotesque, incredibly tedious, and we both got burned by spitting oil. We EARNED that squid. Next time, though, I’m going to leave it to the professionals.

[allaynaflavor]

Unexpected 맛: Kamitoku Ramen

I wanted a nice bowl of ramen to pick up my mood despite the hot weather today and I’ve been eyeing out the truck for a few semesters now. Given my first encounter before class— no one was in the truck to service— I didn’t expect much after class. Additionally, I’d already made a post regarding a food truck, so I didn’t even think to take any pictures to post up for everyone. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. So, inspired from an old K-Drama I watched, I took a picture of the bowl after my meal. My first Unexpected Flavor post: food so good, I didn’t realize I wanted to post it until after I’d eaten.

I ordered the Beefy Miso ($8.50) and some pan-fried gyoza ($5.00). The gyoza wasn’t crispy— which I favor— but the taste was delicious! I took the opportunity to soak it in sauce (as it was also served in one of the “ramen” bowls/containers), and was able to enjoy a hearty feeling in my stomach, setting me up well for my ramen.

To reiterate, I didn’t think much of the truck because my experience with ramen in such a setting was never a amazing, always average. There’s only so much you can do in such a small setting with limited cooking equipment and space. I also caught a glimpse of packaged noodles that could have been used in instant ramen while the chef was preparing.

But I was wrong to underestimate the truck. It’s soup was hearty and robust with taste, but not overpowering as most miso ramen broths are. Their char siu was a thicker meat than most and absorbed much of the broth’s taste, perfectly complimenting one another. The black bits in the broth were unsettling at first, but by the end of my meal, I came to realize that it was the best part. It added a charcoal-y flavor to the soup that was different from anything I’ve tasted before.

Overall, the price is pretty cheap in comparison to other ramen joints! You get what you pay for and it’s definitely worth every penny. The only downside: too little broth!

UH’s food services site offers information on their location throughout the week as well as their supposed hours! You can check it out HERE!