I took a long ride yesterday, riding downtown, through SOMA, to Potrero Hill, back to downtown for ramen and then to the beach.
Mark Twain one remarked that the coldest winter he ever experiences was a summer in San Francisco.
That’s fog in the picture, not smug! And this is at Ocean Beach, near the Cliff House!
This is typical summer weather. It’s foggy, cold and wet. Now this is what summer is supposed to be!
Muhuhahahaha!
Katana-Ya is (sorta) Back!!!
A few years ago, near UCSF, there was a kick-ass ramen shop called Katana-Ya. They made lots of ramen and had some other kinds of food (non ramen).
Now, a new Katana-Ya has opened up in Downtown San Francisco on Geary, near Mason.
The new Katana-Ya on Geary Street
This is the banner you look for. It says “ra-men”
The restaurant is dominated by the sushi bar…
This new incarnation of Katana-Ya is a sushi bar/restaurant that happens to serve ramen, instead of the other way around, like the old place. I ordered miso cha-siu ramen and hoped for the best.
Mi-so ra-men. Will it be “yum?”
The broth was flavorful, the cha-siu had a bit of fat on it and was tender (but not as fall-apart as Santa Ramen’s stewed pork) and the noodles were the thick kind, nice and hearty! And as an added bonus, it’s actually run by Japanese AND a couple of the people running the place worked at the old place!
In short, I like!
Katana-Ya
430 Geary Boulevard (at Mason)
SF CA
Open for dinner, 1700-0200 every night!
This is a LOT closer than Santa Ramen…
Santa Ramen
San Francisco claims to be a foodie’s town. How can that be when there are exactly FIVE ramen shops in the ENTIRE city and none of them are really that outstanding…
Although we did have one shop called Katana-Ya near UCSF that closed a few years back. Now THAT was great ramen!
To get great ramen now, you have to drive about 20 miles (50 minutes from my place) down the 101 to San Mateo where the ramen epicentre of the Bay Area is. San Mateo is home to Santa Ramen, a ramen shop off a non-descript street away from downtown San Mateo.
If it helps, it’s across the street from Nazereth Plaza…
Santa has a great selection of ramen dishes and broths. They have shoyu, miso and my favourite, tonkotsu! It’s hard to find places that do tonkotsu here, let alone do it right.
Tonkotsu is a pork and chicken based broth that involves boiling bones for many days and nights. Ramen is a regional dish and tonkotsu hails from Kyushu, land of the Tsubame, Kagoshima, Hakata, Beppu , Hamasaki Ayumi and Moritaka Chisato! Tonkotsu is also extremely rich, milky and absolutely delicious! Here’s a place in Tokyo that makes it VERY well (since visitors to Japan dun usually make it to Kyushu..).
Santa also is known for their stewed pork. Basically it’s thick pork slices that replace the cha-siu that you would normally get in your ramen. When you pick it up with your hashi, it literally falls apart. It’s that tender and that flavourful. And since this is their speciality, you need to get here early because they only make so much each evening.
Which brings up the issue of the queue. Santa is open for both lunch and dinner and they have incredibly long queues when they’re open. Even longer on the weekends.
Hours of Operation!
I was able to have stewed pork exactly once, on the same night that the Chinese New Year parade was happening in SF. So there were less people in the queue at Santa and I was able to partake. The next time I tried, I waited for 45 minutes until I was next on the list to be seated. Then they ran out of stewed pork. Then I left for In-and-Out.
This time, I ordered tonkotsu cha-siu ramen and slurped down! The broth was good, but a touch salty and the thick noodles were just a touch soggy. Not as snappy as I usually like. And if you want an egg, that’s extra.
Tonkotsu cha-siu ramen. Tamago (egg) is extra…
Despite these nits to pick, it doesn’t detract from the utter goodness that Santa is. The restaurant itself is warm and loud (means lots of people slurping!) and it’s still kick-ass ramen! I’ll do a follow-up next time I’m here and get the stewed pork again…
Santa Ramen
805 South B Street
San Mateo CA 94401
The neat thing about having a place like Santa is that other shops of similar quality will open up nearby. Like Himawari!
715!
What else can be said? Barry Bonds broke the Babe’s home run record today (finally!)! He is now numbah deux on the all time home run list.
Barry Bonds crossing the plate after home run 715
Everyone was just waiting for this one! They had banners drop from the light towers, shiny streamers released into the air
see the streamers in the middle of the pic? There were more but this is the tail end
and this sign on the left field wall.
715, only 40+ to go!
Miffed Miata Munches and Mauls bruin
Sometimes when you’re walking down the street, you see something absolutely scary.
Grrrr, must eat meeeeet!
Gotta watch out for those there “miatas”. Probably didn’t get its dose of super unleaded so now it wants the taste of flesh stuffing!
Grrr, didn’t you understand me the first time?
Moral of story: Always carry camera with you lah! That’s how I missed the furniture tree near my house. No camera! This time, have camera! Muhuhahahahahah!
Memorial Day 2006 *check*
I’ve just realized something.
This is the first Memorial Day I’ve spent in the US in, oh, saaaay, three years! How boring! No wonder I’ve spent it overseas in the past…
Although Memorial Day is meant to be a holiday of rememberance for those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have fallen, Memorial Day has become less and less of that and more the official beginning of the summer season. And a good time to buy a car, apparently.
And since I’ve been stuck in SFO over this holiday weekend, I’ve been Mr. Handyman around the house, taking care of all those projects that have piled up.
Fix intercoms: check. And check. Twice because there are two.
Car stereo died on Friday; spent all day Saturday taking my poor car apart to replace it: check.
Caught up on “24”: check check check (three episodes).
Finally got interview for Sacto gig; have to dig up writing samples and fill out long application (again!).
Begin stressing? Check.
Early AM
Was up early this AM helping out some people out at the airport. Was able to take this snap with my SLVR (which is only a VGA camera, explains the blah quality..)
That’s a nice looking 757 lah!
Rosenblum Open House
This past weekend was the quarterly open house held by Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda.
The building ain’t glam, but the wine sure is!
I wound up going despite the flakiness of two ppl I asked along (like they’re getting a wine-related invite next time!). Got comped lah! Tasting of 20+ wines, snacky foods and a Riedel wine glass. Whatta bargain!
Besides this healthy spread, there were snausages, satay and white castle type burgers. And Zinfindel ice cream!
Riedel Glasses for tasting!
The tasting was held both inside the winery and outside in the parking lot. Despite an unseasonal rain (which kept a lot of people inside, wimps!), the crowd was managable and an atmosphere of “chill” in addition to a lot of “smug” made the event a good one. There was a lot of wine!
There’s a lotta wine in those tanks & barrels…
Naturally, after tasting and eating for three hours, there was another place to visit. Hangar One, a boutique vodka label that makes its wares in a hanger in the old Alameda Naval Air Station (where they keep dee nu-clear wessels). Great vodka, even though it’s a bit pricey.
This is what they distill vodka with
And this is how they display it!
I tried some tea infused vodka called Q1. It was like the kind of tea you want at 0200 after you get kicked out of the bars for last call…
Here’s a shot of The City from Alameda in the rain. Wah!
New Mac Book
No, I ‘ve not gotten one yet. But I have slammed the lid and kicked the tires on one.
First. they come in a shiny white, like the previous iBook and a matte black which looks really cool but shows greasy fingerprints easily.
In “innocent” white…
Yearrgh! It’s da dread pirate Roberts! I mean BlackMacBook!
It’s noticibly bigger than the 12″ PB, as seen here.
That’s Bender on top and the thus unnamed MacBook on da bottom. Despite this, my bags can carry up to a 15″ laptop so that’s all good.
The screen is shiny and bright and very vivid. The keyboard is, erm, different. Instead of a traditional keyboard, it looks like a bunch of chiclets. There’s also space between the keys so remembering your touch typing is a must!
I’m leaning toward the white one because as you can see here, the matte coating can wear off, leaving a shiny spot. Click on picture for bigger one.
You can see it from a distance
This could be an issue as time goes by
Will probably be upgrading soon. Bender’s 3.5 years old!
Some poetry for a Thursday
No, not getting all “metro”, just missing being on the road (and in ryokan, in the airport, on the train, etc.).
So here’s one that was written by Yoshii Isamu dedicated to the Gion Quarter in Kyoto.
Kani kaku ni
Gion wa koishi
neru toki mo
makura no shita o
mizu no nagaruru
No matter what they say
I love Gion
Even in my sleep
the sound of water flows
beneath my pillow
Each year, on 8 November, local geiko perform the Tea Ceremony to honor the deceased.
Yes, I need to get out there, and SOON!