Unexpected find at Ramen Hayatemaru - awesome fried rice!

We went back to Ramen Hayatemaru to try the rest of the menu. See my comments about the first time here. We got the Red Miso Ramen and the Jigae Ramen this time. The red miso has a more subdued taste compared to the white miso, with weaker fermented taste. I like the white miso better because that has a brighter taste (if miso can even be described that way), but this would be good for people who prefer a regular miso taste. This ramen is topped with fried tofu skin to absorb the miso goodness. It's really impressive that every ramen they serve has different toppings. 

Ojiya Restaurant - izakaya style from Niigata

I kinda struggle when I write this post, because I don't want to make this restaurant more popular. Ojiya is one of those hidden gems known only to the local Japanese, and it's always crowded because the restaurant is tiny. There are many izakayas in Los Angeles, but most of them serve pretty much the same stuff. Ojiya stands out because they serve specialties from Niigata, and they constantly come out with new menu items. There is something new to try every time.

This time I got all three specials from the menu. The first was slow poached egg, Chinese broccoli, plum bits on top of natto sauce with bonito flakes. The whole plate is on the salty side and it's perfect with beer.

Tatsu Ramen - does it have a soul?

I was going to wait on writing this post, but I refreshed the Yelp page I opened this morning, and saw the number of reviews went up by 10 o_O Everybody I saw in the restaurant must have been a Yelp reviewer or something...

Tatsu Ramen has three iPads by the door for ordering. It's pretty slick and fun. At the end of the process, you swipe you credit card to complete the purchase. The whole thing reminds me of ramen shops in Japan where people order and pay from a vending machine before sitting down.

There are only two items in the menu, Naked Ramen and Tonkotsu Ramen. I got it with chicken and soft broiled egg. I LOL'ed as soon as I had my first bite. It tastes exactly like Damae Itcho with sesame oil and fake chicken. Don't get me wrong, that's an excellent thing to taste like. The sauce is quite intense with heavy sesame taste and somewhat spicy even though I ordered mild. The grilled seaweed is also very flavorful. The chicken is tender and doesn't have much taste, which strangely balances nicely with the sauce. The soft broiled egg is perfectly cooked but not much flavor.

Miyata Menji - the In-N-Out of ramen

With the closing of Kinchans Ramen last year, it seemed like all hope was lost for decent ramen in Sawtelle. The outlook got even grimmer when Tsujita opened and decided not to serve ramen for a while. Well, fear no more. Three new ramen places just opened within the area, so now there are six ramen shops within the two blocks of Sawtelle proper. If you count Gotsui that started serving ramen for lunch, and Ramenya nearby, there are now eight ramen shops within 5 minutes of driving. Sawtelle has just become the fiercest battleground of ramen outside of Japan.

Miyata Menji came from Osaka. In Japan there is only one choice, tsukemen. In Sawtelle, they also serve a soup ramen with tomato and beef. The owner calls it the In-N-Out of ramen because of the simple menu.

The tsukemen sauce is very thick and mainly fish flavor. The noodles are mixed with a lot of vegetables. They recommend grinding some black pepper near the end to change the flavor of the ramen. The black pepper actually makes it more refreshing after eating a lot of the heavy tsukemen sauce. It's very different from "traditional" tsukemen, which is why I like it quite a bit.  

Jeannine's American Bakery Restaurant

Jeannine's is a famous bakery restaurant in Santa Barbara with more than 25 years of history. We stopped by on the way to some wineries. The Montecito location is very nice, reminds me of the Montana area in Los Angeles. Everyone there look like they walked out of a A&F or J.Crew catalog. The restaurant was pretty small and crowded but the very friendly hostess Nancy helped us find a seat quite quickly.

I read on Yelp that the lobster Benedict is famous. It comes with a generous amount of lobster bits. The sweetness of the lobster meat goes very well with the slightly spicy hollandaise sauce and the salty hash browns. It's not cheap but it's a really nice guilty pleasure to be eating lobster for brunch :)