The Ramen for The Hungry

This is the final chapter of my Japanese food trilogy. So far, I have introduced my top five Japanese restaurants in Boston and Japanese traditional fermented soybeas: Natto, and this time I proudly introduce one of the most popular Japanese foods, Ramen! If you are familiar with Japanese culture or at least read the Japanese manga, Naruto, you won’t be surprised that I am talking about Ramen. But the ramen I want to talk about this time is quite different from others. There are several ramen places in Boston, but this place is unique, special and the one and only!

As a matter of fact, this place was introduced on the Boston Globe. It is called Yume Wo Katare, which means “tell your dreams.” What makes this place so unique is its large portion ($12 for a bowl).

These are the pictures I took when I went there and I think you can easily imagine how large the portion is from them. Once you start eating, you literately have to keep moving your chopsticks for more than ten minutes to finish it without saying a word. After finishing eating it, you will sweat and feel pain because your stomach is so full like it’s about to blast. Actually, it’s not even eating ramen any more. It’s a marathon!

Maybe, I scared you a little bit, but Yome Wo Katare is very popular and it does taste good.The broth is very rich and flavorful, the pork is delicious, and the noodles are chewy and great. Sometimes you have to stand a line for an hour to eat. I don’t know if you still trust this, but it got an excellent 4.0 star rating on Yelp. And here is a quote from Yelp.

“I was initially afraid, based on the other reviews posted here, to try YWK, but then realized that most of the complaints people posted have to do with the fact that this is not a typical American restaurant.  It’s authentic Japanese food, maybe not appealing to the average American palate, but it’s freaking delicious.”

Below is the address and I promise that you will have a once in a life time experience here!

Yume Wo Katare
1923 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
Neighborhood: Porter Square
Phone:(617) 714-4008

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Natto – The Japanese Soul Food !?

I feel great recently because Boston is getting much warmer. But somebody told me that it will snow again on the weekend…ugh!!

Anyway, many people visited my post about the top five restaurants in Boston last time. It seems that everybody is interested in food, right? So I decided to write two more blogs about Japanese food and I will call it the Japanese food trilogy.

Today, I would like to introduce some deep Japanese culture and probably many of you might have never heard of before, which is Natto! Obviously Wikipedia knows much more about Natto than me, but basically Natto is made from fermented soybeans and for some reason it’s sticky, sticky, and sticky! I remember how much I struggled eating Natto the first time I had it. After I had Natto with my chopsticks, it was extremely hard to pick up other foods because my chopsticks got so sticky. In fact, many foreigner in Japan have told me that their biggest culture shock was the encounter of Natto.

I guess a video is more than a thousand words, so here is a video of a foreigner eating Natto for the first time.

Do you get the idea now? Maybe, it seems a little disgusting but it is believed that Natto is one of the Japanese secrets for longevity. Generally, the Japanese love Natto a lot and eat it as their breakfast with a bowl of rice, miso soup and some baked fish.

I also found that you can get some Natto at Japanese Village Mart in Brookline, Boston. So why don’t you give a try!?

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Top Five Japanese Restaurants in Boston

One of the benefits of studying in Boston is the diversity. There are so many international students that have come from so many different countries. I could have the chance to get to know many different culture at here. But, this made me realize that even though the world gets smaller and smaller, we still don’t know much about other countries. I found I know next to nothing about countries which are far from Asia.

In this sense, it is reasonable that people in the U.S. don’t have much knowledge about Japan and other Asian countries because it’s like we live somewhere in a far far away galaxy. But I did find one Japanese culture Americans are interested in: food! It just seems that everybody is so into Japanese food and that’s probably why there are many Japanese restaurants in Boston.

So in this post, I am going to introduce my top five favorite Japanese restaurants. Since I have lived in Japan for 15 years, you can trust me to be as reliable as the Michelin guide.

Anyway, here we go!

No.5 Fin’s Japanese sushi + roll

Many of you may know this restaurant because it’s near Boston University and that’s why I like it. Although its menu is highly Americanized, the general quality is good. My favorite dish is Curry Katsu with chicken or pork.

No.4 SNAPPY SUSHI

Located in the middle of Newbury Street, the interior decoration of SNAPPY SUSHI is as stylish as the street itself. The sushi is fresh and tasty, and the price is pretty fair. I remember that here was the first Japanese restaurant I visited and I was surprised that I could have such genuine Japanese food in Boston.

No.3 Yamato Sushi

Yamato is located at Brighton. The most attractive thing about Yamato is that you can enjoy the all-you-can-eat sushi menu ($21.99 on weekdays; $23.99 on weekends). What’s more is that, besides a variety of sushi, the menu also includes a lot of good hot kitchen foods and  the green-tea ice cream as dessert. A really nice place for the hungry Japanese food lovers. And make sure to make a reservation to avoid the wait.

No.2 Yakitori Zai

Don’t think sushi is the only food Japan has. Yakitori, a Japanese type of skewered chicken, is quite popular among the common Japanese. Just imaging the combination of Yakitori and beer makes my mouth water. In addition  the cool thing about Zai is that they use high-grade charcoal produced from ubame oak because such a high quality charcoal can make the chicken taste more savory.

No.1 Shiki

Shiki (means four seasons in Japanese) is located at a quiet street in Coolidge Corner. Shiki received overwhelming positive evaluations from Japanese people living in Boston and it is always full with Japanese customers.  If people ask me where they can have real Japanese food in Boston, I will tell them to go to Shiki with no hesitation. Shiki provides authentic Japanese food ranging from home made dishes to traditional multi-course Japanese Kaiseki dinners. The price is a little expensive but it’s totally worth a try. In Shiki, you will find that there are so many delicious Japanese foods you have never heard of or seen before.

That’s all. Hope you will have interests in some of these restaurants above and actually take a visit. I guarantee you that you will a good time there!

And if there are any Japanese restaurants you want me try, just let me know! I will tell you how it was on this blog.

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