A native New Yorker in Tokyo overcomes adversity to open a ramen shop and become the toast of the town. An unlikely success story, a potential treatment for some Hollywood-style fairytale, or the achievement of a fantastic chef with exemplary skill and class, and an all around cool guy?  All of the above and then some. Ivan is great.

Sapporo Rai Rai rounds out rameniac’s latest trip to the fiftieth state. With stiff competition from a number of famed local eateries just down the road, can this nominal noodler survive on a sun-drenched stretch of paradise? It’s locals only when you’re this far off the beach…

What’s this? It looks like a weed has grown out of rameniac’s shoyu ramen! Its true he often takes a while in between posts, but… oh wait, it’s just spicy mustard greens from a bowl of “ao ramen” at Kiwami in Waikiki, arguably the most Japanese of Japanese noodle shops between Ala Moana and Diamond Head. Now what does that even mean?

Waikiki’s Ramen Nakamura is home to something you don’t see every slurp, ox-tail ramen! How do those gnarly, gristly chunks of bovine fare in a bowl of otherwise familiar shio-based noodles? Stop in for a bite on your way to the surf and the snorkel, and be glad Honolulu has got it goin’ on.

Chin-Ma-Ya is Little Tokyo’s newest ramen shop, specializing in an authentic Sichuan-style tan tan men that will have peppercorns oozing through your pores. Capsaicin as a health food? According to ancient Chinese wisdom, and savvy Japanese marketing. The folks upstairs at Orochon must be quaking in their aprons...

Change is upon us, top-down, in the form of… Obama Ramen! This brand-new Tokyo noodle shop has been chosen to usher the world into a brave new future of global unwarming, diplomacy, and flying cars. Oh yea, some guy got elected president recently. This ain’t about him. I hear he’s awesome too, but whatever. I’m hungry.

Sapporo Restaurant is as old as Times Square itself, a noodle shop from the days when the Dutch purchased New Amsterdam for trinkets and a few slabs of chashu. Ok, so I lie. But this veritable New York landmark has indeed been around for years, and has even been featured on the big screen! How’s that for coming to America in style?

Fire up the smokestacks, Minca Ramen Factory is operating at full capacity. This off-the-beaten path East Village ramen shop is still unknown to quite a few of rameniac’s New York friends. But what’s in a name? If Minca is a truly a ramen factory, then assembly-line noodles never tasted so good. Or so authentic!

Rameniac is kickin’ it old school with Umemura, the ramen shop he grew up with. Well, that might be stretching the truth a bit, as he’s one of those guys that hasn’t really grown up all that much. But has one of Southern California’s oldest and most venerated ramen shops matured any over the years? That’s a good question…

There’s something looming in the water, and it’s come to take a bite out of your wallet! Chef Kenji Chiba of Chibaki-ya returns to Los Angeles with a taste of his exclusive shark’s fin ramen! Terrorizing customers at $18 a bowl, is it worth its weight in political incorrectness? Rameniac sure hopes so!

Canal City Hakata’s Raumen Stadium 2 is a bountiful bevy of prominent, predominantly Kyushu-area ramen shops! A star stand out on the food court, Isshin Furan swears by its Miyazaki stylings with a multi-hued menu of top-notch tonkotsu. Alliteratively speaking, of course.

You know things are foo-bar’d when a cheap knock off can sully the reputation of a perfectly fine ramen shop. Tucked into the middle of nowhere, the original Foo Foo Tei serves up a menu of David Lynchian weirdness that sounds worse than it really is. Like Twin Peaks, nanchatte paitan ramen isn’t for everyone!

Intrigue plagues the existence of dual Foo Foo Tei in the San Gabriel Valley. Spite and litigation apparently abound, and rumor has it that the Monterey Park branch is merely a cheap knock-off of the Hacienda Heights original. All theatrics aside, are its noodles even worth fussing over? 

In the shadow of the Giant Robot empire stands Asahi Ramen, a neighborhood institution on West L.A.‘s Sawtelle Blvd. But the times they are a-changin’. How does a once popular ramen shop stack up in the new era of specialized soups and regional styles?

Rameniac takes his first, tentative steps behind the Orange Curtain to uncover the treasure trove of ramen shops in Los Angeles’ neighbor to the south. Does Chinese Restaurant Kohryu yield a pot of gold at the end of the 405 freeway?

Finding Eastern Hiroshima-style onomichi ramen on a menu in Los Angeles is like finding a gatefold pressing of Scott Walker’s Scott 4 in the dollar bin at your local record store. It just doesn’t happen. Or does it? All things are possible with love and Shin Mama…

The gentrification of the ramen shop is upon us, and San Mateo’s Himawari is a prime example of what can happen when you let loose an interior decorator in your soupy pork bone kitchen. But can the food measure up to such an extreme restaurant makeover? Let’s find out!

Finally! Rameniac takes a seventh-inning stretch from his San Francisco chronicles to revel in the glory of quite possibly the best, most authentic example of regional ramen outside of Japan, certainly in Southern California at least. Presenting the food court phenomenon that is Santouka!

Why is this kid smiling? Could it be because he makes the best shoyu ramen in the Bay Area? Kahoo Ramen is the sudden heir to the Do Henkotsu throne in San Jose’s Mitsuwa Marketplace, and Sou Nakano is filling some mighty big shoes. I’m jealous, wunderkinds like him get all the girls!

Ryowa ramen is an old-time favorite in Mountain View, the relatively new heart of Silicon Valley, CA. What horrible accident might befall the stray Google engineer who wanders too far off campus for lunch?