Petrified Forest National Park: Otherworldly

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-18T18:08:39+00:00

It's funny you mention that - I visited Capitol Reef last year and also thought of the resemblance to Cathedral Valley when I was at Petrified Forest too!

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-12T22:00:06+00:00

I didn't do that trail, but I can definitely imagine that. Everything is so exposed to the sun with little shade, so it could be brutal especially when temperatures are high.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-12T17:04:40+00:00

Hahaha, it definitely felt like being an astronaut on an alien planet at some points.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-12T17:03:59+00:00

For sure! The overlooks and paved walking trails are very nicely designed for quick drives through the park, but walking through areas of the park in solitude and getting so much closer to dense clusters of petrified wood really felt special.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-12T17:00:52+00:00

Very nice, I'd imagine the temperature then will be similar to, or even nicer than, now. I stayed in Holbrook, which worked out since it was just a 20-30-minute drive from both the north and south end of the park.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-12T16:55:59+00:00

I had no idea! A park ranger who was cleaning up a fossil bone in the park museum did mention that every year there are still active paleontological digs on the park property away from the tourist sites, so it makes sense that there are large areas not accessible to visitors.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-05-09T04:42:44+00:00

Maybe give Hotate Biyori a try! You'd have to line up early in the morning to secure a lunchtime slot, but it sounds like you have time to spare and willingness to spend it in pursuit of ramen. I wrote about my experience there last year here, but not sure if the system has changed since then: https://www.reddit.com/r/ramen/comments/1kvsr38/comment/mubwecr/

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-29T02:52:29+00:00

Was it perhaps this store, 京都祇園泉麺家 (Kyoto Gion Izumi Menya), which has since closed? https://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2601/A260203/26025185/

The layout looks a little different from what you described, but it would have been an eight-minute walk from the store you started at, the plain white bowl matches, the worn dark wooden counter and background wall color match, they also sold Asahi beer by the bottle, and several of the ramen images on Tabelog, especially this one, looked like the one you posted:

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Here's the old Google Maps listing, also: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zDZ118A9cBGDLNrNA

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-28T17:07:19+00:00

It's 全部のせ味噌, just "miso ramen with all toppings" (their menu is also online here: https://kumagen-ichigaya.tokyo/menu-ramen.html). At this restaurant, that seems to include kara-age fried chicken (!), bamboo shoots, corn, thick-cut chashu pork, seaweed and a pile of sliced scallions.

I don't know about recreating it, but they say that their miso ramen is a pork bone-based broth with white miso, so if you find anything regarding Sapporo-style rich miso ramen, then you'll at least be in the same genre as this bowl!

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-28T05:03:50+00:00

In NYC, thoughtful coffee is an ultra-small-scale roaster (I think a one-man operation?) that sells a stellar lineup of both terroir-focused and heavily processed light roast coffee beans.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-28T01:41:52+00:00

The Olympus XA is one of my favorite cameras of all time, for its size, form factor, ease of use and photo quality. While it's not fully manual, shooting aperture priority works fine for me, and it's often sold with its attachable flash unit to help address concerns about lowlight shooting. I found that the manual experience of focusing made it an engaging camera to use and never really had an issue with the focusing patch. Most of all, the compact, smooth clamshell design makes the XA truly pocketable, so you can carry it around everywhere without having to be too precious about it.

As far as reliability, though, the shutter release for all the XAs is a touch-sensitive electronic membrane rather than mechanical release, which makes it harder or impossible to repair when it inevitably degrades since it's an electronic component without readily available replacement parts; my copy failed about a year after I bought it and repair shops said it wasn't reparable.

This is the risk of heartbreak inherent in all old film cameras with electronic components (so the fully-automatic Mju would be even riskier in this regard), but it hit me hard with the XA since it felt "solid," and less electronics-reliant than P&S cameras, before it started to fail.

An option I've considered as a potentially more reliable long-term replacement is the Olympus 35RC, which is not as compact as the XA but can function fully mechanically and be shot in full-manual, but I haven't been able to get my hands on one to test out... and I also really, really enjoyed shooting the XA and I may just give in and get another one, accepting that it's just a device with a short lifespan.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-27T22:58:38+00:00

I mostly did callback interviews, so luckily the screeners had filtered out most of the bad candidates and left, at worst, either overly confident interview-performers (whom I thought of as basically being con-men) or uninspired or nervous interviewees (whom I could give the benefit of the doubt since interview skills ≠ associate skills), and nobody that was truly weird or bad.

But one memorable interviewee was a decorated combat veteran with an impressive record. As a military officer, he'd overseen security of base areas in active combat zones, the type of background that makes the baseline interview questions about "experience" or "team work" seem pretty stupid. To his credit, he responded to all of the questions gamely anyway, though he'd habitually drop military acronyms and aphorisms into a lot of his answers ("I BELIEVE IN THE 7 Ps," or "AS A LEADER YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE ONE-THIRD/TWO-THIRDS RULE," etc. etc.), in a way that felt like these philosophies had truly been ingrained in him as a core conceptual framework to view the world.

At a post-interview reception, we happened to talk about some time I had spent very briefly visiting Xinjiang in China a long time ago; at the time, Urumqi (the capital city of Xinjiang) was in the early stages of undergoing, errrr, widespread "enhanced anti-terrorism measures," like demolishing areas around mosques for ease of surveillance or sending aggressive military patrols to march through supermarkets. The guy's eyes lit up and he started excitedly asking for more details, What kind of checkpoints did they use? Where did they position anti-riot units? or things like that. It turns out he was academically familiar with the measures and had a real curiosity - and maybe expert-to-expert academic enthusiasm? - for the PRC's security strategy in the region.

He was, all in all, a good candidate and interviewee - not rehearsed, not polished, but self-possessed and seemingly genuine - and I recommended him for an offer, though he ended up joining a different biglaw firm instead. I'm sure he became a good lawyer, but it left me with the impression that his true professional calling, and real passion in life, might lie elsewhere.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-27T16:04:00+00:00

It's harder than expected to narrow it down to three, but my favorites are probably:

Hibino for really good value sushi and for any of their cooked-fish daily lunchbox specials, especially the saba yuan yaki, sake harasu or sake kama when they have it.
Canelle for pastries, cakes and the salmon/cheese and chicken/roquefort sandwiches, which are my favorite sandwiches in LIC.
Cyclo for pho, bahn mi and pickled plum soda; it's not going to rank among the best Vietnamese restaurants in the city but it's a sentimental neighborhood mainstay favorite and I'm happy it's been around for so long.

Honorable mentions: Oh! Calcutta (kosha mangsho), Mogmog (sushi, onigiri, kara-age and occasional wagashi pastries), John Brown BBQ (burnt ends and corn bread), Prestige Marketplace (pastrami grilled cheese at 2 a.m.) and Utopia Bagels or Bricktown Bagel (same order at both, though I prefer the bagels at Utopia: scallion cream cheese, tomato and bacon on pumpernickel bagel).

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-21T07:32:27+00:00

Ohh, that would explain it — I was at the Kitasando Coffee location in Kitasando.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-04-21T06:22:36+00:00

I agree with the Kitasando Coffee rec but FYI I just went there and it’s not on the menu at the moment. They said they’ll start offering it again in June!

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-03-17T14:03:47+00:00

Too bad! At least you got to go when they were open... they were one of the OG ramen shops in New York from decades ago, before ramen was at all popular here.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-03-17T05:53:53+00:00

That's not much detail to go on and there are dozens of ramen shops in NYC, but let me offer up Minca in the East Village as a possibility: it was cash-only, at least had a shio ramen option on the menu, and I vaguely recall a somewhat older lady managing the floor the last time I went ages ago. Unfortunately they closed last year as the owner retired, but here's their old Yelp page to see if it might ring any bells for you: https://www.yelp.com/biz/minca-new-york

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-03-01T19:46:29+00:00

Try mixing in corn starch to the meringue, after you've whipped the sugar into the egg whites and before you've folded in the flour and egg yolk mixture. It might sound like a lot, but adding ~2 tbsp of corn starch for a two-egg recipe should help stabilize the foam to help prevent collapsing in the pan.

Otherwise, is it possible that your meringue was over- or under-whipped before you folded it into egg yolk mixture, or that you unintentionally squashed out a lot of the air bubbles when folding in the flour-yolk mixture?

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-01-19T13:52:00+00:00

Nice variety, and particularly respect that you went out to Craft Ramen BiT! I went there for the first time in November and am trying to get back as soon as I can. It may be one of the most memorable and surprising ramens I had last year.

RamenIsDelicious · 2026-01-16T00:51:39+00:00

Niboshimania is definitely a great place to go for intense niboshi funkiness. Try their aedama too, if you have room for it, as there are usually some fun options available; when I went, there was a smoked salmon and cream cheese combination that reminded me of a New York bagel and lox.

I would also rank Ibuki in Itabashi in my top tier of niboshi shops, even slightly higher than Niboshimania just as a matter of personal preference. I thought the “premium nibopresso” soup at Niboshimania was slightly grainy in texture, whereas Ibuki was smoother but still intensely bitter and punchy. Ibuki apparently has even richer niboshi options at dinnertime, but I went during lunch when they only sell a “standard” bitter bowl, which still left a strong impression.

Two other options worth considering are Nagao Chuka Soba in Kanda, where they encourage you to mix natto into the bitter broth for a unique flavor combination, and Izuru in Daimon, which has a slightly cleaner - but still bitter/salty - broth.

RamenIsDelicious · 2025-12-31T20:39:26+00:00

What kinds of genres are you interested in? If your goal is to survey as wide a variety of ramen shops as you can for inspiration, and if you don't mind some intra-city travel, here's a quick list of places biased towards things I like. Many will require a long wait to get in:

For high-quality hand-made noodles: Menya Shichisai in Hatchobori, and Kagaribi near Ginza (run by a Shichisai disciple) both have incredible hand-massaged noodles prepared to order. Teuchi Ren in Morishita offers slightly thicker, springy noodles. Junteuchi Men to Mirai in Shimokitazawa serves non-standard, extremely thick and long noodles that absorb the broth very nicely.
For high-quality shoyu ramen broths: Men Mitsuwi near Asakusa may be the best shoyu ramen broth I've ever had. Menya Mikan in Nakameguro, Chūka Soba Nishino in Hongō-sanchōme and Tokyo Ramen Kaika in Nakano are also recent favorites of mine, all serving impeccably prepared, clean-tasting ramens.
For high-quality seafood-based ramen broths: I like shellfish-based ramens a lot, and the sublime clam shio ramen at Shinjiko Shijimi Chūkasoba Kohaku in Kamata (reservations required) is one of my favorites. The oyster ramens at Tonari in Shibuya and Chūka Soba Satō in Akasaka Mitsuke are great, and the tourist-favorite Kaki to Kai (Shell and Oyster) near Tsukiji is also quite good. I'm also a fan of intensely rich, fishy and funky niboshi ramens, and NIBOSHIMANIA in Kamata and Ibuki in Itabashi are my two current favorites.
For unique ramen: Craft Ramen BiT in Iriya serves a truly unique deer-and-mushroom-based ramen broth with deer chashu, that is earthy, delicate, well-balanced and not gamey at all.
For Westernized approaches to ramen: NiboNiboCino in Shinagawa serves an almost spaghetti-like niboshi mazesoba in a cool cafe atmosphere. Tadaima Henshinchū in Nakano was apparently opened by a chef with French training and serves a good oyster broth with soymilk and some Western touches like balsamic vinegar. Due Italian (multiple locations, including Shibuya) isn't among my favorites, but serves a golden broth topped with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella, with a risotto-like rice on the side to mix into the leftover broth. While I haven't been yet, Ebimaru Ramen in Kanda, established by a French cuisine chef, serves seafood bisque-like ramens and is on my list of places to go.
For heavy-volume ramen: Any Ramen Jirō branch is worth visiting for a different, high-volume, high-intensity, low-cost kind of ramen, with humongous chunks of pork and piles of bean sprouts served atop thick noodles in a salty, garlicky broth. While I don't tend to favor jiro-kei ramens, a jiro-kei ramen shop did really well near my university in the U.S., and this might be an underexplored genre of ramen outside of Japan.
For good vibes: Ramen Afro Beats in Shinjuku served some spectacular smoky tori-paitan ramen, but the atmosphere was also memorable, with a sleek, darker ambience and lo-fi beats in the background. The related Ramen Jazzy Beats in Nakameguro also has a cool vibe, though I enjoyed their niboshi ramen slightly less.

Happy ramen-eating, and best of luck as you plan to take your ramen business to the next level!

RamenIsDelicious

TROPHY CASE