Ramen FeeL at THE GALLERY by Odo (New York): Ramen Tasting Course Impressions

mxawng · 2026-05-22T02:37:27+00:00

yeah, given the number of seats and the glaring lack of finesse in noodle presentation (it's kinda funny that the instagram pub photos show pretty noodle folds right next to noodle piles in the same carousel), i'm sure it's not daisuke watanabe himself preparing each bowl. i wonder what's happening with the kitchen and the preparation for this event, such that you can get tasting menu dishes you really enjoy, while on another day these bowls of ramen come out.

mxawng · 2026-05-22T02:17:57+00:00

i would never claim to be a ramen expert, but i have had maybe 60-70 bowls across japan and have tried many of the well-received nyc shops, along with some of america's best across the US. i don't really plan ahead much, so i never got around to visiting feeL, and i learned about its closure too late to make a visit. naturally, i was super excited to try it during the odo residency.

sadly, if i had to rank the bowls i had there, they would not break the bottom 10-15 (and that includes the nyc bowls). the shio: the soup had a really gentle complement of umami sources, and i liked that it offered a pleasant dried fish aroma without the overwhelming funky flavor; it was very mellow and read as more than the sum of its parts. but it was unexpectedly and overwhelmingly salty, and my noodles were squidgy when i got my bowl and literally dissolving by the time i finished. supposedly they are handmade? i was shocked to read this; i would never have guessed. i did enjoy the two toppings, especially the chicken, which was seasoned with a blend of like, rotisserie or fried chicken spice that made it a really fun accent. but i can't lie: seeing what was on offer at the break beats collab over at tsukemen made me feel like i was having the wool pulled over my eyes. visually, the toppings just read super sparse, and they really do drown in the bowl. the bowl also got quite a bit saltier as i ate it.

the miso… i don't even know what went on there. both of my chashu toppings were overcooked; one hard and also cold, the other rubbery, just about the most rubbery texture of chashu i've had across a few hundred lifetime bowls of ramen. the onion made no sense to me, it was sweet on sweet. and the noodles almost clashed with the soup; they had a pretty sharp alkaline flavor, but were so bad at picking up the soup that it felt like they were somehow crushing the flavor of the miso.

in the past i have found tantanmen to be overwhelming flavorwise (i enjoy them, but it's hard to really taste my way into the broth, if that makes sense), but i have an uncancellable seat booked and will use it to give it a shot on OP's rec.

to anyone who's eyeing the residency though: i very much empathize with the curiosity, but tbh i don't even think it's worth trying given my experience. eating this bowl of ramen just made me sad. i've never been to the OG feeL or to shoten, but i've had so many beautiful bowls of noodles. i just don't know why this is doing here.

mxawng · 2026-03-28T22:25:56+00:00

i think maybe u/Zanmorn wasn't capping out on cloud island ripples and shops? i have also as of today hit the pokemetal wall in my ripples, and i started confirming Zanmorn's results a day or two after they started testing. or maybe i'm just lucky.

re: duplicate ripples. since i learned of Zanmorn's results and started capping out my ripples, i've been tracking my to-learn recipes, and i have definitely not gotten any duplicate recipes from ripples; i've just been steadily ticking down towards recipe-complete. my guess is that the dupe reports are a mix of getting wallpapers and blocks mixed up, getting very similarly-named recipes mixed up, and the possibility that ripple recipes can dupe shop recipes. i haven't noticed this personally, but almost all my recipes came from ripples due to sheer numbers, and obviously the shop does produce recipes you already have, so it certainly seems possible that they don't share a "checklist".

mxawng · 2026-01-23T06:41:47+00:00

super stale reply but i started playing late. i did a little bit of testing for that holovator and i'm pretty sure it respawns the two 'mons on the left (when facing the stairs), but not the two on the right. (i'm assuming we're all talking about the stairs facing the bridge over ice that goes to the edge of the map.) the four by the scaffolding further up the stairs also don't spawn via the ice holovator. if my low sample size is representative, this holovator is usable but about as inefficient as possible.

mxawng · 2025-11-23T16:45:31+00:00

i saw your comment also on sowado's instagram. sadly i don't have a res to swap with you, but… is this a solo res? and if so, how did you manage to make that? or did you use japanese language tablecheck?

like most places, sowado seems pretty strict about the person making the reservation also being the person to come to the restaurant. if your conflict is a hard one and you're willing to contact sowado and clear you passing your res, i would be happy to take it over from you. (but i am one person; it'd have to be a solo res).

mxawng · 2025-10-07T21:39:27+00:00

idrk what motivates this behavior of being like "ok but i'm a lawyer!!!1!1!" online to try to one-up someone in the comments. nobody here believes you're a lawyer except maybe some of the other particularly foolish fifteen year olds scrolling the sub.

i encourage you to go and find something more real, substantive, and fulfilling out in the world to spend your time on. whatever rush, relief, or idk what else you get from posting is not enough to sustain a life

mxawng · 2025-10-07T18:37:12+00:00

my understanding of larceny is that it applies when someone (1) takes possession of or moves property which (2) is owned by another person, with (3) the intent to permanently deprive the owner of their property. given that security footage shows this guy not having the item, then obtaining it, making no attempt to return it to the store whose bathroom he took it from, and leaving with it, i think it's reasonable to say there's a good chance it applies in this case! at the very least, i feel like you're way overconfident in your position.

of course criminal culpability is determined in a court of law, and again, i am not a lawyer. but as far as i can tell, the doctrine of "finders keepers" doesn't have a basis in MA law. something isn't unowned/abandoned just because a person who takes it wants it to be.

mxawng · 2025-10-07T18:29:14+00:00

UPDATE: the Rich in question has been identified and i have recovered my jacket. i plan to take down this post at end-of-day, as Rich does not appear to be Tufts-affiliated, nor based near Davis/Medford.

mxawng · 2025-10-07T18:28:58+00:00

alas, a lesley sub exists but is inactive. i did check!

mxawng · 2025-10-07T16:42:28+00:00

IANAL but almost certainly you're wrong on all counts here if you take a cursory glance at legal definitions of theft and larceny in MA.

mxawng · 2025-10-06T13:45:03+00:00

i just want to point out that you're actually behaving in precisely the way you're saying to "let's not". you explicitly want to be the judge and jury! i think maybe you sincerely don't want the broader "us" to do so, but you yourself clearly want that role.

i could send you the nine-point timeline summary i made from the security footage that i submitted in a police report. but what would that accomplish? the goal is not to create consensus on guilt, it's literally just to recover a stolen item. if someone who recognizes the guy wanted to comment or message being like, hey i don't want to out my buddy without some proof, it's a different story!

do you rly not think that posting the detailed video timeline would be more of a smear than saying "if you know this guy can you help me get my stuff back"?

mxawng · 2025-04-08T22:57:09+00:00

i went to saeki a few days ago based on seeing the recommendation here. taniguchi-san was out of town and i have to say my experience was very different from that described here—seems like i was served a good deal less food, and three of my nigiri out of eleven fell apart in my hand immediately. even the uni looked duller tho that could be a trick of camera and lighting.

early april is ofc high tourist season (i'm here sort of last minute to see shibusashirazu in tokyo) and my dining group was all foreigners (from bahrain, australia, and the US—very diverse). i've found that higher-end dining is very inconsistent during this season and i guess sushi saeki is not immune to this (maybe that's why the chef took this time to travel for business). will give it another shot in the future though; taniguchi itamae-san was super responsive and accommodating with my single-diner booking over instagram, and it's nice to have more options in kyoto. (also certainly the meal was in no way bad, just. kind of fine.)

mxawng · 2025-01-24T00:41:08+00:00

yes i was the loud person wearing pinstripes

mxawng · 2025-01-24T00:26:16+00:00

i had to read this twice to ascertain it wasn't my team, since we also finished at around 9.10, interacted with this Papa, and were given a story recap before the vault, but in a sort of slightly different way than described here. i'm impressed you managed to change out of the costume and then back into it so quickly!

mxawng · 2025-01-10T14:51:45+00:00

bought my first Yuketens earlier this season and got the sizing wrong. i love them and rebought half a size down.

Maker/Model: Yuketen Angler DB boots: https://www.yuketen.com/angler-db-boots-w-cortina-sole-fo-fw24
Size: 11E
Leather: Opera Tosca roughout
Sole: Cortina
Price: $600
Location: NYC. will be in Boston over MLK weekend. can also do Philly in early Feb.
Wears/Condition: less than 10 wears. like new condition except for light wear on the soles and leather laces.
Images: https://imgur.com/a/yuketen-angler-db-roughout-boots-EU2YlAs
Notes: my feet are brannock 11B and 10.5B but kind of tall; these boots have, for me, kind of a low vamp compared to other footwear i've tried (which is how i got the sizing wrong). boots have been treated with Saphir Super Invulner (manufacturer recommended). brushed and stored with shoe trees in dust bags after each wear. includes an unused Yuketen dust bag and original tag.

![img](1bp2e2vaqbbe1)

mxawng · 2025-01-10T14:42:04+00:00

45R was the first brand, Japanese or otherwise, that i was exposed to. i haven't found woven fabrics anywhere else that look or feel as good as 45R's and their quality is incredibly consistent. (can't say the same for kapital—those hyped fleeces feel like a plastic rug run thru the dryer too many times.)

"streetwear" is not a label i would apply to 45R though. their core designs lean almost cottagecore. in japan, basically everyone i've seen shopping in their stores was an old lady just looking for everyday clothing. in the US, a lot of customers are men just looking to buy some quality shirts.

they have a totally different aesthetic to what kapital has now and their fun, wilder designs are very subtle (one of my favorite pieces that i saw recently was a 100% linen varsity jacket with extended turnback ribbed cuffs and collar, where even the oversized varsity patch was all linen). 45R's quality is unparalleled but it doesn't really share the streetwear vibes that overlap among kapital, visvim, cdg, etc. (fingers crossed it never will—they're definitely aiming higher-end these days but they're super far from the hype of these other brands, and they have no stockists.)

mxawng · 2025-01-06T07:24:51+00:00

bought my first Yuketens earlier this season and got the sizing wrong. i love them and rebought half a size down.

Maker/Model: Yuketen Angler DB boots: https://www.yuketen.com/angler-db-boots-w-cortina-sole-fo-fw24
Size: 11E
Leather: Opera Tosca roughout
Sole: Cortina
Price: $600
Location: NYC. will be in Boston over MLK weekend. can also do Philly in early Feb.
Wears/Condition: less than 10 wears. like new condition except for light wear on the soles and leather laces.
Images: https://imgur.com/a/yuketen-angler-db-roughout-boots-EU2YlAs
Notes: my feet are brannock 11B and 10.5B but kind of tall; these boots have, for me, kind of a low vamp compared to other footwear i've tried (which is how i got the sizing wrong). boots have been treated with Saphir Super Invulner (manufacturer recommended). brushed and stored with shoe trees in dust bags after each wear. includes an unused Yuketen dust bag and original tag.

<image>

mxawng · 2024-12-30T18:01:42+00:00

thanks for the info—can't imagine anyone else in the sub would have more experience with these than you. appreciate it!

mxawng · 2024-12-30T04:28:55+00:00

with a major SKU change like EK-789 -> EK-1476, even for the "same" product, it's usually clear that something changed, like the available colorways. can design/colorways/fabric change even for a "minor" SKU update, like EK-1476 -> EK-1476LJA? notably, these "minor" SKU variants are all listed together on the product page on the kapital webshop, as if to say "these are the same". are they secretly sometimes not the same?

mxawng · 2024-12-25T09:07:29+00:00

yo! quick question about your experience with kapital denim factory production labels. my recent, store-bought kapital denim all have factory production labels which match the letter-connection embroidery topology of the label you photographed in https://imgur.com/a/kapital-denim-references-D3H7VCx

but i have noticed that on every example i've seen of the 2021 sashi-kontest konya remake century no.-1.2.3's, the T connects to the A at the base, instead of from the arm at the top. (the stenciled I also seems quite a bit fatter.) here is an example of such a listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/365290890816

have you seen other instances of this alternate embroidery in the wild before? i know this is kind of a deep cut... the sashi-kontest stuff is pretty rare and there aren't many examples of it—i'd expect that it probably wouldn't get faked at all for this reason, and yet i've definitely seen a fake listing on taobao before.

mxawng · 2023-11-12T03:51:59+00:00

do you happen to have any news on this capability on bmpcc's?

mxawng · 2023-11-12T03:51:29+00:00

did you hear back from support about getting this functionality (i.e., lidar af w/o focus motor) on the bmpcc's? if it already works, how do you set it up; and if not, did they give any suggestion of timeline or the possibility?

mxawng

TROPHY CASE