Menkui-tei

I ventured out into the freezing weather one Saturday to donate some clothes and run some errands. I have been avoiding the stores these past few months because I've been busy with work and getting sick, and I didn't trust myself in a store with my credit card.

Can I just say that there are some mad sales? I was at Filene's Basement and you can get a Dolce Gabbana spring coat for about $200-300 -- insane.

Walking home from Union Square I got colder and colder and realized that I hadn't eaten all day and it was past four.

Ippudo's akamaru ramen sounded really delicious, so I made my way over.

Woe is me, the restaurant was closed down to do the lunch to dinner turnover. It was 4:30pm by the time I showed up, and the restaurant reopened at 5pm. In normal circumstances it would have been fine to wait for half an hour because even if the restaurant were open that's the minimum wait anyways. It was much much too cold though, so with a resigned heart I turned away and headed home.

As I trudged with my parcels, I became acutely aware of how cold my fingers and toes felt, and the fact that my fingers were slowly loosing feeling despite being in cashmere lined leather gloves. I walked past a ramen place called Menkui-Tei, and thought - whatever, even if its crap, it'll be hot.

Boy am I glad I turned in. First of all, the restaurant felt so blessedly warm, and second, they had as a special Kyushu Ramen. When the bowl of ramen came out I was instantly hit with the deeply aromatic scent of boiled pork bone broth and the smokey flavor of what smelled like roasted garlic.

It was an excellent bowl of ramen. I especially appreciated that the hard boiled egg came with an egg yolk that wasn't cooked through and still slightly runny. The ramen noodles were nice and al dente, and it was just what I needed. When I left the restaurant I felt I had the energy to make the last eight or so blocks back home.