[Food] Wat Mongkolratanaram (Berkeley Thai Temple)

This past weekend, a group of my friends and I decided to take a trip down to Wat Mongkolratanaram or the Berkeley Thai Temple for brunch. If you're in the Berkeley area on a Sunday morning, especially if you are a resident here (read: student), then this definitely should be on your Berkeley Bucket List. Berkeley has its fair share of Thai restaurants, most of which are great, but there's something different about eating at Wat Mongkolratanaram.

Upon arriving, you'll probably be a bit confused. "Is this a temple or a house?" It seems to be a house turned temple, or something like that. The next thing you'll see are the crowds, and in front of them, the main food lines - one for vegetarian and one for non-vegetarian food. But wait, don't get in line just yet (unless you have leftover tokens from last time, don't worry, I'm about to get to that).

Insider Tip: Get there early. They start serving food at 10 am. You'll beat the crowds and make sure that you get what you want. If you get there late, there's a chance they will run out of certain items, like Pad Thai.

You don't pay with cash here. Instead, you have to go over to the left and exchange your cash for tokens. The exchange rate is $1 for 1 token. Just hand them a $20 bill and they'll give you a cup of 20 tokens. This will ensure the fastest, most efficient exchange for you and everyone else in line. But wait, you may ask, "What am I going to do with 20 tokens!?" It's okay. One, you could exchange them back for cash at the same rate. Two, you'll be back and can use the tokens then.

Once you get your tokens, you have options. You can get your main entrees (remember, the vegetarian and non-vegetarian lines), beef noodle soup, drinks, or dessert. I went straight for the non-vegetarian line. At both of the entree lines, you get a plate of rice and your choice of 1, 2, or 3 entrees. The prices are 6, 7, and 8 tokens respectively. I got Pad Thai and Cashew Chicken with rice and made a beeline for the condiments. I highly recommend the sambal, load up on it before it runs out. Pictured above is my friend's plate of Cashew Chicken and Red Curry.

Insider Tip: Bring your own Tupperware (or comparable food container)! It is generally accepted that you get more food this way and you can pack your leftovers easily (if you have any).

After getting either your entree or beef noodle soup (6 tokens), don't forget to get a drink. Their Thai Iced Tea is excellent! It's cold, refreshing, and not too sweet. I'm sure their Thai Iced Coffee is good too, but I didn't get to try it. Both the tea and coffee are 2 tokens each.

Now that you finally got your food, you're going to have to find a table. If you find one, great. If not, get there earlier next time. The next step is simple, enjoy your food!

The Pad Thai was everything Pad Thai should be: sweet, sour, and salty. It wasn't like some bad Pad Thais I've had. You know, the ones that taste like straight ketchup? If you've had your share of Thai food, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. The Cashew Chicken had a lot going on. There's juicy chicken, fresh vegetables, and crunchy cashews. The flavors and textures worked really well together and the sambal just took it over the top. The Cashew Chicken is also a "safe" dish if you're not the adventurous type.

I tried a bit of the Beef Noodle Soup with the fat, flat noodles. I wasn't a huge fan of it, to be honest. The broth was surprisingly sweet, which was the main turn off for me. The beef was tender and flavorful and the noodles had a good bite to them. If the broth was more savory, it would have been a winner in my book. Maybe some sambal and pickled jalapenos would have solved the problem for me.

Some of my friends got the Mango Sticky Rice (5 tokens). The dish is made up of fresh mango slices and pudding that rest on a bed of sticky white and black rice. I can't comment on this dessert because I didn't get a chance to try it, but my friends seemed to enjoy it.

After your meal, take a stroll through their garden. It's not too big or amazing, but it provides a peaceful escape from the crowds and noise.

So, how was it? Let's just say, a friend of mine saw workers from an unnamed, well-known Thai restaurant eating here. If it's good enough for them, it's probably good enough for you. I'd definitely recommend all of you to go if you are in the area on a Sunday morning.

Wat Mongkolratanaram 1911 Russell St Berkeley, CA 94703 (510) 849-3419

[Photo] A Year in Protests

This month marks one year that I've been working at The Daily Californian, Berkeley's independent student-run newspaper. Over that year, I've covered my share of protests that we seem to have rather often. In fact, it doesn't seem like a semester unless there is a protest of some sort. Here are some photos from various protests that I've taken so far on assignment with The Daily Californian, including last year's Wheeler protest and Occupy Cal.

[Food] Frysmith

I know I haven't posted in a while, but now that I'm starting to settle into the new semester, it's time for another post! While I was back at home for winter break, I made sure to stop by the Frysmith. If you don't know, Frysmith is a food truck that uses French fries as a canvas to paint a culinary masterpiece on. I swear I thought of something like this before them, but I was young and not ready to start a business. Oh well (:P). As you read this, keep in mind that I made this visit about a month ago and I can't seem to find my notes. I'll do my best to remember everything as accurately as possible.

They had different kinds of poutine throughout the month of December. If you know me, you know I love poutine, but being foodies, we needed to try a variety of their offerings. We got the Rajas Fries, Kimchi Fries, Sweet Po Fries, and their special Holiday Poutine. Also, they switched from their old boats to oval-shaped platters. This switch definitely helps get the toppings more evenly distributed on the fries. It made for a more pleasant eating experience than when they used the classic boat.

The Rajas fries were excellent. You get giant strips of shawarma-marinated steak with caramelized onions, fire-roasted poblano chiles, cilantro, and jack cheese. These fries are MEATY! Seriously, how can you not like something with strips on strips of steak? Oh, and the steak is perfectly cooked, tender, and full of flavor.

The fries are of the thin variety and they sit in the perfect spot between soggy and crispy. For something like this, you don't want a very crispy French fry; and you never want a soggy, limp French fry.

I'm going to go ahead and say this now, these were my favorite. As a Korean, how can the Kimchi Fries not be my favorite? These fries are topped with kimchi, Kurobuta pork belly (삼겹살), onions, green onions, and cheddar cheese. The brightness of the kimchi cut through the fries and pork while the pork and cheese provided the hearty element of the dish. There was a great balance of flavors. It also proved to be an excellent palate cleanser in-between eating all the other fries.

The Sweet Po Fries are sweet potato fries topped with chicken in a tomatillo-tamarind sauce, jack cheese, and cashews. The flavor profile on this one was sweeter than the other fries we had; the tamarind in the sauce is definitely a prominent flavor. The cashews lend a great textural contrast to the rest of the dish as the sweet potato fries aren't as crispy as the regular fries. I thoroughly enjoyed these fries, especially in-between bites of the other fries.

The Holiday Poutine was topped with bacon, cheese curds, and holiday gravy. Remember how I mentioned that I love poutine? Well, this one was sadly disappointing. First of all, the cheese curds weren't as melty as I like them. I know cheese curds are supposed to have some bite and "squeak," but these were pretty firm - the gravy could have been hotter. On that note, the gravy was this dish's greatest downfall. Because it was a "holiday" poutine, they flavored the gravy with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and orange peel. The flavor of the spices were too strong and overpowered everything else. We all came to the consensus that the gravy just didn't work with the rest of the dish.

Overall, this trip to the Frysmith was a very pleasant one, as my other visits have been. They are always experimenting with new dishes and specials. For example, for a week (until yesterday), they turned into the Soupsmith and served soup instead of fries. Everything from the food to their truck sets them apart from most other food trucks. Their custom made truck runs on fry oil! Go check them out some time. Fries never fail.

Frysmith www.twitter.com/frysmith www.eatfrysmith.com (818) 371-6814

[Music] Five Iron Frenzy Drum Cover and the Story Behind It

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmaJfOInM3I&feature=channel_video_title] I recently recorded a drum cover of Five Iron Frenzy's newest song from the grave, "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night." If you do not know, Five Iron Frenzy is one of the greatest ska bands to grace the world. Maybe that's an overstatement, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Anyway, they broke up in 2003 to the dismay of fans everywhere. In November of last year, they announced that they are coming back from the dead with an uber successful Kickstarter campaign that met their goal of $30,000 in about 55 minutes. At the moment, they have $186,363 pledged. They also released this track as a free gift to their faithful fans.

After posting the cover to Youtube, I put a link to the video on Five Iron Frenzy's Facebook page on a whim. I was just hoping to share the video with some fellow fans, but what I least expected happened... Five Iron Frenzy liked the post. I stopped for a while and thought, "Wow, the band, or at least someone in the band/affiliated with the band saw it and liked it enough to click 'Like'!" If that wasn't cool enough, I noticed that my view counter started to jump and I started getting comments from random Youtube folk. Sweet, people somehow found my video. It wasn't until user bobbytharabbit told me via comment that the band put my video up on their Facebook page. That just killed me.

I was honored, humbled, and dumbfounded as it all happened. There I was, just another Asian kid on Youtube (there's a ton) posting content for fun, and one of my favorite bands notices! That's the power of social media, I tell ya. I hope all of you enjoy the video.

Technical Info Video was shot on a Canon 7D and Nikon D7000 both with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lenses and a 35mm f1.8 on the D7000 for a couple shots.

Audio was recorded with some new mics and a new interface. I had a pair of Karma K-Micros as overheads and on both of my toms, an EV N/D 757A on the snare, and an SM58 on the kick. All the mics ran into a Tascam US-800 and into my computer.

[News] Lightroom 4 Beta Goes Public

I just wanted to let everyone know that Adobe just released the Lightroom 4 Beta! Lightroom is my favorite digital photo processing software on the market. It makes processing and organizing your photos a breeze. If you are serious about photography and have not yet heard about or tried Lightroom, I don't know where you've been all this time. So go, check it out!

Note the sneak peek of an upcoming post in the screenshot.

Click here for the download and more details.

[Photo] Rose Parade: The People

As promised, here is the second post on the series covering my time at the 123rd Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA. Today, I will feature the people of the Parade. Hopefully this will offer a slightly different point of focus than other peoples' coverage of the event. Above, we have some jolly old men on the Shriner's Hospital float called Soaring for Kids. Check out yesterday's post for another photo of the float.

Here we have the mounted rider my friends and I lovingly called "The Asian Cowboy (with a Fu-Manchu)." We really liked his stache.

Of course every group of horses was followed by an equally (or in most cases, more) exciting group of poop scoopers! Everyone loves these guys and gals. They get cheered on as they do their work in the wake of the horses. The woman leading this group was especially excited. Fight on.

Even if you camp out early to save a spot, it can be hard to see over the heads of everyone in front of you. Luckily we had primo accommodations and got access to some great vantage points. However, if you were stuck behind droves of people, you should take notes. These guys are actually on top of a ladder. Genius!

Now, if you don't know yet, I'm a photographer. Photographers tend to be a bit nosy curious when it comes to what gear someone else is using. Naturally, I couldn't help but notice what people were using to photograph the parade.

Here you have the oh-so-common iPhone. It takes great pictures. That's a fact, which is why you see people everywhere taking photos with them.

Next, I spotted a relatively small tablet sticking out of a crowd of iPhones and SLRs. It must be a bit awkward to take photos with, but oh well, it works.

Now, an iPad. It's just too big to be comfortable to use as a camera and frankly, it looks ridiculous. I'm not going to judge you if you do it, but others might.

Okay, this one just dumbfounded me. A Nintendo DS? Huh? What's going on? Yeah...I've never seen this before. I guess there's a first for everything.

I hope you all enjoyed my coverage of this year's Rose Parade as much as I enjoyed watching and photographing it! If you want more information about the parade as well as more coverage, check their website out here!

[Photo] Rose Parade: The Parade

First of all, Happy New Year, everyone! Today was the 123rd Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA, and for the first time of my many Rose Parades, I was able to attend in person! Thanks to some generous friends of friends, we had access to a penthouse and street view of the whole parade. What a great way to experience my first in-person Rose Parade. As we watched, it was really strange not hearing commentary from Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards like I'm so used to. I realized how clueless you are watching the parade without commentary. I had no idea what many of the floats were, but I still enjoyed it. Today I will be featuring photos of the parade itself. I plan for another post tomorrow on the people of the Parade.

Here is this year's Grand Marshal, J.R. Martinez.

The parking was pretty ridiculous, as one could imagine.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Be sure to check back tomorrow night for another post on the people of the Rose Parade!

[Music] Feliz Navidad! (and a drum cover)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TctUaGR3SGE] Hello everyone! I know it's been a very long time since I've posted, but here's a little gift for you all! I recorded a drum cover of José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" with some of my new recording gear. I was inspired by Brad Davis of Adventure Drums, so I donned a faux-moustache, my naughty boxers, and a rather creepy tude. Feel free to subscribe, comment, rate, whatever your heart desires, maybe I'll start posting more videos. Merry Christmas, I love you all!

Technical Info Video was shot on a Canon 7D and Nikon D7000 both with Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lenses. The 7D shoots at 60 fps while the D7000 shoots at 24 fps, so there is some noticeable difference between the shots from both cameras. I was able to work around this for the most part.

Audio was recorded with some new mics and a new interface. I had a pair of Karma K-Micros as overheads and on both of my toms, an EV N/D 757A on the snare, and an SM58 on the kick. I'm still waiting on clips and stands for most of my mics, so I used some gaffers tape and got the mics decently placed around the kit. The sound isn't where I want it to be yet, but I'll be working on it. All the mics then ran into a Tascam US-800 and into my computer.

[Photo] Ivan Rackov Feature Photo

A few weeks ago, I was assigned to take feature photos of Cal water polo's star attacker, Ivan Rackov for The Daily Californian. I was initially a bit intimidated by the assignment because of my lack of experience with portrait shoots. After some learning and brainstorming, I came up with an idea that would fit the title of the story, "Eye on the Prize." I came up with the brilliant idea to have Ivan use a water polo ball to silhouette the sun and fix his eyes up on it. I was going to use a couple strobes to light Ivan, balancing the exposure on him with the ambient exposure. I could just picture the epicness in my head. I ended up getting to the shoot late because the class I had before was running over time. When I got to the location of the shoot, I found out that I had but five minutes with Ivan. A part of me went into panic mode. I had to ditch my initial plan of setting up lights. Also, because of the position of the sun, I couldn't get a clean background like I wanted to. Not to mention, I was rushed. This was one of those situations where I just had to adapt. I ended up breaking several rules that I usually follow religiously. First, I had to mount my flash on camera. This is a major no-no, especially when using it to shoot directly at the subject, which I had to do. Second, I had to use my wide-angle lens. I typically shy away from using a wide-angle lens (especially a super-wide like my Tokina 11-16mm f2.8) to shoot portraits. However, in this situation, breaking some rules actually worked in the final image. Here are the images I got (yes, there are only two, mind the five minute period I had). The following images are copyright The Daily Californian.

Here's what the image looked like in print with design's work and the story.

[Photo] Autumn Leaves and Good Food

In the midst of my busy week, I decided to take a short break and take some photos outside. I walked around for maybe ten minutes and got a few photos of the Autumn leaves and a nice little cafe around town. It was a very relaxing few minutes in which I got away from my studies and such. I hope you enjoy these photos, I know I enjoyed making them.

Here's my attempt at doing a faux Instagram effect in Lightroom. I'd say it looks pretty hip.

1 Year Anniversary! (The Year in Review)

Today marks one year since my first post here on my blog. It's crazy how time flies by. Over this past year, a lot has changed and I feel like my blog has developed quite a bit. I just wanted to summarize the year in terms of my blog.

Just yesterday (right before the 1 year mark), I hit 10,000 page views! How exciting. I know my blog isn't the most high-profile or popular, so this is quite a feat in itself!

My most popular posts are M&M Blueberry Donuts, Rainbow Donuts vs. M&M Donuts, and Southern Californian Food Adventures. It's funny how these blueberry donuts of all things are the most popular thing on my blog. Without fail, I get people finding my blog by searching "blueberry donut" on various search engines.

On that note, the three most searched terms that refer people to my blog are "m&m blueberry donuts," "banksy i hate mondays," and "house of prime rib." Again, these blueberry donuts dominate. Maybe I should just switch over to being a donut blog...

There's also been some interesting search terms people used to find my blog. Some of these include: "ice cream cravings before bed," "fattest breakfast dish," and "breakfast chili cheese fries." This might give you an idea of my reader base and I love it.

I know this post probably wasn't the most engaging, but I hope it's interesting for all of you to see the guts of my blog. Thank you so much for all your love and support over the past year and keep on the lookout because I have plenty more posts planned for the future! Feel free to leave feedback, comments, or suggestions for my blog or future posts!

[Photo] Big Game Week Campus Lights

As some of you may or may not know, we here at Cal just had our Big Game against Stanfurd. Sadly, we lost, but we fought hard and it was a close game. In honor of Big Game week, various parts of campus, like Wheeler Hall, Sather Gate, and the East Asian Library, were lit in blue and gold. I got a photo of Doe Library while walking around campus at night. I was kicking myself for not having a tripod or even taking photos of all the lights. It would have been great to have a complete photo set of all the lights with a nice long-exposure on all of them, but I missed my chance.

[Food] Pepero Day (11.11.11)

First of all, I want to say sorry for the lack of posts for past couple weeks, I've been extremely busy. Anywho, onto the post. As you all know, last Friday was November 11, 2011, or 11.11.11. Not only was it the last binary day of the century, but the most epic Pepero Day for a while. For those of you that don't know, Pepero Day is a Korean "holiday" of sorts where people get Pepero for their friends, family, significant others, etc. You can learn more about it from the folks at Eat Your Kimchi. It's basically a day for snack companies (Lotte) to make tons of money...

What do you do on a cold, rainy Pepero Day when you don't want to buy Pepero? Make some, of course! Some of my friends and I got some pretzel sticks, chocolate, and various things to coat the sticks in. It's probably the simplest thing ever, and it's fun when you make them with people you love! After you're done, you can either give them away or eat them all yourself. If you eat them all yourself, you're probably pretty lonely anyway (joking, but true...). Note: these photos were taken with a friend's camera because of the spontaneity of the happening.

After making bunch of them, I ended up receiving some! I felt so loved until I read the note attached to them.

Threatening, right? I decided to not take any risks and follow their instructions.

I must say, they were a lot more colourful than the ones we made. They did melt a bit, so excuse that in the photos, I'm sure they were beautiful before. Off the record, I think ours tasted better, but they still made for a great pre-San Francisco trip snack! More on that SF trip in later posts to come. But really, they were great! Chocolatey, crunchy goodness, with a hint of salty from the pretzel sticks, not to mention full of love! Food is always better when it's made with love, and I think anyone can testify to that. So, next November 11, make (or buy) some Pepero for the people you love!

[Food] Langer's World Famous Pastrami

Langer's Delicatessen-Restaurant is located right by MacArthur Park is Los Angeles, CA. Langer's is a Jewish style deli that serves pastrami and corned beef the right way. If you think pastrami is that thin-sliced, salty luncheon meat you get in your sandwiches, you're mistaken. Langer's has a rich history that you can read more about at their website. My cousin describes it as the Katz's of the West (he's been to both). Katz's is probably one of the most well-known Jewish style delis and is famous for being featured in When Harry Met Sally... Anyway, back to Langer's.

Langer's conveniently has their own parking lot just down the street, which makes life so much easier. Once you get to the restaurant, expect to wait, especially during peak hours. When you step inside, you'll feel like you stepped back in time to the mid 1900s. Even their menu offerings have an old-school flair to them.

When I saw that they had a chocolate egg cream on the menu, I just had to get it. For those of you that don't know, a chocolate egg cream is a drink that was popular back in the day. It is basically seltzer water, chocolate syrup, and milk whipped up real well (there was more head in the photo, but it had deflated). It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. My sister and my cousin both got cream sodas, which are also delicious. I'd definitely recommend getting the cream sodas if you're not as adventurous.

Now, here is the pastrami and corned beef I was talking about. [Insider Tip: They'll bring you a sample if you ask.] Notice how the meat actually looks like meat. The meat actually tastes like meat too. Oh, and it's not overly salty. In fact, it's not salty. It really just tastes like meat. I know, this may be revolutionary to some of you.

When I saw this, I knew that we were meant to be...with some modifications. I subbed the Nippy Cheese (American) for Swiss and added some Russian dressing on the side. Pastrami Reuben what up!? Also, note the prices. Quality don't come cheap. The prices are high, but this is not somewhere you go every day.

We got an order of fries to share. They are just your typical crinkle cut variety. Nothing too special. They were great; perfectly crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

No. 44 sub Swiss, add Russian. Behold glory. Everything about this sandwich was perfect. The rye bread was buttery and crisp. The cheese was melted nicely. The pastrami. Oh the pastrami. Thick, handcut pastrami fit for a king. The sauerkraut lent just the right amount of brightness to cut through the meat and cheese. The Russian dressing I got on the side brought the whole thing together with a hint of tang in the midst of it all. Seriously guys, it's hard to top this. Reubens are my absolute favorite type of sandwich and this one tops my list (thus far). My cousin may chastise me because I haven't eaten at Katz's yet, but for now, I'm more than happy.

Here's an obligatory cross section shot. Through all that greatness, there was one thing I didn't enjoy too much: the pickle. I love pickles, but I hate cucumbers. This pickle was a pickle that wasn't sure of it's state of being. It straddled the line between cucumber and pickle. It had too much of that fresh cucumber taste and not enough of the salty, vinegary, pickley goodness. That's just my humble opinion though. I'm sure there's plenty of people out that would love this pickle.

If you didn't catch it in my post, the bottom line is simple - go now. Unless you've experienced Katz's or Carnegie, this is something you don't want to miss out on.

Langer's Delicatessen-Restaurant 704 S Alvarado St Los Angeles, CA 90057 (213) 483-8050 www.langersdeli.com

[Photo] Laundry Love October 2011

Last week, I participated (albiet, for a short time) in Laundry Love Berkeley. Laundry Love is an event put on by Christian students at UC Berkeley who show the love of God through the simple act of providing free laundry for the homeless. Through events like this, you meet people that you normally would never meet, and there really are some amazing people that show up. We typically think of the homeless as failures in society that ended up on the streets because of their lack of effort and motivation. This isn't always the case. I met some people with very successful careers and amazing life stories that just went through a series of unfortunate events. These are real people, just like you and I. In fact, I met a man named Curtis who studied guitar under the one and only Joe Satriani and boy, this guy can shred. Anyway, here are some photos from the event.

[Food] Robata Jinya

Robata Jinya is a ramen house in West Hollywood with a very modern, hip look to it, which is probably important if you want to be a big name restaurant in Hollywood. We were among the first patrons of the day and were promptly seated.

All of the broths they make are some variation of my all time favorite, tonkotsu. They have shio tonkotsu, shoyu tonkotsu, miso tonkotsu, and spicy tonkotsu broths. Our whole party chose to get the house special shio tonkotsu, which they only make 20 servings of per day. We also got a few other dishes on the side.

The sushi and rolls were good, but not amazing. They were of your run of the mill sushi joint variety. The clean, simple presentation definitely makes for nice photos though.

The chashu pork bowls were not what I expected. Their chashu pork is not the chashu pork that I am accustomed to. In fact, it tasted just like jang jo reem (장조림), a korean dish made with beef cooked in soy sauce. It was salty and a bit tough to chew.

There was one dish that really stood out, the Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna. I have never had anything like it, so it caught me off guard. The base of the dish is made with cakes of rice fried to a golden-brown crisp on the outside while maintaining a soft, pillowy inside. The textural contrast is amazing. On top of the hot, crispy rice is cool spicy tuna. Finally, the whole thing is topped off with a slice of jalapeno.

I’ll say it now, this was easily my favorite part of the meal. The dish is perfect in just about every way.

The ramen was another one of those “good but not great” dishes. Maybe I’m just spoiled by Daikokuya (previously reviewed); I tend to judge all other ramens against their's. Let’s take the shio tonkotsu ramen part by part.

First of all, the noodles. You get the choice between thick and thin noodles. Everyone got the thin while my cousin went with the thick noodles. I enjoyed my noodles, they had snap without being overly tough. Perfectly cooked; think al dente. The thick noodles on the other hand were too chewy. I would definitely pick thin over thick here.

The broth was a mix of tonkotsu and shio (salt). As I mentioned earlier, they only make 20 servings of this broth per day, which is why we went so early. Sadly, I did not think it lived up to the hype of exclusivity (the early bird gets the worm). A good tonkotsu broth is thick, almost creamy, fatty, and chock full of flavor. The broth here was not as thick and flavorful as I would have liked. In my book, straight tonkotsu is the only way to go.

Now, the toppings. The pork was the same disappointing pork used in the chashu pork bowl. It was far too salty for the ramen. However, in the ramen, it was sliced and boiled rather than chopped and dry, so it was definitely better. The absence of the almighty egg was another disappointment for me (again, spoiled by Daikokuya). The vegetables cut through the fatty broth nicely and were refreshing in between slurps of noodles and soup. Finally, I loved the addition of the fried onion straws, but then again, I have a soft spot of onion straws. These will (obviously) lose their crispiness and get lost once mixed into the broth, so I do not think they are very necessary. Still, a nice touch nonetheless!

Although I may have downplayed Robata Jinya, it is still a nice ramen shop that makes a good bowl of ramen. I definitely recommend the crispy rice with spicy tuna though. If I was in the area, I would go and get a couple orders of just that and I would be a very happy man. Ultimately, I would point you in the direction of Daikokuya if you wanted a great bowl of tonkotsu ramen, but check out Robata Jinya and make the decision for youself!

Robata Jinya 8050 W 3rd St Los Angeles, CA 90048 (323) 653-8877 www.jinya-la.com