Restaurant - Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen
3760 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-1101
Genre: Japanese

I've heard a lot about this place, since it's a real Japanese ramen chain that made it to the states (and is a chain over here as well; there are at least three locations in the Southern California area).

If you're the kind of person who won't order ramen at a ramen place, then they have rice dishes for you, but seriously, the only place where you wouldn't want to order a restaurant's "specialty menu" is Curry House.

Zoom up and joy the view.
I guess if you've never had the chance to enjoy the frozen ramen you can buy at Japanese supermarkets, Santouka Ramen sounds like quite an interesting proposal. It sure beats the crap out of Top Ramen or whatever the heck most people think of when they hear the word "ramen," but their $6.95 ramen could easily be made for 1/3 of the price, sans the fatty piece of char-siu pork. And really, it only takes 5 or 6 minutes to prepare.

The soy sauce ramen.
Service-wise, you get what you expect out of a food court eatery. They call your number, and then you go get your food. Unless you stare down at the food you're eating, you're gonna be locked in a staring contest with someone else in the same situation you are.

So just stare down and enjoy your noodles. Because you won't be coming back again for a while, unless you want to slurp down enough sodium for 3 days and enough oil to last you the entire winter.

As a final note, "Santouka" literally means "mountain head fire." No, I have no idea why anyone would want to name his or her restaurant like that. They even make you go through the trouble of reading the restaurant name backwards. And it doesn't sound cool at all, even if we're surrounded by other mediocre-sounding ramen shop names like Orochon.

Windsor man caught with stolen meat in his pants

Source: The Windsor Star

We all know that food prices have been rising. Foregoing the fire-baked pizza and instead going to McDonald's for lunch is no longer a tactic reserved for the starving college intern, but at less than $5 for a meal, it's not a bad deal.

Other people have taken less kindly to these changes in food prices, as stuffing t-bone steaks in your pants has become a popular tactic for those addicted to bovine meat.

Of course, this man is certainly not the first to attempt such a crime, eh?

An off-duty cop and a grocery store manager chased down an alleged thief Monday after he tried to make his escape in a taxi cab, with six T-bone steaks crammed down his pants.

He put six T-bone steaks in the waist band of his pants, police said. The manager confronted him as he tried to leave the store.

The man with the meat jumped out of the cab and took off on foot, with the store manager on his heels.

An off-duty Windsor police officer saw the chase and witnessed the suspect dropping the steaks as he ran.

I'm curious what it is about t-bone steaks that makes people want to stuff them into their pants.

News - Japan’s Promised Rice Aid Fails to Emerge

Source: Financial Times

A professor of mine explained his view on the key difference between Japanese and Western business processes; Western firms will seal a deal in 1 month, procrastinate for 10 months and then get the actual work done on the twelfth month, but Japanese firms will procrastinate for 10 months, seal a deal in the eleventh month and then get the work of it done on the twelfth month.

In the end it’s all the same.

Or Japanese firms could just not get anything done. Ever.

Such is the case with the rice issue discussed in the article; the government was basically too lazy to make money from rice that it usually just gives away.

Of the 770,000 tons it imports annually, the government sells about 100,000 tons for general consumption, 300,000 tons for use in processed foods and a few hundred thousand tons as animal feed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. About 100,000 to 200,000 tons is for foreign aid.

...Rex Estoperez, of the Philippine National Food Authority, attributed the lack of movement to bureaucratic procedures and early disagreement on price.

Not only did Japan not sell expensive rice for a premium when it had the chance; now they will probably have to give some of that away. And to top it off, they come off as a stingy country that clings on to its brown rice, unwilling to share any of it with its Asian neighbors.

Of course, the flip side to the argument is that, had commodity prices continued their steep climb during the early summer months, Japan might have been able to sell their rice for an even higher price. But I guess that’s not going to happen now, and they’ll have to sit around for another year before they decide what to do with their leftover rice.

Apple Spice Muffins (Vons)

People love to eat. Americans are people. Therefore, Americans love to eat. But nobody eats like the people of America do.

The office treat this morning was the ridiculously unhealthy pastry often referred to as a muffin. With enough salt / sugar / butter for it to last 10 days in the fridge, you could easily give yourself some chest discomfort with one of these things, as I am feeling right now.

A quick dive into The Google showed me that 941,127,600 dollars in muffins made it to store shelves in 2007. Assuming that each muffin cost an average of $1.50, and if we round up to estimate that there were 300 million Americans, one can come up with a rough calculation that Americans eat an average of two muffins per year.

Curiously enough, the muffin is not on the list of pastries that made it across the Pacific Ocean into Asia, with other items including Belgian waffles, pastries, and even Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheeseburgers.

Restaurant - Musha

Musha Restaurant
424 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-6330
Genre: Japanese

Musha is the kind of place you want to go to if you want to enjoy some alcohol and tasty food that comes in small proportions. I can see why some would classify Musha as a Japanese tapas bar.

Anyways, a picture is worth a thousand words, so several pictures therefore would be worth several thousand words. I will let the food do all the explaining, and interject as needed.

The Japanese-influenced cocktails are beautiful in taste and presentation. Just don't let the beer pitchers fool you; they hold a lot less beer than you would think at first glance.

You can order a seaweed salad at Nobu for 15 dollars, or something comprable for 6. Of course it's not going to be loaded with seaweed, but it does the trick.

Their signature dish is the MFC (Musha fried chicken), although I'm not 100% sure why. I mean, it's chicken, and it's fried -- perhaps the soft crust is what keeps many people coming back from more.

A much tastier fried dish is the pumpkin croquette, pictured above. Then again, with a few beers, the fried chicken COULD taste better...

And of course, you can't finish off a Japanese meal with some rice! Enjoying some salmon yaki-onigiri is indeed an excellent way to finish a meal.

Long story short, the food is indeed as tasty as it looks. The service is nothing to rave about, and while it can get a little dodgy during super busy times, they are never pretentious or condescending.

Expect to pay around $30 per person for dinner and a drink.