Newsflash: Ramen Has Arrived at Ken Ken

... and in San Francisco, in general. You can get a piping hot bowl of porky goodness (yes, I'm partial to the pig) chock full of bouncy, springy home-made Japanese noodles in a number of neighborhoods in the city: the Inner Sunset, Inner Rich and the Mission, which Ken Ken Ramen calls home. It's something I've been waiting for—and lamenting the lack of—since I moved back from NYC (at the end of '06), where good ramen can be had in nearly every neighborhood from Hell's Kitchen on down.  Oh sure, San Mateo had and still has some great ramen eateries, Himawari among them. But SF sadly came up short ... until now.

Ken Ken Ramen had been on my list of places to try, ever since I'd read the pop-up had found a permanent residence in the Mission about 7 months ago. As we dropped in on a Wednesday, we took advantage of that night's special: the tonkatsu ramen, touted as "the king of broths ... a milky porky wonder." Ahhh, yes, it certainly is. Filled with braised pork, nori, pickled ginger, a soft-boiled egg, and scallions, it ranks right up there as one of my fave kinds of comfort food.

Yummy Yummy is ... yes ... Yummy

Yummy Yummy Vietnamese Restaurant saved our Friday night when a bunch of us met up in the Inner Sunset to get down and dig in at next-door neighbor San Tung. But as we started poring over San Tung's menu and salivating with talk of the dry fried chicken wings, black bean noodles and the dry sautéed string beans, the lights went out. In the entire restaurant. Doh. We were SOL.

Temporarily, that is. Because, after ditching the defunct San Tung and walking around to a couple of other eateries, we finally landed at Yummy Yummy, which puts out an insanely addictive garlicky-chile basted whole crab, not to mention some really wicked good bowls of piping hot pho and bun.

My go-to bowl is #3—the pho tai, or beef noodle soup with rare steak.

But this night I decided I wanted to turn up the heat and chose #9—the bun bo hue, or spicy beef and pork noodle soup.  

#9 looks a lot spicier than it is, though the heat did keep building as I slurped on my noodles and guzzled down the succulent and savory chile-laden broth. No matter. A frosty mug of Tiger beer helped cool things down. 

Love Yummy Yummy. 

Nombe's Ramen Noodles

When I'm feeling under the weather, I can't think of anything better than inhaling a piping hot bowl of pork tonkotsu ramen. This here noodle dish is from Nombe in the Mission. The milky broth was ever so hearty and heartwarming. And I swear it nipped my cold in the bud. Or I'd like to think so anyway.