I’m featuring soup before the temps reach the 90s and humidity shrouds us — not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with slurping hot liquid in that kind of heat. It’s just not for me.
In a previous column, nearly three years ago, I squared off two ramen-specific restaurants, so for this take I wanted to see how a couple of pan-Asian places would fare.
They are: Eastern Kitchen & Sushi in northeast St. Pete and The Glass Noodle downtown.
Before I begin, a nugget of advice I picked up: Don’t order ramen on a first date. Eating it is not pretty.
EASTERN KITCHEN & SUSHI
A few restaurant brands have cycled through this prominent space at the north end of a strip center on busy 4th Street, but I’m betting that Eastern Kitchen sticks. Eat-in business was understandably slow when we arrived just after 6 on Tuesday, but takeout was brisk.
The interior — a tidy collection of tables and booths with an open kitchen to the right — was kind of dark, so we sat at a behemoth booth next to a window and the owners let us roll up a blind to let in some light. I ordered Tonkotsu Ramen ($15.95), which comes from the Fukuoka region on Japan’s Kyushu island and is known for its pork bone broth. I chose fried tofu as my protein.
Appearance
It came in a large cast iron bowl and had a cloudy broth customary for Tonkotsu-style. Steam poured out. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about my food getting cold.
Taste and Texture
But I did struggle to cool it down. I tried stirring, blowing, dropping in ice cubes. I burned my mouth. After about 15 minutes, getting increasingly hungry from looking at food too hot to eat, it was time to improvise. I scooped some of the ramen into a small plastic bowl and placed some squares of tofu on a plate.
Finally, the eating commenced — cautiously — and I soon returned to the main bowl. While I detected nothing akin to pork flavor, the broth charmed me with a luscious umami. If I had a do-over, I’d have gone with something other than tofu, which I rarely order. It had a slightly crispy exterior and the typically flavorless squishy stuff inside.
Youtube tutorials say to suck the noodles into your mouth, so I held my face inches over the bowl and slurped, with a napkin in my left hand to wipe my mouth after every bite. It was work — messy, tasty work. Fortunately, I was not on a first date with Bonnie, who finished her meal quickly and looked on amused as I struggled.
Miraculously, my off-white Wayne Shorter T-shirt emerged unblemished.
THE GLASS NOODLE
Located on a stretch of the 600 block of Central Avenue crammed with eateries, The Glass Noodle has a garage door that opens to the sidewalk. When we showed up at 6:30 Wednesday, Don and Linda — who, per usual, beat us there — had grabbed a four-top bordering the entrance. The sun warmed my back. It was lovely — until pelting rain came down after dinner. (Then again, we needed the rain.)
Most of the tables were occupied, but the ambient noise (inside and out) did not hinder our conversation. The lighting was perfect.
The only choice of protein for my Ramen Noodles ($16.95) was chicken.
Appearance
An attractive presentation, with sizeable pieces of chicken and vegetables visible in a broth that was clearer than that of Eastern Kitchen. Cilantro and a smidge of crushed peanuts sat on top.
Taste and Texture
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this ramen was ready to eat. I didn’t have to resort to Rube Goldberg-esque machinations to cool it.
This version had a thin, chicken-based broth, with large pieces bird, broccoli and bok choy, plus strands of carrot. The noodles seemed shorter, so my slurping came more easily and was not as sloppy. The veggies retained a modicum of crunch. I asked for a knife and fork to cut the chicken pieces in half. I couldn’t figure out how to eat the bok choy in single bites so finally removed them.
I wore a black polo shirt to be safe, and I’m fairly certain it emerged free of splash-stains.
And the Winner of the Ramen Rumble Is …
Eastern Kitchen.
Yes, eating the soup at Eastern Kitchen was hard going, and the place didn’t have quite the atmosphere of The Glass Noodle, but that pork bone broth won the day.
A Random Note (About the Food Pics): I occasionally get needled about the cluttered tables on which I shoot the photos (with an iPhone). The tableaus are by choice, not necessity. I prefer to capture the dishes “in the wild,” so the reader/viewer can get a sense of what it was like to eat at a particular place at a particular time. (Occasionally, and perhaps unfortunately, some detritus finds its way into a pic that I didn’t notice as I was clicking.)
For the most part, I find staged food pictures staid and dull. And then there’s this: It’s a lot quicker to photograph the dishes the way I do. Wouldn’t want my food to get cold.
