Today’s ramen is a shio (salt) ramen called Zenya from Saitama. A review of the actual restaurant can be found on World Ramen.

On the box:
The owner/chef of Zenya looking all serious, in a clean chef’s uniform with face that screams, “If you don’t like my ramen, die!” This is one of the few boxes of ramen I’ve seen where the chef does not have his arms crossed. Obviously this guy is hiding 2nd and 3rd degree burns on his arms.

Inside the box:
- Fresh thick noodles
- Soup base made from Lard, Chicken, Scallop, Pork, Niboshi, Konbu, Salt, and Katsuo

Preparation is simple just boil noodles for 1-2 minutes. Drain. Mix soup base with 280ml. of water.

I added home made chashu, spinach, scallions and sesame seeds.

Verdict:
Good soup, not too heavy, strong chicken and seafood taste. I found the noodles a bit too thick and tasted more like thick spaghetti than regular ramen noodles, although they did not ever get soggy. I think the broth would have been much better with curlier thinner noodles.

3.5 stars out of 5.

Let’s start with the bottom of the fridge. As you can see we have the staples of every Asian household: Kewpie mayo, cabbage, kimchi, and ghetto tupperware using takeout/product containers.

My wife’s current favorite store brand of yogurt.

Japanese pickles galore

Garlic pickled in ume (plum) stored in a gelato container. I usually eat these everyday for lunch.

More pickled stuff, we snuck these past customs.

Contraband kombu, fish preserved in soy sauce.
Tip: If you’re sneaking food back into the country always have a half eaten bag of chips in your bag in case the customs dogs start snooping around.

Ramen and salad greens.

Underneath, more pickles.

These are some of the best ume I’ve ever had.

From the back of the fridge, the good ramen that I do not serve to my guests.

Some cha-shu I made to go with the ramen. I braised pork belly in a top secret Mexican coke-based recipe.

My wife insists that we buy as many types of miso as possible, there’s actually more in the back of the fridge.

My fridge door is full of Japanese salad dressings, Thai, Korean, Jamaican, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese seasonings.

I bought this on impluse from Fairway and was surprised how great this stuff is. Usually buying ethnic products at a American supermarket is a bad idea.

My favorite ingredient. I’m still working on the perfect demiglace beef stew.

On to the freezer. As you can see there’s lots of freezer bags.

We eat too much ice cream.
These shrimp have to go

This fish head has to go too.

Whenever there’s a sale on Japanese unagi (eel)at Mitsuwa we load up on these and vaccuum seal em. These are definitely a lot better than the chinese stuff.

Hopefully my fridge stays this clean.

What’s hiding out in the back of your fridge? To feature your fridge on UM’s Fridgin’ Out, email umamimart@gmail.com