Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen is located in the Mitsuwa Market at 21515 Western Ave. in Torrance.  The last time I was there was when Sandi and I fell in line to have a taste of the one and only original Ramen Burger. Our friend Ana once mentioned a good ramen place in the market. She didn't know the name because there is no English name; there's just Japanese characters. I had to call the market later to find out it's proper name.

It was a cold and rainy evening; my friend and I craved something hot. What better time to have ramen, so I called our expert ramenista, Ana and asked her what we should order.  I drove down there and looked for this place with no name and sure enough we found the one on the corner of the food court. We both had a medium bowl of Tokusen Toroniku Ramen which is their signature ramen with simmered pork cheek meat. You have a choice of the kind of ramen (soup part) to go with your noodles. We were to pick "salt".

We got our order and stared at it. We were given chopsticks and soup spoons. We were both determined to attack our food using just these 2 utensils. I have to tell you that ramen never really excited me but for some reason, I did get very excited. The flavor was unbelievable and the pork was so tender with a bit of fat but not "icky, yucky" fat.....this was deeeelicious "ohhh yes" fat. For those who are not familiar with pork cheek, apparently this is very rare since only 200-300g can be taken from each pig. The other ingredients were bamboo shoots, pickled plum, green onions etc. etc.

I can now say I am becoming a ramenista thanks to Mrs. Ana.