Juju & Ryo’s Noodles — Japanese
23 & 24 July 2005 — Wow, we are totally Japped-out this weekend. Juju last night and Ryo’s for dinner just now. But who’s complaining? We luurve Japanese food, could probably eat it everyday.
Ok, so we begin with Juju. We’ve only been hearing about it for forever! More renowned than its food perhaps is its infamous long queues. We called at around 4+, and already were told that yes, they can give us a table at 7pm Provided we leave by 8.30. Well, alright why not we thought. And cause we absolutely love his company, we invited Sean to be our “special guest” for the night. Picked him up at St Leonards, looking FABulous as always, and off we went! (I love a man who accessorises.)
No queue yet when we got to Juju, still early. At the entrance, we were told to remove our shoes, but rather than leaving them at the door, we were handed plastic bags for them. Oh nice, no footwear, that makes the place seem clean and comfy (except that the staff members themselves wore shoes). Though I’ve never been to Japan myself, I’d imagine that the atmosphere of this place was very much like the real deal. Casual and lively, a youngish crowd, relaxed attitude, kind of like a local eatery where you can get some decent food and just catch up with your friends. Oh, and I particularly like the fact that each table was sunken into the ground. Know what I mean? If not, refer to the pictures.
By the way, Juju is in King’s Cross, and Sean used to live there for years until he got mugged going home one night. Turns out he’s a total 地头蛇 who used to frequent Juju quite regularly, thus when it came to ordering, we just entrusted it all to him. The place also serves shabu shabu and other hotpots, but we opted to try a variety of snacky-type foods instead. We ordered:
*Yukke – fresh raw beef and eggyolk with special ginger sauce
*Chikuwa Cheese – cheese in fish sausage
*Okonomiyaki – Japanese pancake with pork, calamari, cabbage, spring onion, egg, BBQ sauce and mayonnaise topped with bonito and seaweed
*Mentaiko Udon – fried white-flour noodles with shrimp, calamari and veggies in a special fish egg sauce
*Kara Age – Japanese fried chicken!!!
I know! How shiok does it sound?!? And there were at least a dozen other things on the menu that also sounded fascinating. Next time, next time.
The service was very prompt, but not that it made much difference tonight with Sean there entertaining us with all his travel stories – chiou gah beng! Aiyoh, William and I kept saying later on, we really should ask Sean to go out with us more often. He’s just so much fun! Anyway the food came, and man, was there anything we didn’t like?! Everything was absolutely delicious! The udon was so Q-Q, and the Kara age and Chikuwa Cheese so fresh and crispy. I thought the Okonomiyaki was even nicer than the one at Musashi (our usual haunt for Jap), not so starchy, a lot of 料, and the sauce was light and tasty, even with the mayo also not so jelat. And the Yukke, both William and I couldn’t stop eating it! I had thought it would be thinly sliced beef, but it turned out to be these thickish strips, very unusual, the texture is almost like calamari, and it went perfectly with the raw egg and ginger sauce. And best of all, no gamey raw smell. Mind you, if you were after high-class traditional Japanese fare, then this isn’t really the place, but if you are like me, like all this lup-lup-zup-zup fried-fried kind of food, then I’m sure you’ll love the stuff here.
At the end, the bill only came to $50 for the 3 of us! So affordable. Only one little objection: after we finish our food, want to sit for 5 mins more also cannot. Straight away, they came to clear our dishes and informed us that it was already 8.30pm, so please foot the bill. Sigh… what to do, with these popular places; I guess we just have to be 自动. As it was, the queue by this time was phenomenal, so want to loiter also too pai-seh. YAY! Overall, all thumbs up! We ended the night with a personal tour around King’s Cross and coffee and cake at Badde Manors in Glebe. Hung out until 12.30am, happening or wat?!
Next, Ryo’s Noodles. This place also comes highly recommended, best part is that it’s recommended by Japanese themselves, claiming it to be one of Sydney’s best ramen house. Strange thing though, if you drive past it, you would never have thought so. Located on a very ulu road in a very ulu suburb. The shop front is also very simple – overall very understated. So you know, the people come FOR the food.
Upon stepping through the door, we were warmly greeted by a chorus of “Irrashaimase” from a bunch of sweet kawai Japanese girls. My first reaction: this place is so quaint! Bright yellow walls plastered with menus written in Japanese, quirky little ornaments, and in one corner, two girls wrapping gyoza with all the ingredients laid out in front of them. So unassuming yet inviting.
The menu was straight forward enough – just a bunch of ramen done in different soups like shoyu, miso or clear chicken broth, some finger foods like gyoza and chicken wings, and a variety of rice balls to choose from. William ordered “Cold dipping noodles with roast pork, egg and veggies” and I ordered the “Tokyo ramen with prawn dumplings”. While waiting for our food, we proceeded to discreetly capture as much of the place as possible. Somehow brazenly taking pictures would seem to disrupt the quiet beauty of the place. Nonetheless I think we still made a nuisance of ourselves, either that, or we seem very sua-ku.
The food came. Wah… so pretty, and so authentic. A true sight to behold – it had flower fishcakes with the neon-pink swirl, my favourite bamboo shoots, lots of spring onions, a generous thick slice of roast pork and lots of sesame seeds. William stresses that it’s not the Chinese type sesame seeds, but the roasted and fat-fat Japanese sesame seeds. Oooh, but do you know what really turned us on? Heh heh, the shoyu-steeped eggs of course. Look at the egg yolk, not only is it translucent, it emits this golden glow as well: aiyoh… almost too beautiful to eat, so perfect. You can definitely see that they place emphasis on details at Ryo’s, using only true Japanese ingredients, and not Korean/Chinese imitations. In fact, I think even Sumie would approve.
As for the taste: OISHI! Since watching Tampopo, I know that the real mastery behind a good ramen lies in the broth, and yes, this place has definitely got it. So 清甜美味! And the noodles are definitely not your regular Maggi mee type, it’s firm, springy and very 爽口. Under the 师傅’s hands, the soup, the noodles and all the other ingredients were just harmoniously orchestrated into one final masterpiece, which we slurped up with much delight. Isn’t it true that when eating ramen, how loud you slurp indicates how much you enjoyed the meal? If so, SLURP! SLURP! SLURPPP! Yumm… it was such a treat to be digging into a 热腾腾 bowl of noodles on a cold wintry night.
After stepping out of the bright yellow shop back into the darkness of the night, William and I had the same thought: as though we had just stepped through time and space. Feels like we had really been at a little ramen house in some small town in Japan, and were now stepping back into reality, very surreal. And yep, we would definitely be back for more!
Photos of Juju
removing shoes at entrance
bar area for those who didn’t make a booking
sunken tables
colourful menu
Yukke (beef)
Mentaiko Udon
Chikuwa Cheese
Okonomiyaki
Kara Age
long queue by the time we left
Photos of Ryo’s
Cold dipping noodles with roast pork, egg and veggies
Tokyo ramen with prawn dumplings
pink flower fishcake!
