The Ramen Craving

Ok it's been a while I know but it doesnt mean I was too busy to explore new intresting and delicious food for you culinary explorers out there..... Last week I was shopping when I felt a bit hungry. Yeah we all know shopping can make you build quite the appetite. And I realized I just had to eat a good bowl of ramen noodles. So I searched on google maps where to find a ramen speciality restaurant. I didnt wanna go those all you eat places as I only wanted ramen. I stumbled upon Hinoki which was close to city-centre and most importantly close to where I was. Now Hinoki is not located in the centre of shopping heaven, no you need to be a bit outside of that. One small street outside of the path of shopping galore and you find it. On the opposite of Hinoki is also a great Chinese restaurant by the way but that is not our topic of today. Back to my craving for ramen.

Now you may wonder why i love noodles so much and specifically ramen noodles. Well I went to japan more then 3 times and I love japanese food (see my other posts about that) but I absolutely am addicted to ramen. I love the variaties of ramen, the presentation and the broth they serve the noodles in. You have to, you HAVE to respect the broth. it gives the whole dish so much flavour and because a bowl of ramen noodles comes in so many variaties I just cant refuse it! So there it is, plain and simple. Now before I wonder off about my travels around Japan I just stick with this cosy but good restaurant that is Hinoki.

The restaurant looks very cozy and small but I like that as a lot of ramen places in japan are small (or even smaller) like this one. The interior is welcoming and luckily not the typical western japanese style much locals like but a good ambiance for the dish they are serving. The background music is relaxing and not like some other restaurants where you are to relax and eat but have to put up with dance music or whatever. So my first impression is a nice one and I noticed it's rather quiet. This had nothing to do with Hinoki being not a good restaurant but it's late afternoon and most people are at school or at work.

The menu is not very big but offers enough choices of ramen dishes. You can get the Miso soup ramen with of course lots of miso and tofu goodness. different ramen dishes with vegetables for the vegatarian people among us. The wellknown tonkatsu ramen and of course the yummy spicy ramen noodles with minced pork and a good amount of different vegetables and lets not forget the most dishes are also topped with a nice boiled egg which has absorbed the flavours of the broth. You ramen fans know what I am talking about.

Besides ramen noodles they also serve a range of side dishes like cocked soyabeans and egg with spring onion. Gyoza is also good, they like small meat filled japanese dumplings which goes along nicely with a beer or two. Also on the menu is takoyoki which is a piece of squid inside a ball of dough with herbs. Takoyaki is a very popular snack from Osaka. If you love terriyaki flavour well you got your wish as they have tender chick which is marinated with this flavour.

The last one I will sum up for now out of  the small side dishes is a strange one considering the type of restaurant....kimchi! Yeah indeed that heavenly delicious spicy fermented cabbage that the koreans love. And I do too. I had my fair amount of kimchi when I visited Korea several times. But it is a bit odd to find kimchi in a japanese ramen noodle shop. For a lot of local Dutch people it would be okay as they often dont know kimchi is from Korean and ramen noodles are from Japan. For culinary explorers and food lovers like me it is a bit strange.

Well quickly I got my eyes on a spicy ramen noodle dish. Those who follow my blog know I have a thing with asian AND spicy food. With this dish comes a stack of delicious fresh vegetables like spring onion, cabbage and sesame. For this dish I get minced pork meatloaf in a spciy sesasme miso broth. Luckily for my stomache I didnt need to wait long. Within 5 minutes i got this bowl of noodles in front of me and for a second i thought I was back in Japan.

As you can see above the bowl of noodles looked so good it was almost a legit crime to start eating. The aroma of the seasme, spicy broth was soooo inviting that I decided to first try to broth. The broth tastes very rich. I almost feel it tastes like Tom Yung Goong soup but more heavy. Tom Yong Goong is a thai shrimp soup which is also very spicy but also refreshing due to the coconut. However this broth is too heavy for that but I do love the flavour. It's an intense broth, soothing and makes you feel you eat comfort food. The ramen itself taste very fresh, have a good crunchy texture and cooked perfectly. No soggy mashy noodles, no these noodles could easily be served in one of the million noodle bars in Japan. The crispy fresh veggies, the perfect ramen noodles and the broth which makes you wanna eat more is a complete meal as i was stuffed to the max.

The whole experience of this bowl was great, like having a great dinner at your grandmother's home and she made your favourite food. So far this is the best noodle bar I ate in a long time!

My craving for ramen noodles was stopped and the bill which followed was not an awful surprise. For the regular size bowl of ramen you pay 12,50 but for about 2 euro more you get a big bowl and hell yeah how I wil lbuy that one next time haha. Also next time I will try the sidedishes again. Expect an updated version of this post in the future. Oh the sidedishes come with a price between 4 to 8 euro depending on your choice. Considering the portion it is a fair deal although I advice to be a bit more cheaper.

So if you love ramen noodles like I do, if you love Japanese food in general like I do and if you are really hungry sometimes, like I do, then try out this hidden gem a little outside the centre of Rotterdam. It's on walking distance so no need to drive all the way there. Park your car in city-centre and walk to Hinoki. When you are stuffed and satisfied it's good to take a walk to your car. Hinoki is one of those authentic japanese (small) restaurants that knows how to serve good, comforting, japanese food. I found my perfect bowl of ramen noodles in The Netherlands.

Leave a comment below if you need more info or let me know how you experienced Hinoki if you ate there before.

Website: http://hinoki.nl/
Average price range: 15 - 25 euro per person (including a drink)

A bite of BURGR

I relalized I posted a lot about asian food, and japanese food in general, and I will bring more variety in my posts from now on. Also I will import my previous articles onto this blog so bare wiht me on that one.

Last month I went to Las Vegas to enter a gaming tournament called "Evolution 2016" and as this was my first time in Vegas I had to try the food on the strip or in the many hotels. There was one restaurant however which was highly on my list and that is Gordon Ramsay's BURGR. I don't like fast food like McDonalds or Burger King but I do love a tasty wellmade burger! As I am also a fan of Gordon Ramsay I just had to pay this restaurant a visit.....

BURGR is located next to Planet Hollywood and Paris hotel & casino. Do mind that you need to book in advance so go there earlier in the day if you want to have dinner there later. A lot of times there is a nice queue which is a good sign of course. I didnt have to book in advance, I just got in line and after 25 minutes I was brought to my table and the restaurant itself looks pretty nice, good color combinations and the whole place looks cozy yet it can cater to many customers. BUGR looks and feels very welcoming. I like the small flames setup up at the beginning as a signal that here you get the best grilled burgers. also there are mulitple monitors where you can watch sports. I am not so much into sports like baseball so I concentrated on the food.

The menu did have a good list of items, not too much as you can expect from a restaurant where Gordon Ramsay is the orner. I could choose from enough burgers which came with items such as blue cheese, jalapeno peppers, mango and exotic types of bacon. And who doesnt love bacon!? My pick of the day was a Brittania burger which had a nice patty of beef and refreshing mango along with some necesarry greens. Now I absolutely love mango and with the heat of the Vegas sun in mind I also want to refresh myself a bit. This before I would jump in one of the fountains at the Bellagio. Anyway, as I was quite the hungry guy I decided to take some fries on the side. The burger had to be the hero this time I went with plain fries, although they have a nice variety of friench fries to feast yourself on.

It did take some time before my burger came to my table but I dont mind at all. If there is a good reason for it, busy or otherwise, and the food is good in the end I will never complain about waiting. As soon as my burger arrived I noticed the nice presentation. Not too much fancy things, beautiful plate and the burger on it to shine before it gets devoured by this food lover. Take a look at the picture below and you see it looks deliciously appealing!

You really can see  they put a good effort into this burger to make it special, just for me, with fresh ingredients and crisply bun which compliments the burger and its side items. After the necesarry photo I decided to dive in and took my first bite. So my first bite of my first burger at BURGR couldnt start any better......the meat of the burger had that awesome grilled flavour to it, texture was good and that meaty, juicy flavour came out nicely with the lettuce and this is actually the first time I like lettuce on my burger.... Normally at other burger restaurants the lettuce items are soggy and doesnt taste nice but these lettuce on this one was crispy and firm. Last but not least the mango pieces between my burger tasted great and gave me the needed feeling of freshness and made me cool down a bit. Now I ate at Five Guys before, of course I ate at other local burger restaurants in the US but this was a whole different experience. Hands down, this is the best burger I ever ate anywhere in the world so far. I can not put into words the food pleasure, the excitement with every bite that coming to me when I ate this burger.

While I was enjoying myself eating this burger my fries came to my table and again the pressentation looks very nice! They served the fries in a cone of paper and it looks like the way how we serve our french fries at a friench fries & snackshop. 2 small bowls with sauce served as my dipping. The fries were in the right size, crispy and the color looks good. The herbs were used tasted fine and complimented the fries without overdoing it. The portion was good enough, esspecially when ordering a good burger. 

So the burger was heavenly, the fries tasted great but what about the service? This was very good, they make you feel welcome and no question is answered quickly and you feel the take the time to serve you and let you take the right choice. Nice touch is that after your burger feast they give you an ipod where you can give feedback about your stay at BURGR. This is a great way to get a customer's feedback before they leave and put it somewhere on social media. Kudo's to BURGR for doing this.

Wait before I end this post I need to mention the price. Now you know you won't pay MacD prizes at a Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. However for what you get it's not so expensive. I think it reasonable prized. For examply, my burger, fries and a large coke sat me back on about 32 dollars with tip. In my oppinion it's a good price for what you get. Fresh ingredients, great welcoming service in a a cozy ambioance.

Overall it was a great experience, the food was great, service is top notch and I do really really want to come there again. Too bad it is such a distance to travel. Ah maybe next year for EVO 2017

Website:   www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/burgr/

Once upon a Sumo

So today i finished work quite late and you know its one of them days you are tired and in no mood to cook..... Luckily we food lovers just go somewhere nice to eat right? Indeed!

Its been a while for me to eat good sushi and i never had sushi at this restaurant chain called Sumo. On the way to Rotterdam i found a small version of Sumo called Sumo Express and as it is close to the station I decided to go there hoping for some good 'ol sushi.

When I entered this Express restaurant I immediately noticed it is quite big nor normal size for a restaurant. Its quiet ambiance felt good after a busy day at the office although the decor is something we all seen by now. The waiters were friendly as expected and quick to serve the customers there.

The all you can eat formula is also downsized to only sushi and salads. For sashimi you have to pay a small price (2,95 per 5 slices) which is not bad! The all you can eat sushi course is a fixed price of 17,50 euro for dinner while around lunch time you pay 14,50 euro. These prices are very reasonable and can compete with other sushi eateries.

Okay now the general part is over, lets get down to the sushi shall we?

For my first round I ordered the always good maguro nigiri (tuna), mackerel nigiri and tuna tartar hosomaki. Oh and on the side my favorite tuna sashimi. To pour it down I order some nice Sapporo beer. Now it took a while before the first sushi arrived which is a good sign that the chef takes his time. The presentation is standard for sushi which is a compliment. They looked good and made me wet my tastebuds.... The fish was at good temperature and the sushirice was not too sweet. One downside was that the rice let loose a little bit and didnt want to leave my mouth. Quite annoying I must say just like that small piece of meat between your tooth...now admit we all had that once or twice in our life. alright, sashimi time!! The tuna sashimi tasted great, sea candy which melts in your mouth into a summer fresh and sweet milkshake of tuna happiness... Damn that tasted good!

The first round was over quickly and of course i ordered more. As an intresting piece I ordered the grilled beef with mango maki which tasted very nice and crunchy cause of the beef and at the end of every bit there was the refreshing mango. Hmmm, good job on this item! Also i ordered my favorite spicy tuna maki and salmon with chili maki. Also very interesting but above all it was great! Better than round one with the rice part and flavorful.

The rest of the in total 5 courses i ordered more sushi like the "standard" eel nigiri but also the sauteed eel make which tasted good.

Overall this is a restaurant is good to eat sushi and sashimi. You taste everything ia fresh and presentation is on par. Oh, the portions of each item is good and fits easily in any portion of choice. 5 rounds is more than enough though.

If you love sushi, happen to be in Rotterdam and you dont wanna spend a lot then Sumo Express is a more than good choice. If you find presentation of a restaurant very important then you should consider another place but for me the food is what matters most!

website: www.sushiexpress.com

A small gem making food to perfection!

A couple of weeks ago I went to celebrate mother's day or at least my daughter invited her mommy to eat at Kichi which is a sushi restaurant in a small town called Gouda. Gouda is famous for its cheese and syrupwafels and hopefully a good sushi restaurant. My wife has been here before and told me this sushi is the best she tasted so far in the netherlands so I guess we set the bar high then and my expections high aswell. With good faith and an empty stomache I stepped inside this restaurant....

Before this restaurant came here I went to this shop before as it was a dutch, average, lunchroom first and before that it was a recordstore as far as I can remember. Now it is a small but cozy restaurant with a warm atmosphere. The decoration looks nice with the right color combination and a bit in the mood for mothers day with all the cute balloons everywhere. We got a very warm welcome by the owners and talked a bit, as my wife has met them before and soon we were brought to our table. We received the menu and started looking at those awesome seafood candy I had to prepare for.

The menu (dutch and english!) has a great variety of all types of sushi you want to have, in the nigiri section I saw new ones like the Ark Shell nigiri and the flying fish row. To my delight they had the lowfat tuna and yellowtail tuna nigiri and of course I had to order those. The rest of the nigiri assortiment is carefully chosen and not standard. If you love nigiri then you love the variety Kichi has to offer.

For Uramaki they had a special one with Spider crab and scallops. Besides these there was a uramaki with tempura and advocado, hmmm sounds very interesting so I ordered all 3 to try it out. Temaki sushi was also good represented but didnt have choices I never had before. Of course they have sashimi as it won't be a good sushi restaurant if they didnt and it is very handy how to let you order. You can order be sorts like tuna, shrimp, salmon, scallops etc. but you can also take a mix of a big or small sashimi platter. The small one contains 6 different sashimi, 3 slices each. The big mix has 9 different sashimi, 3 slices each. We ordered the small mix as we ordered a whole fleet of sushi already and  this was good start of the evening and now we had to wait for the food. Oh, worth mentioning is is that Kichi offers a stack of side-dishes such as noodles (different kinds), misosoup, yakitori and plenty more. This time I focus more on the sushi though.

The service is excellent and keep you update about the progress which is nice, ordering drinks goes fast too and nice to see they serve a good amount of japanese beer. While waiting we talked a bit to the owner who told us they have been trained by a japanese chef so there I suddenly understand why wife was so hyped about this restaurant and it's sushi. First they served our starter which was marinated eel in sweet sauce and sesame on top of a bowl of rice. Now I had this in Japan and I don't know how they did it but it tasted exactly how I tasted it when I was in Japan in 2014 at a small restaurant in Kyoto near the geisha district Gion. The eel was cooked to perfection, seasoning was stunning and complimented the eel without over-doing it! Damn, this promise to be a great dinner!

After a nice 10 minutes the first sushi platter (you can choose your sushi per piece or some come per 8 pieces) and the presentation is good, The sushi looks appealing and invites you to eat. I took a little bit of soysauce, not to much as i want to taste the sushi, grabbed gently the first sushi, maguro (tuna) and prepared myself for some awesome sushi....

The first sushi I had tasted so fresh, the tuna was so clean and fresh, not too cold but good temperature. After eating some picked ginger I tasted the salmon, the crab, eel and Ark shell sushi and I was totally mindblown but in a good way! This was really the best sushi I have ever tasted in The Netherlands! Every sushi is so flavourful, the sushi rice was perfectly sweet and if it accidently touches soysauce it doesnt fall apart. Truly every sushi we ordered (about 20 different) tasted great, fresh and flavourful and made you very happy. The Ark shell sushi tasted great although it is a bit chewy but for this kind of seafood it supposed to be like this. The scallop and spider crab uramaki was very light in taste but complimented the rest of the sushi assortiment we have. Also tried the tempura with advocado uramaki which tasted nice and feels weird at first to taste rice and then fried shrimp. The way they seasoned the shrimp in the batter was nicely done and tasted a bit like honey.

Although we ate a lot of sushi we weren't full at all which was a good thing and it ment they put the right amount on each sushi, not too much and not too little. Every sushi was the same size and the slice of fish was bigger than the rice which means they are very royal with their portion and in Japan this also means the cook is generous towards the customers and like them to eat good sushi.

Next up was the sashimi as my wife loves sashimi and the presentation was again delightful and works on the tastebuds. The sashimi tasted very fresh, clean and had the good temperature. The mix was just good and we tasted shrimp, scallops, eal, mackrol, salmon and crab. The sashimi was very light and tempted us to order more. Because we became a bit full we ordered some last sushi to complete the dinner, I ordered the sea urchin and some more yellowtail tuna. Both tasted good but the sea urchin had a heavy flavour compared to the other sushi. Although it tasted good I feel this is one sushi you have to love to appreciate it. If you don't like fishy, heavy irony flavour, stay away from the sea urchin. Although this version is super done as I tasted a sea urchin sushi in Beijing which was totally disgusting!

My bar for sushi was set very high as I was one of the few foodbloggers in The Netherlands who had the priviledge to eat at Jiro's restaurant in Ginza. Yes, the Michelin star restaurant which is really the best in the world and a recommendation for any serious foodies! If you didn't hear about Jiro then first of all shame on you and secondly go watch his documentary ''Jiro: Dream of sushi'' as you will see and hear about this master chef and his life to become the best in the world. Now back to Kichi because the review is about this restaurant and I can be short: This is the absolute number one sushi restaurant in The Netherlands, the fish is freshly bought every day, nothing is frozen, the flavours of every piece of sushi, sashimi is about that perfection, that how they call it in Japan: Umami.

This is a true gem you don't find anywhere and offers excellent service, perfect atmosphere accompanied by the best sushi you can find. To all foodies I can only say, go to eat here asap! And if you want a piece of this sushi perfection but are in a hurry, don't worry as they also do take away! Oh and the price? Very reasonable especially as you compare it with other sushi restaurants. Leave them on the side though as here you need be, Kichi offers the best sushi in town. Enough said!

Website: http://www.kichi.nl/
Price: 30-50 euro a la carte per person

Lebanese delight

The day before yesterday I was in Heathrow International Airport to catch a flight to Amsterdam. During those long waiting hours I decided to get some snack and especially not your typically britisch/european snack but from a cuisine I didnt try before. After some searching I found a Lebanese bistro/canteen named Comptoir Libanais.

Now I am honest to say I have never eaten at a Libanese bistro/restaurant place before so I just had to try it out to see what hidden gems it had to offer. Because I already had something to eat it needed to be light yet flavourful and i had to eat it on the go as I would like to catch my flight and dont want to have my name yelled through the speakers of the airport so everyone noticed I took my time yet delaying my own flight. My choice this time was a kind of pancake with a filling of chicken, sweet pickles, lebanese herbs and dressing, what they called a Chicken Koufa wrap or whatever that lady was calling it. The picture looked good and the description left me curious so after waiting for 5 minutes I got my fresh from the plate, piping hot, in a bag and I was really good to go!

The pancake was filled with Lebanese style goodness and my first bite was one in which you feel that this is comfort food! Although you feel its light on one hand, on the other hand it makes you feel nice and why is that? Well its because of the refreshing dressing which is mildly sweet but has a nice kick with the more heavier flavor of the mixture of herbs and the chicken is tender not chewy at all. The chicken was cooked to perfection. If you are at Heathrow and need a quick snack without grabbing the horrible MacDonalds or so-so burger type foods, go to this place! The staff is friendly, its not so crowdy place and the menu is not so big but offers a variety of Lebanese food. This is a hidden gem which doesn't give you the feeling you are in an airport ordering that so called yammy yammy dish but in fact is average.... Oh and while I wanna wrap this up a small extra tip: Order a nice lebanese drink while you're at it, it wont dissapoint you!

A taste of Japan in The Netherlands

After a long, long time I was able to have more free time to pick up my desire to write about good food, fine restaurants and my overall experience. I have been travelling to various of countries since 2011 and i will try to start again with reviews from restaurants in my blog here.

Yesterday was such a day which gave me a reminder about writing about my love of good food, wherever I am. Yesterday I was at a tournament playing games and after a few hours I won my fare share of prizes. And of course like every hard working person, you get hungry. And a couple of times i had the idea to get some good sushi but it needs to be close to the venue. Eventually my craving for sushi led me to a restaurant in Rotterdam called Sushi Qube.

I went to Sushi Qube some years ago and I hoped the quality is still the same. Sushi Qube uses the All You Can Eat formula at a price of a bit more than 20 euro. (in the weekend is a bit more expensive) You can go crazy on the various sushi, noodle dishes and a fleet of side dishes. The waitress was welcoming and showed me to my table, I felt relaxed right away and the mood was set for hopefully a good dinner. The atmosphere is just right, nowhere spectular and also nowhere sober and old-fashion. Its a good atmosphere to enjoy good food and it has an almost living room kind of vibe.

After getting my first drink I decided to choose the first round of dishes. Every round has a maximum of 5 dishes in a total of 5 rounds. Trust me, the amount is just right. I choose 5 pieces of sushi varied from a spicy tuna Temaki or a maguro (tuna) nigiri sushi. Now I knew the sushi would be fresh as it is prepared the moment you order. Also the owner went to Japan for several years and studied the art of sushi making from a famous sushi chef. So i had the feeling I was in for a treat.... Alright, my first pieces were served really quickly, again the employees are great and efficient! First i went with the maguro nigiri sushi and as soon as I began eating it I tasted the freshness of the tuna, the creamy texture which made the tuna melt in my mouth. The rice was the right temperature and flavour was spot on! This moment lasted untill the fifth piece of sushi was finished.



The next round I ordered some more sushi and decided to go for some shrimp tempura aswell to help me go to the warmer dishes on round 3. Sushi Qube likes to put new sushi items on the menu and this time it was grilled salmon nigiri and a mango/aloe maki sushi and of course I had to try it out. The mango/aloe mix on top of sushi rice is awesome and gives a fresh kick which was needed on this warm summer day in Rotterdam. The grilled salmon was just right and you still taste the fatty salmon and it taste a little heavy with the sushi rice but this is how its ment to be so no problem there.



Ok now the 3th round for me and I ordered a duck dish with pineapple, unagi (eel) temaki sushi and a set of inside out roll of spicy tuna. Yeah, I am crazy for tuna since I first ate it in Japan.... Also I ordered shrimp in a spicy onion sauce. First up was the unage temaki which was good with all the vegitables but the eel was a bit too tough to make it a good bite. A small thing but important when it comes to eating any sushi. Overall was this temaki flavourful so still a good piece for the sushi lover. When I finished the duck/pineapple dish was ready and with my chopsticks i could get a piece of pineapple and slice of duck at the same time. My advice is to make the slices a bit smaller or thinner. Otherwise even the most experienced chopstick user has issues and the dish misses its goal as both ingredients cant be the hero of the dish.

The second last round I only ordered some crab sushi, springrolls and yaki udon noodles. The dishes are delicate and light so now I didnt feel full. The crab on the nigiri sushi was creamy, a bit salty but together with the sushi rice it became a great bite. The springrolls taste how you expect, crunchy and again fresh vegetables and even bits of tofu so a nice little treat on the side. The udon noodles were next on my eating journey here at Sushi Qube and they prepared it just right, crunchy but not too much it feels the noodles are burned. I can recommend the chef to use a bit less salt, These noodles was great and makes me feel I was at a street food market in Osaka ordering the one of many noodles-to-go dishes. Last round had arrived and to make sure I am not too full I ordered some noodle soup and, because I couldnt resist, two tuna sushi as a final compliment on a amazing dinner. And it was as the soup was light, the broth was clear and flavourful, the noodles were firm but not too chewy.

Well, I was satisfied and had a great dinner overall, the service is excellent, quick and know how to make you feel welcome. The dishes were perfect and you feel and taste the owner and the chefs know how to prepare sushi and the various other dishes they offer. Sushi Qube focus more on sushi and tempura while other AYCE restaurants offer more meat dishes. So many times I tasted the food and closed my eyes making my feel I was back in Japan again. Sushi Qube is probably the best sushi restaurant with an AYCE formula I have been so far! If you love japanese food, good variety of sushi, a sushi love perse, Sushi Qube is the only restaurant to go to. Parking Space is available and for free behind the restaurant. If you go by public transport its about 2 minutes from Central Station of Rotterdam.

Website: www.sushiqube.nl/
Price: Between 20-30 euro per serving