Ajisen Ramen

Premium Pork Tonkotsu Ramen

Recently, there was an article in SF Weekly about tonkotsu ramen.  Tonkotsu (not to be confused with tonkatsu which is deep fried pork) is a specialty of the southernmost island of Japan, Kyushuu, and has a pork braised broth that is simmered anywhere from 10 to 60 hours.  The broth is pork-y and milky - even though there is no milk added.  The broth is made from pork bones simmered so long that the bones and fat break down and give the broth a milky appearance.  There is a trend in S.F. right now for tonkotsu ramen and a few restaurants offering it.  For the past couple of months, my husband and I have been on a quest to try all of the Tonkotsu Ramen offered in San Francisco.

Tender Pork Rib Ramen

The best we have had so far is at Ajisen Ramen in the San Francisco Center.  Yes, this is the sad food court below Nordstrom's, not even the new, stylish food court by Bloomingdales.  Ajisen Ramen is a chain restaurant from Japan.  All of this probably makes you really NOT want to go there!  However, overlook the sad ambiance just to try the tonkotsu ramen. Ajisen is set up like a fast food restaurant but, in fact, has table service that is quick an efficient.

I had the "premium pork" ramen, which was tonkotsu ramen with wafer thin sliced pork on top.  The pork was so tender that it practically melted in my mouth.   My husband had the tender pork ribs ramen, and the kids had the b.b.q. pork ramen.  All good, but mine was the best :)  The tender pork ribs had too many chunks of fat so I wouldn't recommend it, but I do recommend the b.b.q. pork.

So what is it about tonkotsu ramen that we liked so much?  We've been eating ramen religiously for years, mostly miso based but sometimes shoyu (soy sauce) based.  Often the shoyu base can be bland, nothing special.  But the miso can be overly salty and cloying.  The tonkotsu broth is so smooth with a complexity of flavor - not overly salty but not bland either.  The kids gave it their "best ramen ever" rating, not really sure why this miso looking ramen tasted so much better than normal.
 

Quite big and fast food-like

B.B.Q. Pork Ramen

The line outside Ajisen

 

Off the Grid Truck Night

CupKate eating

Every Thursday evening on Waller Street at Stanyan, at least 8 food trucks pull up and start cooking.  This is called Off the Grid - a gourmet food truck gathering that happens at Fort Mason on Friday evenings as well. On Waller Street, chairs are set out for customers and the neighborhood descends upon Off the Grid for dinner.  Last Thursday was an unseasonably warm November Thursday evening, a perfect night for the food trucks!  My family walked down the hill for some chow.

51st State's Floribbean sandwich

First up, the 51st State food truck which serves Hawaiian style food.  I tried the Floribbean sandwich with Sofrito pork that actually turned out to be Cuban (?!).  Tender braised Cuban spiced pork with pickled vegetables on grilled ciabatta bread.  Omg, delicious!  I haven't had such a pleasurable sandwich eating experience in years.  I do enjoy pickled vegetables and vinegar, though, thus my love for this sandwich.  It's a huge serving for $8, my husband and I split the sandwich.  51st State also offers a Green Goddess salad, Mochiko Chicken rice plate, and Banana cream pie.  Next time, I'm trying the Mochiko Chicken.

The kids ate Nachos from the El Norteno truck.  Great for the kids, not for the adults.  Next up, the Korean BBQ truck.  Fried beef dumplings for the kids (yum, similar to gyoza) and Korean BBQ taco for the adults.  The BBQ is tender and Korean-style (soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, & onions) served up in a tortilla taco style.  A strange combination that works. 

There were 2 Filipino food trucks there, we tried the lumpia (Filipino version of egg rolls) at the Hapa SF truck.  What a surprise - the best lumpia we have ever had.  The pork and vegetables were so moist and full of flavor, and I liked the small size of the lumpia.  This truck deserves a return visit, I'm trying the Adobo chicken next time!

It probably sounds like we've eaten enough by now, but we had to try the Chairman Bao truck.  The line for the truck was long the entire evening so we knew it must be good.  I thought the buns would be typical pork bun style, but the bun was served open like a taco, with braised meat inside, not the typical sweet and sticky BBQ pork.  My husband purchased the duck confit with mango salsa bun, and the pulled pork with savoy cabbage bun.  The duck confit was out of this world, but the mango salsa was so SPICY that we had to take it off in order to enjoy it!  The pulled pork was very good as well, but the duck confit was the winner.  There is also a pork belly with pickled daikon, red sesame chicken with scallion and bok choy, and crispy garlic tofu with miso greens.  You can choose between a steamed bun or a baked bun, I would always go for the steamed bun.

Seoul on Wheel's taco & dumpling

Chairman Bao's Buns

Hapa SF's Lumpia

Finally, even though we could have happily finished eating and walked uphill towards home, we stopped at the CupKate truck.  The cupcakes just looked so good!  My son tried the salted caramel cupcake - chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting.  It was disappointing, no caramel flavor.  I tried the pumpkin spice cupcake in honor of my sister-in-law who is into pumpkin spice these days.  The cake part was a bit too doughy with pretty good flavor, but the frosting was pumpkin spice cream cheese and sooo good!  You know how the cream cheese frosting on carrot cake is the reason why you like carrot cake?  This pumpkin spice cream cheese frosting was twice as good.  There were other flavors like S'mores, Lemon Rasberry, Double Chocolate, and Tiramisu.  

Done eating, we waddled our way uphill in the warm evening air and thought about how happy we are to live in San Francisco.

CupKates

The crowd

Chairman Bao's