Sketch first, Eat later

I had dinner with WL, my great pal from college at Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Matsuri some time back. There was a queue when we arrived at 7pm on a Monday evening. We waited for about 20mins and was given counter seats just in front of the lantern centerpiece.

The store deco was simple. Poster featuring the various festivals in Japan that inspired the ramen served at the store lined the walls. I was delighted when they passed over the all-you-can-eat hard boiled eggs. As I gobbled down the free bean sprouts pickle, they passed the menu and I was ready to order.  I have seen good reviews on the awa odori ramen so I ordered the extra version- the most extravagant ramen. We could decide on the hardness of the noodle and the saltiness of the soup. WL wanted the snow ramen. We also ordered the green tea cola and ginger wasabi soda.

My ramen came within minutes. It was huge! There was a piece of crispy seaweed, some pork sukiyaki, two pieces of pork charsiew, pickled bamboo shoot, crunchy black fungus strips and two (!) eggs (a runny onsen style and a raw). 

Time for a quick sketch before I mixed in the raw egg and tuck in. The taste was unbelievably sweet and umami- probably from the onion that they added to the soup. Noodle was springy (I had chosen normal). The soup tasted salty even though I chose a less salty one. The wasabi ginger drink wasn't particularly interesting. I thought it tasted like normal ginger beer. WL seem to enjoy her ramen but commented that it was tad salty for her too. It took us a while to finish our noodles. There was still a queue outside when we finished our meal so I swiftly add the watercolour wash to the sketch before we left.