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I'll go ahead and warn you off Sobo Ramen if you decide to come over to the East Bay. Tasty, but not 100% authentic. Like, maybe 99%. I've suspected that their tonkotsu mixes a dab of Chinese fermented bean curd in to give it a little extra kick. (It makes sense, being located in the heart of Oakland Chinatown.) I don't recommend Ramen Shop on College Avenue, their dishes are more.... Ramen-styled, than authentic. Absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend Marufuku on Telegraph, but you need a reservation, or be standing in line fifteen minutes before they open, or you're gonna be looking at a two-hour wait (in my experience, at dinner). Sometimes you can sneak in a spot at the communal table, which is bench seating, but no guarantees. This place is like high-end steakhouse ramen. Their takoyaki is also great. I found Itani (also on Telegraph) to be unexceptional. I remember going there but not being especially wowed? A bit to the south, Angry Ramen in San Leandro is where I'm going to these days, because I CBA to drive past my house from work, get ramen, and then double back to go home. It's the only ramen joint I've seen that keeps and uses a refractometer on their broth, and the head chef is a known quantity of being a hardass for what comes out of the kitchen; he also runs a sushi joint called Angry Sushi. I think you can see a pattern. I'm not sure it's "you gotta eat here", but I feel good about having it as a semi-frequent lunch option as a changeup from the usual bowl of pho. (Definitely don't go to Joe's Pho, also in the same area, though, they started out pretty good, but their bowls are overpriced and under-meated over time, a trend that has accelerated since they busted down the wall and opened up into the adjacent unit for expansion.) SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Mar 17, 2020 |
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Mar 16, 2020 20:30
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 20:48 |
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So do I. Sobo Ramen is where I go when I'm already at home and want Ramen, I was just warning that such things may also not agree with Toe Rag's palate.
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Mar 17, 2020 04:10
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Was saying earlier today, I don't know how you extroverts are handling this quarantine. Today I got fed up because the short list of places that I do go to are all diminished in capacity. My ramen and pho places are takeout only, and that's a non-starter, I was craving Korean barbeque, but like, sit-down, so I can get the banchan plates, and there's no real good way to get good dol sot bibimbap to go. Gym was closed a month before this because the roof caved in, can't go to the LGS, and my usual Mexican place severely curtailed their hours and are closed on the weekends. And so I went grocery shopping and swung by the bubble tea place and by the time I got home, I felt good for a few more weeks.
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Apr 6, 2020 07:37
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God, and how. The internet went out at my place around noon on Sunday, so I figured I'd hit up my local Costco to stock up now that panicky stupid people have stopped panic-clearing out the shelves. That was a mistake. The San Leandro Costco has started limiting the number of people allowed in the store at once to 200 and dispatches batches. The resultant line outside stretched from the entrance, all the way to the parking lot on the left, then doubled back past the entrance, past the exit, all the way to the tire center bays. It looked like a line at Disneyland. I declined to wait and got groceries elsewhere.
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Apr 6, 2020 16:17
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I dunno who needs to know this, but if you'rr in my neck of the woods, the San Leandro Costco has toilet paper, about six pallets half-depleted, and their hours are back to closing at 8:30. A refreshing change of pace for people who actually legit are running out of TP and need it now. edit: When I say half-depleted, I mean like this: 
SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 02:33 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 02:24
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https://mobilesharpening.org/drop-off-locations I think these are the guys I handed my knives off to last time, my dropoff location was the Alameda one, (I haven't lived in Alameda in almost a decade now, but Encinal Market is where they would pick up my knives) and hey, what do you know, they have a San Mateo drop location. If you want to give me a few days, I can swing back through there and ask if they were the old guys or if the owner changed or anything in the interval. SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Jul 9, 2020 |
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Jul 9, 2020 08:37
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I'm in the mood for some kind of heavy, dense, coma-inducing chocolate mousse pie, no thanks to this reblogged image off an internet acquaintance's Tumblr. I'll be going down 880 from Oakland to San Jose on an errand Wednesday, if anyone want to pimp their favorite bakery or whatever. SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Aug 26, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 09:51
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Well. Oakland and SF Chinatown, for starters. =P
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Mar 28, 2023 08:18
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https://boingboing.net/2023/04/02/quirky-california-ramen-shop-invokes-the-spirit-of-tokyos-subway-system-culture.html SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 00:08
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 20:48 |
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SwissArmyDruid posted:https://boingboing.net/2023/04/02/quirky-california-ramen-shop-invokes-the-spirit-of-tokyos-subway-system-culture.html Went. Was better than the ramen I had the night before. (Last night's ramen was freaking $16 for only two slices of chashu and an over-cooked half-egg, and a profusion of bamboo.) Still in beta test. An incomplete mixing of the tare into the stock meant I had a sludgy bottom full of salt. I also hope they offer thicker noodles, the default were very thin, like, 1.25mm. In conclusion: Feels like Chinese people doing Japanese mediocrely. 6/10.
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Apr 3, 2023 08:46
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