Oxtail and Oden from Terakawa Ramen 02-13-2010

Location: 18 Lexington Ave
Time: 4pm
People: RB and myself

Feelings: After RB started a new full time job in Soho, he has not had much ramen access in his area. Soho may have High Street brands like Topshop and Uniqlo, but it has not been invaded by noodles just yet. His ramen craving has built up over last few weeks, and he knew right away what he wanted over this weekend was ramen, nothing else. Since we had tons of errands to do in Flatiron area, we decided to go back to Terakawa to satisfy his urges. I also read on Chopsticks Magazine that they started serving perhaps my favorite Japanese food of all time, oden, which is just perfect for these cold winter days.

I believe the waitstaff was on the lunch break, and many customers were waiting for a while to be served, including us. You definitly don't want to make hungry preggers wait for longer than 10 minutes. When the waitstaff finally came to take our order, we were informed that they were out of most oden items. We sadly chose two boiled eggs, satoimo, and konnyaku ($5 for four items), which are considered to be the weakest, least popular oden items. The authentic dashi flavor made the dish delicious, but I kept longing for daikon and atsuage. It's just not oden without daikon.

RB was able to order their new ramen dish, Oxtail Ramen. On the menu, it says they only take 10 orders a day, so today must have been his lucky day. It came with sauteed sweet onions, chunks of oxtails, and a half boiled egg. The onions made the dish subtly sweet, and RB found it to be quite an interesting ramen flavor. The noodles for this dish were thinner as well, and he was very happy with the unique twist of this ramen. It surely contained his ramen urges and made him ready for another week of un-rameny work ahead.

I ordered my usual shoyu ramen, which was very standard, basic ramen unlike the Oxtail one. If you want ramen with no frills or palate adventure, this would be the one to order. As a ramen traditionalist, I always find myself going back to this very basic, most common menu. It is comforting, and it was especially perfect for the post oden disappointment.