Being back in Toronto is great. I love the city - there's great food, it's busy, tonnes of traffic during rush hour, and the food is delicious. Did I mention that food is good in Toronto?
I picked up my blogging buddy from downtown this one Friday evening and we decided to go out for ramen. While there were many options to choose from, we had little time to spare (for waiting in queue), so we opted to go to Touhenboku Ramen. The limited street parking was a mild inconvenience but we found ourselves a table as soon as we entered the restaurant.
In actuality, this was our second visit to Touhenboku since its grand opening. Their claim to fame is Chef Zuimei's special chicken-based ramen broth (as opposed to the typical pork- or miso-based broths).
Tiffany loves a good kick to her food. It was only natural that she would pick the only spicy option on the menu. She opted for a spicy broth with sea salt, thick noodles, and chicken chashu. The ramen came topped with a soft-boiled egg, some wood ear mushrooms, green onions, and a sheet of seaweed. Tiffany said that it good but not particularly memorable...
I decided to try Touhenboku's original ramen offering, pure and unadulterated. This bowl was prepared with the original broth, sea salt, thick noodles, and a slice of pork shoulder chashu. The toppings are more or less the same as the one above with the exception of the spicy paste. I started off with a sip of the broth and was strangely reminded by the comforting flavour of chicken noodle soup. It's worth noting that the portions served here were unexpectedly smaller than other similarly priced ramen shops. My sentiments echo that of Tiff's; the ramen was enjoyable but not mind-blowing.
The karaage was served after both our bowls of ramen had arrived. To our surprise, the karaage looked pretty darn good. It was served fresh out of the fryer and each piece was large and juicy. I generally prefer my karaage slightly more garlicky, but this was great.
Our meal ended on a sweet note. I haven't seen a mille crêpes stacked this high since my last trip to New York. It's quite likely that there's a patissier who makes better mille crêpes somewhere else in this city but it certainly is not easy to come by. While there was a tad more cream between the layers than I would've liked, the decadent mille crêpes was rather satisfying.
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