Taking a step backwards to San Francisco, I forgot to write about my dinner with Ryan and Sabrina (below), who took me to their local ramen noodle shop in San Mateo. The place is called Santa Ramen and it is really, really popular. A review at Rameniac, a site devoted to reviewing ramen restaurants, compares it to “the prettiest girl in your 8th grade class who’s actually only a 6, [but] she’s a 10 to you because hey, that’s all you’ve known these few, queasy years.”
Nonetheless, we enjoyed it a great deal. The restaurant is a small space in a strip mall on El Camino Real just off highway 92. It is busy from when it opens at five until well into the evening. Lots of people show up early for their house specialty, the stewed pork or buta kakuni. Sadly, they always sell out quickly.
Despite the review from Rameniac, I thought it was really tasty. Between the three of us we tried a range of types: miso based, pork based, and soy based. Sadly, I didn’t take notes on exactly what we ordered. Here are some pictures:
I had the middle one, which was a miso base with barbecue pork. Yummy!
Oh, and I took the train down the peninsula! CalTrain now runs a “baby bullet” service that goes from SF Townsend Station to San Mateo non-stop. Shaves about 20 minutes off the time.
christao408 
just wondering, do you ever eat thai food when you’re back in america?
@generasianx – I have a confession to make, Tony. Normally, I don’t eat Thai food while in the US, but yesterday afternoon I needed a quick bite to eat while in Union Square so stopped at King of Thai restaurant. It is a noodle shop that is staffed only by Thais (I was able to speak Thai to order, etc.) and it offers a close approximation to street food in Thailand.
@christao408 – union square in LA?
Rameniac!! LOL, I love it!
Ramen looked great. I also love korean in San Francisco…may be better quality of meat made it better than in Thailand.
Sounds good. Even something for my vegetarian son.
@generasianx – In San Francisco, actually.
@CareyGLY – All sorts of strange things on the internet, huh?
i thought this was a pre-christmas entry. lol! i was about to say i am amazed (even it’s been raining and all) that the city is starting to decorate the streets. wuhoo!
Sorry for the belated response. Thank you for the offer on the Curious George, but I’m sure I can find one around here too. That and I feel weird asking someone other than my man to get me a cute doll. There’s a bizarre sense of betrayal I feel. Haha. Hope all is well! Out of curiosity, are you and Tawn ever going to move to the states?
ahh… I love ramen. *slurp*
@kenpcho – Well, I wouldn’t want you to fefel betrayed. To answer your question, Tawn and I do not have any particular plans to move back to the US. It could happen, but we’re not planning on it right now.
Haha. Thanks for understanding. Hehe. I feel absolutely ridiculous now. :o)So you two were in the states at one point. I see. I was just curious because I didn’t know how you ended up in Thailand. But it must be great to experience the world by actually living in a different country. Kudos to you sir! :o)
hehe, I finally see a picture of me and my wife on this blog. yay! We kept hearing all the rage about Santa Ramen and wanted to try it with you. It was a pretty darn good bowl of ramen! I mean, nothing fancy, but they do the staples very well. A week or so after this we went back to Santa Ramen in an attempt to grab a quick lunch between errands and there was a line 20 people long out the door! Not gourmet but sure is appealing to a lot of people! The stewed pork continues to elude us.