Tanoshii Ramen

Mushroom Ramen at Tanoshii in Dallas, Texas.

In my culinary adventures, my friend Janet continually pushes my food limits when it comes to tasting different cultural staples - she takes me to places where I would most likely not venture out on my own. One of the recent foodie fads is ramen, a Japanese noodle soup dish - I concede, I am a little tardy to the party.  The stereotypical college food turned foodie phenomenon struck me as unimaginative and an excuse for restaurants to create and sell cheaply made food to the unassuming masses for high prices. That opinion was before Tanoshii.  My wonderful friend Janet opened my eyes to the depth of flavor potential in this unassuming dish.  We arrived at the restaurant ravenous for food - any food would suffice at this point as the evening had grown late and the gym was only a distant memory.  Janet took the lead and immediately ordered veggie dumplings, pan seared, and braised shitake mushroom sticky buns to start, followed by two bowls of mushroom ramen topped with a soft boiled egg.  The lack of pictures for the first two items indicates the level of hunger - we gobbled these starters up immediately.  Dumplings are by far one of my absolute favorite dishes, sticky buns are a concept still somewhat alien to me, so these were fine by my standards, as I have only in the past few months began to appreciate these delightful buns.  By the time our ramen dishes had arrived, our stomachs were less loud and angry, allowing me time to fully appreciate the depth of flavor in the mushroom broth.   As you can see from the picture above, the amount of ingredients found in this soup dish impresses the eyes.  The moment the soup arrived, we knew this dish would be special - the picture does not give the dish the applause it rightfully deserves.  People often talk about food being made with love - this dish is one of those which feels like a hug from the inside out.  Words cannot express the feelings evoked by this dish.  I felt like the food critic in Ratatoie when he is transported back in time to his childhood - except not back to my childhood per se as I did not grow up in Japan. I will be back again for more ramen - and also, more dumplings as well.