Ajisen Ramen

Every so often, we crave authentic ramen. So far we found some good ramen houses, but they're over the bay and not as close to us as we'd like. A few months back we found out about Ajisen Ramen. It turns out that Ajisen is a pretty large chain in Japan. We figured since it's a chain, maybe it would taste more authentic than the other restaurants we've been to. So far, we really like this place. Their bowls are pretty large, and it's almost always packed when we go.

 Spicy Pork Ramen. They are not kidding when they say spicy. That pile you see of orange/red is all spice! It's very flavorful if you can handle the heat. I could only handle one spoonful, but my husband finished it all. Just be prepared to have a runny nose.

 Karage. Seriously, this appetizer was humongous, but very delicious.

Ajisen Ramen. This is one of my favorites.

Chinese Chicken Salad & Tomato Basil Soup

We wanted something fairly simple and healthy for dinner, so we chose Chinese Chicken Salad and Tomato Basil Soup.The soup fit perfectly with the weather. Ira's version of tomato basil soup turned out real good. It competed with Safeway's tomato basil soup, which happens to be the best kind we've tasted yet. At first we thought it wouldn't taste as good because it wasn't as thick as we'd like. After tasting it a bit, I don't think it would have tasted as good if it were thicker. It had the right amount of tomato and cream. Next time we'll try more basil though.

The salad could have used more dressing, but it was still pretty tasty. We need a crusher for the ramen noodles. Super easy to make. Just cabbage, crushed ramen noodles and shredded chicken. I did cheat though and use the pre-baked chicken at Lucky's. Next time I'll make it all from scratch, when I'm less hungry.

Overall, a very yummy dinner. The only thing missing was garlic bread to go with the soup. I think I can eat this forever.