Afuri Kara Kurenai Downtown Portland

*Restaurant is permanently closed*

There are certain restaurants that have so many locations in the world, you won't have a problem finding an outpost in a major city.  We all know that Greater Vancouver (the one in BC) has 2 locations of Afuri Ramen, one in Richmond and one in Vancouver proper.  I've had differing experiences with the Vancouver one being better in my opinion.  Now, I got the chance to compare with the one of the locations in Portland (the spicy Afuri Kara Kurenai), right next to the original Voodoo Donuts (yes, we did get some of those too, although Bluestar is better!).

Just like the last time I was in the Vancouver location, we tried the Buta Gyoza.  These dumplings were prepared textbook-style with a crispy and browned bottom.  As you can see in the picture, there was a uniformly crispy skirt which was nutty and aromatic.  The dumpling skin itself was thin and had bouncy elasticity.  Inside, the pork and leek filling was tender and juicy.  It was also nicely seasoned being sweet and savoury.

Before we got to the ramen, we had 2 rice bowls including the Purutoro Chashu Meshi and the Spicy Karaage Don.  For the chashu don, it was a collection of components that created a flavor explosion.  Beyond the buttery tender pork belly, we found the crunch and tang from the pickled veg and the brightness of the green onions.  This was further enhanced by the addition of tangy yuzu and umaminess from the nori.  As for the chicken karaage, it was plentiful with a crunchy exterior and juicy meat.  The spicy mayo and chili sauce was medium in heat and added plenty of flavoring for the rice.  Add in the pickled ginger, nori and green onions and we had some of tang, brightness and umami to complete dish.

Onto the ramen, a visit to Afuri wouldn't be complete without ordering their signature Yuzu Shiro Shoyu Ramen.  If you've read my previous posts about this bowl of ramen, you know it isn't my personal favorite.  But after all these times, it has started to grow on me.  This time around, the chicken broth was super light and fragrant with the brightness of yuzu.  Was it any different than before?  Probably not, but for those who don't want a heavy tonkotsu broth, this is the way to go.  The thin noodles had a good chewiness and elasticity even while sitting in the hot broth.  There was some super moist sous-vide chicken breast chashu as well as a perfect custardy egg.

Moving from light and mild, we went to the Yuzu Kara Kurenai Ramen in also a chicken broth, but with the addition of yuzu spiced miso, chili powder and spicy menma.  We weren't in the mood to have our tastebuds being scorched, so we went for medium hot for this.  That was actually perfect as the spice level was noticeable, but at the same time, we could taste the richness of the miso and even some background brightness from the yuzu.

Now my favorite bowl here at Afuri is hands-down, the vegan Hazelnut Tantanmen.  Yes, that is not a misprint.  Despite being vegan, this bowl of noodles has all the texture and flavors to make up for the lack of meat products.  Beyond the chewy thicker noodles, the spicy miso tare added salty and sweet depth.  Tying it altogether was the hazelnut broth that gave each strand of noodle a delicious nutty and aromatic hug.  But wait, there was more!  The miso cashews only amped the nuttiness and umaminess of the dish and let's not forget the spice too as it also had some kick.  This was not lacking in impact.

We had one last bowl of noodles and this was the Kara Kurenai Tsukemen.  Also known as "dipping noodles" this dry ramen came with a spicy shoyu tsuyu.  As you can see in the picture, this sauce meant business.  We chose medium hot again, but this time, due to the concentrated nature of the dip and the amount coating each noodle, there was some real tongue-numbing instances.  This had most of the same components as the soup version except with thick noodles for dipping.

At Afuri, they also have a selection of Cocktails and we tried Yuzu Limeade, Ube Colada, Housemade Ginger Ale and Mai Thai on Fire.  Naturally, I gravitated to the non-alcoholic and refreshing drinks more.  They did a good job in cooling down my mouth from the spiciness.  I did enjoy the Ube Colada.  It was light and sweet from the pineapple juice. The Mai Thai on Fire was exactly that with serrano pepper infused rum.  It also had some orange liqueur and lime juice for balance.  Overall, this experience at Afuri was quite good.  In addition to some of their classics, they spiced it up figuratively and literally.  If you want so heat in your ramen and drinks, this is the place to be.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- If you want it spicy, it can be really spicy

- Spacious room

- Solid eats

The Bad:

- Seating is quite communal, so if that isn't your thing...

NUDO Ramen House

Our original plan for Spokane in terms of dinner was The Flying Goat.  However, we were pretty much settled into our hotel in Downtown and didn't really feel like heading back out with the car.  Furthermore, we were pretty much sick of all the fried chicken and BBQ that we'd been consuming since we left LA.  Yes, #firstworldproblems I know...  So we went for plan B and decided to walk a few blocks over to Nudo where we would have the opportunity to eat some noodles in soup.  Get it?  Nudo?  (noodle...).  Yes, we knew the place wasn't exactly an authentic Asian restaurant, but that didn't matter to us.

Before we got to the "nudo", we had the Popcorn Shrimp which had way too much going on in our opinion.  When we could find a nugget of shrimp, it was over-battered.  It was cold-water crunchy though, so texturally, it was okay.  The goopy mess of sweet soy and sweet mayo just made things too heavy and over-seasoned.  I would've much preferred the sauces on the side.  This was a definite miss for us.  Next, the Red Sauce Pork Wontons were decent.  Feature a delicate dumpling wrapper, the wontons were fairly light and cooked just right.  The pork was tender and juicy while being lean.  We found the sauce to have a mild kick to go with the salty sweetness. No, these were not the typical Szechuan-style, but at the same time, they were good in their own way.

Onto the mains, everyone had a bowl of ramen except for me.  I went for the Pineapple Curry Fried Rice with BBQ Eel.  Okay, let me get this out of the way first...  This dish was really sweet.  Combining chunks of pineapple with the syrupy sweet glaze of the unagi sauce totally overwhelmed the curry essence.  This was disappointing since the fried rice itself was deliciously caramelized and nutty.  Furthermore, the large piece of buttery eel was great on its own.  Maybe this could've been 2 separate dishes.  Onto the ramen, my son ordered the Shoyu that included BBQ pork, soft boiled egg, corn, nori, fish cake, inari and bean sprouts.  All of the components were quite good including the al dente fresh ramen noodles and well-charred pork.  Egg was runny too.  However, the soup was pretty weak where we could taste the soy sauce (shoyu), but little else.  There was no depth or any other discernible flavors.

Fortunately, my daughter's Tonkotsu Ramen was more flavorful, albeit just slightly.  Consisting of the same ingredients, there wasn't anything different in that regard to the shoyu.  However, the meatiness of the 15-hour pork broth came through with umaminess and body.  With that being said, it was still lacked depth.  The best broth had to be Viv's Spicy Miso as it had a slight kick to go with the fermented bean essence.  Even with that, this was on the sweeter side and we were expecting more saltiness.  Okay, to be frank, the ramen at Nudo was actually decent.  However, with all of the ramen we've tried elsewhere, this was pretty average in comparison.  Now if we look at Nudo in a vacuum and only consider where it is located, then it becomes slightly above average.

The Good:
- Modern dining space
- Solid service
- Decent

The Bad:
- Decent for the area, but it would be lacking in a metropolitan such as Seattle

Momofuku Noodle Bar

While we were in Toronto, there was a moment where we considered visiting Momofuku.  However, we saved that for our visit to the New York City location with Costanza and Elaine.  We made our way out to their location in East Village to find out that the wait was over an hour long.  Sure, we expected as much, but with a group of 8, it didn't look promising.  So we ended up splitting our group into 2 tables of 4.  Since we didn't feel like standing around for 1+ hours, we did dessert first at the nearby Veniero's Pastry.

Finally seated and after a slice of cheesecake, we started with the Scallop Crudo with ginger, charred corn and crispy chicken skin.  This was completely on point and a delight to eat texturally and taste-wise.  The buttery and sweet scallops were lightly complimented by the smoky sweet corn and background ginger essence along with a light tang.  The crunch of the skin was a necessary texture.  We also got the Smoked Chicken Wings with pickled chili, garlic and scallion.  I found the wings to have unevenly rendered skin, but for the parts that were good, it was on point and flavourful from the glaze.  It was a combination of sweet dark soy with a touch of spice and light tanginess.  I didn't get much smokiness and I did find the wings a touch mealy.

The best thing we had by far were the Shrimp Buns with spicy mayo, pickled red onion and shredded lettuce.  We found the bun quality to be excellent being soft and warm with a slight elasticity and chew.  Inside, the shrimp patty was absolutely delicious.  It was buttery, sweet, cold-water crunchy and well-seared.  The spicy mayo provided a creamy kick while the lettuce brought it down a notch.  Yummy.  Now onto the Momofuku Ramen, we found the noodles to be on point and probably some of the best we've had.  They were chewy and al dente with a nice rebound texture.  As for the broth, it was indeed flavourful and meaty, but really salty.  The pork belly was very lean and smoky from the sear.  It wasn't as buttery as expected.

Our last dish was the Chilled Spicy Noodles with Szechuan sausage, Thai basil and candied cashews.  We were warned that this was a spicy dish and boy was it ever.  There was a kick that lasted and lingered, yet at the same time, we could taste the meatiness of the sausage and sweet crunch from the cashews.  Again, the noodles were on point being appealingly chewy.  Overall, we found our visit to Momofuku Noodle Bar to be okay.  I guess it was over-hyped in our own minds, so it might've been a bit unfair.  Yet at the same time, we've had better versions of some of the dishes elsewhere.

The Good:
- Some uniqueness compared other spots in town
- David Chang (yes, the name)
- Baos were good

The Bad:
- Ramen too salty for me
- Not worth the wait