What I Ate: January 15, 2010 (Musashino Sushi Dokoro)

Lunch: We went to Musashino (3407 Greystone Drive, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 795-8593‎) for lunch to try their ramen (which is only available on weekdays at lunchtime). We ordered the Musashino Ramen (old fashioned ramen noodle soup, $9.50) which was pretty much just a shoyu ramen with smoked beef brisket instead of a slice of roasted pork loin. The noodles were okay, but didn't have the chewiness of really good freshly made ramen noodles. I've never been a huge fan of the shoyu soup base - it's just a light broth with soy sauce and this was no exception. Also, the smokiness of the beef brisket plus the grilled bean sprouts added a too much smokiness to the soup (which I like best when the flavors are clean and balanced). A Texan twist on ramen isn't what I'm looking for when the menu says "old fashioned ramen noodle soup" as the description.

We also ordered the Hakata Ramen (Egg noodle soup with pork stock, $9.50). The menu didn't say this, but our waitress explained to us and we discovered when we tasted the soup - there soup is made with milk. Hakata ramen (as far as I was aware) is a regional-style of tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen that is known for its richness and milky white broth (which is achieved by simmering bones and fat for many hours to extract gelatin and flavor into the soup). To use milk to get that coloration seems to be weird (and to my taste buds, off putting). Tina didn't mind it as much (which is strange since she usually doesn't like the taste of cooked milk), so she ate most of the Hakata ramen. Oh, it also had a slice of smoked beef brisket.

I also had a piece of sea urchin roe ($5.50) (since they were sold out the last time we ate at Musashino for sushi) and got their last piece. It was full flavored, but fresh (didn't have that sickly strong flavor of low quality uni) and melted delightfully into the excellently prepared sushi rice. I tried to order another one but they didn't have any more.

I ended the mean with their tamago (omelet) nigiri ($2) which was just as well flavored (sweet rice flavor with a hint of fermentation) as the last time I had it.

All in all, our decision was that the ramen was passable and wasn't too bad (unlike the one we had at Banzai which was more instant noodle than real ramen), but we wouldn't make the effort to drive up to North Austin on a weekday to have their ramen.

Dinner: We heated the leftover chicken, vegetable skewers, and rice from last night for our dinner. I regret not marinating more chicken because Tina liked it so much that she said she wanted to just keep eating it.