Menya Musashi Kodou: Dip Into the Late Night Spirit of Tokyo
Hi Everyone! Today, we're going to talk about Menya Musashi Kodou in Kichijoji, Japan. This review is going to be fairly short and simple. I was. weary after a long day of walking around and wanted to try a new ramen place in Shinjuku before heading home. It was actually quite difficult finding a place to eat ramen. I think I had a hard time because I was there late at night on a weekday. There was an Ichiran nearby but I wanted to try something different. After about 30 minutes of walking around, I found Menya Musashi Kodou.
It took another 10 minutes to figure out how their ordering system works. Outside the restaurant, there is an automated vending machine (similar to the one at Ichiran). You just have to put in some money and click whatever items you want. The machine will dispense slips of paper that can be claimed for a meal in the restaurant. Menya Musashi Kodou's vending machine was totally in Japanese. I made a few educated guesses, took the meal stubs, and made my way inside.
When I sat down, I handed the server my meal stubs and waited patiently for the food to arrive. Menya Musashi Kodou specializes in Tsukemen, or dipping ramen. This type of ramen separates the noodles and the soup, which allows you to dip each bite in the hot broth to avoid overcooking the noodles. I like Tsukemen because it's fun to eat! But, in my opinion, it's easy to mess up because the ramen joint has to be precise about the temperatures of both the noodles and the broth.
Anyway, I ordered two different things: two bowls of tsukemen but one with a "special" factor. The “special” tsukemen broth was thicker and more rich. I also ordered a larger portion of noodles. My tsukemen came with 1.5 to 2 pounds of noodles. It was insane.
My tsukemen also arrived with a few toppings, which I will quickly review. First, you get a hard-boiled egg (see above). It was totally boiled. I would have preferred it to be a little bit gooey and runny but that's okay.
Then, there were some bamboo shoots (see above). Nice and crunchy!
For some reason, it also came with a massive sausage (see above). This was unusual to me but I ate it and it was delicious. Who knew sausage would go well with ramen!
Finally, there was a slab of fatty pork belly (see above). It was on the fattier side for most people. I had to remove a little bit of fat while eating it. The temperature was a little lukewarm so I wish it was warmer. Thankfully, it was quite tender so it was enjoyable.
Most importantly, the tsukemen came with a hot bowl of pork broth. This was SO rich. I was a big fan of the broth. This might be too fatty/oily for some people. But, it wasn't overly salty, which was nice. Fortunately, if the broth is too rich, you can just stick to dipping the ramen until it has a sufficient coating of pork broth as shown above.