Setagaya revisited, kind of.

Tonight I stopped by Setagaya Ramen (34 St Mark's Place) in the East Village (where else?) for a bowl. I really like walking along St. Mark's especially at night, as it reminds me of Harajuku in Tokyo. I once again had some pretty good timing getting there as I could sit right away, although I guess it's easy when eating alone at a ramen-ya. Something about the place was eerily familiar, but I was sure that I hadn't been to this place before. Eventually it dawned on me that Setagaya used to be around the corner on 1st Ave, but that place has been replaced by Kuidouraku Ramen. There is apparently a long story behind the lineage of both places and their relationship, but I won't go into it. On to the food:

A creature of habit, I had the spicy miso ramen ($11), no sides, although they offer things like onigiri as well. It was reassuring to see two Japanese boys manning the kitchen (call me racist) as I think this was the first time since beginning the tour.

Okay first off, the real star of this show is the charsiu. Perfectly tender, the exact right meat to fat ratio (for me it's about 45/55) and very well charred around the outside. Tasty! If only I could get a bowl of Kambi's soup topped with Setagaya's charsiu and filled with the right curly chewy noodles, which I haven't yet found in this city. I remember Ippudo having very nice noodles like that in their miso ramen (where it's supposed to be) but Marie tells me that they've changed their noodles and now are all the straight thinner kind (can someone verify this in case I can't go there in the next few days?).

The last time I was in New York my daughter and I tried Setagaya at the old location for lunch. We had shio ramen (she doesn't like spicy... yet) and it was too light for my taste, but I probably just haven't found my way with shio broth... yet. The spicy miso broth at Setagaya was decent, but not the creamy experience of Kambi. The noodles were okay too, but I'm hoping to find some real in-house made noodles before I leave New York. I think next up is mid-town ramen if it works out.