The best part about Saturday’s excursion–friends and ramen! Poor A had already eaten soba during the day, but kindly put up with my exuberance for Japanese soup noodles, despite the warm weather.

After meeting at the Cube in the middle of Astor Place, we walked a short distance to Ippudo NY, just off St. Mark’s Place, where I got myself an incredibly tasty bowl of Akamaru Shin–ramen in thick broth with red miso and slices of Berkshire pork among other vegetables. I know I was hungry, but it was so good!
Rich soup and QQ ramen noodles…some of the best comfort food in the world! (And as a side note, we were impatient for a strong cuppa and so, ordered a round of sweet dessert wine to start us off…sweet and full-bodied. I’m surprised my teeth didn’t start hurting with all the sugar in it.) Dinner ambiance-wise, Ippudo is chic and modern. Classic ramen-ya practices–loud announcements of guest arrival, food being served, guest departure, thank-you-please-come-again–gives it a whimsical touch, as if it hasn’t forgotten its roots with all its updated decor. Of course, with all the history behind this particular chain of ramen-ya, forgetting is not likely at all.
Afterwards, J treated us to ice-cream, which we took to this little charming church-like courtyard, which was kind of creepy looking with all the stone slabs set into the ground. We borrowed bandwidth from the local unsecured wifi, then walked to Toy Tokyo, home to all sorts of blind box, anime, vinyl & designer Japanese toys. I think I’ll be going back there again…
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Right. So I realize that I haven’t written much about grad school…there hasn’t been much to report besides the massive cleaning and throwing-out-things I’ve been doing. A and I did briefly discuss the existence of proxy servers so that I could update lj from China–which reminds me that I need to get the Nanjing 365 feed added to lj.
I wish there was a Papaya King closer to my apartment.

For the Foodie:
Ippudo NY @ 65 4th Avenue, NYC