The Impatient Chef Can't Sit Still at Tokyo-Ya in Portland

The Impatient Chef Can't Sit Still at Tokyo-Ya in Portland

The Impatient Chef Noodling About

    Having watched food shows over the last ten years like Chef’s Table, Ugly Delicious (with David Chang), and anything starring Anthony Bourdain, The Impatient Chef has become infatuated with the idea of ramen. In the hinter years before ramen culture swept the US, it consisted of dried noodles and a flavor packet in a plastic wrapper.  Realizing that there was more to the oodley noodles than previously suspected, The impatient Chef thereby endeavored to make a higher form of ramen, starting with homemade dashi, various veggies, a hard-boiled egg or two, and very thin noodles.  Oddly enough, a breakfast tradition was born from these fishy beginnings.  Even more recently, The Impatient Chef decided to try some ramen restaurants. Tokyo-Ya was the second one: A fact that will come into play later.   
    The Impatient Chef and wife stopped for lunch at Tokyo-Ya on SE 82nd Ave in Portland on a fine (for ducks), drizzly afternoon in the wee hours of March, 2024.  The atmosphere inside, and out of the rain, is strip mall, but not of the squalid sort.  It was, frankly, fitting. The aforementioned ramen culture in Japan relies heavily on smallish slot spaces like the one this one occupies.  There is plenty of wood, hanging lights, and Japanese stylings.  An odd, Asian-inspired version of The Mamas and the papas' song “California Dreamin’” played on the sound system. It was not unpleasant. The follow up song was “San Francisco”, originally by Scott McKenzie, done in the same style by the same artist as the previous song. It was not not unpleasant (double negative intended). The drum beat was exactly the same for both songs.
    Enough about the music.
    My wife ordered gyoza appetizer, and a side salad.  The Impatient Chef ordered the Miso Ramen. We asked for all of it to arrive at the same time. The gyoza arrived a full ten minutes before the ramen. 

The Gyoza

The Salad

    The pork and chicken gyoza arrived browned on one side, oozed umami, and came with a teriyaki-like sauce on the side.  

    The beautifully arranged salad adorned a triangular plate, and was swaddled in a flavorful, but slightly sweet, dressing.
    Then the ramen arrived amid high expectations, unfortunately after my wife had mostly finished her meal.  
    The first ramen restaurant we visited was Kenji’s Ramen and Grill in Vancouver, Washington. The Impatient Chef mentions this because it set the bar very high. Their ramen came with marinated eggs, spicy kimchi, and some spectacular pork belly.  The flavors were bold and extroverted.  There may have been angels singing in the distance.  The rating system for ramen will be known as the "Kenji Scale", as they are a ten.

The Ramen

    The expectations did not survive the comparison with Kenji’s. Don’t get me wrong:  The Ramen was good. It was not, however, sublime. According to the menu, the broth is cooked for 12 hours - it has lots of umami, a little taste of sesame oil, and good miso flavor without being too sweet. The pork belly was sliced like bacon, and it tasted good, but it lacked a unique spin that a more adventurous establishment would deliver.  If the eggs were marinated, it was not for very long.  
    The portion was big enough for two people, so part of it went home.  
    Overall, it was a good meal. The Impatient Chef rates it a 7 on the Kenji scale.  You can certainly do worse. You can, however, do better.  

    Thanks for reading!

    The Impatient Chef

The Impatient Chef Recipe: Impatient Hot and Sour Soup

Hot and Sour Soup Amid Seasonal Squash

The Impatient Chef has dabbled in Asian cuisine over the past few decades, most recently in the milieu of soups.  A few years ago, Chef David Chang mentioned on a Netflix show about him that he prefers asian-style soups for breakfast.  Thus began a dashi-soaked foray into healthier options for the morning meal.  Through this exploration, The Impatient Chef learned to muster Big Taste from scratch, and still make it to work on time.

Soups have an enormous advantage over most any other type of meal when it comes to flavor vs. fat.  Most delicious dishes, at least in western cuisine, drip with the lipidinous, yet luscious substance.  Soup broths can pull off the same trick with very little of it.  Which leads us to the soup at hand.

The Impatient Chef has been largely disappointed with restaurant Hot and Soup soup in recent years, with one exception.  There was a restaurant in Southeast Portland, Oregon called Happy Garden.  It is sadly gone, now, and displaced by a marijuana dispensary, but the Hot and Sour soup there was mushroomy sublime, bathed in hazy umami, and awash in a sea of soy-licious aroma.  Could it possibly be replicated?  

Sure, the internet has recipes.  The Impatient Chef has tried a few of these, begging the question, "Why do we need dried day lillies?"  I mean, really, why?  Being extremely impatient, the imperative was to interpolate the available flavors, and isolate the key ingredients that would invigorate the taste buds.  Part of the process was leaving out hard-to-find ingredients.  

Error and trial ensued, but a victor emerged.  It serves 4.  Elapse time: 45 minutes.  

Ingredients: 

• 8 oz pork shoulder, cut into strips. 
• 3 scallions, sliced, with the greenest parts reserved for garnish 
• 3 cloves garlic 
• 4 heaping tsp chicken Better than Bouillon 
• 1 heaping tsp vegetable Better than Bouillon 
• 2 cups water 
• 8 oz. firm Silken tofu, cut into strips 
• 6 oz. crimini mushroom, cut thickly 
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce 
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten 
• 1 teaspoon dried pepper flakes 
• 5 dried Tien Tsan peppers 
• 3 tablespoons corn starch + 1/4 cup water 
• 1 extra heaping tbsp of corn starch for the pork 
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar 
• Sesame oil or grapeseed oil

Directions:

1. Toss the pork strips in the heaping tbsp of corn starch, plus 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. set aside. 
2. Prep the scallions, mushrooms, garlic and tofu. 
3. In an iron skillet, heat up about 1 tbsp of oil (I used bacon fat once, and OMG!) on medium high heat, and add the pork. Separate the pieces so that they fry evenly. Toss them occasionally, allowing them to brown, but not turn black. Do not overcook. When they are done place them into a bowl. 
4. Add half of the vinegar to the pan, and deglaze. Pour the liquid through a fine strainer into the bowl containing the pork. 
5. Lower heat to medium. 
6. Carefully wipe out the iron skillet with a paper towel. 
7. Start the water heating in a separate sauce pan. 
8. Add 2 tbsp oil to the iron skillet, and add the scallions. Sauté them for about 2 minutes, and add the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are tender, adding more oil if the pan dries up. These mushrooms will soak up the oil. Add the garlic, and sauté for a minute, stirring constantly.
9. Add the vegetable mixture to the sauce pan. With the remaining vinegar, deglaze the iron skillet again. Add deglazing liquid to the sauce pan. Add the tofu, and the pork. 
10. Combine the corn starch, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and balsamic vinegar in a small dish. Stir well. Set aside. 
11. Beat the egg with a fork in a small bowl. 
12. Add the chicken and vegetable bouillon (I prefer Better Than Bouillon), white pepper, dried peppers, and pepper flakes, to the sauce pan, stir, and bring to a boil.  Cook for 4 minutes. 
13. Add the corn starch and soy sauce mixture. Stir continuously to thicken the soup. Taste. Add more bouillon, or soy sauce as necessary, but don’t let it sit without stirring form more than a few seconds. Remove from the heat.  Add the retained scallion greens.
14. Add the beaten eggs into the soup, wait a few seconds, and stir very briefly with a fork.
15. Serve. 

Notes:

This soup is not “traditional”, but it is a umami bomb. Use some hot chili oil if you want more heat, but this has a decent spice without it.

I prefer Better Than Bouillon over other brands.  I think that this soup would suffer if you use other brands.  Just be careful not to use too much.  Also, use less salt, as they contain a fair amount of it.