PORK RAMEN WITH FRIED CHICKEN
On it: ramen, pork broth and pork, yam, Chinese broccoli, a little bit of green onion, and fried chicken.
There is nothing subtle about this bowl; it's a ramen punch right in the mouth. The broth is dark and strong, both salty and sweet. The pork is tender, flavorful, and ladled in generously. The vegetables are an afterthought, but well-balanced and well-selected, and they add a nice textural variety to the noodles, which have the solid, serious, slightly resistant bite of really good udon.
The chicken, a $3 add-on, is totally superfluous to this particular bowl (it probably works better with Lydia's favorite, the caramelized fennel broth), but to miss the chicken here is to miss the point. It's a house specialty, fried in a rich salty crust and topped with "orange dot sauce," pickled mustard seeds in a light aioli. The sauce works equally well on the chicken or dispersed into the ramen. One thing I like about Boke is that, though their bowls are pretty unapologetic, they're also complex, and they're not all starch and salt. Certainly there's plenty of both, but Boke doesn't need shortcuts to delight the mouth and brain.
Type of Cuisine: Japanese-American.
Location: Boke Bowl, located on SE Water Ave, between Yamhill and Salmon.
*Note that Boke Bowl is only open for lunch, though on Thursday nights there is some sort of chicken extravaganza called Boke Bird.
Price: $12 (including $3 chicken).
