RAMEN NOM’N ON A COLD WINTER SPRING NIGHT… *HEART EYES EMOJI*.
In my last post I gushed about how Friday was a warm spring day and Chicago let us all stupidly believe there was hope winter was ending earlier than June, and that for 30 hours everyone was skipping around feeling toooo confident they didn’t need a jacket. I was rocking my new Vans, these little burgundy numbers I found on sale at DSW and let my grunge side indulge in, and a hoodie. That’s it! Nothing else! A mere 12 hours after that meal it dropped back to mid-40′s and while that’s STILL VERY WARM it left my insides with that weird chill that only hot beverages and food can fix. Solution? RAMEN.
Now I have an unhealthy love for ramen. Not nice, legit ramen like the kind photoed. I’m talking the gross cardboard kind that comes in the dried-up shape of the foam container that’s undoubtedly giving you cancer each time you fill it with steaming water to make the vegetables more like vegetables and not space food, or the square packaged kind with foil packets of more cancer they label as “seasoning”. This stuff is so unhealthy for a person that it really shouldn’t be approved to be on shelves, but then again places like Arby’s are thought of as fun family restaurants and people eat sandwiches made of chicken breasts instead of bread from KFC (remember those?) so maybe I could be eating worse. When I was a kid I would get off the school bus and walk to the local grocery store on my block for a chicken flavored cup- o- noodles and a brownie, or would buy many packages and literally hoard them in my bedroom closet so my parent’s didn’t find them because they were strictly prohibited. My house was the house with the god-awful “oreos” from Whole Foods I’d shamefully offer to my friends when they came over, if that clears up my families’ policy on junk food. Mom- if you’re reading this- I still found a way to eat all the junk food. You created a food-hoarding monster by denying me Cheetos and Lucky Charms. Back to ramen though: I love the shit. Especially in London when I’d get the spicy kimchi kind and add tofu and cabbage to it from the halal place downstairs- so, so god. There’s something about the really thin, cheap noodles that soak up the bright yellow broth and the little peas and carrots that make you think you’re eating a nutrient that I can’t resist. For me it’s a legitimate food, even though it’s thought of as the poor college kid diet plan (which is totally is).
My friend Erin who is with me for 90% of my food adventures suggested this authentic ramen place off Diversey called “Jinya” for dinner Sunday and it was a nippy, perfect-for-soup night so we went to the very inviting and clean-cut ramen heaven with our last memories of real ramen being from this BOMB place in London that we nearly got kicked out of for doing sake bombs in a group of 20. Now here’s the thing: As someone who really likes spicy flavors and trying adventurous things when at an adventurous place, I was kind of hoping they’d have more vegetarian options that allowed me to try some authentic freaky stuff. However as predicted they had one lone vegetarian option (most use various meat broths, sad face) and instead of standing on the table and pitching a fit I just went with it and added a spiced egg and tapped some kimchi powder on each bite. When the bowls came to the table any, ANY little puff of disappointment dissolved into the enticing and hallucination-inducing scent of the ramen and broths, and I dove in after taking two photos and poking various elements I couldn’t name off the bat. I was also hoping there were noodles under the salad on top (that was a shocker) and there were MANY NOODLES. These bowls range from $11-16, but f***, they load you up with anything and everything. Mine had thin noodles, vegetable broth, the egg which was boiled and the most intriguing consistency (I told Erin I hated hard boiled eggs at least 20 times in London so it was ballsy to order that and weirder to like it), cooked spinach that had soaked in the broth, mushrooms, and a TON of spices and other leeks and roots. Really really fresh, really really delicious. I felt full but not unhealthy, and not bloated because the sodium content was definitely more than a box of saltines but less than a Big Mac + fries. It took a serious hour to finish it off, but there was nothing left in that bowl when the very sweet and beautiful waitress took it away. Casual, enjoyable, seductive atmosphere- the perfect ramen place. Not a good place for a first date because have you seen ANYONE eat ramen?!?!?! But Erin and I have gone on at least fifty dates so watching her talk while a foot of noodles are connecting my face to the bowl is not awkward in the slightest.
Jinya. Go. Try all the flavors I can’t and report back to me. Until next time, Happy Eating!
-Natalie