wowza!

just the kind of heat i want.

a month or two ago, my friend raved about this ramen place that is close to his house. he lives in the suburbs and i am just too lazy to venture out of the city for food. and also, i believe that dc has so many great restaurants that i haven’t even tried yet so the motivation to go far is next to nothing for me. however, you should know by now that i love soups so i will go anywhere to seek it out.

on a whim, on a non-busy saturday a bunch of us decided to meet at this place called ren’s ramen in wheaton, md. it was my treat after my two classes in the morning. it was the perfect lunch, it was even more perfect that i had great company AND on top of that, we all went to a french bakery for desserts after. it was the best saturday. yes, go ahead and drool, it’s ok. i won’t tell anyone. i’m not going to pretend that i am a real expert on japanese cuisine. the extent of my japanese cuisine’s knowledge is udon noodles and sushi. so stereotypical, right? this was probably the best ramen i’ve had out of all the places i’ve tried. i was a kid in a candy store, except i was a kid in a noodle house, what more could i possibly want?

fox and i quickly took the train and met up with everyone at the restaurant. the place is a small establishment, not at all frilly. it’s pretty plain in decor and with a few black chalkboards to list their menu and printed flyers to list additional offerings. i didn’t care. the only thing i cared about was if it was good. i trusted my friend’s judgment. he said their soups felt more authentic than toki underground. while looking at their menu, i noticed a flaring red skull right next to this choice called “bakudan”, i was already decided. my friend also said that they can tailor it to your taste. when we were seated, we carefully scanned the menu again. fox, being a vegetarian and munch who doesn’t eat pork, we were worried that their choices would be limited but they were able mix and match broths. so they chose the noodles and toppings that they liked to try and requested miso vegetarian broth. and that goes for everything, you can mix and match all the soups. i asked for the bakudan with extra heat. and i stressed extra heat. this was the only place who submitted to my ungodly request. they added the level of heat that i wanted, which is very rare for me because often restaurants think people can’t take it. needless to say i was satisfied. my tongue tickled by the heat, my sinus was cleared, it was pure bliss. i know i’m crazy. i absolutely love hot soup with extra heat. i’ve been like this since i was very little.

i don’t remember what all everyone had but we left there satiated and satisfied. while they are on the pricey side, i still would recommend it. they have a lot of varieties that you can choose as additional toppings at an extra charge. the bowl is pretty filling, good amount of noodles and broth plus the toppings.