Day 6: Lunch in Tokyo, Ikebukuro Vegan ramen

 17/02/'23

I met my friend who I used to work with, long time ago, when I used to work in one of the bespoke hotel in Tokyo, I was young 😆 and so hyper! It was good old days, and fun, we used to drink and eat loads, with our colleagues. Shinjyuku ( 新宿）, Ikebukuro（池袋）, Ginza（銀座）, and Yotsuya（四谷....from ramen to Korean BBQ, Japanese yakitori（焼き鳥） bar to Izakaya　（居酒屋）... I still don't know how I managed all that. 😅 Anyway, we met up in Ikebukuro, Tokyo today. we were going to a cafe in Tobu department store's food court, however, he mentioned about a ramen noodle bar where he sometimes go and now serve vegan ramen. With no hesitation, I said; " let's go there". It took us a bit to find the ramen shop, we managed to find in the end. 

Why Ikebukuro is so confusing? West side had Toubu ( "Tou" means East) department store, east side has Seibu ( "Sei" means West) department store, and different department stores are attached to them ( Parco). 

Anyway, just thought of having vegan /vegetarian noodles made me really excited. I even took a photo of myself with the sign🤣. It was only small ramen cafe. I ordered my vegan ramen with vegan meatless meat. Also there are various extra toppings available from 100yen to your ramen.  The main ramen was south of japan, kyusyu island flavour which usually has deeper  flavour soup than other part of Japan.  To be honest I never had one, so I am not sure how it tastes. Kyusyu ramen is popular with Japanese....

Anyway, my bowl of noodle was delish, very happy, it was a bit greasy yet really light. And not too much noodles in a bowl either. Vegan chasyu ( meatless meat) had smorky flavour and it was extra to pay. Topped with nori ( seeweed), Japanese spring onion, and not sure what other toppings were. 😅 Soup of salty flavour,  I could taste little slices of yuzu which cut a bit saltiness and greasiness. 

My friend had their signature ramen; "Jangara ramen". He said it was ok. 

Anyway, I am looking forward to eat more before I go back to U.K. Only a week left......😅

九州Jangara ramen:  https://www.sogoseibu.jp.e.ld.hp.transer.com/ikebukuro/diningpark/chinese_food/jangara/