Kotoya Ramen

Welcome to my world of deliciousness! This is the place where you’ll find eats I’ve been to, especially in Los Angeles, aka the City of Angels. And Ramen. And KBBQ. And food trucks etc. Join me on my mini adventures around LA for the best tasting glories! Sometimes, I’ll have side adventures and try to kick butt at night, while juggling school during the day. Besides reading menus as my favorite pastime, I do martial arts in the evening, such as Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do and Hapkido. So how do I balance out my lifestyle? Eat, burn, reload. And repeat.

Remember, a balanced lifestyle is a happy lifestyle. So I caution you: do not attempt to try all the eats I’ve posted here within a week, this can lead to serious side effects such as sluggishness, fatigue and bloats that your body is affected by all this deliciousness. In the long haul, you’ll be insanely satisfied. One of the most insanely satisfying foods I had in LA is ramen.

One of my favorite ramen places in LA is Kotoya, a small traditional Japanese joint that can only seat up to 15 people. This became my weekly routine with my buddy Alex when we did 3 months of Muay Thai together. Every Monday, right after Muay Thai class we’ll hit up Kotoya. The first time we tried it, it was addiction at first sight. I mean, truly addictive. We went back once or twice every week after Muay Thai class. As we walk in, we’re greeted by Mugi, whom we’ve nicknamed “Our Homeboy”. He enthusiastically greets us and tries to chat with us in English (he’s Japanese, and is learning English) while we take our orders. Alex orders the vegetable ramen, while my main highlight is the spicy tonkotsu ramen. Every week, this became our ritual at Kotoya.

“I worry for you two,”  Mugi said.

“Why Mugi?”

He sighed, “Because this is very unhealthy.”

When you bite into it, the gooey, golden yolk slow drips out. And all those pair perfectly with the ramen noodles, which has a “al dente” texture.

Mugi loves us as customers, but he gets a little worried when we overeat. We can’t help it though, and I absolutely love the spicy tonkotsu ramen. The broth is richly brown and silky, with minuscule pieces of luscious pork fat floating on top.  The spicy tonkotsu ramen is served with 2 tender slices of cha shu (stewed pork), raw cabbage and onions, and a side order of marinated soft boiled egg (pictured). The first thing you gotta do is gently wrap the raw cabbage and onions into the super hot broth, and let it cook for approximately 3 to 5 minutes. You’ll get sweet, tender vegetables with a slight bite, which is an amazing contrast as you eat it with cha su and the marinated soft boiled egg. Oh, the egg. The egg. The EGG.

Mind you, Alex and I are serious eaters. We get in, order, put up our hair with a hair clip, and stop talking when our steaming hot bowls of ramen arrive. Without saying a word, we slowly delve into our bowls and ate in silence, with the sounds of slurps til the last drop. That is, if we get our spice level right.

Kotoya used to have spice levels from 1 to 5, 1 being the mildest, while 5 being the hottest. At first, Alex and I thought we could take a level 2.

“We love spicy food!” we exclaimed. Oh, we are so wrong.

The first bite of level 2, we nodded in silent approval. By the third bite, we could feel our throats burning as our sweat glands kicked into gear. A lady walked in and ordered a level 4 to go. We looked at other and realized what wimps we were. That was back in the day when we started to experiment with the spicy levels. Today, it is not as spicy as it used to be (perhaps Mugi realized many of his customers can’t take the heat?) and Mugi’s friends created a warning label for Kotoya:

Please do spicy level at your own risk!! You have been warned by Mugi.