Keika Ramen (桂花ラーメン) - Shibuya, Tokyo

6.5/10

Food







On my most recent trip to Tokyo I originally had planned to go to sone of the more famous Ramen stores, which Tokyo has so plenty of, for lunch. But like always, after you walk around for a bit and get hungry, you just go into the first best-smelling place you can find close by. That's how I ended up in Kyoka Ramen. And it was actually pretty good. An excellent soup with a very rich taste. However, some flaws hindered this Ramen to get a higher score.

The Good:
Like I said, the soup was superb. Keika is originally from Kumamoto and has a very thick rich pork-based-soup, famous for South-Western Japan. One difference to other stores is, that they don't use any soy sauce or miso paste to flavor the soup. This is a 100% pork and you can definitely taste the difference. Its taste is very rich and strong, but the soup does not feel too heavy which is also very pleasant.

The Bad:
I wasn't a big fan of the noodles. Kumamoto is famous for its rather thick, almost Udon-like noodles, which is so different to the super-thin noodles mostly used in South-Western Japan.
Keika's noodles were kind of in the middle, which would be alright in another soup, but not in this rich pork-soup.
While the noodles were only "meh", I had a big problem with all the cabbage in the soup. Cabbage is not really a usual ingredients in Ramen and now I know why.. Just doesn't go well with the rest, in my taste.

The Verdict:
Again, the soup was excellent. But the mediocre noodles and the strange extra cabbage, made this Ramen still good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Keika Ramen, Shibuya @ Tabelog

"The Princess and the Frog" Review

7/10

Movies

I missed to catch this movie last year in 2009, but I finally got around to see it today.
It was good. Really good.

Recently when you talk about "Animated movies", you probably mean digital animation. But this Disney movie went back to the old school, having an elegant 2-D animated style lot of us have missed the past years.
The story itself also was very old-school, but with a twist: Prince becomes frog, needs kiss to become human again, finds girl to kiss, kisses girl... and both become frogs.

While animation and core story concept remind you of older Disney movies, funky music, Southern setting and the fact that main character is African-American make this movie very different from other Disney flicks. I personally enjoyed that a lot. I always liked Disney movies, but they always felt too generic for me, once I grew older.

But even apart from being "different", this movie delivers on all fronts: Well scripted, funny, great music, enjoyable side characters, well rounded performances and two very charming leads.

Now why did I not give this a 10 out of 10? Well, this is no classic. It is very well made and enjoyable, but it relies very heavily on being "different" from those old Disney movies to have time to breathe on its own.
But even if it is no classic,  you will definitely have a good time watching this. So if you like animated movies and/or have kids, give this a try.

"The Princess and the Frog" on Amazon.com