Happy Noodles

Ok I know you're wondering how I'm gonna justify Chinese food right after posting about Japanese ramen which I've hopefully justified the context to.  But have no fear, a short history lesson's here!

So a long time ago, the French people colonized Southeast Asia including Vietnam (which had many Chinese influences).  So as a result there's a lot of Vietnamese food and Chinese food in Paris.  Plus, Paris is very diverse.  End history lessons (thanks Professor Robinson).

So now I've justified Chinese food in France as well as Vietnamese food (because there will be a post on Pho later, don't hate) which brings us to Happy Nouilles.  It was actually recommended to us by our teaching assistants who have been living in France when we asked for Pho recommendations (have i lost you yet?  basically we got a Chinese recommendation for a Vietnamese request but all is well because the end [food] will justify the means).

So at Happy Nouilles (or literally Happy Noodles) the first sign of greatness you'll notice is someone hand making noodles in the front window.  The second sign is this:

It's not the normal recognizable sriacha (really spicy Asian hot sauce) bottle with the rooster on the front but I'm not complaining; sriacha is sriacha.

Now onto what we ordered.  By recommendation, I had an appetizer of Raviolis grillés, which is a fancy way of saying gyoza or dumplings. These dumplings (5 pieces for 4€50) had a very thick, chewy skin all around with a slight fry on the bottom. The insides were a wonderful blend of pork and...pork. A meat lovers dumpling dream that left out the usual cheap fillers of tofu and noodles.

As for the actual noodle dish, I got the regular dish with ground pork but substituted the noodles for the extra thick noodles (filament du blu  not sure on the spelling here).  The soup was a very warming blend of spicy and pork base and the ground pork and the bok choy added some nice variety as toppings.  But the best part of the dish was the substituted thick noodles.  These were hand made and crudely hand cut that almost just looked like pieces of dough floating in your soup.  Reminded me of one of my favorite home cooked Korean dishes, suh-jae-bee.

Blame it on an Asian bias but Happy Nouilles definitely served one of the more stomach satisfying dishes in Paris so far.  An all around plus from the noodles, soup, and gyoza appetizer make Happy Nouilles a happy winner in this blog.

Happy Nouilles

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95 Rue Beaubourg, 75003 Paris, France
Metro: Arts et Metiers

A little bit of Tokyo in Paris

So ever since coming back from my study abroad trip in Japan, I've had this un-satiable void in my stomach for Japanese ramen.  I'm not gonna go into the specifics of what I consider Japanese ramen because that is an entire book in itself (the simple version is that ramen is very diverse and everyone has a different definition).  But the bottom line is that I wasn't able to fill that void in Los Angeles (Mottainai came close and I'm hoping that Tsujita will do the trick when it finally opens) and I had a crazy idea that maybe I'll be able to fill it in France.  So I did some homework (had google chrome translate some french yelp reviews) and took a few friends out to Sapporo Ramen near the Louvre.  

My expectations were low despite the occasional temptation to think this might somehow finally be the one.  The menu had a variety or ramen including Shoyu, Miso, and Tonkotsu (usually not a good sign when a shop has more than one kind of broth) as well as some other Japanese dishes like curry, katsudon, and oyakodon, but since my ramen cravings are of the tonkotsu kind, naturally I went with the tonkotsu ramen bowl.

Did the bowl exceed my expectations?  Yes.  Did the bowl fulfill my endless expedition to fill my ever so elusive Japanese ramen craving?  No.  

But let's focus on the positives first.  The chashu (sliced pork) was actually very tender and had a good flavor, the noodles were on the thicker, chewier side (which is the style I like.  Most places use a stock medium thickness noodle that honestly has no texture), and the broth actually had a mild pork flavor.  

As for the negatives; as usual the egg was completely hardboiled as opposed to the delicate soft-boiled hanjuku tamago, there was way too much ginger (which is usually an optional topping on the side anyway), there was no garlic on the side to add to the broth (pre-crushed or fresh), the noodles and broth were just a cut above average, and the kicker, the waitress didn't speak Japanese (I'm kidding about this being a negative...kind of...).  

Anyway, overall Sapporo Ramen gets a decent review for a decent ramen but the quest for the satisfying Japanese ramen outside of Japen still continues.  But I promise I won't spend the entirety of my Paris trip huting for it...

Sapporo Ramen

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276 Rue Saint-Honoré, 75001 Paris
Metro: Pyramides or Metro Palais Royal - Musee du Louvre