Let's count them, shall we: Santouka, Yamadaya, Mentatsu, Kohryu, Jinya, Daikokuya. These are what makes Costa Mesa the ramen cauldron of Orange County. I don't think there is any other town within our borders with a higher concentration of ramen joints and I'm not even counting the restaurants that serve ramen as part of the rest of the menu. Now, we can add one more to the list: Ken Ramen has taken over Inka Grill, the Peruvian rotisserie chicken purveyor that I reviewed not so long ago.
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The menu seems basic and simple, which is exactly how you want your ramen shop to be. Tonkotsu, that milky soup culled from long-simmered pork bones, is the broth of choice, topped with 2 slices of chashu, green onions, menma (bamboo shoots) and kikurage (wood ear mushrooms). A bowl with noodles and all of the above will cost you $6.95. Gyoza and fried rice round out the offerings.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.
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