Marco and I went with Roger (who had a day off today) to visit Takumi Ramen on the Herengracht (street). It was my first time although Marco and Roger go there occasionally. They fight over who gets to pay the bill since the person who pays gets the stamps added to their ramen card (at 10 stamps you get free gyozas and at 20 stamps you get free ramen).
There were lots of choices on the menu, including vegetarian options and side dishes:
As a starter we shared gyozas:
The drink in the photo above was calpis (English Wikipedia), a Japanese uncarbonated soft drink. Marco and Roger ordered that while I stuck with sparkling water.
The wall decorations were eye-catching, in a good way:
We even spotted an advertisement in German (not shown) as the first Takumi Ramen was opened in Germany.
And finally, here is a look at our ramen. Roger and I ordered spicy teriyaki miso ramen (my bowl was on the right) and Marco ordered the spicy ebi furai miso ramen, aka ramen with fried shrimp and other goodies (bowl on the left).
Since Marco had the extra shrimp in his, Roger was the proud winner of my half egg. I’m not too big of a fan of egg (at least not egg that still resembles an egg or tastes like it) and I had already eaten an egg sandwich for breakfast on the plane trip back this weekend. That should hold me over for 3-4 years. Note: I know it is mostly psychological. I also used to hate peas as a kid but I now realize peas in the right setting (and more importantly with other flavors like you find in Indian curries) is perfectly fine. It just can’t taste like peas anymore…
Life in the Hague 