My comfort food

The dipping sauce

The Udon noodles and the hardboiled egg, ready to go
Ladies and gentleman, here we have the dip.  Tsukumen.  The noodles are thicker than ramen noodles and the hardboiled egg and the noodles come in one bowl and the dipping broth and the pork and the slice of seaweed come in another.  The noodles find their way into the dipping sauce via chopsticks and the broth comes to your mouth via the spoon.  This is my favorite dip from Rokurinsha which is in Yaesu Mall, adjacent to Tokyo Station, a place where I almost always get lost.  There is also a location in Tokyo Skytree and, frankly, when I saw it when I was went to the top of Tokyo Skytree, I could not resist it.

One of the good things about Rokurinsha in the Yaesu Mall is the morning dip.  I got there at 7:30am and I still had to wait.  There was just one person ahead of me so it was about a 30 second wait.  The regular lunch or dinner size of tsukumen -- pronounced "SKIM-men" -- is less expensive and it's pretty inexpensive to begin with.  There is always a line.  They provide seats at Tokyo Skytree and the a/c is pretty good.  There is always a long, long line at Yaesu Mall, no seats, and the a/c is terrible.  I never leave and endure the discomfort as I know the reward at the end is perfect.

When I am not in Tokyo and I am thinking about a food that would just make me feel all sorts of comforted and happy and satisfied, this is it.  Mac and cheese?  Nah.  A burrito with all the goods?  Nope.  A rare steak with a baked potato and sour cream?  Mmm, that sounds good but no.  I want Rokurinsha tsukumen.  And, frankly, I want it at least once a week.  I work in the bowels of hell; I need comforting.

Maybe I should figure out a recipe.  Wow, that would be weird as I just cannot figure out my way around a pot, bones, water, and some spices, but not too many spice cuz it ain't about the spice, it's about the magic.

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