Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop in Gotham West Market / ゴッサム ウエスト マーケットにあるアイバンラーメン

American-Jewish Owned "Ivan Ramen" Opened Its First US Branch In Gotham West Market
アメリカ生まれのユダヤ人が経営する「アイバンラーメン」が、ゴッサム ウエスト マーケットに最初の米国支店を開店

(Japanese follows. / 日本語は以下に続く。)

One day, when we're watching a TV show called "The Mind of A Chef," David Chang visited a ramen shop in Tokyo called "Ivan Ramen" which is owned by an American-Jewish man.
While we're living in Tokyo, we intended to go and try, but unfortunately we couldn't get a chance to visit.
When we moved to NYC, my husband found out that he's just opened its first branch in Gotham West Market, a food court-ish complex opened in November 2013.

Today, we decided to try the ramen for the first time in the states, not in Tokyo, which may sounds silly but it's the closest for us now.

We got there around 7PM on December 30th, it had a long line to order.
But while we're waiting for my husband's friends coming, luckily the line got shorter for a bit.

To place an order, you have to come to the cashier counter where has a sign on the wall.
まず最初に、この目印があるところで注文。

This is the menu.

When your turn comes, you have to say your name so that they can call you when the food is ready.
注文をする前に名前を聞かれるので、英語圏の人にも分かりやすい名前を伝えると楽かも。

I ordered Classic Shio as I like shio ramen (sea salt soup ramen) the best.
My husband ordered Classic Shoyu without pork chashu (char siu), then the cashier 

I was glad to see they have roasted barley tea, but wish it was gratis like ramen shops in Japan.
*In Japan, water or sometimes tea on the table is free and it's in a big jar to pour into the glasses by ourselves.

A board of "Happy holidays!" and "Make sure to... eat it while it's hot!"

The kitchen.

After about 10 minutes, we got our bowls.

Sweet + Spicy Eggplant (an egg added for 2 dollars)
It was slightly spicy but also sweet.
The noodle tasted different from Classic Shio as the soup is so different, but I'm sure they use the same noodle.
The soup had diced eggplant and dried tomato.
Maybe the egg reduced the spiciness?

Classic Shio

The soup was transparent yet I could see fine powder on the inner bowl.
It had a light but deep fish flavor and sweetness from chicken, but it wasn't greasy so that it's hard to imagine it uses pork fat in it.
This soup was so good that I wanted to put Japanese rice into the bowl to make the rice absorb all the soup to eat/drink.

Rye noodle
You can see that it's not egg noodle (which is much yellower) and there're dots in the noodle.
This had far different ramen noodle that I've had and it was close to soba but slightly harder to chew off.

Pork Chashu (pork char siu)
Taking out from the soup made the char siu broke and I realized how soft it was.
It didn't have much flavor as if it's soaked into a broth or soup for a long time, and it was too fatty for me so that I had to separate the fat from the meat.
But some may like the simple taste, fatty pork, besides softness.

To make this experience better, my husband spotted Chef Ivan sitting and chatting at another table in Gotham City Market near us and I could talk to him!
And took a photo!!

アイバンラーメン (Ivan Ramen)は
アメリカ生まれのユダヤ人が経営するラーメン店で、
"The Mind of A Chef" という番組で見てから気になっていたものの、
NYに引越す前に訪ねる機会がなかった。

でも、幸運なことにNYのミッドウェストに11月にできた
ゴッサム ウエスト マーケット(Gotham West Market)に
最初のアメリカ支店を開店させたと聞き、
NYで日本のラーメンを食べることができた。

19時頃着いた時は混んでいたけれど、
少し待ってる間に混雑は治まり、
"Order Ramen Here" と表示がある注文カウンターへ。

注文する前に名前を聞かれるので、
英語圏の人にも分かりやすい名前かイニシャルで注文するのが良いかも。
ラーメンが出来上がったら名前を呼ばれるシステムなので、
席の確保もお忘れなく。

旦那はチャーシュー抜きで注文したところ、
レジの人が「スープに豚が入っている」と教えてくれたので、
ベジタリアン向けの「スイート + スパイシー エッグプラント」に変更。
私は「クラシック シオ」を注文。

麺はライ麦で作られているため、
普通の麺よりも香ばしく、蕎麦にも似たような香り。

スイート + スパイシー エッグプラント
刻まれた茄子とドライトマトが入っていて、
ラーメンの上には唐辛子の粉がかけられていた。
見た目ほど辛くはなく、ベジタリアンメニューでも
濃い目の味つけで満足。

クラシック シオ
魚介と鶏の味がする透明なスープ。
豚が入ってるとは思えないほどあっさり。
シンプルかつ深みのあるスープで
白米を入れてザザザーッとかき込みたいほど好みの味。

チャーシューは柔らかく、簡単に噛み切れた。
ただ、長時間漬け込まれたような味や香りは感じられず。
私は脂身が苦手なので、3分の1ほどを占めていた脂を削いで食べた。

クラシック シオは一杯13ドルで、
日本の飲食店ではセルフサービスで無料の麦茶が3ドル。
やはり「輸入された料理」は高いのが全世界共通らしい。


Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop / アイバンラーメン スラープショップ
Gotham West Market
600  11th Avenue
44th & 45th Street, New York, NY 10036

Open: 11:30AM ~ 10:00PM