Fu-unji / 風雲児

Fu-unji / 風雲児

A ramen place in Shinjuku (technically Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku) where always people are lining up.


Sometimes only in front of the shop but also I've seen people are in a line on the other side of the ramen shop.


The ramen shop is facing to a road and on occasion, cars are coming through, so basically the line is cut by the road then people start making a line in a park nearby.



When we got there, there're 5-6 people were waiting before the door, but there're another line inside.

Total waiting time (outside + inside) was about 30 minutes.

Fu-unji only provides ramen and tsuke-men (dipping noodles; noodle and soup are served separately and you pick up some noodles and dunk them into the soup to eat. Usually the soup is thick so that it can easily cover and stay on the noodle).

And once people finish the bowl, they leave without resting or chatting there, which is nice.

When you enter the place, there's a vending machine to buy tickets for ramen.

However, the machine doesn't have any photo or definition what is what. 

It seemed like as if everyone knew about their ramen (even though it's not their intention) and I thought it was really inconvenient to see the difference between regular ramen and special one.

When you get close to the head of the line, the waiter or waitress asks you to give him/her your ticket and make sure the order and also the amount of the noodle.

You can choose either normal amount or extra noodle without paying the difference. 

I ordered special one and compared with the regular ramen.
Special ramen has an extra slice of char siu (Chinese-style barbecued pork).

Soup:
The soup looked almost the same as Tonkotsu (pork bone broth soup) but it didn't have any strong and distinct flavor so that the shop didn't smell.

Even though the appearance of the soup is thick and heavy, it's just the way it seemed and it wasn't as heavy as the fatty pork bone broth.

I could smell the fish dashi (broth) in the end and the soup didn't stick in my mouth and went down easily and quickly leaving a slight scent of all the broth.

According to the HP, the soup is not Tonkotsu (pork bone broth) and it's thick chicken and fish soup.

The soup is made with whole chicken, chicken stock, dried kelp, dried bonito (from Kochi prefecture), dried sardines (from Ehime prefecture) and others.

To make the soup, they slow-cook them for 8 hours, then strain is for 6 hours, and mature the soup for one day.

Noodle:
The noodle was medium thickness; not too thick but not too thin.

It looked like a square and slightly yellow.

Not only due to the thickness of the noodle, but also they prepare the noodle slightly al dente but  the noodle itself was smooth.

As the noodle is thick, it could catch the rich soup really well.

Topping:
Egg was soft-boiled.
Green onion was fresh and provided different texture to the soup and noodle.
Mianma (bamboo shoots) was something ordinary.
Nori (sea weed) was normal nori.
Char siu (barbecued pork) was soft and tasty but a little bit too fatty so I left the fat... 

Seat:
15 seats at the counter are available (no table inside).
Black table with medium height chairs.

Remarkable point: (personally I thought)
Person in front of us was single, we were a group of 2, and person behind us was solo.
And the counter had 1 seat available, but the waiters kept the order of the line and didn't skip us.
Once two seats are open, they guided us to the space.


Fu-unji / 風雲児
1F, Hokuto Daiichi bldg.
2-14-3, Yoyogi,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

東京都渋谷区代々木2-14-3
北斗第一ビル1F

Open: Monday - Saturday
Close: Sundays and holidays
Time: 11:00AM ~ 3:00PM, 5:00PM ~ 9:00PM (while supplies last)

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Lunch Pack: Andesu Melon Jam & Whipped Cream

Lunch Pack Collection:
Andesu Melon Jam & Whipped Cream

Andesu melon from Ibaraki prefecture.

The name "andesu" isn't anything related to Andes in the western coast of South America.

The name came from "Anshindesu" which means "safe" to show that it's easy to grow since this breed is strong. 

The jam has nice melon flavor and less sweet than I expected in a good way. 

I'm more curious about the character on the left bottom. 

Ibaraki prefecture is famous for Mitsukuni Tokugawa a.k.a. Mito Komon, so this mascot is named "Hassuru Komon" (Hassuru = hustle).

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Lunch Pack: Yakitori & Ponzu Sauce

Lunch Pack Collection:
Yakitori & Ponzu Sauce

Yakitiri is char-broiled chicken on skewer. 

As I thought, it contains a little bit chicken and a lot of jellied ponzu sauce. 

Actually the chicken had smoked flavor and sauce was good, but the balance was awkward; more jellied sauce than chicken.

107 kcal.

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Lunch Pack: Honey & Margarine (limited edition)

Lunch Pack Collection:

Honey & Margarine (limited edition)

Acacia honey jelly with margarine inside. 

A little bit too much margarine in it.

I think without margarine would still taste good. 

I tried it at room temperature but I might try the other one toasted.

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Pop-Tarts Mini Crisps: Brown Sugar Cinnamon

Pop-Tarts Mini Crisps: Brown Sugar Cinnamon




Kellogg's Pop-Tarts has 3 flavors in mini crisps series.


Until I received this as a souvenir, I didn't even know they had this little bite snack.


Even this is 100 calories per pouch, so if you're slightly hungry but don't want to fill up yourself with snacks, this could be suitable.





The nutrition label on the side surprised me because this doesn't contain fiber. 

You can see "Dietary Fiber 0g" in the middle.

Seeing this package first, I thought Kellog's marketing team had focused on people on diet but maybe I was wrong.

Because usually (or more like pretty much always) diet products have fiber with other nutritious ingredients. 


The reasons why fiber is used in those weight control foods are;
(1) Increase the colon's move and prevent constipation.
(2) Digested slowly.
(3) Curb cholesterol elevation.
(4) Help a gradual rise in blood sugar.
(5) Nutritional source for E. coli.

However, though it is a 23g (0.8oz) package, it contains decent amount of Vitamins and minerals which is also must-to-consume ingredients not only for diet.

Each pouch fits in your hand: like a hand-size mini bag.


It's about 2cm (half inch) think and really light.


As it says "frosted brown sugar cinnamon," strong cinnamon flavor came out from the pouch.









Each piece looked like a tiny biscuit but much crispier and harder.


When I was eating this at my desk, I could tell the crunching sound was pretty loud.


Cinnamon lovers would enjoy the flavor a lot for sure, but those who are not big fun of, this might be too strong to enjoy the crunchiness. 

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Goldfish Baked: Grahams Fudge Brownie

Goldfish Baked: Grahams Fudge Brownie

I've had several Goldfish from Pepperidge Farm before, however, never tried this whole grain Goldfish.

This is Goldfish Baked Graham Snacks "Grahams Fudge Brownie."

When I shook the bag, sounded like heavier goldfishes were moving in it compared with the regular orange light-cracker-goldfishes.

So I started thinking this could be a little bit chunkier and has a nice bite as it's whole grain.

Opening the package, I could smell nice chocolate flavor and saw a lot of brown Goldfishes lying there facing different directions.

The famous Goldfish is slightly puffy and has face on both sides.

Though, this whole grain has face only one side.

The other side of the face is flat and you can see it's placed on a flat tool to get nice tanned surface in a oven.

Maybe it because whole grain is too dry and crunchy to create the puffy shape despite the original cracker dough could be made with smooth and soft dough to shape the air-in Goldfish.

You can see little dots around the fish. I couldn't figure out what it was exactly but it was like poppy seeds. (I could be wrong...)

The little crumbs give light crisp before you enjoy the Goldfishes.
Whole grain has harder texture and you need to chew as if you're eating cookies.

The chocolate flavor was nice and not too sugary yet flavorful enough to stop yourself before you gorge the whole bag and feel piggy.

Side of the package. 

There's a little quote with a CORAL Goldfish photo in a frame.

The other side of the package.

Looks like website has a game, too.

Nutrition Facts:

*Serving Size 35 pcs (30g./1.1oz) means one Goldfish only weighs 1g. and easy to count!

*Amount Per Serving:

*Calories 140

*Calories from Fat 45 (of course no trans fat is used)

Besides you get 6g of whole grain per serving, which covers 1/8 portion of the whole grain you're suggested to take daily. (The ideal amount is 48g.)



I like whole grain better than regular Goldfish now because I feel I'm actually eating them and the more I chew, the faster I get full.

Plus, my opinion is when you eat salty foods, you start craving some sweet dessert/postre afterwards.

But if you eat good amount of sweets, you don't really want anything else.

So for me, this whole grain works better to prevent me from eating too much and feeling sick later.

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Nido Uma Curry Pan / 二度うまカレーパン

Nido Uma Curry Pan / 二度うまカレーパン


Nido Uma is translated as "one bite, multiple taste" in a casual way.
"Nido" means twice, and "uma" is an adjective for tasty, but infinitive form is "umai" so it's just dropped the last vowel and still makes sense but not a formal word.


Pan is bread.
And a curry pan is one of the famous breads containing curry paste inside of the bread and deep fried.


Lately, many are going for healthy so there're some curry pans which are NOT fried but baked in the oven. 

This summer, Mister Donut (a Japanese donut chain owned by Duskin) released a new type of 2 curry pans called "Nido Uma Curry Pan."

The concept is interesting.
Ordinary and everyone-knows curry pan has one curry inside.


However, this Nido Uma Curry Pan has 2 types of curry inside separately but the bread is just one.
Can you picture the curry pan? Here's a photo.

This one is "Spicy Red & Keema" and you can tell it's slightly reddish colored bread underneath the panko breading.
Inside of the bread was pale red color, too.


One side contains well-known keema with spices and chicken, and the other side has pungent rich curry paste.

When I turned it to the other side, I saw 2 holes.
From here, they inject curry paste each side so that you can have different types of curry from one bread.

The package has explanation of the taste with cute illustration.
As you can see, the inside, there're 2 spaces which is blocked by bread-wall.
You can picture as if it's a house and there're individual rooms with different people.


This one is called "Rich Black & Keema" and outside is dark gray/black.

This black curry pan contains roasted onion curry paste, and the other side has the same curry paste as the red curry pan contains (not the spicy paste).
This one had grayish color inside.


As the names show, red curry pan focuses on spiciness but black curry pan targets on the flavorous and rich paste.




The package also says it'd taste better when it's hot.


It says, "Please use microwave to heat it and leave the bread inside of this package."


It suggests also 20 seconds for 500W microwave.





They're quite good without heating them up but I'm sure hot ones provide more flavor before digging in.


It took me about 2 big bites before I got to the curry paste...
Wish I could have reached the yummy curry paste from the first bite.

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