Finally had a chance to check out the freshly renovated Noodle Express, er…I mean newly constructed Benkei Ramen on Thurlow today along with Ed and a few coworkers.
The lineup was already out the door when we arrived, but somehow within a few minutes we were able to get a table for 5 ahead of a few couples ahead of us.
The interior is pretty much the same as its sister location further down Robson with slightly more seats (not very comfortable). The menu is still straightforward, with its different variety of soup bases in the front and toppings/extras in the back.
Though everyone else got it, I HAD to get something other than plain miso ramen, cause its what I had for dinner pretty much the whole week (orz), and ordered the Akioni (red devil) spicy miso with the works (but no butter, so its all healthy). It wasn’t that spicy though, so anyone could take the extra flavour kick. They were out of the Akioni right after we ordered, so apparently its pretty popular. No surprises here. Its just as good as the other location.

We’ll be back. Often.

These guys makes some great subs toasted and rolled in front of your eyes.

The special sub is the well rounded choice I usually go for, but they also have some good pho noodle soups. The ingredients are typical to viet style subs, and the taste is exceptional. Fast, cheap ($~4/sub) and friendly.

There’s a specials board on the wall behind the door with more menu items(I haven’t seen anything move from either menus though).

There’s almost 0 seating capacity in here, so its take out preferred. Which is great, because there’s a new Beard Papa’s right next door you can go to get a cream puff for dessert. Perfect combo.

We ordered their mix plate of starters, which includes a large sampling portions of their cold dishes. (chickpeas, carrot, eggplant, tomato dips) These went perfect with their famous Lavosh flat bread. I ordered another plate of these to go for dinner.

Though we had only 3 people, we ordered their group set meal (Padishah’s Table, $20/person), which was the biggest medley of food I have ever seen in my life. My favorite was the Lahmajun, a thin crust pizza with ground meat on top.

Being a sendoff meal, we took our time eating, sipped on our ayran between bites while shooting the breeze. About an hour later, we finished the huge plate of food and were completely demolished. The only thing that could bring us back to consciousness was a shot of Turkish coffee. Brewed with the fine grinds in the cup, this coffee had bite.

The meal, nay, feast, did the occasion justice. From what my Turkish friend says, the food is true to regular restaurants found in his home town. It drew many nostalgic tales of home out of him, and in turn, us.

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”  -James Beard

(map)

The book details many psyc experiments to do with how the brain works. Some might sound familiar to those who’ve taken some PSYC-100 courses in school. I found these of particular interest to a food blogger such as myself. You’ll see why.

1. An industry study measuring the quality of several strawberry jams invited a panel of professional food tasters to rate a selection of jams on a numbered scale on the characteristics of sweetness, taste, enjoyment, spreadability, and a few other criteria. Result was that brand A was the best, and brand Z the worst. Years later, a professor attempted to repeat the same test with his students, and got the same results. However, when the test was given with an extra criteria of “why”, as in “explain why did you think the jam is highly spreadable”, the results were reversed. Brand Z, the cheapest jam in the group, got the highest score.

2. In another test, all subjects were given a word puzzle test after ingesting an energy drink, labeled as providing higher alertness and energy. Half of the subjects paid the full price for the energy drink before the test, while the other subjects were told to pay only half. The result of the test shows that the group that paid the cheaper sale price scored 30% lower on average.

3. A group of students were asked to do a blind taste test of 5 different bottles of wine. Although among the 5, one $5 wine was presented once as $5, then again as $45. Not surprisingly, the $45 wine rated as being far superior than the same bottle labeled at $5. This test was given again to wine experts, those that frequently consume and judge the quality of wines, and received the same results.

Lineups are found here constantly, waiting for trays coming fresh from their back alley oven. Here:

From which you can also make purchases from. Its bout 2 blocks away, and very well hidden. Hard to describe the location, but google street view helps.

They didn’t seem to like me taking pictures in their store, though its no mystery what the inside looks like.

One of those must try places when walking around Chinatown in San Fran.