2014 Ramen Yokocho Festival

The 2014 Ramen Yokocho Festival was held on the infield at Santa Anita Park on March 29-30, 2014.  After an estimated crowd of over 30,000 people for the 2013 festival held at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, in which there were massive lines to buy tickets and people were being turned away due to the sheer number of people trying to get their ramen on.

Although I did not go to last year’s event, having a bigger venue seemed like a good start.

Though last year’s event did not have an admission fee, this year’s event costs $5 per person, along with $4 parking.

Ticket Line

Upon paying your entrance fee, you had to stand in line to buy tickets for ramen, drinks and ice cream (though oddly they were sold out before the doors even opened?).

With ramen tickets in hand, you then had to wait in line for the ramen of your choice.

There were 14 vendors from California, Las Vegas and Japan.  Since I had eaten at some of the places already, and figured getting ramen in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas venues would be easy enough if I wanted it, I set my sights on trying the ramen from the four vendors from Japan, Horaiya, Mattou Seimen, Tatsunoya, and Tsujita Tokyo.

Mattou Seimen

Iron Chef Kenichi

The ramen from Mattou Siemen was a Toyama Black Mapo Ramen.  Iron Chef Kenichi was involved in this dish somehow.

Mattou Seimen

The ramen was a fiery red was a large dollop of chili sauce bubbling like molten lava.  The dish contained baby bok choy, bean sprouts, ground pork, and wood ear mushrooms.  Ironically, the ramen was rather bland and lacking in heat despite its looks. 

Tatsunoya

Tatsunoya

The ramen from Tatsunoya, contained unctuous fatty pieces of pork belly, straight noodles and a large piece of seaweed floating like a life raft atop an ocean of porky goodness.  The soup is rich in umami flavor with the fat enveloping your tongue and lips like a warm kiss.

Tsujita Yokyo

The ramen from Tsujita Tokyo was a crowd favorite.  It has been voted the best ramen in Los Angeles.  A generous portion of green onions and wood ear mushrooms adorn the milky broth.  There are several fatty pieces of pork belly to tease your taste buds.  This ramen also contains straight noodles.  Although good, the ramen just seemed to be lacking in something.

Horaiya

The ramen from Horaiya is miso based and contains wontons, something unusual in ramen.  The familiar brown hue from miso encircles the familiar curly noodles that most people are accustomed to.  The curly noodles seem to have more “bite” to them compared to the purveyors of straight noodles.  The ramen is simply adorned with green onions.  There was only one wonton in the soup, but it was tender and juicy.

Hiromaru

Hiromaru

The ramen from Hiromaru (Las Vegas) is milky white and contains green onions and wood ear mushrooms.  The broth is light and has the right amount of salinity.

Tsujita Line

Although this was a bigger venue compared to last year, lines quickly formed both to buy tickets and to obtain ramen from the more popular stands.  The admission line was over an hour by the time I left, and the line for Tsujita Tokyo was probably close to two hours long.

Ramen Mob

I’m not sure how things could be improved without giving it some thought, but there has to be a better way to run this festival.  I know people were getting agitated with the growing lines, plus it was getting hot as the day wore on.

Not sure if I would go next year, but I’m glad I was able to sample different types and styles of ramen.  For what it’s worth, Tatsunoya was my favorite by far.