In honor of my first view of Tampopo, a terrific 1985 movie about noodles, love and food, I searched out Maru Ichi, a Japanese noodle house on Castro in Mountain View. Maru Ichi makes around 200# of ramen (all wheat) and soba (wheat and buckwheat) noodles EVERY DAY in their small noodle room in the front of the restaurant. The prices are great, the food yummy, the kimchi (though confusingly not Japanese) rocked it! Maru Ichi has been open 10 years. I don't know what took me so long to get here.
Now, if you read Eat Out. Alone. In Public? NEVER! you may recall I often read when eating alone. So while enjoying a delicious Vege Ramen ($7.98) and thinking about that hilarious scene in Tampopo where the prissy Asian teacher instructs ladies how to properly slurp up noodles, I intently engaged in "The Hungry Scientist Handbook."
"Is that a good book?" I look up to two guys smiling at the table next to me.
"I just started so not sure," I respond, "but the entry on making edible caramel underwear caught my attention, that's for certain."
"Why are you reading it?"
"Well, I do corporate wellness programs, cooking classes, pairings, Discovery Bars? Now I am looking to pair with a scientist on cooking and science events."
Boy did that statement get those guys going about how they are scientists, and their inventions, and what else is in the book?They just kept blabbing on while my noodles got cold. Not sure if they wanted to work for me, pick me up, or rip off my idea. Anyways, they finally left and I went back to the noodles. A few minutes later coming from the other side?
"That seems like an interesting book. Can I look at it?"
Geez!
Summary: How to Meet Smarty-Pants Guys in Mountain View?
Go to the Mountain View library, check out The Hungry Scientist Handbook, or Alton Browns' Good Eats. Hold high while lunching at one of the great cheap, ethnic Mountain View eateries. Here are a couple of my favorites, for the food, and I guess now - the men!
Chaat Paradise (Indian) 165 E. El Camino.
Himalayan Kitchen (Nepalese, Indian) 820 E. El Camino.
Ryoya (ramen) 859 Villa St.
Maru Ichi (homemade noodles and kimchi) 368 Castro.
