Black Sesame Organic Ramen

This little japanese organic ramen restaurant is just the place to take vegetarians and vegans. Although I don't normally befriend non-meat-eaters, I do happen to have a few friends that are ;) The food at Souen (pronounced So-en) was good and tasted very healthy... maybe too healthy. We each got a ramen and shared some starters. We had a yuba starter. I LOVE yuba but I'm used to it being served raw and untouched. This was grilled with a sauce on it, definitely a fusion variation on simple tofu skin. We also have the pickles, steamed greens and a tofu "chanpuru" (sort of) where they make a kind of scramble of tofu, egg and vegetables. The ramen was next, two of us, including myself, ordered the special, Black Sesame Ramen. It was really nice! I absolutely love sesame so it was great having a big ball of black sesame paste in the middle that you can spread around. There was a lot of kinpira and renkon in the soup. Kinpira is strips of burdock root, "gobo" in japanese, that's been marinated and prepared almost like a pickle, it's really good for you and helps to naturally clean out the whole body and digestive system. This dish was great in theory, the broth however was quite mild. We all added a bit of sesame oil and vinegar to pump up the flavour a bit. The miso ramen by far had the most taste... again, this one maybe too much taste.

Souen
326 East 6th street
New York, NY
(212) 388-1155
souen.net