Obviously one thing I miss on my diet is pasta. Next to Italians, there is probably not another ethnic culture in the world more concerned about quality noodles than Chinese, who are credited with inventing noodles, or at least being the first to write it down sometime between 25 and 220 CE (Common Era).
One of my favorite movies of all time is Tampopo, a story that celebrates the art of Japanese ramen. This is one of those cult classic movies that has been in and out of print a couple times in the past 20 years, but it's available now from Amazon. I first saw this movie at a film festival at Rice University with a girl named Darien, who is probably the president of some company in China by now (she got a job at Andersen Consulting, shipped off to China and I never saw her again). But enough about that - the movie is hilarious, sexy and practically invented a new genre of "noodle western" movies in Japan.
So today I saw this restaurant review for a new noodle shop called Ramen Setagaya Ramen Setagaya in the East Village that referenced Tampopo. Told you it was a cult classic! So now I'm dying to watch the movie, and then go down to the restaurant and try it out.
Of course, I have to wait for a few weeks because whenever a restaurant gets a good review by the New York Times, it's going to be crowded and crazy in there for a while. Plus, I have to get into Phase 3 of my diet before I slurp down a bowlful of ramen.
