I was in Cupertino near Marukai market one day. It was right around lunch time after I had run some errands in the complex. Choose to have ramen at Marufuku nearby. I first latched on to Hakata Tonkotsu ramen after trying ichiran in Tokyo. The white pot had chili powder for extra spice. I ordered mild for my ramen. I added some chili half way through the bowl. It was way too bitter and had very little heat. As I find out later, their heat levels are very reduced.
The ramen arrived and it was everything you would expect from tonkotsu ramen. First order of business was to sample the soup. It was a good tonkotsu broth that I enjoyed. Crunched on some kikurage mushrooms and bean sprouts. Somehow missed the ginger initially. The slices of stewed pork was very good and flavorful with soy sauce being very apparent. Normally the cha siu is roasted pork with mild flavor. Had to test the egg to make sure it was done correctly. Easy to break with chopsticks and the viscous yolk oozed into the broth. Thumbs up for egg prepertation. While slurping up the soup, I hit the ginger and recoiled. Ginger is not one of my favorite things to bite into. Overall, it was a good bowl.
The next day, I hit up Japan Town and ran into the San Francisco branch. It took up the area of what was 2 shops previously. Should I go to the same restaurant on back to back days?
To vary things up, I had the chicken paiten ramen. The soups tasted very similar to me but my palate is not as refined as others so I could not tell the difference between the pork and chicken. Also, I opted for medium spiciness but did not notice the difference between mild and medium. I might as well have ordered not spicey. All else was the same except for the slices of moist chicken breast instead of stewed pork belly. The pork belly is preferred over the breast meat. However, the chicken bowl does not have ginger and it tips the scale in its favore
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