Tonchin NY Ramen
Rating 9.5/10 | rnjesus pulled through on this one
First of all, apologies for the complete radio silence re: posting, but alas Silliam has been overwhelmed by work and the University tries very hard to make that situation worse. Second of all, we took a very nice trip to New York over reading week, and subsequently took absolutely no photos of the meals we enjoyed, apart from this one meal. Luckily, it happens to be one of the best meals we had.
Imagine this: two weary travellers left Pearson International for Newark Liberty (after having seen a fire on the tarmac before departure), arriving having consumed—at most—an apple and a can of diet coke (because of course). Not only was there a whole-ass fire at the airport (which probably shouldn’t be there), but the winter storm and snow picked up so heavily that literally every other flight to New York from Pearson was cancelled but ours. After significant de-icing and many hours of delay, we were on our way.
Upon our arrival we patiently waited, disembarked (cutting my hand in the process of getting my luggage because of course I did), and exited the aircraft to be met with not one, not two, but NINE American flags at Newark, an airport that is better described as a glorified, run-down office building than a piece of critical air-transit infrastructure. Furthermore, we had made the terrible decision to buy train tickets at the airport, costing us about $50 USD for two one-way train tickets. We didn’t care much, however, for we wanted to sit down and consume food ASAP.
Pulling into Penn Station from the airport, we walked uptown towards our hotel against the windy and bitingly-cold weather, checking-in and dropping off our luggage. Literally starving at this point (it had been at least 8 hours + overnight since we had consumed edible matter), we decided to just walk to the literal closest restaurant and tuck in for dinner.
That restaurant turned out to be Tonchin, a literal michelin-guide, bib gourmand, ramen restaurant that regularly required patrons to make reservations days in advance. Somehow, against all odds, we snagged two bar seats and ordered the same bowl of their Classic Tokyo Tonkotsu ramen. I am not joking when I say that I momentarily ceased to remember that I had a corporeal form and was instead enveloped in the warm embrace of a deliciously-rich broth and fatty meats. Silin and I ate so quickly we couldn’t finish our bowls (a shame in retrospect), paid our dues and went back to our hotel, passing out.
I can’t even recall what ingredients were used in that dish; I just remember praising RNJesus for the unworldly work done to ensure that we had such a pleasant meal as our first edible matter for the day. Ironically enough, that meal would end up being one of the best meals we would have in NYC, with Silin and I constantly comparing our experience at Tonchin with our other dining places (which we cannot, unfortunately, discuss because we took a grand total of zero images for your enjoyment). I suppose it also didn’t help that I got insanely sick within a few days of us arriving in NYC, surviving off of nothing but pure spite and Whole Food’s chicken and rice soup. All in all, it was a terrific experience that I am rather fond of and would recreate. 9.5/10 (it would be a 10/10 had I been able to recall what the dish was actually made of).
