Time for a foodie post.

If you live in or plan to visit the LA or Orange County area, and you'd like to try some fantastic ramen, please find your way to Santouka as soon as you can. Nader and I were in Orange County to drop off an album order at Leather Craftsmen in Santa Ana, and the two-hour drive from our home studio to Leather Craftsmen deserved a tasty lunch.

The Costa Mesa Santouka is located in Mitsuwa Marketplace. This particular Mitsuwa Marketplace is a supermarket and more. Among other outposts, there is a newsstand, a Shiseido "boutique," a confectioner's counter, and, most importantly, a food court. It is in this food court that Nader and I ate the most fantastic, meltingly tender, savory pork from Santouka.

I had the shio ramen, which consists of perfectly chewy, but not overdone, ramen noodles bathing in a delicious bowl of steaming broth made from pork bones and shellfish. The broth was flavored with salt (shio); there are other types of ramen you can try that have miso or soy sauce(shoyu). I suggest trying the shio; it is the signature flavor of Santouka.

It comes with several slices of fatty pork called chashu (and not the same as Chinese chashu AT ALL), chopped seaweed, green onions, bamboo shoots, a slice of fish cake and one bright red umeboshi pickle. I accompanied the noodles with a flavored hard-boiled egg (komi tamago) because I wasn't getting enough cholesterol from the fatty chashu.

While deciding what to order, I was torn between the shio ramen and another offering that presented slices of pork and the other toppings on a plate, so that you may enjoy them separately from the noodles. This other tempting dish was the "special pork" or Tokusen Toroniku Ramen.

Luckily for me, Nader ordered the Tokusen Toroniku Ramen, and the pork is "special," indeed! It's unbelievably rich and buttery. The butteriness must come from an even higher fat content than the chashu on my noodles, but the fat wasn't visible like it was on my slices. Once you placed the special pork on your tongue, it melted away. There was no need to chew. I've never seen my husband enjoy food more than when I watched him slowly savor the last piece of special pork. Perhaps I've converted him to being a foodie, too!

Santouka has several locations in Southern California -- Torrance, West LA and Costa Mesa. Check it out for something different and very, very tasty!

Special thanks to the Rameniac for giving me something new to obsess about.