Ramen Has A Moment In L.A. - Food Trends

The recent scene in Silver Lake had shades of Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First?" and the Das Racist song "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell."

A man walked into the new Silverlake Ramen and looked for his girlfriend, saying she had told him she was at that restaurant. She wasn't. Instead, she was sitting in Pho Café, a block away, thinking she was at the ramen place; neither could keep their noodle soups nor shops straight.

Ramen is having quite the moment, usurping pho in the noodle-soup popularity contest. And with both Silver Lake Ramen and Men Oh Tokushima Ramen opening in the past month, there are new noodles to slurp this fall.

Rich tonkotsu broth is, unsurprisingly, the focus at Silverlake Ramen. Don't be deterred by the extra dollar required to add an egg to your ramen ($8.50)–the rich texture of the barely set yolk could make the tender pork-belly chashu jealous.

Men Oh, across Little Tokyo's Honda Plaza from Sushi Gen, uses a tonkotsu broth too, which, in its Tokushima-style ramen ($9), is seasoned with soy sauce and topped with both chashu and strips of sautéed pork belly. The result is a complex bowl of soup, one no one could ever mistake for pho.

Silver Lake Ramen, 2927 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, 323-660-8100; Men Oh Tokushima Ramen, 456 E. 2nd St., Downtown, 213-687-8485 or menohusa.com