Chew Chu

On Sunday, I headed downtown for the 2nd Matsuri Summer Festival which highlighted Japanese culture. Taking place at Yonge-Dundas Square, surrounded by gleaming billboard, the space was packed with festival goers. Some were taking photos with a model formally dressed as a geisha in white make-up, others took pictures of each other since she wasn't the only one in a kimono. At the front, people were watching various Japanese groups doing traditional dances and other activities. The majority were standing in various lines to eat food being cooked by local restaurants including Fin, Hapa, Zakkushi, and Gushu Chicken. There were some 10 such booths and they all did something so simple yet so superior to the chaos and slow pace of the Food Truck festivities I used to go to: have someone walking down the line taking orders.

Though all that food smelled great, I didn't want to wait in the hot sun and eat standing up or squatting over concrete. I walked north through the oasis of the Ryerson quad and plopped myself down at Ramen Raijin, one of two places that offered both pork and chicken broth. But what I was really in the mood for was some cold noodles. So I got the Hiyashi Chuka combo ($12.30).

The first dish was a bowl of warm rice covered with ground chicken and slightly sweet egg. Accompanied by a bowl of cool salad, it was a nice start. The noodles came out with char siu pork, egg strips, and seaweed. It was delicious and well-balanced: cold and toothsome noodles; soft and tasty pork; crunchy cucumber; and earthy flavour from the seaweed. A shallow broth provided some tanginess to the whole dish.