So You Think You Can Blanche

With rising cases, Toronto has moved from Red zone into lock-down effective Monday. So on Saturday, I decided to visit a new restaurant called Musoshin Ramen on Boustead. This side street was near the triangular intersection where Roncesvalles merged into Dundas St. W. It was about two blocks north of the more gentrified area of Roncesvalles Village.

The little shop, painted all black on the outside but with a cheery interior, resembled some charming place you might stumble over in Japan. But with current restrictions, we were limited to just a few tables outside. These were all snapped up for lunch time despite the cold weather. During my time there, a regular stream of customers came by to order. I'm thinking the locals were excited for the opening since previously the closest ramen shop was a 30-minute walk away.

I ordered a white miso vegan ramen ($17) with some extra vegetables ($2.50). Let's start with the good news. The noodles had a good chew and I enjoyed the unusual toppings like okra and roasted sweet potato. Typical ingredients like bamboo shoots were also tasty. Now onto the negative stuff. First, my broth came out barely luke-warm. It might be cold outside but not fast enough to cool down it that quickly. It had acceptable flavour but not exceptional despite the oohs and aahs from the table next to me. In fact, this profile recounted how the chef here was trying to perfect her technique using zoom (because of the pandemic) with the head chef in Kyoto. I remembered in the documentary Ramen Heads there were apprentices who worked long hours for months and years before striking off on their own.

Also, I don't know if they forgot my extra vegetables because if not, then the regular order for the vegan bowl would not have much toppings. So it was serviceable ramen (at $19.50) from a somewhat newbie that was 50% more expensive than an equivalent vegetarian bowl ($13.50) from Tondou Ramen. The other choices were more competitive price-wise but the vegan option was definitely not a good deal. However, I can't speak to the quality of those broth or the chashu-pork slices.

The article made it clear that, originally, local chef Yoshida was to handle desserts only and not pulling double-duty here. So I might return to try the interesting cube-shaped milk bread (Shokupan) or desserts (Yogurt Cheesecake, Strawberry Mochi). But Musoshin isn't high on my list for ramen.