My First Time Trying Long He Ramen…
Intro
Meow meow, hello everyone, and welcome back to our ramen weight-gain journey! Today we’re hitting our 15th shop, Long He Ramen! My old craving for ramen kicked in again recently and I just couldn’t resist. The problem is, I’d just finished class and it was that awkward two-or-three-in-the-afternoon ramen dead zone, so there really wasn’t anywhere open to go. In the end, this is the place I landed on.
After quite a bit of walking I finally made it to the shop, and found it completely empty inside, so I happily took a seat. No wonder most ramen shops aren’t open during this time of day; I figure they have their reasons. Overall the place is really spacious, with maybe 30 to 40 seats, and the seats aren’t too cramped either. The grey-and-white walls are decorated with a row of little flags.
Long He Ramen: the details
Long He Noodle House on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/vKxAWXP8ATdnvoHc8
The ghost-pepper ribeye ramen: broth and toppings
I got there at 3:51 pm and ordered the ghost-pepper ribeye ramen with a soft-boiled egg and extra noodles, which came to 260 NTD total. For ramen of this level, that price is honestly great value. My guess is that since all the kitchen gear had already been put away by then, prep took longer than usual; I waited about 12 minutes, which is on the long side. Anyway, let’s dig into this bowl of ramen!
Overall, the base tastes like something between a mala hot pot and a tonkotsu ramen. Of course, my palate isn’t always the sharpest, so this is just my guess, but I’d say it’s pretty close. The tonkotsu flavor isn’t too heavy and the mala isn’t too spicy, hitting a perfect balance that makes you want to keep going bite after bite, with even a faint salty-sweet note in the aftertaste. That said, I still found it a little bit of a shame; it’d be nicer if there were an option to adjust the spice level, since I personally would’ve liked it a bit spicier.
The noodles are very traditional medium-thick noodles, and they pair pretty well. The ribeye is sort of like that “half-tendon, half-meat” pork texture, so good I couldn’t imagine pork could taste like this. The only downside is that they gave way too little of it, just three pieces (each about two finger-knuckles long). The toppings are very plain: bean sprouts, wood-ear mushroom, and chopped scallions. It already comes with half a soft-boiled egg, so there’s really no need to order more, and I don’t think the extra noodles are necessary either, because once you add them there isn’t enough broth to go with it all.
I think this bowl is suited to people who are on a tight budget but don’t want to settle for Taiwanese-style ramen; it’s a kind of budget-version ramen you can go for. Sometimes I really crave a bowl but don’t have the budget, and that’s when I’ll stop by this shop. The rest of the time, though, I’d usually pick one of the other ramen places over this one.
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