KINTON RAMEN | Chilled Summer Noodles
By Naomi September 17, 2017 canada, culinary, friends, personal, reviews, toronto, travel
KINTON RAMEN
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This is a Summer post because I'm trying to cling on to the last bits of sunshine before Fall comes and then goes full Winter.
The only thing I really like cold in life are my noodles. It's almost as if I have an invisible radar for them that inevitably lands me in a restaurant with a bowl of chilled noodles in front of me. My favorites in no particular order are zaru udon, zaru soba, jjolmyeon, naengmyun and of course, ramen.
Derek and I stumbled into this restaurant on a particular hot day as we were strolling along Queen St. W in Toronto. We had plans to go for kbbq instead at midnight for the night owl special, but feeling famished at around 5, which is usually when we eat dinner, we decided to make a pit stop at Kinton for something small to tide us over until the evening.
Then we ended up with a huge basket of kaarage (Japanese fried chicken), a huge glass of beer (for him), and the most generous bowl of chilled noodles I had ever laid my eyes on.
It came with a side of dipping sauce and some grated daikon radish, sliced green onions and a quail egg. The instructions that came with the order said to mix the vegetables with the egg and then combine it into the sauce before taking bite sized portions of noodles and lightly dipping it into the mixture.
After some deliberation about whether or not to include the raw egg, we finally dug in. The noodles were cooked perfectly al dente and chilled but not too cold. The seaweed imparted a different dimension of flavor and the aroma of roasted sesame seeds finished off the perfect bite.
The chicken kaarage was okay too.
I'm not a fan of Kinton's hot ramen options, but they definitely know how to do a cold noodle, perfect for a hot Summer day. Do note that Kinton has multiple locations and each one has their own specialty menu items dependent on location and season, so not everything may be available all the time, but there's always something worth trying.
And yes - we included the raw egg.
How could you not.
naomi
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For more reviews and information about Kinton Ramen, please visit the following link;