More Silly Valley Noodles - Maruichi Ramen in Mountain View

I wonder what Mountain View, CA looked like 50 or 100 years ago. The half mile main strip known as Castro Street must have beckoned the farmers of this lush valley, laden with apple and apricot orchards. If the transistor hadn't been discovered almost 70 years ago, would the town of Mountain View be jam-packed with Asian restaurants as it is today, supported by a diaspora of engineers drawn to the Mecca of all technology? Would the orchards only a stone's throw from my company headquarters still be Superfund cleanup sites?

Mountain View, CA around 1907

1940's or 1950's's Mountain View

Castro Street 2014 is lined with Asian restaurants

I can't answer any of the questions that I posed, but what I can say, without any doubt, is that there are more inexpensive noodles in the 40 mile stretch of valley than I could ever taste in my lifetime. Yet I remain undeterred.

My colleagues and I descended on the Ramen Soup at Maruichi like locusts awoken from a long slumber... which is to say, we massively over-ordered.  I loved the atmosphere of this Ramen shop, with a "U" shaped noodle bar one might find in any Tokyo neighborhood, and a box of Kimchi on every table. That's right- FREE Kimchi. It felt just like Korean Christmas.

Chris, Tom, and some other colleagues who wished to avoid the stain of appearing in my blog (which can never be removed no matter how hard you scrub) decided to get busy by ordering some cold noodles for the table. The order was larger than I was used to, and we had two of them to boot. The best part about the Soba was the shrimp tempura that came with the noodles- they were tasty little bastards and they died for a good cause. The Soba noodles lacked textural complexity or even much flavor. I'd skip these the next time around.

Soba Noodles with shrimp tempura

We also ordered some California Rolls (when in Rome) along with our Ramen-- these were interesting little calorie bombs, was that cream cheese in there? They were tasty, but above all, they were dirt cheap. An order of three was $1.90...Wuuuuuuut?

Summer Rolls

It's hard to resist a bowl of Miso Ramen, and  if you call it SPICY Miso Ramen it's impossible. They do have a very dark looking bowl of Shio Ramen that I'd love to try next time.

Spicy Miso Ramen at Maruichi

The Ramen was very tasty and the noodles were springy and obviously fresh. I wasn't sure about the broth, I think it may be better to order the attractive, creamy looking Miso Ramen I saw and spice to your own temperature with Japanese pepper or Kimchi. But I really loved the combination of the noodles with plenty of bean sprouts- aren't bean sprouts just peachy in soup?

Left to Right. Tom, me, and Chris getting about our noodle business

The check came to about $90 for five of us, which is pretty amazing for any Ramen place, but was especially reasonable since we had ordered half the menu.  I will definitely come back here, however my colleagues recommended two other Ramen places not far from here that we I need to try first.  The choices really are endless. After lunch we went back to our office. I wanted to crawl under my desk and go to sleep but that's the price one has to pay to live this amazing noodle life.