Hong Kong people love queuing for food. And usually only food, unlike those hordes of mainlanders queuing outside Prada and Gucci along Canton Road, any day of the week. Hong Kong-ers know a good nosh so chances are when you see a queue outside a restaurant, either it is (1) just opened and the hype is still strong, or (2) the food is as good as it’s rumoured to be. Or both.
I, on the other hand, have long since given up queuing for food. The people, the humidity, the hunger, and the sheer silliness of standing for hours on ends for something to eat were just something I couldn’t stomach well.
So imagine my amusement when I saw this long queue outside Ichiran Ramen Hong Kong opened not too long ago, along Jaffe Road in Causeway Bay:
Apparently the waiting time is not for the faint hearted:
It is a culture that I will never understand nor will participate in. For Ichiran case… not when I could have the ramen in the comfort of my own home:
The better half went to Tokyo recently and got ourselves some Ichiran goodness to go. The no-nonsense packaging consist of three packet of soup concentrate and six packs of ramen. Usually you use one packet of soup for one packet of ramen, but the extra packets were there in case you were famished.
So the better half yielded his culinary wizardry, deciphering the cooking instructions (written almost entirely in Japanese) and even added the famous half-boiled egg for an authentic ramen experience.
The results?
The ramen was as good as any of those I ate outside, probably at Ichiran itself. One could argue that you can’t beat the authentic Ichiran experience, from the ticket buying, to the partitioned seats to the additional condiment.
But seriously, given the two options I would rather save two hours of my life to do something else more productive than staying in the queue… like blogging about the whole sheer silliness of it.
Now, if anyone is counting, I have one packet of soup left.