If you've never fancied yourself a noodle slurper, Tanoshii Ramen + Bar still wants you to stop by for a visit. This week Chef Lan Chi Le added a few Japanese burgers to the menu at her noodle house: a traditional hamb?g?, a chicken burger and a veggie burger.
In Japan, you can find the hamb?g? on the menu at a McDonald's (nicknamed Makku in Tokyo). Of course, the obvious fact of the day is that the Japanese alphabet is different than ours. So hamb?g? is a rough, mostly phonetic translation.
"Japan borrowed the English hamburger," Chi says. "One of our chefs, born and trained in Japan, is offering Dallas his childhood authentic Japanese hamb?g?."
The not-at-all-secret ingredient in Tanoshii's traditional Japanese hamb?g? is the spicy miso chili that tops a ground beef patty. Then there is the option to add tomato, onions and lettuce, like any other burger you've ever eaten.
In an over-burgered city, the most exciting addition to the menu might be the vegetarian korokke burger. It's a mixed vegetable croquette coated with panko, fried to a golden crisp and topped with fresh wafu-slaw and homemade sweet-and-spicy tonkatsu sauce. There's also a new chicken teriyaki sandwich, which is pretty self-explanatory.
Of course, this news came after I finished eating my leftover Brussels sprouts for lunch.
