There are some real food scholars out there. Plenty of people, many of them right here in the Bay Area, some of them writing this text at this very moment, know a good deal about food and restaurants and the local scene, and can share that information with you in a halfway-cogent manner. But don’t bother with them.
You’re beyond that level of basic knowledge, reader. What can we tell you that you don’t know? What you want is the completely bonkers, totally OCD enthusiasm of people like Melanie Wong, who has forgotten more about local ramen joints than we (or you) will probably ever know.
This thread on Chowhound is just Wong’s latest update to her ordered list of 59 ramen joints in the Bay Area. Fifty nine! Do you know 59 local ramen restaurants? Do you know enough about them to put them in order and review each one? No, you do not, because you lack that kind of discipline/touch of craziness. Hey, don’t get mad, we’re in the same boat. We’re just glad there are people like Wong and Charles Hodgkins and others out there doing it for us.
Wong doesn’t seem to have her own blog, but she’s all over Chowhound. Bookmark her now and make her your ramen go-to information source.
Ramen and Spinach at Halu Restaurant in San Francisco [Chowhound]
[Photo: Via Melanie Wong/flickr]
