Slurping Turtle

Last weekend, Jessie and I went to Slurping Turtle in River North for dinner, which has been open for less than a year. It's Japanese comfort food and I'd heard recently that they have good ramen. We decided to go early because I had also heard there can be long waits on the weekend, but we arrived at around 5:15, right after work, and the place had basically just opened. However, the service was incredible and our servers gave awesome advice on what to order so we mostly stuck with that and they did not disappoint. In fact, I got to talking to one of our servers about our recent trip to Big Star and he highly recommended Antique Taco in Wicker Park, which just opened this summer, and which I've been dying to try. Hopefully, that will be an upcoming blog post!

Turtles are a symbol of longevity in Japan and slurping is encouraged when eating ramen because you are supposed to get both broth and noodle with each bite.

This drink, whose name fails me, has an egg white in it and grapefruit and rosemary, but the rosemary cannot be detected. It tastes mostly like grapefruit juice, strongly spiked grapefruit juice.

This drink, whose name also escapes me, is much like the aforementioned drink in that it tastes like pure lemon juice, strongly spiked lemon juice. Stick with beer or wine if you eat here.

This is hamachi tuna tartare in taro root taco shells with hamachi roe. These are incredible and I cannot wait to go back to have them again. The crunchiness of the taco shell with the softness of the tuna and the salty soy sauce marinade really works well together.

I'd read that their duck fat fried chicken was a star on the menu and it does not disappoint. It is very rich and, thankfully, a very small dish for that reason.

This is the pork belly snack, which is really tender pork belly on top of a steamed bun with a pickle on top. Texture in Japanese cooking is just as important as flavor and this dish is texturally off. The steamed bun and the soft pork belly just scream for something crisp and the pickle does not deliver.

These Brussels sprouts are so salty and meaty and crispy and the addition of the frizzled shallots is heavenly. This is another dish I will be going back for.

The tonkotsu ramen is a pork broth with braised pork shoulder, mustard greens, wood ear mushrooms, egg noodles, and those oval things, which are fish cakes, and happen to taste more like nothing than like fish. This is another winner. The mushrooms are cut in similar shape to the noodles so they take on the same texture and mouthfeel.

The an mitsu is a Japanese sundae of green tea ice cream, red bean paste, fruit, and agar agar cubes. The agar agar cubes (basically flavorless Jello) overwhelmed the dish. I get that they are there for texture but they detract from the dish for me.

We also split three macaroons: yuzu, which is a citrus fruit, caramel soy, and red bean. The yuzu is by far the best macaroon I've ever tasted. The others just made me long for the yuzu!