0 In los angeles

ramen and romance

Over a dozen years after we first got together, I still take dating my husband pretty seriously. What I mean is that I love claiming a mutually free chunk of time and declaring it a date! Let’s be real- I’ll buy into any excuse to get a bit fun or fancy, eat good food, and steal smooches. While I was on the road this summer, I had long-term major cravings for tsukemen (dip) ramen. The best in the city is hands down at Tsujita LA– my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Since I’ve dragged David all the way across the city for several recent dates, I wanted to share our typical Sawtelle Japantown date with you.

The crowd at Tsujita can be insane, so we try to go at off hours. If the wait is still long, I kill time by crossing the street to shop at Daiso or browsing Asian skincare and beauty products at Make Asobi. (Much, much more on my Asian skincare routine coming soon.) Fortunately, service is brisk once seated and food arrives before I get hangry.

I always, always get char siu tsukemen. Other menu items are yummy, but that is my spicy savory dream. And romance goes out the window when this ramen is in the picture- I won’t even share it with David! It’s too delicious to let away from my greedy little fingers- to have and to hold, but get your own bowl.

The same goes for dessert. I’m significantly more interested in any outing that involves sweets of some sort, and Blockheads Shavery is just around the corner. They serve snow cream there, ice cream shaved off big blocks into light fluffy frozen deliciousness.

I love treats of all kind, but especially get excited about more unusual, less-sweet flavors. At Blockheads, I dress my black sesame snow cream with red beans, rice cakes, and condensed milk, and am a happy piggie. David likes his dessert properly sweet, so he covers his coffee malt snow cream with brownies, fudge, and sliced almonds.

With full bellies and full hearts, we head off into the sunset… And by that I mean head off to sit in traffic on the way home. LA traffic is perpetually blech, but it’s more pleasant when your sweet husband is driving you home after a date. I’ll take what I can get!