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| - I'll agree with the previous posters on the fact that it was quite hot, which is actually surprising. I had checked the weather before coming to the festival and it was in the low 70's but it did not feel as such. However, weather isn't something you can control. I've been through 80-90 degree weather for the 626 night market that was also outdoors and had zero shade areas so I'm not too concerned on that aspect.
Though, there wasn't enough places to sit -- that's for sure. Not only that but we also found a huge lack of trash cans. What the heck? I didn't understand. A good 75% of the festival was food booths but finding a trash can was similar to trying to find Waldo.
RAMEN:
The way they structured this was: you have to buy a food/drink ticket first. $7 for ramen and $2 for soft drinks. So you buy however many tickets you want. Each food ticket representing one bowl of ramen. With that ticket, you get in line to whichever ramen booth you want to try. Even though I don't particularly prefer this get in line to get in line concept...I find this a little bit more sanitary. Why? Because the people making, prepping, and giving me my food haven't touched money. Money can be very dirty. So it's less hassle for both sides. We don't have to worry about taking cash, giving cash, and getting cash back.
My friend and I tried three different booths for ramen.
Hiromaru: To be honest, it's pretty good. I do believe that this is from Japan so it's typical that the broth/flavorings aren't incredibly salty or rich. Japanese food is typically very bland. I loved how the tonkotsu soup base was not overly powering. You won't get tired of eating this. Because if the soup base was too rich, I'd typically get tired of what I'm eating and then it won't taste good near the end. Hiromaru is very balanced for my tastes :) I typically like thinner noodles but for some reason, their noodles reminded me of spaghetti XD!
Iroha: My favorite booth for ramen. It was different and not your typical soup base. It held a spicy kick to it, which I liked. The noodles were just right -- not too soft and not too hard. The wait for this line is actually quite long when we were waiting for it cause they didn't have that many people working and only one pot to cook noodles in. But it was worth the wait imo. Maybe next time I stop by SoCal I can visit this place and eat there!
Tsujita LA: What an interesting concept. We decided to try this stand because it serves cold ramen. And boy were they not kidding. Everything was cold from the soup base to the ramen noodles. It was almost like they got it out of the fridge! The soup base was really refreshing though considering how hot it was outside. And it kinda reminded my friend of an udon soup base. It wasn't horrible or anything but not my preference. It was a good experience though!
Would definitely like to see more of these types of things! *Thumbs up.*
OTHER:
There were a lot of other vendors there including Yonaka, Raku, and Ichiza. They also had a booth that sold takoyaki and also shaved ice from that one Frog truck .. can't remember the name. There wasn't anything particularly interesting except Raku .. they were selling skewers for $3-5 each .. which was kinda pricey. My friend and I tried the tontoro, the pork cheek skewer and it didn't really taste like pork ... didn't really taste like anything actually.
A lot of the booths sold beer, one sold cocktails, and some were selling water and soda for $1. Not enough variety on the sodas :( made me a little sad. I don't drink beer so that was useless for me. And aside from Ichiza selling their honey toast for a whopping $6, there weren't any desserts.
RETAIL:
A lot of different booths selling merchandise: from handmade crafts to stuffed animals. Some had jewelry. Some had hello kitty merchandise. Some had t-shirts and what not. Some had anime. It was like a mixture ... of things. There was also a nail art booth where they'll do your nails. $5 for polish and $7 for gel, which is a fabulous price. The designs looked cute too. I would've totally had mine done if my job allowed it :P Alas, job doesn't allow anything but neutral colors. Darn!
They also had your usual festival games...well two. The balloon fishing $2 and actual fishing $4 for one game and $6 for two. Kind of pricey for fishing the gold fishes but everyone has got to love those games.
STAGE:
They had a bunch of events going on the stage continuously from dancing to games to show you the arts, which was interesting. They even had a karaoke contest early around 2 PM. So if you're ever tired or just need a break from stuffing yourself, just go and watch some of that entertainment.
Overall, not bad at all. It's just a little lacking. There weren't enough things to look at or things to do to be able to stay at the festival for that long. Also entry is $8 at the door and $5 for advanced tickets. Would be nice if it was cheaper :[
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