A Culinary Journey – Hakata Ikkousha
Hakata Ikkousha is a Japanese restaurant located in Torrance with amazing Japanese food.
The restaurant mostly specializes in tonkotsu ramen. Tonkotsu is also known as pork bone and has a creamy consistency and meaty flavor.The broth is made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for many hours. The consistency can be compared to milk, melted butter, or gravy and looks very cloudy.
The restaurant takes your order by giving you a sheet of paper and circling what you want.
For the noodles, you can pick the amount of heat and the texture of the noodle. You can also circle if you want more toppings or if you don’t want onions on yours.
The noodles are so chewy and have a great texture to them. The broth is buttery and so heavenly in your mouth. There are toppings such as crushed sesame seeds, a ramen sauce, pickled vegetables and chopped, fresh garlic.
I highly suggest adding in the garlic because it infuses the broth and the garlic flavor really stands out. The meat is also buttery and tender and falls apart and just melts in your mouth. They won the Ultimate Ramen Championships two years in a row so they have perfected the ramen and the broth. 
I also tried the fried chicken and it was one of the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. The batter is light and airy and the chicken is tender on the inside. When you bite into it, you get a great crunch and amazing flavor.
They also give you a small bowl of seasoning that you can dip the chicken in.
The seasoning adds so much flavor and you have to put it on. There is a little kick, but it is definitely worth it. Make sure you don’t breathe it in because it will travel to the back of your throat and it is not a very great feeling. Trust me on this, I learned the hard way.
Now that the weather is getting cooler, ramen hits the spot. If you have any questions or comments, please do contact me at culinaryjourneybyalexis@gmail.com
