Tonight, Chris and I went to Yuji Ramen at Whole Foods on Bowery for their eight-course ramen omakase. We sat at their counter at Whole Foods, where only six of us were allowed at a time to be served by Yuji himself. We were served ramen in the shape of shells, ramen broth from a French coffee press, and monkfish liver filled ramen shaped like candy topped with freshly grated wasabi. It was a really unique tasting experience, especially coming from a Japanese guy who always thought he didn’t even like ramen.

While on one of the final courses, I realized that my rich mussel broth ramen had a tiny dead fly floating on the top. I alerted one of Yuji’s helpers, who got Yuji’s attention to make me a new bowl. It reminded me of the time when (I think) it was my 20th birthday, and my cousins, uncle, and Ed took me to Chapeau!, a really quaint French restaurant in the Richmond in San Francisco. When my dessert came to the table, I started digging in, only to realize that there was a long hair lying across my little cake. Ed was trying to get the attention of the waiter so that he could bring me a new dessert, but because I liked the taste of the dessert so much, I obliviously just kept on eating it. “Stop eating that!” Ed scolded me.

Ed would have been pretty upset if he saw that dead fly in my mussel broth tonight. I wish he could have real ramen with me just once.