The Attacca Quartet

Behold, the ATTACCA TOTE BAG!!!!! Our environmentally friendly tote bags finally came in the mail the other day! We were lucky enough to have one of Andrew’s coffee friends, Charrow, to design it for us… I know my iPad photo doesn’t do justice, but look how AWESOME it is… She knows what she’s doing, for sure.  The totes are made from 100% recycled material. I went grocery shopping with the bag the other day, and I accidentally bought too much beer (as always,) but the bag tote-ally saved my butt… I hate having to carry plastic bags because they stop your circulation when they are too heavy, you know? Because we love the design so much, we may turn it into T-shirts or some other goods we can shamelessly promote ourselves. We will be sending these out to our donors of “The68,” and we will have them at our concerts from now on.  Written by Keiko.

Behold, the ATTACCA TOTE BAG!!!!!

Our environmentally friendly tote bags finally came in the mail the other day! We were lucky enough to have one of Andrew’s coffee friends, Charrow, to design it for us… I know my iPad photo doesn’t do justice, but look how AWESOME it is… She knows what she’s doing, for sure. 

The totes are made from 100% recycled material. I went grocery shopping with the bag the other day, and I accidentally bought too much beer (as always,) but the bag tote-ally saved my butt… I hate having to carry plastic bags because they stop your circulation when they are too heavy, you know?

Because we love the design so much, we may turn it into T-shirts or some other goods we can shamelessly promote ourselves. We will be sending these out to our donors of “The68,” and we will have them at our concerts from now on. 

Written by Keiko.

The tour is over.

At the end of it all, our hearts were full of Beethoven, and our
belly’s were full of ramen stock. What can I say about a tour that
meant so much to us? Taking Beethoven’s opus 132 to ten cities is
something I will never forget. I remember the first time I heard that
piece played live. It was the Guarneri Quartet in Buffalo New York.
They played the slow movement so beautifully. I remember sobbing so
much that I shook the row of seats I was sitting in. Then I looked
around and everyone around me (including Amy) was choking on their
tears as well. When people told us that they wept during our slow
movement, I felt so fortunate to be a quartet musician. I am so happy
to be able to communicate these notes from a piece of paper into
statements that mean things to people in a personal way.

And what can I say of the food that kept me fed while I was in Japan?
I went over knowing that each style of ramen would be distinct. What
I didn’t have perspective on was how proud each area was of their own
style. If it wasn’t the style of the area, you will have a hard time
finding it. And even if you do, they will try and steer you away from
it. The second shop I went to in Sapporo, a woman asked me if I had
ordered the Miso, and when I assured her she exhaled, relieved that I
had made the right choice, and went back to eating her miso ramen.

When word got out on the tour that I was looking for good ramen, the
locals all knew where I had to go. They couldn’t wait to show me the
good shop. It is the same way in New York. We take pride in our
food. The food recommendations I make mean something about ME. If I
tell you to eat the pork buns or the apple kimchi at Momofuku, or a
burrito at Dos Toros, or the Korean BBQ at Kum Gang San, or the pain
au trois chocolat at Bouchon Bakery, the food you will eat will
reflect a picture of how I want you to experience the city that I
love. I have to thank the people of Japan for believing in the food
that they serve. I will never forget the journey I took eating all
this ramen.

Andrew

Ivan Ramen was a total and utter departure from the normal ramen we have had here in Japan so far. You see it above with the totally unflattering picture I took of it. I was using Luke’s camera and could not figure out how to turn off the flash before I put my face right in that ramen. This was his take on shio ramen. It tasted like Matzoh ball soup without matzoh balls (and with pork in it). The broth was supremely chickenny and the noodles (made with rye flour) were amazing. The noodles had a delicate shape but held the chicken fat in the broth so nicely. The pork was 3 slices of perfectly cooked pork belly (we ordered more because it was so tasty). The eggs were orange perfection. Afterwards Keiko and I stumbled back to the train in a delicious stupor. Bravo Tokyo. Bravo Ivan Ramen.

Ivan Ramen was a total and utter departure from the normal ramen we
have had here in Japan so far. You see it above with the totally
unflattering picture I took of it. I was using Luke’s camera and
could not figure out how to turn off the flash before I put my face
right in that ramen. This was his take on shio ramen. It tasted like
Matzoh ball soup without matzoh balls (and with pork in it). The
broth was supremely chickenny and the noodles (made with rye flour)
were amazing. The noodles had a delicate shape but held the chicken
fat in the broth so nicely. The pork was 3 slices of perfectly cooked
pork belly (we ordered more because it was so tasty). The eggs were
orange perfection. Afterwards Keiko and I stumbled back to the train
in a delicious stupor. Bravo Tokyo. Bravo Ivan Ramen.

A bowl of shio ramen in Shobara. This is the ramen I had after I had
already eaten a full meal.

Hiroshima train station tonkotsu ramen. Useless. But love the baseball theme of the place.

Hiroshima train station tonkotsu ramen. Useless. But love the
baseball theme of the place.

Since our last chatty-chat, I have had so many bowls of Ramen. I will tell you about them all right now. We left the land of the Black ramen to head to Tsu, where the locals told me NOT to eat the ramen, so I obeyed. We did however have some delicious sushi. We also had some Korean food, and we had some oxtail soup with ramen noodles (pictured above). We then headed to Kobe, where we had some delicious Kobe beef. I will write about that in it’s own post later. My camera is not working at the moment, so I am counting on other people sending me pictures. We then found our way to the small town of Shobara, where they gorged us full of shark, shabu-shabu, a (no other way to describe this) zesty shrimp, beef, and all other sorts of things. In the middle of the dinner, the drunk men heard that I was keeping a Ramen blog and insisted that if I was a REAL man, I would go and eat ramen with them right then and there. So I did. I have a hard time remembering what that ramen was like. I was so full of beer and my previous dinner, that I kept no notes and my memory was wiped clear of any memories from that town. Is there such a thing as glutton induced amnesia? Gluttonesia? Amnuttony? I had amazing ramen last night with Keiko here in Matsumoto. We asked the front desk what was best and she sent us to a place that specialized in shoyu ramen with a layer of “premium back-fat” floating on top. There was lots of Char siu on top, and a generous heap of julienned scallions over the whole bowl. The real star of the night was the house made, hand cut noodles they had. I reminded me of some of the best pasta I ate while we were in Italy. There were little offshoots of thicker noodles mixed with the regular noodles, and they were cooked to chewy perfection. Today we travel to Tokyo, where we will be eating at TWO ramen joints that I am really excited about: Ivan Ramen (a Jewish guy makin’ ramen with schmaltz for Japan) and we are going to the shop that INVENTED Tsukemen. Hold on to your butts.

Since our last chatty-chat, I have had so many bowls of Ramen. I will
tell you about them all right now.
We left the land of the Black ramen to head to Tsu, where the locals
told me NOT to eat the ramen, so I obeyed. We did however have some
delicious sushi. We also had some Korean food, and we had some oxtail
soup with ramen noodles (pictured above).
We then headed to Kobe, where we had some delicious Kobe beef. I will
write about that in it’s own post later. My camera is not working at
the moment, so I am counting on other people sending me pictures.
We then found our way to the small town of Shobara, where they gorged
us full of shark, shabu-shabu, a (no other way to describe this) zesty
shrimp, beef, and all other sorts of things. In the middle of the
dinner, the drunk men heard that I was keeping a Ramen blog and
insisted that if I was a REAL man, I would go and eat ramen with them
right then and there. So I did. I have a hard time remembering what
that ramen was like. I was so full of beer and my previous dinner,
that I kept no notes and my memory was wiped clear of any memories
from that town. Is there such a thing as glutton induced amnesia?
Gluttonesia? Amnuttony?
I had amazing ramen last night with Keiko here in Matsumoto. We asked
the front desk what was best and she sent us to a place that
specialized in shoyu ramen with a layer of “premium back-fat” floating
on top. There was lots of Char siu on top, and a generous heap of
julienned scallions over the whole bowl. The real star of the night
was the house made, hand cut noodles they had. I reminded me of some
of the best pasta I ate while we were in Italy. There were little
offshoots of thicker noodles mixed with the regular noodles, and they
were cooked to chewy perfection.
Today we travel to Tokyo, where we will be eating at TWO ramen joints
that I am really excited about: Ivan Ramen (a Jewish guy makin’ ramen
with schmaltz for Japan) and we are going to the shop that INVENTED
Tsukemen. Hold on to your butts.

Where am I?

Truthfully, I am not sure where I am right now. Here is a list of
things this tour of Japan does not let me do:

1. Eat a whole piece of fruit.
2. Eat a burrito.
3. Have a sense of place and time.
4. Meet a black man.

Here is a list of things that this Japan tour DOES let me do:

1. Have a toilet that is smarter than my dog at home.
2. Play my favorite music all the time.
3. Eat lots of Ramen
4. Meet a Japanese man.

The ramen here was a total surprise of goodness. The woman at the front desk said we had to try the local specialty called “Black Ramen”. Black ramen sounds like it should come with a cock-fight and a curse. But in reality, it was made with a special dark soy sauce and served with (in my case) extra pork. This pork was not the standard circle of polite belly floating on top. This was soy braised pork shoulder, cut in thick slabs. I want to be besties with these guys, they even gave me the end piece and stuff. The noodles were dark yellow and thick and cooked so nice. It was served with a huge beer, and afterwards I had a ramen baby in my tum. Runaway winner so far. Keep em’ comin Japan.

The ramen here was a total surprise of goodness. The woman at the
front desk said we had to try the local specialty called “Black
Ramen”. Black ramen sounds like it should come with a cock-fight and
a curse. But in reality, it was made with a special dark soy sauce
and served with (in my case) extra pork. This pork was not the
standard circle of polite belly floating on top. This was soy braised
pork shoulder, cut in thick slabs. I want to be besties with these
guys, they even gave me the end piece and stuff.

The noodles were dark yellow and thick and cooked so nice. It was
served with a huge beer, and afterwards I had a ramen baby in my tum.
Runaway winner so far. Keep em’ comin Japan.

Biggest hall of the tour so far. The sound guys were amazing here. We had the Adams up and running in under an hour. It helped that we found all of our levels in the last venue, so we could hit the ground running. I am so happy we are getting a chance to play this Adams over and over again. There is nothing quite like playing in front of a huge audience to get a piece up and running. The concert went well. It was another two encore night. We played the slow movement of the Mozart 575 and the last movement of Dvorak American. I did a really corny slide AT Amy and it made her improvise a weird trill. It was so odd and funny that we all actually started laughing in the middle of the piece. I would say we were laughing at her, but nobody was laughing harder than she was.

Biggest hall of the tour so far. The sound guys were amazing here.
We had the Adams up and running in under an hour. It helped that we
found all of our levels in the last venue, so we could hit the ground
running. I am so happy we are getting a chance to play this Adams
over and over again. There is nothing quite like playing in front of
a huge audience to get a piece up and running.

The concert went well. It was another two encore night. We played
the slow movement of the Mozart 575 and the last movement of Dvorak
American. I did a really corny slide AT Amy and it made her improvise
a weird trill. It was so odd and funny that we all actually started
laughing in the middle of the piece. I would say we were laughing at
her, but nobody was laughing harder than she was.

Tumblr is not the greatest at posting everything I write.

The hall was gorgeous. I didn’t take a picture, but I did take a
picture of some trees, so we could pretend that the beauty of these
trees is equal to the beauty of the hall. Or we could pretend that we
are all Bard students and we decided to have a “connecting with
nature” concert (Hi David). It was a particularly resonant hall, so
the slow movement of the Beethoven and the Barber Adagio felt
especially nice in the space.

This morning we flew to Takaoka, with a layover in Tokyo, and we all
had delicious airport ramen. Mine was a shio (salt) ramen with pork
(extra because I had Amy’s). The broth was killer, and the balance of
the bowl was really something great. I was happy to eat that after
the last two duds. Keiko also had the shio, and Luke and Amy had the
Shoyu. I am going to have some more Ramen tomorrow afternoon. This
time I am going to have Keiko ask the desk for the name of a good place.