As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Edmonton first learned of Prairie Noodle Shop in October of 2014, and the demand for a good bowl of ramen has increased ever since.

This past Saturday Prairie Noodle Shop hosted their fourth and final pop up, this time at Ernest's, the fine dining restaurant at the NAIT campus. Having a bigger space to host the pop up event meant the team had the ability to serve 150 bowls of ramen - the largest number of bowls to date. Tickets to the event sold out in under five minutes, so if that doesn't tell you Edmonton is ready for ramen, I don't know what does.

As guests were seated at their tables for dinner, Arden Tse, one of the co-founders of Prairie Noodle Shop, let out some exciting news: a brick and mortar space has been secured and could be open as soon as December 2015. Say goodbye to the anxiety-fuelled, often frustrating attempts to secure tickets for ramen, and say hello to long lineups for a guaranteed bowl. Once all the paperwork is approved and construction starts, the first dedicated ramen shop is coming to Edmonton!

As with the previous three ramen bowls, Prairie Noodle Shop brought forth yet another Albertan-inspired bowl of ramen. Alberta's "meat and potatoes" loving diet was the inspiration for a tsukemen style ramen, where thick ramen noodles are dipped into a flavourful, concentrated broth. It's not the usual image that comes to mind when you want to eat ramen, but I love that Prairie Noodle Shop is introducing Edmonton to different aspect of ramen culture!

So what exactly was in the bowl? This bowl of tsukemen ramen had three different components. Starting with a solid base of good quality ramen noodles sourced from the "Ancient Chinese Lady," the noodles were sticky and springy in texture, ready to be dipped in broth. Beef from D'Arcy's Meats was ground and cooked up tan tan style (or Chinese dan dan style) into a ragu of sorts with black bean paste, carrots, pickled chilies for heat, and cubed potatoes for crunch. The team decided to go with the ground beef as it would allow for meat in every bite and you wouldn't finish one component before another. Lastly came the soup, which was a tangy potato soup, thick enough to cling to the noodles. And of course we can't forget the famous umeboshi egg! Flavourful, tangy, pink and with an oozing yolk, that egg is a killer component in any bowl. I can't wait for the day that I can have more than one in my ramen!

All the components in this bowl really clicked, making it not only delicious, but hearty too. The heat from the ragu really built up with each bite, while the tang of the starchy potato soup toned it down. It's another great bowl of ramen, so if you didn't get a chance to try it, it will be on the menu alongside the pork, chicken, and garlic cheese ramen featured at previous pop ups. Being one of the lucky individuals to have tried all four bowls, I'd have to say I'm on team pork/ I can't wait until I can have that bowl of ramen with the crunchy chicharron.

It's been amazing seeing the team at Prairie Noodle Shop follow their passion and develop what is to be Edmonton's first dedicated ramen shop. I can't wait to sit up at the bar and just eat a bowl of umeboshi eggs - yes, that is definitely happening. Congratulations PNooSh and all the best in the rest of your journey, I'll be sure to be there on opening day!

Ramen is now the talk of the town since many restaurants have started to feature it on the menu. But before any of the hype started, a little restaurant out in St. Albert offered steaming hot bowls of hearty noodle soup for the Saturday lunch hour.

Yuzen Japanese Restaurant - #127, 1 Hebert Road - St. Albert AB

I never used to find myself in St. Albert due to the long drive, but ever since my boyfriend starting coaching hockey out there it has not felt so far away. We heard about the Saturday-only ramen featured at Yuzen and figured we should check it out - after all, hot soup noodles are great for warming up before or after sitting in a cold arena!

Yuzen only serves ramen on Saturdays from 11:30-2:00 PM. We arrived at about 11:50 to find the restaurant packed with hungry patrons, and we were quoted a 15-20 minute wait time. The restaurant can accommodate about 40 people including the seats at the bar, but the space is pretty small so you wait outside of the restaurant until your name is called. Service seemed to be pretty quick because it felt like we were seated in no time.

The Saturday lunch menu features five different bowls of ramen (shoyu, shio, tonkotsu, miso, tan tan men), optional extra toppings, and a few sides like gyoza (panfried pork dumplings), ebi shumai (steamed shrimp dumplings), and rice bowls. All the ramen bowls come with the standard char siu, green onion, bamboo shoots, and roasted nori sheet, unless otherwise specified. My boyfriend ordered the Tonkotsu ramen ($11), which was garnished with wakame and beni shoga in addition to the regular toppings. One look at the broth and I was excited - the cloudy soup hinted at signs of a rich, flavourful broth, and that's exactly what we received. Thick and creamy, the broth gave a flavourful punch with each bite into the al dente noodles. The char siu was quite fatty, but was moist and flavourful, making this a pretty good bowl of ramen. My boyfriend actually found the broth to be a little too rich for his liking, but I would have happily devoured the entire bowl.

For myself I had the Miso ramen ($11) which was served with bean sprouts, spicy ground pork, green onion, bamboo shoots, and the roasted nori sheet. The ground pork was in place of the char siu, so I ordered a side of char siu (5 pc, $2.50) to come with my noodles. The miso broth was not quite as thick as the Tonkotsu, but it had depth and a strong miso flavour with a bit of heat. The noodles had a nice bite that lasted to the end of the bowl, and it was a filling, hearty bowl of noodle soup.

Yuzen does a great job with their broth for ramen, making it in house on Friday nights to prepare for the Saturday rush. Like other Japanese restaurants with ramen on their menu, Yuzen brings in the noodles from a supplier here in Edmonton. Makes me wonder when we will have a dedicated ramen restaurant that makes both their broth and noodles in house! Speculation aside, the bowls of ramen were awesome for Edmonton standards and are comparable in price to other restaurants. The broth was flavourful and the noodles were cooked well, so I would definitely return in the future. If you're in the area on a Saturday afternoon or are willing to make the trek for some ramen, try out their bowls and let me know what you think!


Edmonton is a cold, snowy city for the majority of the year. During the winter months I'm always looking for ways to warm up from the cold, and nothing is more comforting to me than a bowl of steaming noodle soup. I'm going to be highlighting some of my favourite noodle soups in the city, and I'd love for you to share yours with me so I can try them too. Follow along with #YEGNoodleSoups and let the fun begin!

Holy moly there is a lot of snow outside on the ground in Edmonton. We got a whole 20-25cm of the powdery stuff over 24 hours! Lucky for me I am enjoying the so-called "balmy" weather in Vancouver right now, taking in the Grey Cup festivities in town.

As I promised last week, I want to spend this winter sharing some of my favourite bowls of noodle soup here in the city. There is nothing more comforting to me on a cold winter day than a slurp of noodles with hot soup.

Trang Tien - 9449 Jasper Avenue - Edmonton AB

One of my favourite noodle soups is the Vietnamese bun bo hue. Everyone always talks about pho, but I like bun bo hue better. This spicy Vietnamese speciality originated in Central Vietnam, and features pork, beef, and thick rice noodles. Lemongrass is the predominant flavour in the broth and the heat from the chillies just opens up the sinuses when the cold weather hits.

My go-to spot for bun bo hue in Edmonton is Trang Tien. This little family-run restaurant claims to have the best bun bo hue in the city - and I won't argue with that claim. The location is a bit sketchy with a hole-in-the-wall feel to it, but I love it. The restaurant has never been full on any of my visits, but there's always a smiling little boy that takes my order and serves me my food.

This massive bowl of Hue's Beef Noodle Soup (#22, $10.25) always arrives steaming at the table with a plate of basil and bean sprouts to add into the bowl. Not that it needs any, though - the bowl is filled to the brim with noodles, beef, pork balls, fish cake, raw onions, green onions and shaved red cabbage. The soup has an amazing aroma and the depth of flavour in the broth comes through with every bite. The rice noodles are a great al dente texture and I like the contrasting crunch you get with the vegetables. Seriously, it is such a great bowl of noodles to warm the soul on a cold winter day.

So there you have it. Best bun bo hue in the city. Do you have a different opinion? Please let me know, I'd love to try your suggestions. Come back next week for the next #YEGNoodleSoups adventure!


Edmonton is a cold, snowy city for the majority of the year. During the winter months I'm always looking for ways to warm up from the cold, and nothing is more comforting to me than a bowl of steaming noodle soup. I'm going to be highlighting some of my favourite noodle soups in the city, and I'd love for you to share yours with me so I can try them too. Follow along with #YEGNoodleSoups and let the fun begin!

Unless you've been living under a rock you may have heard about some ramen causing quite a stir in the Edmonton food scene. Two weeks ago a ramen pop-up was hosted at the Get Cooking Edmonton studio, drawing in over one hundred people hoping to get a slurp of some soup noodles.

As of right now there is no dedicated ramen restaurant here in the city. Arden Tse, a finance/investment professional, and his friends felt the need to fill the void and started making ramen from scratch at home. Batch after batch it slowly became better, eventually reaching a point where it was good enough to serve to friends. But how could they share the ramen with the public?


Arden Tse on the history of Prairie Noodle Shop
After meeting Kathryn Joel of Get Cooking Edmonton during a pasta making class, Chef Stephen Baidacoff loved the idea of making ramen and jumped on board. In collaboration with the other chef instructors at Get Cooking, the perfect bowl of ramen came to life and Prairie Noodle Shop (PNooSh) was born. PNooSh is the new kid on the block, and is looking to bring the people of Edmonton ramen done right with locally sourced ingredients. Noodles, broth, and toppings from scratch - it is no small task!


Chef Stephen Baidacoff
The inaugural Prairie Noodle Shop pop up featured an Alberta Pork Ramen made with all the parts of an Irvings Farm Berkshire pig that Arden helped butcher with his own hands. 100 bowls at $15+GST. No more, no less. So what was in the bowl? The shio (salt based) broth was made with smoked bones and dashi with Asian dried shrimp. The noodles themselves are not made by PNooSh, but rather sourced locally from a secret Chinese lady with a factory in the south end of the city. Toppings included an umeboshi (Japanese salted plum) pickled egg, sweet corn, green onions, and the Alberta pork featured three ways: shredded, pork belly char siu, and a togarashi spiced chicharron. It was important to include the crisp, fried pig skin to signify their use of the entire pig. Nothing went to waste in this Alberta-style ramen!

Can I just say this flat out? The bowl of ramen was killer. The broth had a nice depth of flavour, and the ramen noodles had a great elastic-bite that held up their texture right down to the last slurp. The pork was tender and flavourful and the corn gave a refreshing sweetness in each bite. What impressed me the most though was the egg and chicharron. Wow…I could eat these two things endlessly. The egg with the perfectly cooked yolk was tangy and savoury, while the crispy pork skin added yet another textural element. If you don't like eggs, please give me yours at the next pop up!

Prairie Noodle Shop is hoping to host these ramen pop-up shops at Get Cooking Edmonton every 6-8 weeks to gauge interest and build excitement. Each pop up will ideally feature a different type of ramen, and if there's enough support they may move forward and look for a permanent location. Edmonton definitely needs this.

Are you salivating yet? Lucky for you the next pop up has been scheduled for Friday, November 21st, and I have a bit of a sneak peek for you! From Arden himself:

For our next bowl we knew we wanted it to be chicken based. Partly because a lot of people who don't eat pork would still love to try our noodles, and partly because we just love chicken. What's the Prairie twist? We started thinking about the savoury flavours of beer can chicken which became our inspiration for incorporating a few types of barley into the tare soup seasoning. It's subtle, but it gives our soup a nice warm and earthy note to it. A perfect dish for the cold weather we're heading into! Fans can expect to see a couple of familiar elements returning this time: the use of our dashi in a double soup (broth is pure chicken, no pork), the same great noodles made by our "ancient Chinese secret" lady, and of course, the umeboshi egg. We're also frying up a delicious piece of chicken skin to accompany the egg. We're still experimenting with a few cuts and preparations of chicken and vegetables but noodle lovers can be assured that it will be tasty. We're also considering a couple of different local farms to source our chicken from and will announce that once we've made a decision.

So there you have it. I'll be out there on November 21st fighting to get my hands on a bowl - don't expect me to play nice either! For details, make sure to follow Prairie Noodle Shop on Twitter @YEGNoodles. See ya there!

This past Tuesday, Vince and I ventured into the older part of Chinatown to check out a restaurant we had a Groupon for. With a bright orange logo and a big sign off the side of a building, Noodle Maker was hard to miss.

Noodle Maker - 9653 102 Avenue NW - Edmonton AB

This humble little restaurant is not located in one of the best areas of our city, it's moreso in the rundown, forgotten part of Chinatown, just pas the old Chinatown Gate. As a child, I remember my parents would frequent this part of the city, as it was once a lively area full of restaurants, BBQ houses and supermarkets. But now, my parents barely come to this area, and I, for one, never visit this area when I head downtown.



Upon reading the "message from the host" on the menu, I realized why they picked this particular location. We have chosen to open this new business in a part of Edmonton that has fallen on hard times in recent years. We are committed to hiring staff from the area and giving the kind of training that will serve them well here and in future endeavours. This is an act of faith on our part in the future of the area and in the future of the city that has given us much and to which we would like to give something back.

It's messages like these that restore my faith in humanity.



We arrived shortly after 7:30 pm, and the restaurant was relatively quiet by then. There's not much decor to look at within the restaurant, but the wall is lined with traditional Chinese images reminiscent of the menu cover, and there's a relatively large cherry blossom tree near the front of the restaurant. Decor aside, the tables in the restaurant and the utensils provided were very clean. The service we received was very personal, as the owner of the restaurant, Mr. Siu To, served us himself. He's a soft spoken older gentleman, and I enjoyed having the chance to talk to him throughout our meal.



To start off the meal, we ordered the Apple Pulled Pork on a Bun. Weird thing to order at a noodle restaurant, right? Thank Vince for this one, because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have ordered this at all. I honestly think this was my favourite dish of the night. The pork was tender and juicy, full of flavour, and in a large quantity for the size of the bun. The pork was perfectly seasoned and bathed in a savoury, tangy sauce topped with braised apple for a slight twist. The bun itself was crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside.. messy, but so delicious. I have a feeling that the buns may be baked in house, as I noticed they also sell bagels! More on this later.



For myself, I ordered the Spicy Dan Dan Mein: Grilled ground beef and Szechuan hot sauce served with ramen in light miso broth. For this dish, you are supposed to mix up the beef with the noodles in order for the flavour to be transferred into the soup. Prior to doing so, I tasted the broth and didn't find a hint of miso.. maybe that's why it's a 'light' miso broth, hah. With the first bite, I knew they used fresh ramen noodles to cook their dishes. They noodles have a characteristic elastic nature to them, and are cooked al dente. The sauce used to cook the beef wasn't overly spicy, and I really enjoyed this dish once everything was mixed together.



Count on Vince to order something random again, he ordered the Beef & Shrimp Pad Thai as his main dish. Why didn't he order ramen? Beats me. Although the pad thai was different from what we are familiar with, it was flavourful, with the main flavour being from fresh basil leaves. There was a heavy sauce factor to this dish, making sure that each noodle was coated with flavour - if you like the more traditional pad thai, I suggest staying away from this one. Not to say it wasn't good, it's different from what you may think you will receive.



Halfway through the meal, I realized that we wouldn't be getting anymore food sent to our table, but we were missing a dish that we ordered. The most anticipated dish that I wanted to try was actually the Green Onion Cake. After reading about the green onion cake over on Sharon's Blog, I really wanted to try out Edmonton's original green onion cake. I called over Mr. To, wondering about the appetizer we ordered. The quickly realized that he forgot to put it on our order, and got the cook to make one for us right away. Because it was his mistake, he treated us to the green onion cake on the house.

When he brought it to our table, we chatted and I learned that the green onion cakes are made by hand in the restaurant. He claims to have been the first to bring this dish to Edmonton over 30 years ago, and it's still very popular at his restaurant today. The green onion cake was the flat type, and served with a vinegar sauce on the side. Although it didn't look like much, the outer part was fried to a nice crisp, while the inner layers were dense but still flaky. I didn't like the combination of the provided sauce with the green onion cake, but opting for the spicy chili pepper sauce provided at the table brought me to food heaven. If you come visit this restaurant, definitely try the green onion cakes!

Noodle Maker is a hidden gem here in the city - one of those hole in the wall restaurants that I don't think many people know about. The prices are great for the food (averaging $8 per bowl), and comparable to pho restaurant prices in the area. Aside from ramen, they also serve rice dishes, and other traditional Chinese noodle bowls.

One thing that I read about after visiting the restaurant was that Mr. To bakes Montreal Style Bagels on the weekends, and has them for sale in the restaurant! He offers Sesame, Poppy Seed, Multi-grain, and Apple-raisin-cinnamon flavours - I will probably stop back in a little while to try them out.

In the meantime, if you're interested, check out this short interview with Mr. To talking about his bagels.

Celebrate! I finished writing my last final this afternoon, and will be worry free for the next little bit (until I start planning my study schedule for MCAT, sigh)!

Vince picked me up from campus, and we headed out to eat before having to head to a staff meeting for work. I've been curious about Nomiya for a while, and heard some good things, so we headed there to grab a quick bite.

We got to the little restaurant around 5:00, and it was quite busy according to my standards. I expected there would be maybe 1 or 2 other tables, but the restaurant seemed to have half their tables filled. Good sign, I would say.

We were seated right away, and presented with their menu. They have two separate ones: one menu for their ramen offerings, while the other has their appetizers and sushi. There were approximately 6 choices for ramen, which isn't much, but sufficient since they do offer sushi as well (maki and bento boxes, along with different appetizers)

To start off, I wanted to try out their konbu seaweed salad. I normally love seaweed, and actually make seaweed salads for myself at home when I have to study. It's nutritious and delicious! However, this one at Nomiya is the most unappetizing thing I've ever put in my mouth.. No joke. I imagined a typical seaweed salad, where the seaweed has texture and a little bite, and seasoned with a light dressing/vinaigrette. What we got was totally different. The seaweed in the salad was thinly sliced, drowned in a bowl of dressing, and extremely slimy. Felt like I was eating from the bottom of the ocean or something. The texture was very jelly like, and I couldn't stomach it, let alone handle the texture of it. I think it was likely the agar coming from the seaweed that was thickening the salad and dressing. The flavour of the dressing was great though. It was soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger based dressing which tasted good. Just everything mixed into it was gross for me.



My palate was pretty excited to see my steaming bowl of ramen placed in front of me after being scarred by the salad. I ordered the spicy miso ramen, which is more expensive than the regular miso ramen. I wonder what accounts for the price difference? I'll probably have to check that out next time. The ramen noodles had a nice texture, and were cooked perfectly. The broth wasn't overly salty, and had a little bit of spicyness, but not enough for me to have to grab and chug my glass of water. The weirdest thing about it was the corn in the soup. Is that normally what they put in ramen? All the ramen I've ever had didn't have it. It is unique, and will probably make you feel a little bit fuller if you eat all of the little kernels! The noodles came with Chinese cha siew (BBQ pork), seaweed pieces, black fungus, and garnished with green onions. I enjoyed this menu offering and would definitely recommend it.

Vince on the other hand ordered the "Tan Tan", described as a ramen with tonkatsu pork soup, seasoned with house made spicy sesame and peanut flavour. He told me he ordered it because he thought it was the only ramen with meat in it. Hello?? Did you not read the menu properly? Oh the things I have to put up with :)



The ramen was supposed to be served with kirrage fungus, spinach, minced pork green onins, and peanuts. But when it arrived, it just looked like a plain bowl of ramen. Digging around in the bowl, them meat was found, but the fungus and spinach seemed to had vanished from his meal. When we tried out the soup, it wasn't fantastic, and I wasn't a big fan of the way the flavours were presenting themselves. Vince wasn't too big of a fan either, but that could just be how the flavours taste on our palate.

What's working really well for this restaurant is the texture of their ramen noodles, and they way that they cook them. What I wasn't too impressed with was the thick layer of oil atop of the soup, all shiny and gleaming due to the lighting above us. I can understand some oil being in the soup from the cooking process, but such a thick layer is not a good sign, especially when there are many people out there sensitive to fats in their foods. I have heard that people get the runs after eating at this restaurant (at least 2 of my friends already), and it's likely due to the oil in the broth. Vince had a pretty bad stomach ache after eating here, cause he likes to drink the soup, but I was okay.

For a Japanese restaurant that doesn't only serve sushi, this place isn't bad. I have yet to try Samurai Bistro still, as every time I go there it's closed! This isn't the best ramen I've ever had, but it's at least a nice starting point for one of the first 'real' ramen places in Edmonton

Nomiya Sushi & Ramen Restaurant
3803 Calgary Trail
Edmonton AB