Marugame Monzo

I love all kinds of noodle soups.  It wasn't like that when I was a kid.  I was all about rice and my mom always had to make me something else when everyone else was eating pho.  I also was a big tomboy and hated wearing dresses.  It's amazing how some things change so much.  Marugame Monzo is known for making fresh udon.

Here's the udon man slinging fresh noodles.

Beef Udon
I was tempted to go with the traditional udon like See Moon did, but I'm glad I didn't.  There wasn't anything wrong with it, it was very standard, tasty, but just not very special.

Champon Udon
My dish, on the other hand, was really special!  I guess that's why it was listed under the "signature udon" section of the menu.  I actually thought it was going to be like the spicy Korean champong noodles but with udon.  Apparently, it's nothing like that.  Champon udon is a specialty of Nagasaki with Chinese influences.  It consists of seafood and vegetables (lots of cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms in this case) served over udon in a broth made from pork and chicken bones. This explains the very rich milky consistency to the broth.  I thought I was eating tonkotsu ramen!  The broth was really tasty and I loved all the veggies with my noodles.  Udon eating can be so carb and meat heavy sometimes.  This is probably one of the best udon dishes I've eaten.

The udon marugame taste pretty standard.  Chewy, slippery, fresh.  I actually like the udon noodles at Inaba better, but that's not to say the udon wasn't good here.

I was very happy with my lunch at Marugame Monzo.  I will definitely come back here to have the champon udon again!  I'd probably stay away from their regular udon because there's just too much other special dishes they do here and you can get regular udon anywhere.