Kuma Takumi, Black Walnut Bakery

Good morning,

We interrupt our regularly scheduled ongoing series of Canadian Whiskey with an announcement important to this reviewer: there’s a new ramen restaurant in town.

We’re also back with The Dessert Course taking a look at a very popular bakery known for their brownies but that’s no slouch when it comes to everything else on their menu.

In fact, you can expect another regular feature, the Pizza Safari, to launch in the weeks ahead. 

With that good news let’s get started.

Ralf Joneikies, food and drink editor. [email protected]

JAPANESE

New Kanata ramen shop Kuma Takumi wows

• Name + address: Kuma Takumi

• Diet: meat, seafood, vegetarian

• Appetizers:

• Mains: $17-$25

• Wheelchair accessibility: Yes

• Licensed: No

• Website: www.instagram.com/kumatakumi_ramen

I was returning from an interview with master distiller Adam Brierley when I thought I would stop in for lunch at one of my favourite Kanata noodle shops.

It was a fortuitous decision as right next door a brand new ramen shop had opened its doors just a week earlier.

Kuma Takumi is the latest in an increasing number of Ottawa ramen restaurants and they’re certainly doing things the right way.

Server Lu (Lucia) Li greeted me and we launched into a conversation about ramen and the opening of this new shop. 

She impressed me with her knowledge of seemingly every other ramen restaurant in Ottawa as if she’d been doing legwork in preparation for the opening of Kuma Takumi. She impressed me further by revealing that she was behind the design for this very modern eatery with some of the more attractive and well-built tables and chairs I’ve come across over the years.

It’s these small touches that signal a concern with quality throughout the enterprise and as it turns out, I wouldn’t be disappointed.

I placed my order and within minutes my appetizer of chicken karaage arrived. Little nuggets of marinated chicken thigh golden fried and served grease-less with a slice of lemon. For $7 it was a very well-prepared starter.

Ramen may be a humble dish but it has its standards and some of these are beyond what we can expect to see in Ottawa.

Noodles, for example, in shops in Japan (a few in Canada) are offered not just in different thicknesses but also in different levels of doneness. The same is true of ramen broth: you can order it according to your preferred concentration with increasing levels of collagen for richness.

Kuma Takumi doesn’t offer that service but they are delivering a broth that will leave your lips sticky with collagen and for me that’s a “tell” about the level of care and focus on authenticity.

With ramen, the focus for the consumer is on the broth. This was a broth executed at a level that I’ve come to expect from Ottawa’s better shops: Jinsei, Ramen Isshin and Kinton. 

The noodles were firm and chewy and the broth had that delicious stickiness I expect from a well-extracted broth. While advertised as “spicy” it was very mild but came with a side of house spicy sauce and I expect this was out of an abundance of caution exercised by a new business.

Everything was on point but here’s something I’ve never encountered: it needed more salt. Now, this is going to be a perfect dish for patrons who can’t have much salt in their diets and that’s important… I would however suggest to Kuma Takumi that they offer a side of Japanese sea salt for those who want to amp up their experience.

The same under-seasoning was evident in the chashu pork. It was a nicely cooked addition but lacked the umami one expects. 

I did add tempura shrimp at $2 a piece and they were decent but had been left in the fryer too long resulting in too firm a prawn.

As a standout, you will however enjoy one of the nicest Ajitsuke Tamago (Ajitama- “ramen eggs”) in Ottawa. The marinade in the egg white was delicate with a magnificent egg yolk custard, the richness of which balanced the seasoning. Pure pleasure and I appreciated the care that went into the preparation.

Owner Tinker Yang’s older brother started this venture out of Japan and, according to Yang, owns three locations in China. He studied ramen in Tokyo and the results are evident via the very proper techniques employed.

A surprise to me was how he volunteered that the water used in their ramen is always filtered. I’ll take his word for it. This was one of the nicest and cleanest broths I’ve experienced in our city. Ramen fans take note and pay them a visit when in Kanata.

JAPANESE

A return to Taki Ramen

A few weeks back I offered a write-up on Taki Ramen on Lees Ave. It didn’t go as planned as the server had neglected to place my ramen order. So I headed back to see how their soup fared.

I started with their chicken gyozas which, they were honest enough to point out, are not made in-house. They’d been properly prepared having been seared on just one side rather than deep fried. Sadly the filling tasted tired and old and was just room temperature.

The black garlic miso ramen had a nicely balanced broth albeit a little thin. It needed to have been cooked longer to extract more flavour and collagen from the meat and bones. I checked with the server and was told that they cook their broth for six hours. If that’s accurate, it’s woefully undercooked.

The noodles had been overcooked and were far too soft while the chashu pork belly was cut properly thick and was seasoned through.

All in all, there needs to be a focus on quality control. Taki shows itself to be a hit or miss affair and it doesn’t need to be that way because there’s enough there to build on.

COMMENT CORNER

THE DESSERT COURSE

Under the spell of the Black Walnut

On a recent road trip (more on that in a future edition) I was passing through Cumberland and I realized it was time to try the baked goods from the legendary Black Walnut Bakery. It was a weekday so there was parking to be had and that was a further incentive.

For anyone who’s made the trek to Cumberland precisely for their baked goods, you’ll know that the lines of customers can be daunting. On this day I got lucky and walked right up to the counter.

When you first walk in you are struck by the incredible range of breads and pastries offered by such a small space. When you visit their website you are further hit by an array of salads, sandwiches, soups and frozen takeaway items. This place is a gem.

What I didn’t know (for some reason) is that they also bake some of the finest breads to be found in Ottawa. 

Their rye bread is rich in sourdough aromas and the crust is sweet and nutty rusticity reminding me of the great German breads of my youth. It’s also a great bread that they sell for under $7 a loaf.

Black Walnut is famous for their brownies, a baked item that is not a favourite as they are generally heavy on both flour and third rate chocolate. Not so at Black Walnut. It was moist and gooey with good chocolate and an appealing melt. Walnuts, not being something I tolerate well, were used sparingly. I was grateful as I had neglected to ask.

Another item for which I reserve a great deal of disdain is the scone. It’s remarkable how many businesses create these dry dust packets of absolutely no appeal. I can just never get past the first bite. Until now.

I enjoyed a blackberry honey scone wherein the honey was not just a sweetener but a flavour component and that’s a rare thing.

Their butter tart was another winner and the closest I’ve come, locally, to the fine versions produced by Kathy Cassanto and available at the Carp Farmers Market.

The Black Walnut interpretation was rich with butter and a lusciously sweet filling that worked nicely with a cup of English tea.

The seasonal hot cross bun was delicate and mildly sweet with currants and the spices were fragrant and the pastry sumptuous, when warmed.

They also make a very nice pretzel in both sweet and savoury versions and my salty pretzel worked beautifully as a bread substitute for a ham, egg and cheese sandwich.

Given the distance to Black Walnut bakery and the inevitable lines once you arrive, the only danger is that you’re likely to over-order. Then, of course, it’s a matter of calculating how much space you have in your freezer.

Suggested stories

• The region’s first Brazilian bakery

• Bobino Bagel lights up Laurier in Gatineau

• The best cannolis in Ottawa? Dolci Sapori makes a case

• Priya’s Pearl of a business

QUICK BITES

• Did we really need yet another reason to stop shopping at Loblaws? Check out this story. [YouTube]

• Stay tuned for Ottawa’s newest pizza shop set to open on April 16.

• Learn how to make ramen eggs with this simple recipe. [Just One Cookbook]