This week Jonathan Gold considers Tsujita L.A., the newish ramen shop on Sawtelle. Tsujita is not exactly one of the crammed noodle closets that are the tsukemen shops in Tokyo — 5 seats, Foo Fighters blasting, 15 minutes to slurp your noodles so the drunk guys outside can get in — but it's a lot more peaceful and the noodles are pretty great. Perhaps we'll get some closets next year. Please?

Tsukemen is hip in all the usual ways, including obscurity, a stylized consumption ritual and flavor of an intensity that can be overwhelming the first few times out, like Skrillex or Scotch whisky.

Read the complete story in Gold's Counter Intelligence, “Friends, Ramen and Tsukemen,” and check out Anne Fishbein's photo gallery. Then maybe get in your car.

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