For the past few weeks I’ve been adhering to a couple pretty simple rules for eating. Eat less than 1500cal a day, try to get most of those calories from protein. And I’ve been losing weight accordingly.
Saturday 3/6/21 was not one of those days. After a brief jaunt to Cinemark for a private viewing of Tom & Jerry with some family, we stopped off to grab takeout at Kaiju in Amherst MA. A new spot for us.
We ordered a ramen bowl for each of our 4 family members, along with 4 pork belly bao. The bao are served hot/ready so we dug into those immediately in the parking lot… My god..
Our carload of critical foodies was immediately enamored with the complexity of flavor packed into these puffy pork pillows.. The textural contrast between the fluffy doughy bao bun and the “chili crunch” and pickled carrots.. Everyone, including my notoriously picky daughter and my notoriously picky self couldn’t help but crave more the moment these were gone.
At $3 a piece these little Asian answers to a taco were far from cheap, but we still debated calling to order more while still sitting in their parking lot… Or going back the next day for a dozen more. Ultimately we were too ashamed to phone in for immediate reinforcements and headed home.
Our hopes were high on the drive, overflowing paper bag of ramen constituents in tow. If the bao we ate as an appetizer was any indication, we were in for a hell of a meal.
Unfortunately Kaiju, like many restaurants in MA, remains closed to dine-in eating. What they have opted for instead is a great alternative. Ingredients for their ramen bowls are packed separately from the broth and instructions are included for home preparation and assembly.
After following the brief preparation instructions, which included oven and microwave options, assembly was just tossing whatever ingredients you wanted from your kit into a bowl, adding broth and voila!
See that up there? That’s two full pork ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, udon, pickled carrot, and scallions all bathing in a ludicrously rich pork broth. My GF was a bit more adventurous with her ingredients..
To say they came out fantastic would be an understatement.. The fact that we were able to prepare these at home and still got the level of flavor and quality out of them that we did is nothing short of amazing. Kaiju has cultivated a set of ingredients and simple instructions that anyone can follow and end up with a mind-blowing experience, at home. That’s a commendable accomplishment.
The last thing we ordered was a Demon slayer juice box (sake) and a couple of Ramune sodas for the kids. I’m not a huge fan of wine, but I wanted this juice box real bad. Still not a huge fan, but I got through it and the box itself is a cool little souvenir.
Overall 10/10. All day, every day.
Keep killing it Kaiju.