I was out all day and came back home to the hotel only to find out that someone was waiting for me at the lobby, sitting comfortably like he owns the entire establishment, dressed on his usual favorite brand Under Armour, waving at me as if we haven't seen for ages. It's my friend Aldous who also happens to be in Guam! Along with him is his friend Adam, who is so amiable that I became comfortable with him in an instant. The best part is that they have a car that we can use to meander in the city of Tamuning tonight.
Arguing is what Aldous and I loved to do whenever we see each other and we wanted to do it tonight. We loved to debate about a lot of things that will stir our 600 billion neurons until we feel to need to ingest Advil. We figured that it would be best if we pair it up with a slap-up dinner like as if we haven't eaten for days. Suddenly, our taste buds craved for something Asian. We wanted to try Thai, or Vietnamese, or Chinese maybe, or perhaps Korean, or why not Japanese this time? Adam, who is a frequent visitor to Guam said he knows a restaurant that we can go to in Pale San Vitores Rd in Tamuning, which is just a 5-minute drive from my hotel. There's just a bit of a problem. He can't remember the name of the restaurant and where it is exactly.
So we drove off from Wyndham Garden along Hwy 14B to the north and turned right to the first crossroads. Yes, Guam is so small and it's not so surprising that the street that we were looking for is just right at the next corner. The first restaurant that caught our eye was Proa Restaurant on our left, which is just at the entrance of Ypao Beach Park in beautiful Tumon Bay, which looks like a local Chamorro restaurant with their handcrafted Pacific-rim styled menu. Further to the right is Beachin' Shrimp, a patio-seating restaurant with a coastal beach feel situated right in the heart of Tumon's Paradise Island right in the Plaza complex, whose name suggests that they serve American cuisine. In just less than a hundred meters is a Japanese-looking logo with a Japanese-sounding name, no doubt that Shogun Teppanyaki Guam is a restaurant that serves Japanese food! However, Adam said it's not like the one that he remembers so we drove past it.
I started to Google restaurants in Guam to make our search a little easier, particularly in Pale San Vitores Rd, but I looked dumb searching for something that I don't know about. It's not like finding a needle in a haystack. It felt more like finding random metals in a pile of hay. In another 500 meters, Aldous pointed onto something that looks Asian, but the name Pho Thanh Xuan Noodle House sounds like Vietnamese to me, which is also one of our choices. If we will not find what we were looking for, we'd settle with this. We drove a few more miles further until we reached a place that looked familiar to Adam. I started to have a strong feeling that we've finally reached the place. He then suddenly turned right to Acanta Mall, a local shopping mall in the heart of Tumon which features a variety of stores, restaurants, and services and is home to the Sorensen Media Group's Broadcast Center. We parked the car and I surveyed the place looking for a Japanese restaurant that I don't see anywhere.
Adam hopped out of the car and started crossing the street. He signaled us to follow him and excitedly, I saw an Asian-looking restaurant right in front of us. It read Ban Thai. Guys, I thought we wanted to eat Japanese tonight? Ban Thai isn't Japanese! It's in its name. It's Thai! But before I could utter another word, Adam turned left upon crossing the street, and right before our eyes, a two-story building emerged from a series of palm trees covering it, with its neon lights blazing like fire where bustling people come in and out of the establishment. The first thing that caught my eye was the gleaming pink and blue fluorescent lights with the numbers 2 and 4 paired up with the word "hours" right below its signage that reads Fuji Ichiban Ramen. I drew a sigh of relief. Finally, a Japanese restaurant!
The long wait is not over yet. We had to hold on to our hunger for a little bit more because there's a sea of people waiting to be seated (due to hunger, my vision multiplies the number of people I see). While we were waiting for our turn, I got to talk to some people who are very friendly. I think it's the nature of locals on this island, that they share a lot of information without the need to ask.
I learned that Fuji Ichiban started sometime in 1985 in Nagoya City, Japan. They only started with self-made noodles until they were able to establish their central kitchen six years after. In just 10 years, Fuji Ichiban mushroomed into a number of branches in the country until the successful establishment of the local corporations in Guam in 1997. The first branch in the country was built across Guam Reef Hotel in Tumon which operates only from 11:00am - 12:00am from Sunday-Thursday but they extend until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. Just a year after, this second store was opened in Tumon, just a little over a kilometer from the first branch. It's easy to find it since it's just across the Acanta Mall and right next to Subway Restaurant if you will be coming from the other side. What's good about this branch is that they operate for 24 hours but they close on Mondays from 3:00 am - 11:00 am.
(Update: As of April 2019, Fuji Ichiban's main restaurant has moved next to the Acanta Mall and Avis, across the street from its former location.)
Finally, one of the staff approached us and greeted us with a warm-hearted "Irasshaimase!" and led us to a corner table which we requested. She immediately handed us the menu (although there is a bigger version on the wall) and introduced herself. She is Robbie, the friendliest, warmest, and most accommodating restaurant staff I have ever met in my life. I am an inquisitive person, a trait I have not outgrown and this is something that annoys a lot of people I talk to. But not Robbie, she answers all my questions with a smile, a truly sincere one, and goes the extra mile by making sure you'd love what you'll hear and you'd love her by doing so.
Aldous and I just let Adam make the ordering, not because we don't know what to order, but because we trust that we will be served with the best he has ever tasted in Fuji Ichiban. We started with fried rice, which of course, being the staple food of Filipinos, a meal will not be complete without it. We were told that they serve two kinds of fried rice, which they call Chahan. One is regularly fried Gomoku meshi garnished with katsuobushi, a kind of dried and fermented smoked tuna, and finely diced chicken, minced carrots, fried tofu, and mushrooms. A plate is $7.75, which I find too pricey, but it looks so mouth-watering that you forget you're paying a high price for it. The other one is Kimchee Chahan, which is more expensive at $8.50, but with a different twist of Korean.
We were then introduced to different kinds of ramen. They all looked the same, aside from the names that don't mean anything to me so I looked at their prices so I can gauge how different one from the other. The cheapest ones are priced at $8.50 so I'm guessing that they are more of the regular-tasting ramens that you can just find anywhere. There's the Soy Ramen, which can be differentiated from the other by its soy flavor, while the Shio Ramen has salt. We were told that the ingredients and the method of preparation are almost the same.
The other group is priced at $9.00, so I am assuming that they are more specially-flavored than the regular ones. Kimchee Ramen is, as they say, one of the most ordered in their branch, which has a garlic soy taste, a little different from the Taiwan Ramen, which is spicier. Compared to the two cheaper ones which only have noodles, scallion, green onion, leek, and some fatty pork, these two are served with ground pork with bean sprouts and garlic chives.
What we got indulged into are the most expensive ones, Fuji Ichiban's specialty ramens, priced at $9.50, and all looked very promising. They have the Tonkotsu Ramen, which has a pork base taste; and the Taiwan Tonkutso Ramen which is spicier than the first. They also have Miso Ramen, which is of course miso-flavored, and the one that we ordered was Shisen Miso Ramen, which is just spicier than its counterpart. We were told that it has (of course, aside from the noodles), hen's egg, scallion, green onion, leek, bean sprouts, pickled bamboo shoots, pork belly, and their secret spices that make it fiery.
Fried rice in the Philippines is always eaten with viand, so it wouldn't be complete without anything meat, seafood, or vegetable dish that would accompany it. So Adam turned the menu into the side dishes page to order some more. There were a lot of choices like their famous Chinese dumpling Gyoza at $5.50; Tenmusu, a 3-piece rice balls with deep-fried shrimp tempura wrapped in nori, the cheapest of all side dishes at $5.00. They also serve Karaage, which looks like a Japanese version of Kentucky deep-Fried Chicken at $6.00; and two other karaages with specialized sauces but with the same worth. Mayo Chicken is the one coated in mayo sauce while Kochujang Chicken is blanketed with a mixture of garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, and the special Korean sauce gochujang.
We asked Robbie what she would recommend and she pointed at the picture of a plate with chicken strips dipped in eggs and cornstarch, and topped with spices wallowing in some kind of oily sauce. It looked ordinary to me. It's something that I always see served in karaoke bars or side street drinking pubs in the filthy streets of Manila. I couldn't help asking her what's in it that makes it recommendable. She assured us that the special Japanese mixture that was drizzled into the chicken strips will take our breath away, and we may even want to order some more. It sounded too good to be true but worth the try. It's called Amazu Chicken, a special kind of sweet and sour chicken augmented by the scrumptious blend of the amazu sauce.
We were already in famish but we understand that we didn't go to a fast-food chain so we couldn't help but wait. Besides, we expected a lot from the food that we ordered so we can't afford to disappoint ourselves. We asked if we can have our iced tea served first so we can, at least, quench our thirst and shun our salivary glands from drooling over the mouthwatering food that is served on our neighboring tables. Well, it came in fast! The first service already exceeded our expectations.
When our food was served, I immediately tried the Amazu Chicken. True enough, Robbie didn't fail me. It's one-of-a-kind fried chicken strips that I almost forgot I had to eat it with chahan. Fuji Ichiban's fried rice is a complete meal in itself. We were wrong that we needed to pair it up with viand so we can eat it. Not to forget that the Shisen Miso Ramen is a heavenly-tasting food, so glorious that I felt like I am Oliver Twist wanting to ask for more! The three of us stuffed ourselves like we will be crucified the next day where we almost forgot that our purpose in eating out is to catch-up. Screw filling in, we got more inclined to being drenched with total enjoyment with the food.
We spent $43.75 on that dinner and unexpectedly, Adam picked up the tab (thank you so much, bro!). It's a little pricey for a decent meal since a $7-worth Subway dinner or a $12 Panda Express stuffed meal may somehow be enough for tourists like us but splurging a little on something that will make your dinner unforgettable fits my definition of "best deal." Probably, I would rate my overall experience in Fuji Ichiban with:
And of course, we don't wanna be Rose DeWitt Bukaters who can't have any way to remember Jack Dawson so we asked Robbie, the best restaurant staff we have ever met, to have a picture with us. Even though we know it's not allowed. Thank you Robbie for allowing us to keep you in our memory and for giving us the best definition of customer service.