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Eat this: Chilled tsukemen ramen at Full Steam Dumpling
As per usual, I got way too much food at Full Steam Dumpling, chef Andy Huynh’s ramen and dumpling shop inside the Santa Cruz Art Center in downtown Santa Cruz, and I have no regrets. Huynh’s farmers market-inspired menu changes with the seasons, which means there are always new dishes to try, and it’s always a battle to choose between those and my favorites, so I don’t. The table is always crowded.
Huynh started Full Steam as a pop-up during the pandemic, but since 2021 it’s had a permanent home inside the former Santa Cruz Food Lounge – now operated by 11th Hour Coffee and easily the coolest coffee shop/bar/communal kitchen/event space in town. The menu focuses on ramen and different kinds of dumplings, like frilly shu mai, fat bao and crescent-shaped gyoza, stuffed with seasonal fillings. He is a master at laboriously layering flavors in his broths and sauces to create bold show-stoppers, all while drawing from hyperlocal ingredients.
The current late-spring, early-summer menu is a collection of warm-weather dishes, like silky, nutty sesame noodles ($14), served cold with cooling slices of cucumber, and a tropical-flavored “mai-tiki” salad ($14) with juicy pineapple, bitter frissé greens, fried maitake mushrooms and an addictive nuoc cham-style dressing. I came in to try one dish specifically: the chilled tsukemen ramen ($20.50).
For this dish, the ramen noodles and toppings are served separately from the hot broth, a concentrated, almost gravy-like version of Full Steam’s tonkatsu, made with pork and chicken bones from Fogline Farm in Pescadero and finished with toasted bonito salt. To eat it, you dip the long noodles into the broth, which clings to the bouncy strands. A perfect bite includes some of the raw pea shoots, which will wilt slightly but retain plenty of crunch. It’s fresh and deeply savory, cooling and comforting. Get it before the seasons change again.
1001 Center St., Santa Cruz; 831-200-4433 and fullsteamdumpling.com.
Best of the Week Ahead
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
News of the week
ICYMI – here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
- ‘Field of Dreams’ in reverse: How an unused baseball diamond could become a farm for Live Oak School District (Lookout)
- With a sixth location set to open on San Francisco’s Pier 39 this summer, Santa Cruz’s Humble Sea is defying craft beer’s bust (Lookout)
- Eaters Digest: Special sandwich aka ‘The Wilder’ at The Picnic Basket (Lookout)
- The problem with San Francisco’s oldest restaurant (San Francisco Chronicle)