Ramen - Learning how

As many people would know I am no stranger to the enjoyment of food, not so much for sustenance but also for the pleasure of simply eating.

During my recent visit to Japan I discovered a food called Ramen, the easiest way to explain Ramen is it is pretty much a noodle broth served with meat and 3 veg on the top. The Ramen I tried in Tanabe City in Japan was amazing, having never seen Ramen on any menu's in Australia I thought that it would be one of those things I would only find in Japan so I would rarely have the opportunity to eat it, however, on my return to Australia I consulted with my good friend and ever resourceful Mr Google, Google was able to find me several Ramen restaurants reasonably close to where I live. Now all I had to do was share this taste with my friends. I visited this Ramen restaurant a few times and although I enjoyed the meal it was not the same as what I had experienced in Japan.

As I was visiting this place weekly a great guy and chef from Ichi Ni, Melbourne's best Izakaya restaurants Wataru Su, noticed my visits and made an amazing offer of coming to my house and teaching me or should I say my wonderful wife Kim how to make our own Ramen. I was very gracious of the offer and accepted, now I have eaten Wataru's food before so I know this was going to be a cracking experience.

Wataru spent age's preparing the stock, this apparently is the most time consuming and difficult part of the dish, from what I have heard from some the stock can take days to prepare, he did most of this part at home using his wifes secret recipe (hahahaha not so secret now) so Upon his arrival all we had to do was finish the broth from the stock, roast the pre marinated pork, cook the noodles and enjoy the feast. I stayed out of the way while Wataru slaved in the kitchen with Kim watching on taking down notes.

My interest in the process was re kindled when I saw some Gyoza appear. Gyoza is a Japanese style grilled dumpling and is my favorite of all the Japanese foods I have eaten. Wataru was nearing the end of the cooking and my mouth was watering. He started by removing the Pork from the oven and slicing it into sections, then the noodles were placed into bowls. He then took the Ramen broth and poured it into the bowls over the noodles before adding bean shoots and shallots. This looked amazing and smelled just as nice. Now all I needed was to add the pork and the beer and we were winning.

I smashed the meal like it was my last and destroyed the plate of Gyoza, the meal was simply amazing and in my own house, we finished it off by watching some clips of Geki Yoshida on youtube via the smart TV in the lounge and talking about fishing, does it get any better than this, I think not.

Massive thanks to Wataru for his time and patience, it was an incredible evening of dining and talking about fishing and to my wife for taking down notes and learning how to also cook Ramen.

The Pork

Ramen and Noodles

Then the veg added

Then the Pork and the beer

Then the Gyoza and the finished meal