Ramen (ラーメン (rāmen))
Overview
Ramen arrived in Japan with Chinese noodle cooks in the late nineteenth century and has since become one of the country's great obsessions, with thousands of specialist shops and fierce regional styles. A bowl has three essentials: a rich broth, a concentrated seasoning called tare, and springy alkaline wheat noodles. Shoyu ramen is seasoned with soy sauce, shio with salt and miso with fermented soybean paste, while tonkotsu broth is made by boiling pork bones hard for hours until milky white. Typical toppings include slices of braised chashu pork, a marinated soft-boiled egg, bamboo shoots, nori and spring onion. Instant ramen, invented in 1958, made the dish familiar around the world.
History
Ramen came to Japan with Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth century, when Chinese-style noodle soups were sold in port cities such as Yokohama. In the early twentieth century, Japanese restaurants began serving these noodles in Tokyo, and the dish slowly became Japanese in its own right. After the Second World War, cheap wheat flour and street stalls made ramen a popular, filling meal. The invention of instant noodles by Momofuku Ando in 1958 took it into homes worldwide, and later regional styles became a national obsession.
Main ingredients
Wheat noodles, pork or chicken broth, tare seasoning, chashu pork, soft-boiled egg, nori. The soup is built on pork or chicken broth and is usually served hot. Diet: contains meat; not usually gluten-free.
Explore: Chicken soups · Pork soups · Noodle soups · Egg soups · More soups from Japan
Recipe
Method
- 1≥ 3 h
Blanch the bones, rinse, then simmer with onion, ginger and garlic for at least 3 hours.
- 2
Warm the tare ingredients together and divide between 4 bowls.
- 31-2 min
Cook the noodles according to the packet, usually 1-2 minutes, and drain well.
- 4
Pour hot strained broth over the tare, stir and add the noodles.
- 5
Top with pork, halved eggs, nori, bamboo shoots and spring onion.
- ✓
Serve. About 3h 30m from start to bowl.
Pictures
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
