Think outside the package: Real ramen takes time, tastes amazing

Who hasn’t had ramen, the staple of college students everywhere? Well, if that’s all you’ve had, get ready to expand your noodle horizons.

Ramen — real ramen — has come to Lexington, in the form of a new restaurant, Ramen Ya, which opened last week.

“Ramen is kind of like fast food for Japanese people,” said Shan Tao, owner.

But the reach of ramen has expanded well beyond Japan, where it’s a lunchtime staple, to all of Asia and now has a big following on the coasts and major cities in the U.S. And it’s finally working its way into the Midwest.

Tao said part of the appeal is the seeming simplicity: hot ramen is basically noodles, stock and toppings, including meat and vegetables.

“It is comfort food,” said Tao, who used to own Seki Japanese Restaurant. He and his wife, Jin, also own DY Market on Clays Mill, where they have a Korean restaurant in the back.

But the keys to great ramen are in the details. Tao, for instance, makes his own stock.

“Some people just use chicken, or pork, I use both so you have more flavor,” he said. He also makes a vegetarian version from from radish, carrots, celery, onion, garlic and ginger. And undoubtedly some secret ingredients — ramen makers keep their recipes under wraps.

And the toppings, whether they be pickled vegetables or sizzling hot meat, can vary greatly, although there almost always is a 6-minute egg sliced open on top, according to chef Dan Wu.

Wu, who writes and cooks under the name the Culinary Evangelist, has been dishing up ramen at pop-ups around Lexington over the last year and is working on his own ramen concept restaurant, which he hopes to open next spring.

Right now, except for Tao’s new place, ramen lovers have to go to Indianapolis, Columbus or Nashville, Wu said. And all those places are less than a year old, he said.

“The timing is right,” he said.

And ramen can have nearly endless variations.

“At its basic core, it’s a stock or broth cooked low and slow with aromatics, pork or chicken bones, often kombu (dried seaweed or kelp), bonita flakes (dried fish flakes, which are also a soup stock staple for Japanese soups), and you can do salt and soy sauce, can do miso, and all kinds of different flavor components,” Wu said.

The noodles, which are a wheat noodle, are usually cooked very quickly and left a little underdone.

“You don’t want to over cook them because they will be sitting in hot stock,” he said.

Garnish with proteins, he said. “Traditionally, that’s braised pork shoulder, or more recently pork belly, but you can do anything. Pork is traditional but I’ve seen tofu, chicken, beef.”

From there, add vegetables. “You have all kinds of vegetable garnishes — corn, pickled bamboo shoots (menma), mushrooms,” Wu said. “In certain regions of Japan they have very specific combinations of toppings. In America, you’ll see much more variety and different combinations. … For me, a good ramen is about balance; nice meaty protein, a little fat in stock for a nice mouth-feel, and I love more pickled and vegetable components.”

And almost always the egg, with a firm white and slightly soft yolk, for a traditional garnish.

There is also cold ramen, which uses cold cooked noodles tossed in a dressing, sometimes served with a broth to dip the noodles in.

For all its simplicity, ramen is actually something home cooks don’t often do, Wu said, because cooking good stock takes so long. (Chowhound’s recipe for pork ramen involves cooking pork shoulder for eight hours in a slow cooker, for instance.)

There are shortcuts, such as using a prepared stock, but it’s tough to replicate authentic flavor, he said.

“That’s why you see it more in a restaurant,” Wu said. “If you as a home cook want it, you have to plan ahead for the stock.”

Or maybe do what Tao does: eat the packaged variety.

“I love it. I eat it a couple of times a week,” he said.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Think outside the package: Real ramen takes time, tastes amazing."