{"id":4694,"date":"2019-03-26T18:21:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T17:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/?p=4694"},"modified":"2019-03-27T17:37:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T16:37:45","slug":"a-beginners-guide-to-the-basics-of-ramen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/a-beginners-guide-to-the-basics-of-ramen\/","title":{"rendered":"A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE BASICS OF RAMEN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plus 13 Satisfying Slurps in Berlin<\/h4>\n

(3 MINUTE READ)<\/span><\/h4>\n

A tangle of long, chewy noodles laced with silken savory broth and topped with a glistening spiral of chashu, shavings of scallion, and half a jammy egg as golden as the rising sun\u2014it can only be one thing: ramen. From humble origins in the early 1900s, ramen is today a comestible phenomenon recognized worldwide, whether tucked into shiny plastic packages with ambiguous \u201cOriental Flavor\u201d labels or doled out in bowls best enjoyed alone.<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past few years, there\u2019s been an obvious swell in ramen restaurants all over Berlin. While places like Cocolo have been slinging bowls for years, newcomers have popped up and are making names for themselves with the classics\u2014think shoyu and miso\u2014along with fresher takes\u2014like Hako\u2019s black sesame tantanmen. But before you dive into a bowl and start slurping, strengthen your knowledge of the ramen essentials that will help you navigate menus and delight your friends and family with noodle, broth, and topping enlightenment.<\/p>\n

The Basics<\/h6>\n

You might think of ramen as a simple soup, but it\u2019s an extremely diverse Japanese dish that has specialty and regional variety aplenty. An understanding of the essentials will let you enjoy the complex flavors of luscious bowls with garnishes galore that much more deeply. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the three fundamental components\u2014noodles, broth, and toppings.<\/p>\n

The Noodles<\/h6>\n

Chinese in origin, ramen-style noodles can be thick or thin, smooth or curly, fresh or dried. What makes them so special is an ingredient called kansui\u2014an alkaline mineral water that, when combined with wheat flour, salt, and water, gives the noodles their singular firm and bouncy texture and subtle yellow hue.<\/p>\n

The general shape and bounciness of any given bowl\u2019s noodle is left up to the chef. The choice can depend on something specific, from the noodle\u2019s overall broth-clingability to rules of tradition. But, of course, some choices are much more subjective, and a chef might pair that noodle with that bowl of soup simply because they like it.<\/p>\n

It used to be standard for ramen shops to make their noodles by hand in-house, but thanks to automated machines and quality dried noodles, that\u2019s less common these days. If you\u2019re curious to know what kind of noodle your bowl contains within its depths, ask!<\/p>\n

The Broth<\/h6>\n

When a bowl hits your table, the soup you\u2019ll be slurping generally consists of two things: the ramen stock and the seasoning. Ramen stocks vary widely but most commonly are based on a chicken, pork, or seafood stock simmered with kombu<\/a>, katsuobushi,<\/a> various animals bones (pork, beef, chicken, or fresh fish being most prevalent), onions, mushrooms, and other aromatics like garlic, leek, ginger, and scallion. You\u2019ll also find vegetable-based stocks, especially popular in Berlin where vegetarians and vegans make up nearly 20% of the 3.7 million residents.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tonkotsu is an especially celebrated ramen broth base that\u2019s made up of pork bones and fat simmered for a really long time to create a thick, extremely hearty, almost creamy broth.<\/a> The velvety liquid is incredibly rich and sure to leave your lips glossy with porky fat and collagen.<\/p>\n

Along with the soup stocks, there are four well-known soup seasonings that affect how a bowl looks and tastes: shoyu, shio, miso, and curry.<\/p>\n

Shoyu means soy sauce, and a shoyu ramen is often paired with clear to brown chicken or seafood broths, giving them a darker brown color and tangier, saltier, umami-forward flavor profile and light mouthfeel. Shio means salt, and a shio ramen has a salty and usually clear or light yellow broth based on chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Miso<\/a>, a traditional Japanese fermented soybean paste, typically tastes salty but can also take on a range of sweet, umami, and earthy flavors depending on the process and length of fermentation. Miso ramen combines this fermented paste with a more fatty chicken or seafood broth base for a thicker, bolder, and more robust ramen. Curry ramen is the newest of the four seasonings (\u201cinvented\u201d in Hokkaido<\/a> in 1965) and is typically a pork and vegetable based broth seasoned with, you guessed it, curry.<\/p>\n

The Toppings<\/h6>\n

Once the noodles, broth, and seasonings, are swirled together in a bowl, it\u2019s the toppings\u2019 time to shine.<\/p>\n

Some of the most common toppings are: meats like chasu pork<\/a>, kakuni, shredded pork, crispy duck, chicken, ground pork or beef, various types of seafood, and fish cake; eggs, whether simply boiled or boiled and seasoned, or served onsen-style;<\/a> fresh vegetables like bean sprouts, scallions, corn, cabbage, and mushrooms; preserved vegetables like menma (lacto-fermented bamboo shoots), pickled mustard leaves and ginger, wood ear mushrooms, nori (dried seaweed) or wakame.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At many ramen shops you\u2019ll also have access to a few condiments with which to complete the seasoning of a bowl to your liking: togarashi (a Japanese chili powder either straight-up [ichimi] or blended with orange zest, sesame seeds, ginger, Sichuan pepper, and hemp [shichimi or nanami]), ground or whole sesame seeds, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, and ground white or black pepper.<\/p>\n

Slurp for Yourself<\/h6>\n

To increase knowledge or proficiency in just about anything, the prevailing advice is always: practice, practice, practice. Taking what you\u2019ve learned about ramen today, my advice to you is simple: eat, eat, eat!<\/p>\n

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