Mmmm Ramen... hip to the jive - Jan 2013

It's January! And what do you need to beat January? There's nothing like a healthy soup right? And trust me, tonkotsu ramen are nothing like a healthy soup...

After my recent rant about burgers I should be careful about jumping on another bandwagon lest I end up with more on trend foodstuffs I can't write about. After the gourmet meat patty explosion, the latest import popping up is that Japanese addition to the street food canon, ramen noodles. And not just ramen noodles, but the porkiest, most unctuous subset of ramen, tonkotsu.

With ramen, and especially with tonkotsu, the news isn't about the noodles. They're the bread that soaks up the soup. They need to be good, but they're not (really) the story for me. The story is the broth… broth made from pork bones to be precise, long and slow cooked for 15 hours or more until they yield up their fatty bounty into a creamy collagen rich soup. As an advertisement at Shoryu proudly describes it, 'rich, creamy and porkalicious'. Oh, and reader, it is.

I won't write too much about them, but instead defer to Marina O'Laughlin's excellent review on the most recent openings, Bone Daddies and Shoryu. I'd also recommend that you read her end of the year round up on the inexorable rise of trendy, dirty fodder like ramen and burgers. It's bloody funny (and bloody accurate).

Now noodles aren't just meaty delivery systems, there are numerous different styles (ask Mr Noodles, he has almost an entire blog devoted to them) and combinations, but the one unifying rule should be that it's (very) hearty, healthy(ish) and leaves you feeling better than you were when you walked in. Like the Japanese version of chicken soup, this is food that soothes the soul.

I've become slightly obsessed with the Soho venues that have sprung up offering the noodle, particularly ramen, over the last few months. As much because it's the perfect solo lunch or pre-theatre dinner. They all (with the exception of Ittenbari) have a counter that means you don't feel out of place slurping away on your own. Of all of them though, I preferred the atmosphere at Bone Daddies, it's buzzy, fun and resolutely non-traditional. The least authentic of the lot, but the chance to stare out at the passing Soho trade while supping your thick broth means that this is the perfect way to spend a lunchtime. The ramen was almost too porky for me*, packed with salty piggy flavour and creamily unctuous. Served with a rich and shining soft boiled egg and thick slices of the pig whose bones you are literally drinking, it's protein and protein and protein till you can't take any more.

Shoryu feels slightly more authentic but somehow slightly more austere (the cringey communal greeting all of the staff holler as you walk in aside) and Ittenbari, despite not offering the tonkotsu everyone is lusting over, is still often packed, it's shabby interior full to bursting with a silently polite line of ex-pats and Japanophiles queuing out of the door. Tonkotsu has proved the easiest to snag a table at, but here still you'll face a 30 minute wait of a prime time evening. To a casual like me they all taste pretty fine though it's definitely that Bone Daddies stock I wake up after dreaming about.

At between £8 and £11 a bowl it's not as cheap as it should be, but as a once a week treat it beats a burger. Don't kid yourself though, it certainly isn't as healthy as you make out just because you eat it with a spoon and it has veg spiked through it. It's probably not far off the calorie count of that burger if you checked (I won't if you won't). Even conveyor belt kings Yo Sushi are getting in on the game... Ramen vs Hunger emblazoned across their windows. I can't contradict them on that, and given the quality of the rest of the menu, I may not... any reports welcome!

Four spots for ramen in Soho:
Tonkotsu - 63 Dean Street, W1D 4QG
Shoryu - 9 Regents Street, SW1Y 4LR (opposite the Japan Centre)
Bone Daddies - 31 Peter Street, W1F 0AR
Ittenbari - 84 Brewer Street, W1F 9UB
And if you can't get enough of your noodles, then pop round to Koya - 49 Frith Street, W1D 4SG - Thicker udon noodles here, but damnably tasty all the same...


*even now I'm ashamed to have written that sentence...

Tonkotsu - souped-up super noodles in Soho - Nov 2012

A year or so ago, a place called Koya opened in Soho. It's a stripped back little place with a sparse menu focussed on their highly revered house noodles, a few dumplings and the odd daily special. It's good, very good, and used to be a real favourite for lunch when I worked locally.

Ramen noodle bars are a pretty big deal in similarly multicultural New York, their equivalent of the recent London burger explosion. However unlike other ultra-successful food trends here it seemed to start, and stop with Koya. The queues, growing nightly out of the blue curtain swagged door told any chancy restaurateur that this could be the start of something big. It's taken a while, but it seems that there are a few others springing up now. A caveat at this point, it could be that there are a load of decent noodle places around that I don't know about, so if you have any other recommendations, drop me a note.

I have to say that Ittenbari didn't wow me as much as Twitter told me it would, the slow braised pork slices were strangely flavourless, though the snaking queues of silently anticipatory Japanese expats gave some clue to the popularity of the place. The most recent to open, the chillingly named Bone Daddy, is on the list.

In essence, it's simple. Pick your base stock and key ingredient, add extra noodles or soft boiled egg if you will and serve. This simplicity is what for some can elevate the humble ramen noodle dish to an art form.

Here the soft egg was burnished bronze perfection, lightly gelatinous white leaking golden savoury depth into the clear stock, thickening and enriching almost like butter. The noodles were perfectly cooked with a slight snap to them (though I'm no expert on the subject) and sank into the life giving, clear and umami packed stock. With expertly crisped chicken karaage alongside, it's a simple, satisfying and savoury lunch.

   

Ittenbari - chicken soup for the Japanese soul - Apr 2012

There were a good mix of Japanese and European faces filling the utilitarian tables and the queues outside as we left were as long as those outside previous noodle-magnet Koya. With plenty of spaces in the noodle bars next door and around 'little Japan' it would appear that somehow this new Brewer Street addition is engendering the same fanaticism that Koya manages. So what is it with this noodley obsession in London, and what is it specifically with Ittenbari?

Ramen is like chicken soup for the Japanese soul. A big bowl of steaming handmade noodles lurk like deep sea cables in a fragrant pool of umami rich seaspiced broth ripe with veg, pork and a perfectly cooked egg. Simple, egalitarian and delicious. This is the food of Gods, and a workday lunch for most of Japan, the lucky bastards.

Despite the posters announcing a new opening, it doesn't look like they've decorated in years. The grafitti on the back of the loo door is historic and the decor chipped. What is new it would seem is the ownership. It's now the London outpost of a renowned Osakan institution, imagine the frenetic foodie buzz if Russell Norman opened Polpo Tokyo and you might come close.

It's difficult and naive for this knowless gaijin to pass judgement on the actual noodles. I'll let the photo of the crowds streaming down the street at the lunch service do that. Was it the finest lunch i've had in my life? No, but it genuinely came close... As a fulfilling, tasty meal, I can safely say that it's hard to beat.