Ramen Hunting

One meal that I constantly get cravings for is ramen – the “big noodle soup bowl” that has it's roots in China, but the Japanese have now made their own. There's even a ramen museum in Yokohama, which I was due to visit on my trip to Japan last year, but due to the Tōhoku earthquake & tsunami affecting travel insurance (although we would have been quite willing to go and support the area), we weren't able to visit the Kantō area – though there's plenty of good, cheap ramen to be found everywhere in the country of course. Each region of Japan has it's own variation on the dish, and everyone will have their own personal tastes – so I'd say what is 'right' or 'the best' ramen is entirely a matter of personal opinion. Once I get a craving for it though, I just have to have some – but that can be difficult in England.

Miso base with chilli oil

My two top ramen experiences are imprinted on my tastebud memory - firstly in a small ramen-ya along the side of Namba station in Osaka – we were guided there on our first day in Japan by a chum who had been before, and soon I was being served up ramen heaven – a miso-based broth with chilli oil and chunks of pork, what I'd been dreaming about since the idea of a trip to Japan was first mentioned – and I often have wistful thoughts about this little café. The second is ramen made for me by @dave_car, which always seems to be both flavoursome and healthy – this time a dashi and shoyu-based stock with a kick of birdseye chilli; silky noodles (not the pre-fried kind); lots of vegetables in the mix (baby pak choi, carrots, spinach, peas and shiitake); and slices of belly pork, wafer thin so that they cook in an instant once added to the broth. But a return visit to Osaka or having someone prepare ramen in my home aren't always available to me, so sometimes there's a need to find out-and-about options for when cravings must be met.

 
When I heard that a new ramen joint called Tonkotsu had opened up in Soho, with a very short menu just focussing on 3 ramen dishes and side orders of gyoza (little dumplings that are often served in ramen-ya in Japan as they are another Chinese import), I knew I had to make it my mission to go there. The opportunity arose in July, and I took another Japanophile with me so we could try a couple of dishes.

Their speciality is the eponymous Tonkotsu – a rich stock made by simmering pork bones in a shio (salt) base for 18 hours - you can see the large stock pots bubbling away in the open kitchen just inside the window - with pork slices, menma (bamboo) and seasoned egg on top. The noodles were light and the broth translucent and unctuous. We also tried the Tokyo Spicy – with shredded spicy pork on egg-based noodles, and various other toppings. The pork was tasty and it was overall very satisfying, but I was expecting a good deal more spice and had to ladle in some chilli condiment to get the kick I was looking for. The gyoza were really light and springy – steamed, and then slightly fried on one side, with a tasty pork and prawn filling – very good. There's also a vegetarian ramen option with shiitake for that umami-base, and a few other gyoza varieties, but we needed a pork hit so didn't get to try these.

 Tokyo Spicy on the left, Tonkotsu on the right

Gyoza and beer

Another big draw of Tonkotsu is that has included some craft beers on it's list – from two of London's most respected microbreweries – Kernel and Beavertown. There are a couple of different beers available from each and they are reasonably priced, for London and these particular breweries, at £4. There's also a couple of Brewdog (including Tokyo*, 18%!) and some standard Japanese lagers; a couple of different grades of sake; shochu and Japanese whisky.  It was so welcome to be able to have a decent beer with lunch, sitting at pavement tables watching Soho life go by.

Closer to home, a new noodle cafe has opened up in Birmingham's Chinatown area – MinMin. I had heard they were good, and went to investigate. This is a really charming place – bright white tiles and green décor, making a bit of a cheerful change from other places in the area. They have an extensive menu of noodle-y options but I was here for ramen, and ordered the yakibuta – cooked pork – which came with a decent selection of toppings - cured egg, thick, crunchy bamboo shoots, seaweed, beansprouts adding texture, and nori. It also had sweetcorn, which is a feature of Sapporo-style ramen; I was dubious about this addition at first, but have come to quite like it. My dining companion had the chilli squid with rice, and we were given complimentary soya desserts – one with mango sauce, and one with ginger syrup, which were unusual but a palate-freshening end to the meal.

The ramen broth at Minmin was lovely – on the right side of salty, and although they have chilli oil available, I had brought my own Nanami Togarashi – a Japanese chilli pepper mix - to add the spice level I like. I have been back a few times since to Minmin to try their char siu ramen as well – and they really don't stint on the generous amount of meat included. The cheung fun are also lovely – steamed rice rolls with a savoury filling of minced meat and mushroom, a delicate tangy dipping sauce and seasoned salad – though they are slippery buggers to eat. My tip would be to ask for wooden takeaway chopsticks instead of the plastic ones they'll give you by default – as they're much better for getting a grip on slippy noodles and delicately picking up strands of sea vegetables from the soup.

Cheung fun - slippy but worth the effort

The very moreish char siu ramen - other noodle dishes are available!

It's cute to note that all the ramen bowls have the hiragana for “oishii” - Japanese for delicious – on the side, and while I was last visiting, they were sticking up some Chinese characters on the window. I recognised the first of these as it also appears in Japanese script as “dai” - meaning large, or also “great” - I asked the waitress what the symbols meant and she said “big bowl noodle” - but if following the Japanese meaning, I'd happily recommend it to people as ”great” bowl noodle to be found inside!

Special mention must also go to the staff of Minmin – as well as the co-owner, Denice Phan, who comes out of the industrious kitchen to chat to customers, I've also been served by three different girls, and they are all extremely friendly and make you feel at home. Minmin is gaining in popularity as it offers something a bit different to what we already have in Birmingham, in a cool, modern environment, and at reasonable prices (ramen is around £6.80) – and from the few I've tasted, the dishes so far have been great, so I think most people will be hooked after one visit. I'm certainly getting an attack of ramen-want just thinking about it!

So these two English ramen experiences have been very positive – I think Minmin's yakibuta may just top Tonkotsu for my personal tastes, but on the other hand, Tonkotsu offers craft beer, meaning I'm more likely to linger there and snack on gyoza. But it's great to see a couple of decent ramen ventures now taking their place in London and particularly Birmingham; I'm sure eventually I'll try out all the other exciting and good value dishes that Minmin has to offer, but it will take a while (and a good few more visits) to wean me off my ramen cravings first.

Irish Broth - my favourite food?

For many things in life, if someone were to ask "what's your favourite?", I'd find it impossible to answer. It's all about context and mood - I could give you a favourite for "right now" but couldn't commit to an all-time top of the list. In music, my tastes are wide-ranging and pretty eclectic, and expanding all the time - what's on the stereo right now depends what musical mood I'm in, or what mood I want to get to. When it comes to beer, I used to have a favourite (Orkney Dark Island) when I was in the very early days of discovering ale, having been a predominantly real cider drinker who didn't know what a hop was. But now, having travelled the length and breadth of the beer spectrum, and watching it change and mutate all the time, I could tell you what beer or flavours in a beer would suit me right now, but picking a single favoured beer out of the multitude of amazing brews out there would be out of the question. Food-wise, it's kinda the same.

But, if someone were to ask me what meal I couldn't do without the prospect of eating ever again, it would have to be Irish Broth. Since moving to England, I've come to appreciate it even more - because back home, you can find it pretty much on every street corner - it feels like every pub, café, restaurant or hotel will have it on the lunchtime menu, always tasty and sustaining. I've adjusted a bit to it not being so available now, but it's usually the first thing I'll eat when I get off the plane back home.

It's also a staple of home kitchens, and every little Spar shop carries a pre-packaged 'soup veg mix' - so I guess gallons of the stuff is made and yummed up across the country in homes every day. Again, that's something I've had to get used to not being able to find - the veg that is chopped and packaged usually contains a fair whack of celery leaf, used here as a large part of the flavouring component - but it seems impossible to find in any soup-making quantity in English markets or shops, I guess maybe because people here don't know what to do with it. It's reduced me to furtively messing with the packaged celery in supermarkets, tearing off any leafy bits from the other bunches and stuffing them inside the bunch I'm going to buy, just so I have enough to add to my soup. This doesn't feel like stealing from other celery-shoppers, 'cause I reckon it's only going to be chopped off and discarded anyway, so at least I am putting it to good use.

You can make Irish broth with any leftover stock you happen to have - best examples from family experience are a roast chicken carcass (as you end up with lots of little shreds of chicken meat in your stock) or what's left over when you've boiled up a big ham. But currently I tend to use a good-quality chicken stock cube for convenience (though for my last batch I was lucky enough to have some homemade chicken stock donated to me by my friend Emma).

The recipe I follow was provided by another chum who grew up with broth's tasty delights, and is rather inexacting, but once you've had broth a few times, you kind of know how to guide it towards your own preferred consistency and greenery anyway. As well as 'soup veg mix', there is another component called 'soup mix' of dried barley, lentils and split peas, which again you can buy ready-mixed in packets back home, but you may have to buy all three then mix them up yourself here to get the right kind of thing. Or just use the barley if that's easier.

Note - you'd need to start the prep the evening before for pulse soaking, or in the morning, then make the soup in the evening after work.

Ingredients:

• Soup veg mix - chopped (1cm dice or small slices) carrot & leek (maybe 2 med carrots, 1 v large leek), very thinly sliced celery stalk (about 2 large stalks), a large quantity of roughly chopped celery leaf and flat-leaf parsley
• Soup mix - about 2 handfuls (more if you have tiny hands) of the dried barley, red lentil and split pea mix. Place in a large bowl, cover with lots of cold water, cover with a lid. Leave overnight or for around 8 hrs. Then rinse well in a sieve and it's ready to use.
• Stock - couple of litres of good quality chicken stock, ham stock, or veg bouillion.
• Chicken or turkey - about 1 large breast chicken or 1 leg turkey, ready-cooked and with the meat shredded. (If you have uncooked meat on the bone, like a turkey leg, you can boil it first until the meat is separating from the bone, skim off the fat, and use the stock for the broth).

So, to make:
1. Put your stock and soup mix into a large pot, bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 mins, skim off any scum.
2. Add your soup veg, cook 20-30 minutes on a simmer.
3. Add your shredded meat and cook a bit.
4. Ladle into bowls, add plenty of fresh ground black pepper before slurping up.


It's really good with a few slices of buttered wheaten bread and will most often be served that way in cafés, but also makes a more substantial evening meal if you pop a couple of leftover boiled potatoes into it like my granny used to do. I can never get enough of it once I've made it, and it's a struggle to retain some for freezing or for lunch the next day; there always seems like there'd be room for one more bowlful!

If anyone does come across somewhere with proper Irish broth on their menu outside its homeland, please do let me know so I can check it out - until then, I think I'm bound to scouring the greenery aisles of supermarkets, sneakily gathering in the celery leaf crop!

Chorizo, Spinach and Potato Soup

So still mindful of Resolution 1 - Make More Soup, but having had a busy few weekends where no soup-making opportunities arose, I felt I needed to get on the case again. This was given a timely prod by being furnished with a recipe for Chorizo, Spinach & Potato soup, from Emma Carrington. Emma had mentioned making this soup somewhere online in the past and I loved the sound of it, so when she gave me the recipe just before the weekend, I rushed out to get ingredients and get souping.

Ready for the soupery to start

200g chorizo (I used a spicy chorizo ring I picked up in Sainsburys)
1tbsp of olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (or more ... I used three fat ones)
1kg potatoes, peeled & about 1cm dice
1.5 litres chicken stock
400g spinach, stalks removed & shredded (original recipe called for 650g, but I wussed out as it was rather a lot)
1 red chilli or more to taste, finely chopped

Cut the chorizo into 5cm strips (Emma had advised the strips bit is important as it makes it taste better!) and cook in a dry soup pan until browned, then drain on kitchen paper.

Using oil left in pan from chorizo and the olive oil (if needed) add the onions, chilli and garlic. Cook, stirring until onion is soft.

Add potatoes and stock to onion mixture. Simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender.

Add shredded spinach - even with my reduced amount, it will still look like it will be too much. Don't worry as it wilts down dramatically. Emma suggests you could also use spring greens or cabbage too.

Add the chorizo and stir until hot, and garnish with a bit of chopped chilli if you like it hot. 

Hot & tasty!

 Despite intending to make this for lunch on Sunday, a rather long lie-in and an excursion to pick up Japanese foods hindered this plan, so it ended up being made as a starter for dinner instead - but this worked out great as it meant there was plenty left over to freeze for lunches, and I've just polished off a large bowl of it to cheer up my Wednesday. 



 
Soup plans for the future - I've started hoarding celery leaf again, adding to a tub in my freezer, so hopefully soon there will be enough to make a proper Irish broth again. If anyone does come across a source of celery leaf in Brum, do let me know!

Resolution 1 - Make More Soup

This was obviously going to be an easy resolution if I wanted it to be – I mean, how hard is making soup, and if you love it, won’t you be motivated to keep making it? Maybe – but sometimes you can get into little procrastinatory and demotivating cycles where it’s the tiny things that you allow to put you off – the blender is on too high a shelf for me to reach without getting a ladder; the fridge is too full to stock up on soup ingredients; I don’t know when I’ll have time to eat it up; I can’t be arsed with all that chopping. So this resolution was just a gentle reminder to myself to get to it, and so far anyway this has been successful.

Soups made so far:

• Spiced squid, scallop and chorizo – mostly following a recipe in a new fish book, I was fully planning to make this with fresh squid and let it simmer away for ages to tenderise, but Waitrose fish counter had none in stock; so a compromise of some fresh scallops was used instead, with some pre-cooked squid meze from the deli counter added. It worked out grand, with lovely warming flavours, but I’d make sure of the fresh squid supply first if making again.
• Brie and Courgette – a stalwart recipe from the New Covent Garden Soup Company Book of Soups – that I’ve made time and again and it’s never let me down. Saved some in the freezer so that's my weekend lunch sorted.
• Chestnut mushroom with garlic & parsley – for some reason I’ve never made a mushroom soup before – I think possibly because I once ate the most perfect, textured mushroom soup in a Paul Rankin café in N Ireland, and I know I’ll never be able to replicate it.
• Celery - nice and simple, had some leftover celery to use up, so just put in a pan with one potato, onion and some stock, and that was it!
• Irish broth – a strong contender for my favourite food in the world – but I rarely make it as you just can’t get celery leaf – a major ingredient – in any quantity in England. So I was reduced to hunting through the celery stick bundles in supermarkets, furtively pulling off any leafy bits, stuffing them into a single pack, and buying it. I reckoned I wasn’t depriving anyone of it – most people probably put the leafy part in the bin – and the end justified the means. If anyone knows of a source of celery leaf, PLEASE let me know, so I no longer appear on security cameras ‘messing with the celery’. I was also going to use a turkey drumstick I picked up at a Farmers’ Market for stock & meat, but it didn’t smell quite right, so I just used some good chicken stock cubes and added shredded chicken later.

Soup making next:

• Don’t know! But I know I need to get on with it and keep up the momentum, so I’ll have a think over the next few days and see what inspiration hits me. Something hearty for lunchtimes perhaps, with the onset of this colder snap. Or maybe I'll be inspired after I come back from Belgium to make a beer and cheese soup, yum ...