Ramen – The Perfect Soup
When I took my first slurp of ramen, my senses were struck with stimuli previously unfamiliar to me. This experience was genuinely momentous. I cannot pinpoint what was so fascinating about this bowl of noodle soup but I know it practically felt like a big, long hug. Maybe I was in awe of its rich, umami flavour and noodles that melted in my mouth or by the meticulously crafted combination of the various ingredients. This was probably intensified by the restaurant’s cosy atmosphere and the beaming faces of people around me. That was the moment when my journey began.
I started a quest for the best ramen recipe as I wanted to recreate it at home. Unfortunately, with every attempt it seemed like I was regressing. It looked like it would be enough to blindly follow the guidelines. Some chefs suggested repeating the process numerous times. Others proposed immersion into unconventional cooking methods and ordering key ingredients from Japan. Little did I know I had to read between the lines and look beyond the essence of the actual words.
In a while I found myself spellbound by Japanese culture and history. Although a number of accounts suggest ramen is a 19th-century Japanese invention, others contend that it has Chinese origins. One theory credits the birth of ramen to a Chinese Confucian scholar who may have brought the ramen recipe to Japan in the 1660s. Other attempts to trace the emergence of ramen in Japan point towards the period after the first Sino-Japanese war, which saw a surge of Chinese immigrants to Japan. A ramen researcher and scholar dates the birth of ramen to the establishment of the restaurant Rai-Rai Ken in Tokyo in 1910.
The Japanese take great pride in their cuisine and it is not a big surprise that one can find ramen in countless manga, anime, films and books. There are also several museums devoted to ramen. A famous one is a miniature historical theme park, Ramen Town, a recreation of a bustling urban neighbourhood in 1958. The convenient part for some visitors is a gift shop where you can buy fresh noodles and soup to prepare ramen at home. The highlight of the experience is learning how to stretch, knead, cut and taste homemade ramen noodles. At the Noodle Drama Theatre an entertaining animation will school you on how a clever inventor transformed a humble bowl of soup into a portable meal slurped all around the world.
Another great example of the celebration of ramen is the movie ‘Lampodo’, a unique film that is a love letter to food as an aspect of Japanese culture. It is the story of one ramen shop but also a picturesque journey through all of food. It covers appreciation for food in several aspects. Essentially, it is an intriguing film because it draws a parallel between one’s approaches to cuisine and to existence. Interestingly, ‘Lampodo’ revolutionised the Japanese film industry as it was the first movie to involve a food stylist.
Ultimately, the beauty of Japanese food is in the ‘Kodawari’, which means the pursuit of perfection. It achieves refinement even in the simplest of dishes, as well as passion, persistence, commitment, and attention to detail. But it is so much more than that. The key to ‘Kodawari’ is that it is personal in nature. It springs from pride, but not the petty kind. It is the kind of personal pride that you feel when you are conscious of your abilities and can assess your achievements positively. I have learned that in order to make good ramen you need culinary talent, ingenuity, perseverance and a great love of Japanese cuisine and culture.
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The author claims that in order to make a good ramen one has to
According to a historian, ramen's appearance in Japan
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The author concludes that in order to achieve 'Kodawari' the most important thing is