RAMEN – NOODLES THAT ARE HEARD

When people say rámen, the first thing I think of is cup noodles – kappu nuudoru – and I remember how many years ago I stubbornly denied myself and my children this food. It is instant food, full of preservatives, and that didn’t seem very appealing to me. I wanted to give my children a proper home-cooked meal. But my children had occasionally tasted instant noodles at friends’ and they liked them very much. They didn’t mind at all that the food was unhealthy. Moreover, they could make kappu nuudoru themselves. All they had to do was pour hot water into polystyrene bowls, wait a while and then they could happily sip. Instant, unhealthy, ordinary – these were certainly not words that would discourage them. Once – it’s been at least thirty-five years – when we were taking a taxi from the airport, which still takes several hours in Tokyo, the taxi driver asked them what they were most looking forward to after a year in the Czech Republic, and the children said without hesitation that they were looking forward to eat kappu nuudoru. I was looking forward to enjoy again unagi eel and sushi and good tempura and a kaiseki meal at a tea ceremony. Noodle soup, instant or properly cooked, was the last thing I missed that year without Japan.

And you see, today noodle soups are a global hit. Not the instant ones any more, but the ones made from real broth and of the best quality, yes those are really in. They are now served in modern, attractive restaurants and most of the places are always full. Perhaps the most popular of the noodles is ramen, and I have to admit that I eventually found my way to ramen too. Every year I look forward to having ramen at Miyabi. It’s only a few times a year on selected days, because we’re not a ramen restaurant. The most important of these are Yoshie Ramen Days in April, when Prague and Kyoto remind each other that they are twin cities. Yes, ramen noodles indeed played a role in signing the sisterhood agreement in 1996, because Mrs. Yoshie Oshima, owner of the small ramen restaurant Kaho in Kyoto, set herself the task of preparing 100 free servings of ramen for the people of Prague. I offered her our Miyabi kitchen and our friendship over ramen continues to this day.

Mrs. Yoshie is now over eighty years old and closed her restaurant years ago. It is so important for her to know that we continue to make her ramen in Miyabi keeping the same recipe, and every year she watches us from distance. Yoshie is originally from Korea, and her ramen is a classic of the Korean version. You probably know that ramen was brought to Japan at the beginning of the twentieth century by emigrants from China and Korea, and the dish was called Shina Soba. Noodles from China. And because at that time Japan was pushing its imperial power interests in China and Korea, of course noodles from such countries may have been tasty, but the food was inferior, just like the emigrants. It was cheap food. The poverty after World War II also contributed to the spread of noodles, and the fact that during the rice harvest shortage, America decided to supply the grain from America so that people would not starve. Yes, ramen is soba, but it is not made from buckwheat flour like soba, but from wheat flour. And it is not udon noodles either, which are also made from wheat flour, but the process is much more delicate and there is no alkalization using kansui mineral water, nor is an egg added as is done with ramen. Moreover, the soup for udon is more noble – its base is the classic dashi made from kombu and katsuobushi. The Japanese are rightly proud of udon, and it’s good to remember that udon is a revered dish with a touch of class in Japan. However, ramen has its fans and is becoming increasingly trendy even in Japan.

Those of you who love good ramen know well that the broth for ramen is a pretty thick meat soup. It has a manly edge! At Miyabi, we make the broth from large pork bones, chicken skeletons and the thick sauce from preparing pork for chashu. When we have ramen days, we cook the soup overnight, because everything has to cook slowly and for a long time. At that time, our master chef Jára Štěpánek is at the stove. He took over his experience from my son Vítek Kawasumi, whom Miyabi sent directly to Mrs. Oshima at her restaurant Kaho years ago. We trully take great care of the broth, because we know that it is on it that the ramen stands and falls, proving whether it is good. People say that first is the broth, then the noodles, then the chashu and then the other side dishes. Cooking the noodles exactly according to what they need is taken care of, in the same way that Italians are sensitive about cooking spaghetti. A second more and it’s too much. And making good chashu is another skill. The classic says that it is appropriate to add pickled and slightly fermented Chinese bamboo shoots menma to the soup as a side dish. Mrs. Oshima, and we at Miyabi according to her, complete the whole harmony of approaches and flavors with fresh moyashi soybean shoots. Our Yoshie ramen may not be very colorful, but it is delicious. I guarantee that!

A few years ago, when the Lucerna cinema showed a film about ramen during the Eigasai Japanese Film Festival, the audience had a real experience in addition to a virtual experience. Miyabi in the Lucerna kitchen prepared ramen like a race for everyone who had a ticket. You can probably guess what was the film. Tampopo, of course. Noodlology. A film about a personal obsession that nothing else matters in life but the perfect whole-noodle ramen soup. What you get from the film is not only a pretty good knowledge of how to cook ramen, but also an irresistible desire for ramen. I have never experienced a better advertisement. I was also impressed by the fact that the main character was driven to his dizzying lifelong achievement by his relationship with his wife, whose name was Tampopo, Mrs. Dandelion. Tampopo had her heart in the right place, but noodles? Not noodles. That was until her husband Goro fixed it. Noodles – that’s romance!

If it’s romance – yes it can be, but it’s certainly good business. There are more than 5,000 restaurants specializing only in ramen in Tokyo alone, and 25,000 in all of Japan. And how many are there in the world today? We don’t have to go far – they have mushroomed in Prague. Ramen can be cheap and ordinary, but it is usually even a luxurious meal in a luxurious environment. Ramen is fashionable! A ramen restaurant called Tsuta received a Michelin star in 2015. In Yokohama, they have a large and well-visited Ramen Museum. Since 1994. They also hold the Ramen Girls Festival every year to raise awareness that ramen needs to be adapted to women’s tastes. It is said that strong meat broth tastes better to men than women, and that side dishes need to be adapted to women. And because more and more people want to be vegetarian in Japan, ramen is also being created that is not really ramen anymore, because it has neither a meat base nor the typical chashu. The broth is made from kombu and shiitake, the noodles are made from konnyaku, and the side dishes are tofu and vegetables. The world is changing, and so are we.

Instant ramen and other similar noodles in cups are no longer the religion of children or adults, and I can imagine that the noodles of the future will be made from insect flour and you will have crickets swimming in your soup as a side dish. Chefs will work on good ramen anyway, and you will be happy to sip the broth and the noodles will slap you in the nose!

Every ramen type has its own speciality, but one thing is for sure, our Miyabi Yoshie ramen soup has a good kick and we invite you to it with all our heart and love!

Your Miyabi Darja