Don't waste your Ramen!

Are you a Japanese Ramen lover, geek, fan or whatever you call yourself ? I've got Ramen trick for you. 

But before that please skip this post if you're 

• Ramen Hater  ( Haters gonna hate )
• On diet          ( You don't want to see this )

Good to go? 

I've been living in Japan for 3 years and I'm going to share a Ramen trick with you. If you've read this blog before then you probably know(from Sharon) that I'm a Ramen lover. Every time when I visit the Ramen-Ya (Ramen shop), I always see a very bizarre scene. Most of the Japanese order a bowl of Ramen AND a bowl of white rice. When I was still a newbie to this food, I thought they were crazy. Why do you need white rice with Ramen? Aren't you full with that big bowl of Ramen?  

Turned out I was wrong. Totally wrong. They were not crazy. In fact, they're genius. They know the best way to savour their soul food. Have you ever been to a Ramen-Ya? After you have slurp all the Ramen with half of the broth left, and you still feel like you're ok for something else, that's the time to order a white rice.

In Japan, this kind of action is called as シメ(shi-me). It means an end of thing. So in this case, you end your Ramen with rice. I don't really know why they do it but I think one of the reason is they do not want to bring the awesome Ramen broth to waste.

Do you know that Tonkotsu ( 豚骨, pork bone ) Ramen broth are boiled at a rolling for a long, long, long period? Not only all the dissolving and gelatin of the ingredients take place, but you also end up breaking down fat, marrow, calcium, proteins etc into tiny pieces which get suspended in the liquid, turning the broth opaque, as stated by Kenji. As I know, at least 8 hours is needed to make this awesome tonkotsu broth. After hearing this interesting fact, I guess that you don't want to waste it neither, do you?

It was Sharon who taught me to eat this way (she learnt it from her Japanese friend though).  I refused to try it at first because I don't think it make sense, to stuff everything in a meal. But I gave it a try after thousands of persuasion by Sharon, and then I became addicted. That was awesome, truly orgasm to my taste bud. When you eat the broth with rice, the every tiny pieces break down and dissolve in your mouth. The 8 hours (or more) dissolve in your mouth.

You'll never regret. Of course this "shi-me" is not applicable to every kind of Ramen. It still sounds strange if you eat this with Shoyu Ramen. But for tonkotsu Ramen, which you can find in Ippudo or Ichiran are good to go! So have you now figure out the best Ramen equation ?

A bowl of Ramen + A bowl of rice = AWESOMESS

Ok that's the end of this post. And for those who read this post on their diet, take your own risk. Happy Ramen-ing.

Guest Post by Lim Yang Wei

Edited by Sharon Phang