Okay, so my sweet tooth took a hit this Halloween weekend, so just to change it up a bit while I recuperate from the sugar high, I'm going to detail one of my other passions: Japanese Ramen. I loooooove this dish and it's the best comfort food in the world! And living in Vancouver where there has recently been a ramen influx in the last 8 years, I can safely say that I feel blessed living in the next best city to have Japanese food outside of Japan! I heart the quirkness of
Tampopo and much like the female protagonist, I strive each time to creating the perfect bowl of ramen. Every year, I host at least 2 ramen nights which is essentially a giant cook day where I entertain the dream of me becoming a master ramen chef. All who participate do so quite willingly and hungrily!
For the uninitiated, Japanese ramen is more than just a humble dried pack of noodles that sustains the college crowd. It is a relatively new addition to Japanese cuisine and is actually an adaptation of Chinese noodle soups that was brought over when by Chinese migrants to Japan. According to
Wikipedia, the 1900s saw many shall noodle shops opening selling gyozas and noodle soups known as
shina soba. After the Second World War, the Japanese government began pushing more of the local population into adopting wheat flour imported from America as part of their regular diet. Hence the ripe conditions for a ramen boom.
