Tag: ramen

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Tonkutsu Pork Ramen

Tram in Helsinki

Back in February I was on a trip to Helsinki in Finland for a few days for work. I was staying at the Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä in the heart of the city. Looking for a good value meal, I chose Momotoko in the Kamppi shopping centre, which was conveniently located near my hotel. The food was delicious and reasonably priced. Though I was in Finland and part of me wanted to try authentic Finnish cuisine, I was on a budget and really enjoy Korean-style food. The ordering process was simple: you place your order at the counter, and they bring the food to your table.

I had enjoyed both the pork donburi and chicken donburi at Momotoko, so looking again for lunch I headed there. This time I went with the Tonkutsu Pork Ramen. This was ramen noodles with Tonkotsu pork broth and pork belly. It was accompanied by marinated egg, seaweed, sugar snap peas, bamboo shoots, spring onion and roasted garlic.

Tonkutsu Pork Ramen

The bowl looked fantastic, it was really tasty. Full of flavour and the pork was very tender. The broth was well flavoured and was delicious.

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Teriyaki Lamb Ramen

Teriyaki Lamb Ramen

One of the things I found at Sainsbury’s once was some thinly sliced lamb breast. It was described as Quick Cook Extra Thin British Lamb Steaks and was only £3.

I did think that this would be an interesting ingredient but wasn’t exactly sure at the time how I would cook it and how I would use it. The packaging says it only takes about two minutes to cook. 

I decided in the end I would have a Teriyaki Lamb Ramen. Thinking the lamb would cook fast, I prepared everything else first.

I cooked the lamb, it did cook very quickly. I added the teriyaki sauce.  I then added this to the ramen bowl I had prepared earlier. I also added a fried egg on top.

I was actually quite impressed with the flavour and tenderness of the lamb. A tasty homemade ramen.

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Seafood Ramen

I don’t always write up all the meals I have, this can be because I didn’t take a photograph, it’s something I have written about before, I didn’t enjoy the meal. Sometimes its just because I was busy or forgot.

A case in point is the delicious Seafood Ramen I had at Wagamama back in September 2017.

I never wrote about it, but did write about other things I ate at that time.

This was a typical Wagamama ramen of the time, with noodles, vegetables and a lovely selection of seafood, including prawns, squid and other stuff.

It has been a while since I ate it, but drawing on old memories I did enjoy it. I had eaten this dish before, which is probably why I ordered it again. Sadly Wagamama no longer have the seafood ramen on their menu, which is a pity. I do like it when places add or change their menus, but sometimes this means dishes I like disappear.

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itsu Chicken Ramen

I hadn’t anticipated making a ramen, but I had popped to Waitrose to, essentially get some bread, but had a browse and in their stir fry meal deal they had itsu Chicken Gyoza Dumplings,  itsu Chicken Ramen Brilliant Broth, and itsu Restaurant Ramen Original Noodles.

I decided I would have ramen for tea.

So, what I did was first chargrill the chicken in a frying pan and kept this warm to one side. I stir fried some vegetables in the pan I had cooked the chicken. After they were cooked, I did some mushrooms.

While this was cooking I cooked the noodles in boiling water. The gyoza dumplings were heated up in the microwave. I also heated up the itsu Chicken Ramen Brilliant Broth in another pan.

In a large bowl, I placed the cooked noodles, the vegetables, and the chicken gyoza dumplings. I added the itsu Chicken Ramen Brilliant Broth, before topping with sliced chargrilled chicken. I garnished the dish with the cooked mushrooms and a boiled egg.

I was really pleased with the end result. So much so, that I did a version with a roasted duck breast.

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Ramen

Ramen

I made this homemade ramen.

For the base stock, I cheated slightly, and used a carton of Itsu ramen broth.

In the bowl I added some cooked rice noodles, pak choi, spinach leaves, baby corn, and some spring onion.

I used the itsu brillant broth which I heated up in a pan before filling the bowls.

After adding the broth I added a slice of slow cooked pork belly.

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Time for some Seafood Ramen

Cooked a ramen dish this time last year. I based my ramen on the ramen dishes I have had at Wagamama.

In a bowl I added some cooked rice noodles. On top of this I added some sliced shiitake mushrooms, spring onions, pak choi and sliced red pepper. I then added some homemade ramen broth.

On top of the ramen I added scallops, prawns, squid and a tea-stained hard boiled egg. I also added some gyoza dumplings as well.

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Time for a Ramen

 

ramen

This was my take on a ramen dish.

In a bowl I added some cooked rice noodles. On top of this I added some sliced shiitake mushrooms, baby spinach, pak choi, Thai basil, coriander and sliced red pepper.

I then added some ramen broth. I used an itsu brillant broth which I heated up in a pan before filling the bowls.

On top of the ramen I added pork belly, pork loin and a tea-stained hard boiled egg. 

The pork belly was cooked on a low heat in the oven. I then finished it off in a frying pan with some (gluten free) chow mien sauce.

The pork loin was rubbed in some seasoning as well as Chinese five spice. This I then roasted in the oven. Once cooked it was sliced and added to the top of the ramen.

I would have liked to add some sliced spring onions, but we didn’t have any in the fridge.

It was a tasty broth, first time I used it, and it worked well with the ingredients. The pork was lovely and tasty.

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Time to go back and visit Wagamama

The last place we went out to eat before the lockdown in March 2020 was Wagamama at Cribbs Causeway.

We had thought that places might close or be restricted, so took a final opportunity to go out and eat.

Though we have eaten out since that visit, wanting to go out and eat for Father’s Day my children decided that we would go to Wagamama. The fact that we couldn’t book a table didn’t seem to deter them…

We drove up to the Mall, and like on our recent visit a few days earlier the M5 was rather busy.

However we did mange to get their okay. We had decided to eat at 2pm, so we could miss the lunchtime rush. Despite that when we got into the Mall there was quite a long queue for Wagamama. Though I prefer not to queue, this time I knew there were very few alternatives around and my children had their heart set on going there, so we decided to wait. The queue actually moved quite fast and we took the time while we were waiting to peruse the menu.

I was really torn about what I was going to have. I did think about having the cod mokutan soba which I had back in 2019 and despite the initial dish being burnt the returned dish was much better. Interestingly back then I said

It was the kind of dish I enjoyed, but probably wouldn’t have it again on another visit.

I did quite like the idea of having it again this time, shows what do I know about what I like!

Another dish which caught my eye was the grilled duck donburi.

tender, shredded duck in a spicy teriyaki sauce. mixed with carrots, mangetout, sweet potato and red onion on a bed of sticky white rice and topped with a crispy fried egg, cucumber and spring onions. served with a side of kimchee

Or the teriyaki sirloin steak soba.

grilled sirloin steak with soba noodles cooked in curry oil with mangetout, bok choi, red and spring onions, chilli and beansprouts in a teriyaki sauce. garnished with coriander and sesame seeds

In the end after much consideration and flip flopping I went with the  shirodashi ramen

slow-cooked, seasoned pork belly on top of noodles in a rich chicken broth with dashi and miso, topped with pea shoots, menma, spring onions, wakame and half a tea-stained egg

The rest of the family went with their choices, yaki soba, chicken raisukaree, gluten free chicken ramen and chicken and rice noodles.

As is typical at Wagamama for me, everyone else’s dish arrived well before mine, and I was waiting for while for my food. The others trying to be polite wanted to wait, but I didn’t want their food to go cold. Anyhow I can eat quite fast, so was okay with them eating.

This serving as food as soon as it is ready, does mean that you get your food fresh, reality is that unless you don’t mind eating your dish whilst others have none, it strikes me more as lazy planning than “serving food as soon as it’s ready”.

Finally my food arrived and though not quite as good as the pictures on the website it did look nice.

shirodashi ramen slow-cooked, seasoned pork belly on top of noodles in a rich chicken broth with dashi and miso, topped with pea shoots, menma, spring onions, wakame and half a tea-stained egg

I had anticipated the slow cooked pork belly to be tender and soft, but actually was crispy, which I wasn’t expecting.

I did enjoy the ramen and it was very tasty and delicious.

I did think about having a beer with my ramen, but in the end went with a  jasmine flowering tea – flowering lily and jasmine green tea.

asmine flowering tea - flowering lily and jasmine green tea

It looked great and tasted nice, it reminded me of the flowering tea I had at Tea Monkey in Bath back in 2012.

I wasn’t going to have desert, but was persuaded to by everyone at the table, and it was Father’s Day. Though I did think about cheesecake, I went with the smoked chocolate caramel cake.

For some reason I wasn’t expecting to get a slice of cake! But I did, the cake was layers of smoked chocolate mousse, salted caramel crushed biscuits, chocolate fudge brownie and chocolate ganache, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

smoked chocolate caramel cake

Not as rich as it sounds and the ice cream added freshness and balance.

Overall we all enjoyed the meal, and the service was excellent.

Nice to be back.

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Seafood Ramen

Recently at Wagamamas I had the seafood ramen. It is ramen noodles in a vegetable soup topped with grilled smooth dory, prawn, squid, kamaboko, wakame and seasonal greens. garnished with menma and spring onions.

Very nice it was too.