food, reviews and of course coffee
I was with a colleague at a conference in Luleå in Sweden. It was a Sunday night and most places were closed. In the end we headed to Hachi Luleå. With a choice between sushi and ramen, I went with the Tonkotsu ramen. This was a pork broth with with shashu pork, pak choi, egg and green onion.
It was a very nice ramen, slightly difficult to eat as the pork was quite chewy in places. The broth was delicious and really raised the dish.
I don’t think this is authentic, but I enjoyed cooking and eating this ramen dish.
First I stir fried some vegetables and I added that to my bowl. I cooked some noodles and they were added to the bowl as well.
For the protein, I cooked some diced tuna in a frying pan, when it was virtually cooked I added some teriyaki sauce.
I then finished putting the ramen together, I added some chicken broth to the ramen bowl, which had been heated up while I was cooking the tuna. I then added the tuna to the bowl and topped with some crispy onions. I attempted to soft boil some eggs, I don’t think I managed that! These were then shelled and halved and added to the ramen.
The broth, which as from an itsu pack was very good, and I really enjoyed the tuna too. The noodles had stuck together, so need to reflect on that the next time I make this.
Though there are plenty of places to eat in York, I headed off to the Designer Outlet to charge my car. While I was there charging my car, so I headed into the outlet and went to Wagamama.
My usual go to at Wagamama is mushroom yaki soba, I do like ramen, but find it can be quite messy to eat (drink) and so opt for teppanyaki noodles instead. As I had time, I decided I would go down the ramen route and chose the gochujang pork ramen.
The ramen was gochujang pork, ramen noodles, a silky chicken broth, charred sweetcorn, pea shoots, spring onion and a tea-stained egg.
This was rather lovely. The pork was very tender and full of flavour. I really enjoyed the broth, which was as described was silky and smooth. I did enjoy the flavour of the charred sweetcorn as well.
A delicious bowl of food and something I would order again in the future.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.