8.Ramen

The origin of ramen is unclear. Some sources say it is of Chinese origin. Other sources say it was invented in Japan in the early 20th century.The name ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese^.
By 1900, restaurants serving Chinese cuisine from canton and shanghai offered a simple ramen dish of noodles (cut rather than hand pulled), a few toppings, and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Many Chinese living in Japan also pulled portable food stalls, selling ramen and gyoza dumplings to workers. By the mid 1900s, these stalls used a type of a musical horn called a charumera, from the Portuguese charamela) to advertise their presence, a practice some vendors still retain via a loudspeaker and a looped recording. By the early showa period, ramen had become a popular dish when eating out.











Ingredients

Salted pork
1 lb pork
1 tsp salt
Soup
6 cups water (1.5L)
50g ginger root, sliced
3 cloves garlic, skinned
1 bunch green onions
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sake
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
Noodles
9 oz fresh angel hair pasta (225g)
8 cups water (2L)
2 Tbsp baking soda
Topping
boiled egg halves
bean sprouts, blanched briefly
green onions, cut finely
Instructions

Rub salt on pork and let it sit overnight in the fridge.
In a pot, put water, ginger root, garlic, green onions and salted pork, and boil at high heat. Skim fat and other floating scums. Then cover, reduce to low heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Let the broth and pork cool completely in pot. Strain and save pork. Slice pork and set aside for a topping.
Prepare the rest of the toppings now as well (boiled eggs, blanched bean sprouts, cut green onions), before making the soup and noodles. Once the noodles are cooked, you will need to add the soup and toppings right away or the noodles will get soft, so you won't have time to prepare the toppings at the end.
Boil the broth and add soy sauce, sake, salt and sesame oil. Let it simmer at very low heat until noodles are ready.
In boiling water in a pot, add baking soda (be careful, it may boil over), then add the fresh angel hair pasta. Cook the pasta for 30 seconds, and strain. Immediately divide noodles into bowls and add soup onto noodles. Top with boiled eggs, bean sprouts, green onions and sliced pork.