Ramen Edition (10 years in Japan) part 2

Ramen in much more than just food. Its beauty, culture, pleasure, and art served in a bowl with a spoon and some chopsticks. Ramen is a very old stable originally brought from china in the 1600s and perfected in Japan. Now it has become a fooodie obsession but I pay it no attention because I enjoyed ramen while living in the states or so I thought.

My ramen journey started about 8 years ago, I had been livving in japan for 2 years and after a late night of work or drinking I would stop by a ramen shop by my house. It was a chain and they had $4.90 ramen. I would go there weekly until one day I wanted to eat Ramen so I told my wife lets go to the close place to eat ramen. she replied "that place is garbage." I shook my head and said "no its good, ramen is ramen". In hindsight what a fool I was. She takes me to a little hole in the wall that only seats maybe 8 people and has the Beatles playing the whole time, it was so random but that's why I remember it. I order charsu (soft slices of pork) ramen. This ramen had a mixed broth of chicken and fish. This little ramen shack smelled Amazing.

This is an actual photo of it. Although the photo could never do this masterpiece any justice. It was amazing and unlike anything I had tasted before. I was hooked like a 10 year old on Fortnite. Just one bowl of this ramen had ruined the ramen shop I used to go to because now it just taste like cup of noodle comparatively speaking . Knowing how much I was in the dark when it came to ramen my head instantly filled with the thought what else is out there in the ramen world. Lets jump forward about a year later. I was obsessed and I was eating ramen 3 or more nights a week. I thought I would open my own ramen shop back in Hawaii until I met friend who owned his own ramen shop and he opened my eyes to how special and how much goes into making ramen. here is a shallow dive into what it takes to run a shop. Most ramen shops close around 1 am because the drinking crowd is a huge customer base. but this is not when the ramen master gets to go home. This is when he gets to prep for the next day. simple things like eggs green onions and other toppings can be prepped the next day but the soup and noddles if hand made take a lot of time and must be started the night before. so a fast chef can finish cleaning and night prep in 90 minutes. this means getting home around 3am and to bed by 4am. but If you want to be ready for your first customers you must be in the shop by 8ish. that only gives you a few hours of sleep. and one you enter the shop its go time. boiling hundreads of eggs, making sure the btoth is perfect. warming up the bowls, measuring out the noodle portion, slicing the charsu. this all has to be done before 11am when the shop opens.
Most shops close from 2:30-5pm so they can take a hour break and get back to prepping for the dinner crowd. I thought if I was to do this it might ruin my love and passion for ramen. there are many types of ramen from miso, shoyu, shio, to pork bone broth, tantan men, and even butter ramen. I hope after reading this you go explore and try to find a great ramen shop.