Guys, the ramen game in Tokyo is so on point that it almost pained me to make this recipe instead of heading out to my local ramen joint. There is no way that I could ever master the art of ramen without studying for a lifetime. Tokyo is full of bowls and bowls of ramen, each one seemingly more delicious than the next.What I love about ramen, aside from the fact that it’s crazygood, is that it is crazy creative. Traditional Japanese cuisine is refined and, in a way, very restrictive. Ramen, because it is a relatively new (say the 1900s compared to soba from theEdo period of the 1800s) kind of cuisine, allows for a lot of creativity because it isn’t as steeped in tradition.
It also helps that every region has it’s own type of ramen. That kind of creativity leads to what the Japanese fondly refer to as free-style. You can find free-style bowls of ramen with friedchicken, vegetable bases, and of course, broth-less ramen like this mazemen. This mazemen recipe is out of the lovely Phil and Kim’s latest cookbook,Food Truck Road Trip. I had the opportunity to meet them in Vegas last year at the Food Blog awardsand they are two of the most food-passionate people I’ve ever met. They’re created a cookbook full of gorgeous photos and some incredible food truck recipes.
I absolutely have a thing for food trucks. I think it’s because strangely, I like eating while standing. Or maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for hype and long lines. Whenever I see a line here in Tokyo I almost always want to line up. At the very least I’ll slow down to take a look and see what people are lining up for. Today I got really excited because I saw a crowd of people gathering around with hunger in their eyes. Turns out they were lining up for KFC. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Needless to say, I didn’t line up for the chicken.
I would however, line up for eggs if there were line ups for eggs. The eggs in Japan are out of control. The have incredibly high orange yolks and if you buy the high end eggs, they tell you which farm they came from and what day the eggs were laid. I absolutely love the attention to detail. It’s funny because the Japanese are so meticulous about making it easy to know where your food comes from but honestly the address system here in Tokyo makes it incredibly hard to find restaurants.
The very first time Mike and I visited Tokyo we got lost a million times even though we had maps galore. The address system here is a little crazy. And even though Mike has now somewhat figured it out, it’s still a hit or miss whether or not we’ll find a place. Often times you have to remember to look up because there are lots of places on the upperfloors. One time we were looking for an craft beerbar with supposedly amazing foodbut after circling around and around in the freezing cold looking for the numbers on the buildings, we decided to giveup andjust go and grab a random bowl of ramen.
Itried a mazemenand it absolutely hit the spot but it wasn’t beer and beer snacks. But, just in case you were curious, we finally found the bar! It only took us two years of looking. It was sitting right where we thought it was, only it was on the second floor. We felt like complete idiots but that didn’t stop us from going inside and finally enjoyingit. Sometimes things are worth the wait – but not KFC. Sorry ColonelSanders!
Loco Moco Mazemen Recipe slightly adapted from Food Truck Road Trip – A Cookbook via Kiki and Chris’ Poi Dog Philly Food Truck
serves 4Mazemen
- 3/4 pound ground beef
- 4 eggs*
- 120 grams dried ramen noodles (I used fresh)
- sliced green onions
Marinade
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1/3 cup diced white onion
- 2 tablespoon shoyu/soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Miso Gravy
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 tablespoons white miso
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 8 sheets roasted Korean seaweed
To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the ground beef, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. Bring a small pot of water to a boil over high heat, add the eggs and boil for 6 minutes. Drain and immediately dunk in ice water. Peel and set aside.
Cook the ramen noodles according to the package directions, drain and set aside.
To make gravy, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in the flour. Once the roux browns lightly, 1 to 2 minutes, whisk in the beef stock, then the miso. Add the black pepper and salt if needed. Cook for about 6 minutes until the gravy thickens.
Remove the beef from the refrigerator, add to a skillet set over medium-high heat and sauté until cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes.
Divide the noodles among 4 bowls, dress with the miso gravy, then top evenly with the beef, and 1 egg per bowl. Tuck 2 sheets of seaweed next to the rim of each bowl and top with green onions.
I did my eggs as a fresh egg yolk – the eggs here in Tokyo are incredibly fresh and I don’t have any issues eating raw yolks, but if you don’t have access to super fresh eggs, I’d recommend going with the soft boiled egg suggestion or even maybe doing a fried egg.
PS – I wouldn’t wait in line for KFC but I absolutely would for Church’s Chicken. I don’t know what it is about their chicken. It’s like crack to me I don’t care if you think I’m incredibly trashy for saying that. I just LOVE it.
35 Comments
January 15, 2015 at 1:52 am
If you love food trucks, you should visit Sydney! We have everything you can think of from deep fried to organic. Stephanie you are genius with photography :) These noodle want me to run and cook these!
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Quick Food Ideas says:
January 15, 2015 at 3:30 am
I love this, once marinated its so quick to make! Can’t wait to try.
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mandy@ladyandpups says:
January 15, 2015 at 6:02 am
Oh yeah, steel some of those Tokyo magic for us. So many ppl have told me Tokyo is the best city to eat. What do u think?
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January 15, 2015 at 9:20 am
Is it terrible for me to admit that I prefer mazemen ramen to broth ramen? Maybe it’s coz I haven’t had the real thing in Tokyo… :-/ In any case, this recipe looks delicious — thanks for sharing!
Amira says:
January 15, 2015 at 11:22 am
If you don’t mind, could you put up a recipe for a vegetarian variant on ramen? I desperately want to try and make ramen, but I live in a highly restrictive environment when it comes to meat…
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Karen Dyck says:
January 15, 2015 at 1:02 pm
This looks great, and I will definitely be trying it. One question. Exactly what role does the Korean seaweed play? Is this the same as the nori we buy for home made sushi?
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steph says:
January 15, 2015 at 4:26 pm
You can definitely sub in regular nori – the Korean seaweed is lacier, crunchier and a bit more seasoned. Hope that helps!
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Katie says:
January 15, 2015 at 4:36 pm
Beautiful images this looks delicious! I watched the ramen dunking GIF for way too long o.0
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January 15, 2015 at 8:48 pm
There really is something about eating from a food truck. It feels sort of rebellious – a bit of a thumbed nose to white tablecloth dining. AND the fact that I’ve had some of the most amazing food of my life handed to me through a window. Low overhead, more money for high quality ingredients? Anyway, having ramen IN Tokyo is definitely on my bucket list, but thanks for sharing this recipe to tide me over until I get there! It’s funny, I just made my first batch of from-scratch ramen noodles and I still have half of them left – now I know exactly how to use them. Thank you so much! xx
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January 17, 2015 at 7:42 am
I love Ramen and have only tasted those from restaurants. I’ve never tried it on my own. This recipe looks delicious. I think I’ll start trying to cook my ramen with this one. :)
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See AlsoSpicy Garlic Wok NoodlesSoe says:
January 17, 2015 at 12:35 pm
This seems like the easiest and yet tastiest ramen recipe. I will definitely be making one one of these days.
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Toyota Smith says:
January 18, 2015 at 3:21 am
Just stopping by to say I honestly love your blog!!
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Bec says:
January 19, 2015 at 3:23 am
Your recipes and photos make my belly rumble. This looks wonderful.
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Melinda says:
January 20, 2015 at 10:26 am
Hi Stephanie, I’ve never commented before but I love your blog! This was my first of your recipes to try and it was AMAZING! I didn’t share it at all lol. I ate every last bit of it myself. Thanks so much for posting it!
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alycia @ food blogit says:
January 21, 2015 at 3:35 am
this looks amazing. anything with a yolk is what I want to eat…right now:) thanks for sharing!
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Alexandra says:
January 21, 2015 at 7:39 pm
I want this miso gravy to be the official sauce of my life, please and thank you.
These photos are the definition of food p*rn.Reply
Haley Musial says:
February 24, 2015 at 9:45 am
OMG Church’s chicken… those rolls are like crack!
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Stephanie says:
February 28, 2015 at 6:48 pm
Just wanted to thank you for this recipe … the whole thing, but the miso gravy in particular was a total revelation! After making it for the first time, I suddenly had to have on *all* of my noodles. (I’ve since started exercising some restraint.) Thank you also for the “Easy Roast Beef and Brie Puff Pastry Breakfast Tarts” recipe … I think that is the best meal-scrounged-from-leftovers I’ve ever had.
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ty says:
May 15, 2015 at 5:39 pm
this looks great!
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Shannon says:
May 25, 2015 at 7:44 pm
I just made this for dinner tonight, and it was delicious! I will definitely be making it again! I followed the recipe exactly as written, and wouldn’t change a thing. Being a vegetarian who lives with a meat-loving boyfriend, I ended up making the beef version listed here, as well as a mushroom version for myself, and the latter turned out spectacular. All I did was dice up sh*take and enoki mushrooms and let them marinate for the same amount of time as the beef. Both versions received rave reviews! If you’re looking at this recipe, you should definitely try it out!
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cynthia says:
July 15, 2015 at 4:38 pm
OK, I don’t know how I missed this the first time but I just hopped on over from your blueberry spritzers (yay for your amazing blog design!!) and this is AMAZING. Ugh, I want it ALL, the miso gravy, the egg yolk, the thick chewy noodles. Be still my heart.
And also I laughed SO hard at your PS, YES to Church’s chicken!!!!!! Those honey biscuits, yessss.
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Nau says:
December 26, 2015 at 11:58 am
This looks SO good and the ingredients list is blissfully brief. I think I have everything on hand aside from the green onions.
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Luna says:
April 10, 2017 at 6:21 pm
I think it is very good flavor~
Onion and soy sauce make sweet!
Somday I want to eat ?Reply
Abitha says:
November 16, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Loved this! Made it with vegetarian mince to be more eco & economically friendly but absolutely delicious. Might be sacrilege to some but didn’t really get on with the roasted seaweed – it was a bit tough but other than ??
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