IT’S no shame to slurp loudly when sucking up ramen from its bone stock. In noodle bars in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, where the benchmark Tonkotsu ramen originated, all around it must be like the sound of a bath being drained.
Bizarrely my Fukuoka visit over a decade ago (I was touring with a troupe of cross-dressing Kabuki actors, don’t ask) was a quest for fugu – the poison blowfish, another speciality of the region, which, if not prepped correctly, can result in an agonising death for the diner. I survived obviously but neglected to soak up noodle one-upmanship in situ. Hakata district is the place, y’know.
London foodies have been showing their knowledge off a year or two now, bloggin their favourite places. The city is swamped in pork bone stock cooked for 12 hours at a rolling boil, Hoxton hipsters toting chopsticks in the same wallet as their facial hair tweezers, you know the score. Up there with kimchi bores.
It has taken a while for this food trend to wobble up north. Spearheading it is Shoryu, a London chain whose credentials are impeccable. Its creator is Tak Tokumine CEO of the Japan Centre in London’s Piccadilly. In four years of existence it already boasts six outlets plus Shoryu Go, a dedicated tonkotsu ramen take-out bar. Jay Rayner has praised their ramen quality and pricing and loves their barbecue pork belly buns.
There’s a two for one offer on these £4.50 buns on Mondays when buying a ramen at their smart new 55-cover Manchester diner in Piccadilly Gardens – their first outside London. So we couldn’t resist, but then – not included in the offer – there were wagyu beef buns at nearly twice the price. Deal. Both varieties were splendid, but the beef came with shiso, daikon & shimeji, so the winner.
Search through the menu and there are so many authentic-sounding small plates at around a fiver to tantalise – spicy mentaiko caviar, stir-fried enoki mushroom with butter, ponzu and spring onion, chicken karaage with Goosnargh chicken (which could almost be a haiku), unagi eel with teriyaki glaze. There’s also a bit of fusion going on, too. Witness Shishito Padron Peppers or, among the ramens, Piri Piri Tonkotsu or (ouch) Dracula Tonkotsu with oodles of garlic.
But for a first visit we felt we had to go down the signature dish route. So we shared six pieces of Hakata Tetsunabe Gyoza (above, £7). This version of the classic pork and cabbage filled dumpling is unusually sizzled – and served – in a tetsunabe cast-iron skillet, a soy, chilli and rice vinegar dipping sauce on the side.
Chilli featured in the first of our shared ramens. Partly because my partner automatically doused it in tabletop chilli oil without quite taking in the pungency rating on the Scoville Scale of Shoryu’s Kimchi Seafood Tonkotsu (below, £14.90) – in a fiery broth featuring the Korean fermented cabbage, prawns, scallops, squid nitamago egg, kikurage mushrooms, nori seaweed, spring onion, seasoned beansprouts, sesame and fried shallots.
Still, gulping down some of her Hitachi Nest Classic Ale (£5.80 for 33cl but gorgeous), I found it more interesting than the standard Shoryu Ganso Tonkotsu (above, £11.50), ginger and sesame overly powerful, while the pallid pork slices felt disconnected from the rest of the bowlful. And both were bowlfuls neither of us could come near to finishing at a discreet slurp.
Service veered between engaging and quietly haywire. My ordered Negroni was half its normal price of £9 as part of another opening deal, but it took an age to arrive.
I sipped and left. Unable to eat everything bar the broth I was unable to invoke the classic ritual of ‘kaedama’, entitling you to a second free order of noodles. Maybe, though, that just applies in Hakata and I’d only confuse the staff, who are obviously still getting the hang of serving the aforementioned Mentaiki (marinated cod or pollock roe) or requesting if you want hard or regular noodles (I should have asked them if the noodles were handmade – crucial.
I daren’t ask how the chefs created the odd eggs that sat on the surface of each Tonkotsu. Since I’ve discovered these ‘nitamago’, are hard-boiled, cooled, plunged into a sauce of tsuyu, cooking sake, soy sauce, mirin, pepper and ginger, then left in the fridge for a couple of days before serving.
So see, I am discovering some arcane Secrets of The Ramen. My only problem now is that noodles in broth seems comfort food rather than a gastronomic treat. Philistine! Still a fascinating cocktail and sake offering will draw be back – probably for tempura and teriyaki.
Shoryu Manchester 1 Piccadilly Gardens, M1 1RG.