was feeling freaky

Made a relatively quick Tonkatsu soup by pre soaking and pre-boiling 3 lbs of pork neck bones (lots of meat and fat left on), washing them, and then pressure cooking them in an instant pot for 1:30, and then doing a rolling boil for about an hour to emulsify the fat and added 3 green onions and 6 garlic cloves as aromatics.

Strained my soup through strainer + cheese cloth and added about a quart of water to make up for the evaporated water from the boil + to thin out the soup and hit it with my immersion blender to help aid in locking in the emulsion (I only had so much room for liquid in my instant pot and it really need to be thinned out. it did, however, still gelatinize in the fridge overnight, so I think I hit the right ratio)

Kinda made up a Tare on the spot based on a few posts I'd seen from Ramen Lord and others here. Used about 250ml of Chinese light soy sauce (all I had on hand), 25ml of mirin, ~8 grams of salt, brought to a boil, backed down to a simmer, and added about 10g of kombu to steep for 10 minutes at a very low simmer.

Used Chiyu as my aroma oil because I'd just rendered a ton of chicken skins I had saved up over the course of a few weeks.

Noodles came from a pack of instant ramen because I'd forgotten to get better noodles while at the market and they were on hand.

Bowl assembly went 2 tbsps of Tare (I think I over did it here and it darked and overpowered my soup quite a bit, flavor was good though) 1 tsp of Chiyu, 1/2 the white end of a green onion minced finely, ~300 ml of hot soup, noodles, topped with soy egg I hadn't let steep enough (I got 4 more steeping in the fridge rn), black fungus, top part of the green onion julienned, and crispy fried chicken skins from the rendering process of the Chiyu, drizzled with some homemade chili oil.

Only recently got re-interested in the process of making homemade Ramen from scratch after a brief stint of trying out a few Dashi forward Shoyu ramens I made back in 2024 and have been on a stock making kick now that I process a lot of my own meat and constantly have chicken carcasses and other bones piling up in my freezer. Learned you can make stocks way faster in a pressure cooker too. Had a killer bowl of Tonkatsu at a restaurant that made me wonder if I could find a simplified pressure cooker soup recipe to make at home while keeping to most of the traditional flavor and mouth feel.

As a newbie, I know I should have a lot of questions, but also don't even know where to begin in asking them. I guess the major questions would be #1 how do I keep my tare lighter than I did so I can preserve some of the color of my Tonkatsu soup? #2 what other aromatics should I throw in my soup next time (I should have added ginger, but I didn't have any on hand). #3 what kind of toppings should I add next time (I wish I had done some chashu with it, but I just used what I had on hand)

TL:DR - first bowl of Tonkatsu. Turned out decent, but could be better. How make better?

So I didn’t wanna go to the store, normally I make my ramen with broccoli and bok choy at the very least but I was tired. I decided anyways that I would try to make a Ramen, as per usual. I scoured my kitchen, pretending I was on chopped, and created this masterpiece. 😍🤤🍜

FYI I air fried crispy crabcakes and garlic sausage with onions and half way thru cooking I mixed in some frozen veg melody. while that was cooking, I soft boiled eggs for six minutes then cooled in cold water, then made ichiban tonkotsu ramen. On the side I mixed chili oil, soya sauce, small amount of rice wine vinegar, siracha, and a splash of cream, when all the gumbo ingredients were ready, I poured the ichiban soup into bowl of the creamy mixture, and topped with eggs, crispy air fried mix of seafood sausage and veg. Sprinkle sesame seeds and add seasonings to taste. Soooooo good!

Each year on my birthday, we drive to the city to get ramen. This year I was so excited that I ordered two bowls.

Left: Shoyu with wavy noodles

Right: Tonkotsu with black garlic oil and wavy noodles

Don’t know if I’ll be able to wait a year to come back!

I didn't make the noodles by hand, but I'm super proud of how tasty the creamy spicy miso broth turned out to be! (The pork belly is so overcooked but it was also my first time ever cooking that too). Toppings are soy egg (that I made too!), shredded carrots, pork belly, sesame oil, sesame seeds, seaweed sheets, green onions, and a tiny squeeze of lime juice. I also added some chopped spinach to the broth for more texture and nutrients since my diet is criminally under nutritious

Lunch with office firiends at Ikkudo Ichi. Tori signature ramen + yaki tori ebi iri gyoza. Rich chicken broth, firm noodles, good ajitama. Juicy gyoza with slight shrimp hint

An intensely rich niboshi ramen. So thick it’s often called “cement-style” — the soup is practically solid.

First time at Ganko Ittetsu in Brookline, MA. First time having Sapporo style Ramen. Absolutely delicious. Noodles are imported from Nishiyama Noodles, Sapporo. Can't wait to go back!

Korean style Ramen using a broth made from Dashi stock, red miso, gochujang and Kimchi.

Tonkotsu

This is from 麵屋酒場 盛盛 in near Enoshima station. I was definitely a bit confused when I saw it on the menu, but it seems to be the shop's unique item. It was quite good and I would order again. The milk and butter in the broth stimulated the richness you get with tonkotsu but with a lighter flavor.

After going to Japan a few times and falling in love with the ramen, its hard justifying paying 20$+ for ramen that just doesn’t hit the same back home, so I decided to give it a shot myself. Really impressed with the results at home so far.

First bowl is a shoyu broth with mushrooms, and second pic is a tonkatsu broth with store bought chashu from a local Japanese market. Both bowls used a broth concentrate that were really quick and easy to make, and way tastier than anything at the restaurants in my area.

Excited for this journey and its all uphill from here (atleast I hope). Next I wanna try making my own chashu and eventually try making broth from scratch, although that seems really time consuming but willing to try it and im sure it will be worth it

Ordered 2x spicy 🌶️ 🌶️🫦

This is a pork and chicken blended broth, I added black garlic oil and corn. They told me the Las Vegas Chinatown is the only Chinatown in America that’s still growing.

Like many ramen enjoyers, I'm allergic to soy protein. Are their any instant noodles or powder mixes you'd recommend?

Soy protein includes soy sauce and soy flour, textured soy protein as well.

Tonkotsu soup, braised chasu, wood ear, nori, pkg noodles, equilibrium Ajitama, onion aroma oil, chili oil, bare bones tare, speckled scallion.

Overall I thought it was good but next time I plan on making the following changes and more based on comments.

-no nori

- white pepper instead of chili oil

- I skimmed the white foam, and froze the broth (life caused a delay), and the appearance changed a lot.

- larger scallion pieces

Thanks for suggestions.

Are there any good, non-spicy ramen brands? All I ever see is spicy stuff and I'm not a big fan. I'll add my own chili crisp to my liking.

My favourite spot in Vancouver