Our name gives the game away, so let's settle it: slurping is not bad manners in a ramen shop. It is how the bowl is meant to be eaten. Pulling air over the noodles cools them as they come up, carries broth with them, and lets you eat at the speed the noodle needs. Here is the rest of it, in the order it happens.
1. Broth first, before anything else
Before you touch the noodles, lift the spoon and taste the broth on its own. This is the part someone spent all day on, and it is at its best in the first minute, hot and undisturbed. Take a couple of spoonfuls. Notice the fat on your lips, the salt, the smoke if there is one. Now you know what the bowl is.
2. Then the noodles, and pull them high
Chopsticks in one hand, spoon in the other. Gather a small bundle of noodles, lift them clear of the broth so they drain a little, and bring them up to your mouth with the spoon underneath to catch the drips. Then slurp. Do not bite them off halfway and let the rest fall back, that just splashes the table. Take a bundle you can finish.
3. Work the toppings in as you go
Do not eat the chashu first and save the noodles, and do not save the chashu for the end either. A slice of pork with a mouthful of noodle, a bit of egg with the next, a spoon of broth between. The bowl is built so that everything meets in your mouth at once. The spring onion is there to cut the richness, so use it for that.
4. Eat fast, and I mean that kindly
Fresh ramen noodles keep cooking in hot broth. A few minutes of chat with the bowl in front of you and they have gone soft. So in a ramen shop nobody lingers, and at home you should not either. Sit down the moment the bowl is built, eat it while it steams, and talk afterwards. It is the one meal where finishing quickly is a compliment to the cook.
5. The last of the broth
Lift the bowl with both hands and drink it. In Japan an empty bowl is the thank-you. If it is a rich tonkotsu you may not manage all of it, and that is fine too, but at least give it a go.
The kit for the job
You can eat ramen with any chopsticks and any spoon, but a deep spoon that holds a proper mouthful of broth, and chopsticks with some grip to them, make the whole thing easier. We made a pair of each, and if you sign up before your first order we will send you a code that makes the chopsticks free with your first kit. Details here.
Then pick a bowl to practise on: Our Ramen. Order by Sunday 8pm. Delivered Thursday or Friday.
