After eating several bowls of ramen in Japan — most of them amazing — I wasn’t sure I could still have my mind blown by the dish.
Well, clearly I couldn’t have been more wrong, because I just went to Gogyo Ramen, and my mind? Blown to smithereens.
They specialize in burnt ramen — I had heard that the burnt shoyu ramen was the thing to order, so that’s what I did.
I’ve never had anything quite like it. The broth is inky black, and I won’t lie — I was skeptical. Was it going to taste… well, burnt?
No — it tasted amazing. It was kind of like the flavour you get from the grill on a perfectly barbecued piece of meat, only distilled down into a soup, and without even a hint of bitterness. It was remarkable.
There was more stuff in here than the typical ramen — bits of cabbage, onions, and ground pork, which all perfectly complimented the intensely flavourful broth. The noodles were satisfyingly firm and chewy, and the standard sliced pork on top might have been the best version of that I’ve ever had — addictively delicious, and so tender that the fat just melts in your mouth like butter.
Is ramen my favourite food? Because I’m starting to think that it’s my favourite food.