London Ramen Wars Part I: Ittenbari

The second ramen bar that opened in London close on the heels of Ittenbari is Tonkotsu located in the middle of Soho. Run by the team behind Tsuru Sushi whose pop-up ramen event I attended last year, Tonkotsu is a stylish and modern ramen-ya serving tonkotsu ramen as its central dish — so beloved of Kyushu in Southern Japan.

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I used to loathe this city when I lived here.

That was back in 1998 and I was poor as a peasant poofter pigeon. I went looking for the hip & happening 1990′s London which I’d always dreamt about while listening to BritPop all through high school — the city of Blur, Oasis, Suede, Elastica and all my heroes. But it never turned out neither hip nor happening for the insecure nerd I was and I ended up working as a night porter at a hotel outside the city.

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London is currently undergoing a ramen boom. In the past year alone, five new ramen bars are opening its doors to a public clamouring for some hearty B-kyu Japanese grub. It’s a ramen war, baby. Compared to what was available before, these are serious noodle bars with a tight focus on all the accoutrements that make ramen such big business in Japan: fresh noodles, aji-tamago (marinated boiled egg), home-made chashu and most importantly, the soup.

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Although I’ve been writing for Umami Mart for almost three years, I have yet to meet any of my fellow writers as most of them live across the Pond. But a few weeks ago I received a lovely surprising. Anders, a Danish designer who writes the Skankynavia column for UM and was crucial in designing the Umami Mart shop in Oakland, was visiting London and wanted to meet up!

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It’s not very often I go to fancypants restaurants but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the excitement and taste sensations that often accompany these forays into high end dining. I love them and I wish my pockets were deeper. For Christmas this year, we went to Roganic, the two year pop-up restaurant that’s been wowing London this past year.

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I always thought chirashizushi was the large, family-friendly tub of vinegared sushi rice studded with a variety of colourful ingredients such as shiitake, cooked seafood, and what ever else you like — all sprinkled with thinly sliced Japanese omelette and cucumber. My mother would often make it at home and it was an easy way for us kids to eat sushi.

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Hello all, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s been a hectic year and my food mojo has done a runner. However, I’ve come to realise that it’s the little things, the comforting things, that make you appreciate what you have. And seeing what Kayoko and Yoko, together with their friends, have done with Umami Mart, conjuring up a beautiful, solid, real-life store and realising their dreams is wonderful and inspiring.

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Aaaah, one of the things I really miss in London is a good bowl of ramen. Now that we’ve got a brilliant udon-ya for keeps, the next big thing will hopefully be ramen. Unlike in the States, we only have a couple of restaurants offering old school ramen which are alright. But considering there is a ramen boom sweeping across Japan, I’m just surprised it hasn’t hit London yet.

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One of my favourite foods is South East Asian cuisine. I confess I wasn’t much of a fan of noodles when I was a child living in Bangkok (I know, what was I thinking?), preferring fried rice over anything else. That’s practically all I ate as apparently I was a fussy eater. My sister, on the other hand, was fanatical about them and so was my mum.

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Although I haven’t been fortunate enough to visit the country, Turkey has always held a fascination for me. It’s long and complex history, the bridge between East and West, the mixing of cultures, languages and religion not to mention the souks and the food.

One my earliest memories is reading C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books where Edmund is tempted by the White Witch’s offering of Turkish delight in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

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