*Warning: picture heavy post*
Got a very special opportunity to attend a special tasting with Ramen In Common group in Houston.
This time, the event is at the Sugar Land location, which I've never been before. Turns out, it's literally down the street from my office, as in, I can walk over. So convenient.
While I'm waiting, grabbed an Oolong Tea. I love the imported drinks, their cans use real aluminum has real weight to them.
Here's our fearless leader, Carl Rosa, the brain behind Ramen In Common. Along with owner, Mr. Agu himself, Hirashi Uehara -san.
It was so generous of him to let us invade his store and took the time to explain the philosophy and process of making ramen.
Bet you didn't know that they make their ramen noodles in house. As a matter of fact, they have 3 different types to match different type of broth. This is the house made Jidori noodles. They are very proud of the fact that they massage the dough after cutting to get that wave you see.
Jidori was served with Chicken Shoyu, which has chicken char siu, fresh bamboo, scallions, and slice of seaweed.
What you didn't know, can't tell from looks, is that their broth is cooked for 9 hours. And the key to the light texture and clear color is not to blast cook the broth, but do it in low heat, just barely boiling. That explains why you need to cook it for over 9 hours to get the flavors out.
Trivia, Chef was telling us that the more North in Japan they are, the lighter their broth and dish. For some reason, the further South you travel, the thicker and greasier soup they use. Interesting.
This is their Tonkotsu noodles, which is more medium in thickness and according to Chef, it is great for medium broth.
This is the Original Kotteri Ramen, which has black garlic, garlic chips, 60 degree egg, bamboo, pork char siu, scallions, and the grease is from reduced pork fat, yum!
The black garlic oil, they hand made them in house, which takes 3 days to make, and it is very easily blast away and have to throw away the batch. The broth itself, takes over 22 hours to make. I will say, personally, this is my favorite broth of theirs, though, the Chicken Shoyu is becoming my new favorite. This time, for this broth, they do cook them in blast as opposed to low heat in the previous dish.
The pork, they cook for 9 hours, and let it sit in its juice to re-absorb the flavors.
Now, let's talk bamboo. Chef was telling us that the ones that are available in the states were very salty and they would have to wash the sodium/salt off, dried and repeat until it's to taste. So, they finally import them from Japan, and they can treat them to their liking.
In regards to the 60-degree eggs, when Chef only had one shop, he personally injects the shoyu into the eggs, but now given the size of the business, that's not feasible. So, they cook the eggs for 7 minutes and 45 seconds. Peel them, let them sit for 36 hours in the shoyu sauce to absorb the flavors, and cut and serve.
Chef said long time ago, small towns use women hair to cut the egg, because it's fine and will do a clean job. Now, they use wire or fish line to cut. And by the way, the yellow in the egg is organic food dye.
Last noodle for the evening is their housemaid thick noodles. It is more to the egg noodles, but they don't have any eggs in them.
The last bowl for the evening, is the Tokotsu Miso Ramen. This is not your miso soup miso, this is thicker. Chef told us is Okinawa style, which is more grease and more fat. Definitely more body to the flavor, comparable to the Kotteri. It comes with pork char siu, bamboo, corn, scallion, and egg (which I ate before photo).
This is their in-house noodle chef.
They were showing us how they make the noodles, from dough to rolls to noodles.
Rolls? Yes, I said rolls. See! Wasn't lying... this is only half roll, which each roll serves 125 bowls of noodles.
They cut into the 3 types of noodles we talked about and they all get massage to get the elasticity before getting made into ramen dishes.
They really use the noodle mix, water to make into dough and repeat until they get to be that huge. Each of the sample slat has different thickness, and they have to have custom made rollers for each type. Imagine it can be as thin as paper to as thick cardboard, luckily they taste nothing like paper.
I did ask how they prepared for the humidity in Houston. Since they have one location to make the noodles and sends them to different locations. They agreed, as they have shops in Hawaii and here in Houston, California, all the places have humidity, but they are very different. So, how they do it is to make the noodles in a separate a/c room to yield a consistent result.
Overall, you can tell that they really have passion dedicated into every step of the way to making a bowl of ramen. From the temperature, to the time, to the sauce, to garlic oil. Every step they have painstakingly find the sweet spot to make it taste good. On top of that, for different locations, they pay close attention to what their audience want or don't want. They're willing to tailor to their clientele instead of having a one size fits all approach. It was so pleasant to see their thoughtfulness into everything that they do, really show their dedication into the dish and that's truly an art match with science. You really can taste their hard work in how the bowl comes out harmoniously time after time.
Agu Ramen (Sugar Land)
Town Square
2130 Sugarland Dr
Sugar Land, TX 77479
713-588-5601
http://www.aguramen.com
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