I’m not talking about the college-dorm-days packaged instant ramen. This is the real Japanese ramen made with tonkotsu (pork bone broth), miso, or other innovative variations thereof purchased and consumed at a specialty ramen shop. The best include handmade noodles. When the ramen is good, one just feels warm, comforted, and satiated with a happy belly. In the Boston area, ramen is especially desirable due to the lack of a really good place to eat ramen. I’ve tried a few, and they were merely okay: one was too greasy, one was too garlicky, and one didn’t have enough flavor when compared to my favorite ramen place, Ippudo, in New York City. In mid-January 2012, two chefs from Boston restaurant, O Ya, opened a pop-up ramen shop called Guchi’s Midnight Ramen, which appears for a couple of nights every few months in different locations. Pre-purchased tickets are needed in order to partake. A fellow ramen-lover friend and I had our internet browsers ready last year, hoping to nab a ticket for one of these pop-up events so that we could taste the ramen for ourselves. It sold out within seconds, and we were left empty-handed and empty-stomached 🙁 Still hoping to try it someday before I graduate…
