Tokyo: Cult Recipes - Ramen with Pork Simmered In Star Anise

One of the many 3D signs in Dotonburi, Osaka

Most people have a bucket list destination, somewhere they have always wanted to visit. For me this is Japan. My oldest friend's mother is Japanese and I grew up with her incredible cooking, watching Japanese cartoons (some of which it turns out sound terrifying when you explain them to British friends), playing the latest Nintendo releases in Japanese and being incredibly jealous every year when my friend and his family went to Japan every Christmas to see his family. Last year my husband and I were fortunate to be able to go there on honeymoon and it definitely lived up to my childhood expectations.

A woman collects shellfish on the shore in Miyajima

The bright lights of Dotonburi, Osaka

Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto

Of course there are so many things I loved about the trip - it is an amazing country with an extraordinary juxtaposition between the very traditional and the ultra modern. Far too much for me to describe here but the thing that stood out most for me, unsurprisingly, was the food. Living in the UK, even with a family friend who was Japanese, I had experienced a very limited cross section of Japanese food culture. Sure we now have access to sushi and katsu curry over here but this is a little bit like saying all of Italian cuisine can be experienced by eating at Pizza Express. It conveys nothing of the rich culinary heritage of the country, to say nothing of just how into their food the Japanese seem to be.

Red Torii gates at Fushimi Inari shrine, Kyoto

A Maiko on her way to work for the evening in Gion, Kyoto

We ate so much wonderful food whilst we were there, created towering piles of plates at sushi-go-rounds, ate king crab with our fingers outside of a stall in Tsukiji market, were served meticulously prepared kaiseki feasts in a Ryokan and of course slurped upon steaming bowls of ramen.

King Crab in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo

I've not done a lot of Japanese cooking at home before, I've used Asian flavours but not necessarily in a very authentic way. Before we even went to Japan I bought Tokyo: Cult Recipes by Maori Murota - I was drawn by its bold cover and beautiful photography, thinking I would give it a go before we went. But of course although I poured over the book for several evenings I never actually made anything and now it is the first book I am cooking out of this year.

The book itself is split into sections referring to different meals, at the beginning of each section there is a short preface explaining what the typical Japanese person may eat at this time of day. It also contains a few recipes for staples such as how to cook Japanese short grain rice, dashi and some basic sauces. Interspersed between the recipes are short sections with pictures of areas surrounding Japanese food culture, such as confectionery and ceramics - I would have in some ways liked these to go into slightly more detail than the single paragraphs, but on the bright side that leaves more room for recipes.

For my recipe I chose Nibuta Chashu - Pork Simmered with Star Anise which then forms the basis for the Ramen recipe.  Pork neck is slowly simmered in a liquor made with star anise, sake, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, leeks and sugar before the broth is reduced to create a sauce. The sauce is then combined with more water and fish sauce to make the ramen broth and it is all served with noodles, boiled egg, leeks and spring onions.

Whilst I had many of the ingredients already I stocked up on the remaining items at the Chinese supermarket on my way home. I love the two international supermarkets that near my work - as well as the ingredients I picked up a large bag each of frozen prawns and enormous scallops (seriously, some are the size of my palm), fresh herbs and more quinces than was possibly strictly necessary. For pork neck I took a trip to Richardsons butchers - this used to be our local butchers before we moved and they are always so helpful in there that it was worth making the trip out of my way to ensure I got the correct cut.

I then spent a very happy couple of hours going to and from the kitchen for the various stages of the recipe. The aroma from the cooking liquor was incredible and the pork was meltingly tender when it came out. The sauce once reduced can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.  I added slightly more of this to the broth than was called for as I had so much left over and I wanted to include as much of that flavour as I could.

Assembly was straightforward, I boiled my eggs for just shy of 8 minutes so that they were set but not chalky (though they could've stood slightly less), and the noodles took around 5 minutes in boiling water. The leek is combined with sesame oil and soy sauce and the whole thing is topped with finely chopped spring onions.

Whilst it wasn't quite like sitting at a counter in a tiny noodle shop in Ameyko market it was pleasingly savoury and the pork was rich and aromatic. The eggs were slightly problematic with chopsticks though, they are slippery little bastards. If I were to make it again I would marinade them in the sauce for a couple of hours as was suggested in the recipe but that would have meant starting everything a lot earlier than I did if we wanted to eat before 11:00pm.

I am glad I have finally cooked from this book and I am keen to try some of the other recipes - particularly some of the ones for bento as this would be much more interesting than my average desk lunch.

P.S When writing this post I was acutely aware of the current discussion taking place regarding white supremacy and the lack of representation of BIPOC in the knitting community. I have tried to be careful how I have phrased my love of Japan to make it clear that it was not a matter of exoticism or festishization of a culture. I have also tried to describe the subject of my photos in Japan as accurately as I can. I have a lot of feelings about this issue which I am currently trying to unpack and have downloaded a copy of the Me and My White Supremacy Workbook by Layla F Saad. I may write a post on it in due course. I agree that as a white woman in a predominantly white community I have a responsibility to make myself more aware of the issues surrounding this and I admire all of the BIPOC who have spoken up in this discussion to call out our fragile white bullshit.  I hear you, I see you, I support you. I will do better.