Slurping Up Ramen-y Goodness With Jay Weinstein

By Sam Slaughter January 23, 2020

how to make ramen bowl — Ruthy Yang

Which new bourbon are we pumped about? What does it take to be a master journeyman? Where are we excited to travel to next? Each week, The Manual Podcast invites an expert, artisan, or craftsman for a roundtable discussion on what’s new, exciting, and unique in their trade.

For this week’s episode of The Manual Podcast, Greg and Sam sit down with chef-educator at the Institute for Culinary Education Jay Weinstein to talk about ramen.

A classic Japanese dish, ramen is a broth with wheat noodles and a variety of other ingredients like char siu pork, a soft-boiled egg, greens, and more. Depending on where you are, Weinstein explains, the broth will differ. What you get in Hokkaido is not what you will get in Tokyo, et cetera.

After an explanation of what ramen is (including a primer on why people pull the noodles out of the bowl when they are first served), Weinstein digs into the cultural phenomenon that is ramen. When did it get popular? Why? How has that popularity changed over time?

Not only does Weinstein explain ramen’s popularity and importance in pop culture, but he also looks at how to properly eat ramen (and some things to do to show the chef your appreciation for his or her work).

Lastly, Weinstein dishes on the best ways to prepare ramen at home if you’ve never done it before. His tips and tricks will set you down the right path to delicious ramen for sure.

Do you love ramen as much as we do? Do you have a favorite style? Do you make your own? Let us know. We want to hear from you. If you ever have a question or comment for The Manual Podcast folks, give us a shout at podcast@themanual.com — we’re always around! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you can join the discussion. Don’t forget, too, to rate and review the podcast where you download it.

Further Reading

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Podcast
Food

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…

Food & Drink

The 10 best rosé wines that everyone should drink

It's time to finally try rosé

Rose wine glasses

Rosé rules -- no ifs, ands, or buts. You’ve most definitely seen dudes drinking rosé, with the pink wine sold in forties. Chances are, you’ve heard the term “brosé” at least once or twice in your life. Heck, people are cooking with rosé. Can you believe that? It's a sweet wine worth talking about.

All this talk about the drink prompted us to go on a quest to find the most exceptional ones this rosé season. With plenty of great options in the market, we chose to narrow down our list to these best rosé wines for your next hot date, guys' night, or solo Netflix binge. Still reluctant to try this magical wine? We listed seven reasons why you should start drinking rosé.
Best rosé wines

Food & Drink

How to start your own home bar: the essential spirits

Home Bar

When you start getting into cocktails, drinking them is only half the fun -- making them is part of the appeal too. If you start making your own drinks at home, you'll soon find that you can often create better or more interesting drinks than what you're served in most bars. And even better, making drinks for other people is a great way to try out new combinations, learn about spirits, and make your friends and family happy too.

However, moving beyond the simple spirit plus mixer style of drinks which most people make at home and into the world of cocktails means that you'll need a wider array of spirits on hand than you might be used to. It can take some time and research to build up a well stocked bar, and choosing high quality spirits isn't a cheap endeavor. It's worth it, though, for the pleasure of being able to try out classic cocktail recipes and experiment with making up your own creations too.

Food & Drink

You’re overlooking the most important ingredient in your cocktail

Steel Hibiscus cocktail.

When you list off the most important parts of making a good cocktail your mind likely goes immediately to good ingredients: quality spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices, and well-matched mixers. You might also consider the importance of using the right tools, like getting a proper mixing glass so your stirred drinks can be properly incorporated, or a good strainer so that there aren't little shards of ice in your cocktails. And then there are the fun additions like elaborate garnishes, bitters, or home-made syrups which can add a personal touch to your drinks.
All of those things are important, absolutely. However I think there's one ingredient that can make or break a good cocktail, and it's something many drinkers don't ever stop to consider. It's the humble but vital ingredient of ice.

Why ice is so important
In mixed drinks like a gin and tonic or a screwdriver, ice is added to the drink primarily to chill it down to a pleasing temperature. That's a topic we'll come back to. But in cocktails which are shaken or stirred, ice is far more important than that. Cocktails are typically composed of between around 20 to 30 percent water, and this water comes from the ice used in the preparation process.
When you stir ingredients in a mixing glass or shake them in a shaker with ice, you are chipping away small pieces of the ice so that it dissolves and blends with your other ingredients. You might imagine that water doesn't make much of a difference to taste, being tasteless itself. But it's vital in opening up the flavors of other ingredients. That's why many whiskey drinkers like to add a dash of water to their whiskey when they drink it neat.
If you're ever in doubt of how important water is to cocktails, it's worth trying to make a drink with no ice. Even if you mix up the ideal ratios for a drink that you love and put it into the freezer so that it gets to the chilled temperature that you usually enjoy it at, if you sip it you'll find that your drink tastes harsh, unbalanced, and incomplete. Even for special room temperature cocktails like those designed to be drunk from a flask, you'll generally find water being added at a rate of around 30%.
When you make your cocktails you should be sure to stir for a long time – around 30 seconds is a good start – or to shake for a good while too – I typically do around 12 to 15 seconds – in order to melt enough ice to get plenty of water into your cocktail. Despite what you might imagine, this won't make the cocktail taste watery but will rather make the flavors stand out more as well as often improving the mouthfeel of the drink. A good rule of thumb is to mix or shake until the vessel is cold to the touch. That means your ingredients are sufficiently incorporated with the ice.