Milk ramen is rare enough…but almond milk ramen?
January 23 was Almond Day in Japan, and you know what that means: it was a prime opportunity to eat some almond-themed food!
But of course, this is SoraNews24, and it wouldn’t be appropriate if we just ate a bag of almonds and whole fish or even something fancier like Pocky on the Rocks. No, we had to go even more extreme and try out an unusual collaboration between Osaka-based ramen shop Noguchi Taro and prepackaged food company Glico: Almond Milk Ramen.
It’s pretty uncommon for milk to be used in ramen broth in general, and almond milk…Well, that’s something we’ve just never heard of, so when a make-at-home kit happened to show up at the office, we jumped to try it out.
The kit was packed tightly and delivered cold to preserve the fresh ingredients. Naturally, it came with soup and ramen, but also included two different cuts of chashu pork, a boiled egg, white cloud ear mushrooms, rapeseed flowers, a mini tomato, and a deep fried fish ball. It was nice that everything you would need was included, even toppings.
Everything was all set to go, too. We didn’t have to do any prep beforehand, unless we wanted to slice up the egg or tomato. We hoped this meant it would taste identical to what we’d get at the restaurant…but we’d have to taste it to find out.
Since the ramen was frozen, we were concerned that cooking it was going to be a challenge, but it really wasn’t. Cooking Almond Milk Ramen takes just three easy steps:
1. Transfer the soup to a pot and begin warming it up.
2. Boil the ramen, mushroom, and rapeseed flowers in a separate pot.
3. Combine everything in a bowl and serve.
It was super easy! All we needed were two small pots. Even someone who isn’t very good at cooking would find this easy to follow. And when we put everything together, including the chashu, egg, tomato, and fishcake…The final product was impressive.
It didn’t look like something we made at home. The softboiled egg and the overflowing chashu pork made this dish look completely different from anything we could ever put together on our own. This was restaurant-quality presentation!
The chashu was delicious, but we were more interested in the noodles, which were specially made “almond noodles”. They were really tasty! We could really appreciate the fragrance of almonds that wafted off of them.
The almond soup, which was made with a chicken broth base, almond milk, and almond paste, was super creamy and meshed perfectly with the almond noodles. The mildness of the almond milk was the perfect complement to the richness of the noodles.
Even the deep-fried fish cake was specially made with crushed almonds and almond oil. Every bite was full of the flavor and texture of almonds.
Though at first we were concerned whether almonds and ramen would pair well, we were gravely mistaken for doubting it. The level of excellence in this dish was outstanding. It was so good, the pairing so perfect, we ate it all up before we realized it. Plus, one bowl of Almond Milk Ramen apparently contains the same nutrition as 18 almonds, so as far as ramen goes, it was pretty healthy.
In conclusion, if you like ramen, almonds, and creamy soup, and are maybe looking for a healthier kind of ramen, you’ll really like this dish. You can find your own make-at-home kit on Noguchi Taro’s online shop, or you can try it out hot and fresh at a local branch like the one in Kita-Shinchi in Osaka, though supplies are limited to about 20 per day. It costs 1,280 yen for a serving at the restaurant (US$9.53), and the make-at-home kit costs 3,000 yen and includes two servings.
This is a limited-time-only dish, so if you’re interested definitely check it out before it’s gone! And if you like almond milk, be sure to check out Starbucks’ new Valentine’s Day frappucino. It’s a completely different way to appreciate almond milk, but well worth the calories!
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