State of Ramen

The state of ramen by Momofuku’s David Chang.

When we first opened Momofuku, I feel like our ramen made sense at the time; we were figuring out what it was like to make ramen in America. But now ramen is everywhere, and a lot of it is the same. I don’t want to go to every city and taste the same fucking thing. Everyone’s serving tonkotsu ramen, everyone’s serving pork. You could do a blind taste test and not have any idea where the fuck you’re eating. Everyone is sharing the same experiences, but ramen is not supposed to be about that; it’s food for people that don’t want the same experience, that don’t want to be part of the mainstream. Even in Japan, cooks are returning to pure, clean, simple chicken ramen, because everything else has been done. That’s it—you’ve taken noodle soup as far as you can fucking go, and now it’s gotta go back to the beginning.

Tastemade-ing on Anniversary at Underbelly

Adelle and I decided to keep it fancy but simple. She knew that I loved ramen so we headed down to Little Italy to enjoy Underbelly. While there, I decided that we could make a quick Tastemade video. It's the first of many and we're just learning the trade. Check it out!