Last night I was lucky enough to attend Luckyrice’s Ramen Slurpfest dinner. Ramen is one of my favorite foods of all time, so a night filled with uniquely-crafted dishes from leading ramen specialists was something I couldn’t pass up. My fellow ramen-obsessed fans gathered for a four-course tasting menu. So let’s get slurping!
First course: Snow Crab Mazeman
Cold mazeman (soup-less) snow crab soba with seaweed and shiso from Yuji Haraguchi. I have been wanting to check out Yuji Ramen at Whole Foods Bowery, so was excited he was making a dish. The dish was very light and not what I expected from a ramen, very refreshing. Would be perfect for a hot Summer night.
Second course: Foie Gras Tsukemen
The Ramen Lab came up with a combination that I never dreamed of for ramen, teaming a traditional shoyu ramen in chicken broth with a foie gras/truffle oil dipping sauce. Everyone at my table unanimously loved this dish. The ramen was great on its own, but the dipping sauce took it to another level. I will admit that we all drank the leftover foie gras sauce right from the bowl. Love eating with people who have no food shame!
Third course: Kimchi Ramen 2.0
I don’t know why this was called 2.0, but I’m sure 1.0 was great too. This was my favorite dish of the night. Being Korean, anything with kimchi always sparks my interest. The chefs at Chuko served us a dish that was spicy, slightly sweet topped with kimchi and little chunks of pork on the bottom. It was rich, but wasn’t overly powerful.
Fourth course: Triple Garlic/Pork Tonkotsku Mazemen
I’ve read a lot about Ivan Orkin and have been anxiously awaiting his ramen shop to open in the East Village. A few people at my table had already tried this dish before so I had an idea of what we were about to eat. Another mazeman (soup-less), this ramen was served with triple garlic and a slab of pork belly. I loved the garlic slivers and the pork belly was perfectly cooked. Though I will admit this dish wasn’t my favorite because it was too salty for me. I’m not a salt fan, so maybe you’ll disagree. Don’t get me wrong, I still ate the whole thing of course!
What I loved about this experience is that it showed such a wide range of techniques and flavors for making ramen. The only problem is now I want to even more ramen! And of course it got me thinking why is there no dessert ramen? Hmm…
Thanks to Luckyrice for another great evening. I’m looking forward to more slurptastic fun!
saucysmile 
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