Flour, water, salt and kansui
Basic ramen noodles start with wheat flour, water, salt and kansui. Kansui is an alkaline ingredient, commonly made with sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate. It changes how the wheat proteins behave and helps give the noodle its firm, springy bite.
The dough still needs mixing, resting, rolling and cutting. Flour choice, water content and cooking time affect the texture too. Kansui is part of the recipe, not the whole explanation for a good noodle.
Why the noodles can be yellow
Alkalinity can give wheat noodles a yellow color without egg. Some recipes do include egg, though, so you can’t identify the ingredients by color alone.
Kansui is also different from plain baking soda. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate; the carbonates commonly used in kansui are different salts.
Ramen noodles and pho noodles
Pho uses rice noodles. Ramen uses wheat noodles. The rice noodles in our Cleveland Pho and the springy wheat noodles in our ramen give the two soups a different bite before you even get to the broth.
Ramen noodles can be straight or wavy, thick or thin. Those shapes change the mouthful, but there isn’t a rule that every rich broth needs a thick noodle.
Ours come from Ohio City Pasta
Our fresh ramen noodles are made locally by Ohio City Pasta. We pair them with our two-day pork broth in the Tonkotsu, along with braised pork, corn, sprouts and half a soy egg.
Get into the noodles while the bowl is hot. That first mouthful is a good time to notice the chew.
Keep reading
Pho vs. ramen: how the bowls differ
Further reading