Food & Wine: The Little Trick To Eating Ramen That Will Change Your Slurping Game

January 9, 2017 Press

Tomonori Takahashi of Jinya Ramen Bar shares his simple technique.

Tomonori Takahashi knows ramen.

The empire-building chef behind Jinya Ramen Bar—which has nearly 20 outposts all over the country and 10 more to come this year—simmers down pork bones for 10 hours for his famed tonkotsu broth and ages his noodles for three days.

And when it comes to digging into his porky ramen, Takahashi makes sure each customer is given this instruction beforehand: Lift the noodles once before eating.

“The thicker soup maintains its heat,” Takahashi says through his translator. “The toppings cool it down.”

This simple action allows the heat to be dispersed in the bowl, so the piping-hot noodles and soup at the bottom of the bowl get some air and the cool bamboo shoots and quivering eggs, which actually do reduce the temperature of the noodles, get a jolt of heat.

That means no more burned tongues, and a lot more slurping.