Hundreds of people gathered together to celebrate all things ramen on Saturday. It didn’t matter if it was the perfect 75 degrees out — people enjoyed sitting and walking around poolside, slurping noodles of all sorts. Sama Sama Kitchen, which will reveal its new menu in less than a week-and-a-half, won the King of Ramen title, but all participating restaurants deserve to be the Princes.
Each restaurant included one unique special ingredient that yelled “Vote for me!” It was one tough vote and this rundown shows why. Keep in mind these two basic ramen ingredients: shoyu, which is a type of soy sauce, and dashi, which is a soup distilled of natural resources, also defined as “the essence of Japanese cooking.”
Julienne/Wildwood Kitchen: The chefs of Wildwood Kitchen, being opened soon by Julienne’s co-owner Justin West, wore Julienne shirts but handed out Wildwood Kitchen business cards. What else did they hand out? Smoked brisket ramen with bok choy kimchi, shoyu dashi, and hardboiled egg. Special ingredient: The perfectly tender smoked brisket.