 What do you look for in a good ramen bowl? My favorite ramen in general is Miso Spice. Miso? Miso Spice? Yeah. Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome to a special episode of Fung Grows Food. This is the beginning of a little Tokyo series that we're gonna be doing around LA. Right now I am standing in front of one of the most advanced ramen spots in all of America. It's a chain from Japan. It just came over straight from Fukuoka, Japan and they are killing it right now. I'm gonna be showing you guys what a $20 bowl of ramen looks like. Why it looks like that? The options they give you and I'm gonna be trying the hottest level of their God Fire Ramen. This is Hakata Akosha. God everybody, I am in the back of the kitchen with Shiochi here. You're making a chashu here. Wow, look at that, big piece. Yeah, this big piece and this is pork belly. This is pork butt. Pork butt? Yeah, the traditional pork or two soup from Fukuoka. So that heavy broth that everybody loves, that came from Fukuoka. That came from Kyushu. That came from Fukuoka, Takata. Something that I wanna tell you guys is that a lot of Japanese chains from Japan that have expanded overseas, places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, they're coming to LA now. And actually a little Tokyo, if you guys have been here and have noticed that over the past like five years there's been a lot more Japanese chains coming over. This spot actually feels a lot like Tokyo. When I was eating at the bar the other day it really feels like Tokyo. If you want the Tokyo experience of being like a ramen slurper, go sit at the bar. Right off the bat, I got the chicken karage, AKA Japanese fried chicken. This is not your usual piece of karage. Just focus on it. They keep that in the entire thigh. Like usually karage pieces are a lot smaller but they kept it as a whole piece. So what's funny is that you actually buy these by the piece. You can buy one piece and then you can buy three pieces. Chop this up. Let me try this real quick. Is leaving the karage in the big pieces any better? I gotta tell you, there is something to say because the big pieces allow it to be juicier so when you cut it up there might be more juices inside. I don't know, I like it. So what was your first experience with ramen? Eating at home, I think it was the top march on instant ramen. Coupon noodles. Coupon noodles. Coupon noodles. So right here we got the tonkotsu black. And the reason why it's black is because black garlic is actually slightly burnt garlic in oil and basically they sprinkle it all over the tonkotsu. Reason why I like Hakata Akosa right now is because they give you a lot of the garnishes right at the table. Some ramen spots give you the garlic that you can fresh press. And then you have this one, the spicy pickles right here. And then of course, you got your classic red ginger right here. One other thing you cannot forget is this chili vinegar. It's like pickled chilies essentially. I have never seen ramen that is plated like this with the chashu hanging over the sides. And I had to ask Shoshi, what is up with the draping it on the sides? And to be honest, he was like, yo, it's just to look cool. This is the extra toppings. You have the flappy chashu. You have the egg right here. You have all the beautifully placed, you know, garnishes, you have the mushrooms. You got the bamboo here. Of course, green onions, my first love. And then you have bean sprouts right here. It's not gonna lie, the toppings were $7. You can get the noodles cooked however you want. It's kind of like how someone asked you like how to cook your steak. The most popular way to get your noodles here is hard. Mmm, yo. It actually has some of that like black sesame flavor that you get with like your shaved ice. I'm feeling the firmness. It gives you a lot to chew. Like you don't really want your noodles like just disintegrating in your mouth, you know? And I think another benefit of maybe having the hard noodles is like the longer it sits in the bowl, the noodles are always gonna get soft so that when you start off with hard noodles that means by the end of it they'll still be kind of firm. Yo, let's check out this egg. And I love the thin Japanese chopsticks, the really pointy ones because they're easy to cut stuff with. This is actually bringing me back because a year ago from today, we were in Tokyo. And in Tokyo, like we ate a lot of amazing food but one thing we did not get was actually like a really good bowl of ramen. So I'm just glad that this chain is over here right now because basically you're kind of getting like this chance to experience a really authentic bowl of ramen without having to go that far. So the chashu, as you can see, it's cut very thin and they do not grill it. It wasn't super, super fatty because I think all the fattiness is actually in the broth. As the chef mentioned, basically he has one big pot that he's transferring a lot of the thickness to this other pot that's actually what's being served. I was just corrected. I've been saying tonkotsu wrong this entire day. I've made a huge mistake. Tonkatsu is actually the fried chicken and pork cutlet. Forgive me, I've been wrong ever since I started saying the word tonkotsu, tonkotsu, tonkotsu. Here we've got the mentaiko broth, the cod roe. So that's why mentaiko is like the fish angst. Let's try this out. Got a little bit of a kick there, okay. Growing up, I would say really the only ramen I ever ate with our family was instant ramen. The Seattle area didn't have that many ramen spots. You guys are familiar with the ramen craze that hit America maybe like several years ago. Basically it hit New York first with Ikudo. These are like $20 bowls of ramen. What level of ramen are you eating? $20, there's like a $15 bowl of ramen. $12, $13. It's about $15 a bowl. $12 to $15. Same. After I got the extra toppings, those bowls came out to almost $20 each. Is it worth it? I would say definitely if you get the extra toppings because you're getting a lot of food. But between the broth being extra thick and then also there being flaps of chashu laying over the side, tons of sprouts, tons of bamboo. I would say it's worth it. But right now guys, let's get into the hottest bowl of ramen that they have here. This is called the God Fire. This is level four. Here's what I'm predicting. Japanese spices, they don't have like the mala numbing spice that Chinese have so it's probably not gonna linger around in my mouth. It's probably gonna be spicier than a lot of Korean dishes I've had because it's still using chili powder. I think I'm gonna be able to take it. We just drink the broth by itself. Yeah, hit the back of the mouth. It's a little spicy. Not gonna drink water yet. It's doable, it's doable. That was just one. It's like when you eat something spicy. You don't know how spicy it is. Until you start talking again. All right, I gotta eat some noodles. I'm gonna try it out. If you are not into spicy food, this is gonna hurt you for sure. I would say this is not the most enjoyable level for me. I would say I would take it down another notch to really fully enjoy my spicy ramen. If you need a wake-up call, if you're on a lunch break and you're feeling a little sluggish and we just need something to get you sweating, get your heart racing, I would say this would be a pretty good. And what's another Asian food that you could see the jump that ramen made from really cheap to fancy? Hot pot. The type of meat, the cut of the meat, because I feel like a lot of more cheaper hot pot places, they have a fattier meat that's not as good. I would say maybe curry, like a lot of instant curries are now getting more well-known with Japanese places or Indian places. You would be interested in a $20 curry. I think it depends on what they put in it. If they're putting wild caught salmon or something in it, maybe, or wagyu beef, maybe. If it's just potatoes and carrots, maybe I can just make it at home. Udon noodles would be really cool to see because I love tempura udon and a lot of times I can get super cheap ones, but if someone kind of gourmeted it up or really took the time, I would be down to try that. Udon or maybe pho. Right now I think pho is kind of tasty. A lot of people are going to hate me for saying that. You would get a $20 bowl of pho. Yeah, if it was delicious and hot. It kind of made me think about how the rise of ramen does correlate with the rise of Asians in America and how we're being more accepted and we're being more represented and people are more accepting of our authentic cultures now. It's like how sushi in America is kind of fancy and sushi in Japan is actually still kind of fancy, but ramen in Japan is more of like a working man's food. Like you can get quick bowls of ramen that come out in like one minute from when you order it. High-end ramen is one of the markers and is a symbol that should give you hope for Asians in general. That's a statement. Here we got the chashu rice bowl. This is like the same chashu that they use for their ramen except just cut up and in a dry style. So let me try this. A little splash, splish splash. Little bit of chili vinegar I haven't used that yet. Boom. I like eating this style because actually in a way it's not even as heavy as tankatsu. The rice bowl is solid. If you're not trying to do too much, try this out. If you guys are coming here during lunchtime, what they actually do is they give you free noodles. That is like a very Asian philosophy that they would offer free extra noodles for you just to make sure you got full. Also, I do think that's to build goodwill in the community too, because they're like, yo, this is a spot that you wanna come to for lunch and get refueled at. Last but not least, we got like everybody's favorite Japanese appetizer, the gyozas, AKA the pot stickers, the jiaozi's, guo teas. I only say Chinese because in Japanese culture, there is still a lot of the Chinese influence still left over. They're still using a lot of Chinese characters and they're pretty open about the things that have come from China. You know, ramen chef's gonna tell you that maybe ramen, not the one that you know today, but the original one did come from China. Here at Hakata Ekocha, they have like dragons everywhere. They have a lot of red coloring. I'm looking at Chinese characters right now. So it's funny because they serve the gyozas flipped over so you can see the crust on the bottom and you can even see these little starchy connection bridges. There's a little flour that's left over that ends up frying and then that's what kinda looks like that it connects all the gyozas together. So naturally, I see this and I'm like, oh, you gotta flip them over because that's how you eat dumplings because that's what I'm using. What kind of sauce is this though? Yo, that was the single strongest bite today. Is that in the Godfire? I think this is what they put in the Godfire, Ruff. Oh, that's spicy. That is, yo, low key, spiciest Japanese sauce I've actually ever had in that little bit. Oh my God. That used to chili paste is, ha! Here's the thing I like about gyozas is that the skin is really thin and they're really easy to eat. Obviously, I love Chinese dumplings too. They have a thicker skin, more meat, more soupy inside. But these definitely remind me more of the Taiwanese style guo tian that are like kinda open on the ends if you guys have had them. But the thing is, gyozas kinda all, to me, have a more unified taste than, for example, Chinese dumplings do. I think Chinese dumplings, they taste so different depending on who's making them, depending on the region. But when you eat gyozas, they generally all look the same. They're kind of this size, thin skin, grilled on the bottom, similar filling, but actually, at some of the cheaper Japanese spots, you will get them frozen. Like, I've actually recognized those gyozas from the frozen packs at the really cheap spots because it's not something that people would put a lot of stress into. This is just an appetizer. They do a good job here. Here are my major takeaways from eating here at Hakata Akosa. Just on a food level, I'm just so glad to see that there are actually really high-end options for ramen now. This is coming from the city that the Tonkatsu broth comes from, so it's pretty authentic. And definitely, I would say, if you are hesitant at all about spending $20 on ramen, think about the other things that you spend $20 on. I mean, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to spend this on ramen. But at the same time, if you do spend it on ramen, there are other elevated versions of other foods that are also worth $20. I would actually go ahead and say ramen, being originating as a comfort food, that elevated comfort food now is like the hot thing in the food scene right now. Growing up, I wasn't actually that much into Japanese culture. Like, I was into sushi a lot, but I wasn't consuming all different types of Japanese food growing up. And I think that there is a sense that sometimes when you're Asian, there's those internal beefs that you have with each other, you know, the regional battles too, where pretty much you don't wanna like another country's cuisine more than your own. You gotta have your hometown pride. And it's not that I love Japanese food more than Chinese food, per se, but definitely when you look into history and you find that actually a lot of the popular Japanese stuff that everybody likes originated somewhere from China. For example, for me, that makes me feel a lot better. It just makes me feel more connected to Japanese food after learning about the history. And that's something that, you know, a lot of people don't really think about. And that's something that, you know, I didn't really think too much about until I did this video. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video of the best $20 bowl of ramen you can get out here. In the comments below, let me know, what are some other foods that you could see being elevated like ramen did? You know how ramen went from a 50 cent pack to a $10 bowl to an hour 15 and then 20. People are serving $50 burgers, so anything is possible. But in the comments below, let me know what you guys think. 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