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The Noodle 100 · make it at home

Tsukemen: dipping noodles with a rich pork and fish dip

30 min with a ready broth · 2

The noodles come cold and thick in one bowl, a hot, concentrated dip in another. Dip, slurp, and at the end ask for hot broth to thin the dip and drink it.

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The real one

You need

• 400 ml (1 2/3 cups) rich pork broth (tonkotsu, or chicken broth simmered with a pork bone)
• 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tsp sugar
• 10 g (2 tbsp) dried bonito flakes or 1 tbsp fish powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp chili oil (optional)
• 2 portions extra-thick ramen or tsukemen noodles (about 300 g / 10 oz)
• To serve: 4 slices chashu, 1 soft egg, menma, nori, sliced scallions, a lime wedge, extra hot broth

How to make it

1. Dip (10 min): Simmer the broth with the soy, mirin, vinegar and sugar 5 minutes. Off the heat, add the bonito, steep 5 minutes, and strain. It should taste much stronger than soup; this is a sauce.
2. Noodles (10 min): Cook the thick noodles a minute longer than the pack says, then rinse them under cold running water, rubbing gently, until cold and glossy. Drain well.
3. Plate (3 min): Pile the noodles in a bowl with the chashu, egg, menma and nori. Reheat the dip until very hot, add the sesame and chili oils and scallions, and pour into small deep bowls.
4. Eat (as long as it takes): Dip a few noodles at a time, squeeze lime on halfway, and when the noodles are gone, top up the dip with hot broth (soup wari) and drink it.

Tips

• Keep the dip piping hot; heat it again halfway if it cools.
• Atsumori means noodles served hot; ask for it in winter.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.