MING: This week on Simply Ming, I'm so psyched that Ivan Orkin is in the house.

He is the ramen master.

He is the authority in America on how to make the best ramen, period.

And he also did it in Tokyo.

He's going to be making his Tokyo Shoyu ramen, restaurant quality, and more importantly, he's going to show us how we can make it at home.

I love it.

Oh, good, I get a facial, too.

No, it's good for you.

MING: It's very good for me.

I'm going to follow it up with my own version of a vegetarian ramen.

It may not be as good as his, but that's okay, because we have Ivan Orkin in the house.

You never, like, bite the noodles.

You slurp it.

No, look, I say to people, "Would you eat a piece of steak and chew it and spit it back on the plate?"

No, right?

MING: No, you would not.

No, you would not, so... MING: So, you just slurp away.

Right, you just slurp.

(slurping) MING: We are cooking at home, right here, right now, on Simply Ming.

♪ ♪ MING: Nice to see you.

Man, thanks for having me.

MING: Welcome back.

Oh, my God.

So exciting.

MING: Such history with this young man.

It's great to have you here.

I'm gonna make you a Miami Vintage cocktail to start us off.

And I'm gonna help you.

MING: Thank you.

So, this is a rum cocktail.

(cork pops) We're going to start with some really good, high-quality rum.

Nice job on the champagne.

We're going top the drink off with champagne.

If you could dump out those glasses for me.

I'm gonna.

MING: And then we can go to town.

So, two parts rum to one part freshly squeezed lime juice.

Always squeeze it fresh.

Then we're going to have a little bit of watercress mint syrup.

So watercress, you know, has that nice, spicy bitterness to it.

I love it because it has that crispness to it, and we add mint to that.

And then, just a couple of... bits of bitter, and that's it.

And then we shake this up well.

Couple of flags-- oh, you knew that.

You saw the peeler and you just went to town.

Yeah, man.

(ice rattling) MING: Ah, so you already pre-champagned me.

Okay, we were gonna top it with champagne, but that's okay.

Oh, we were going to top it with champagne!

MING: Well, that's okay, I like your enthusiasm.

You know what?

It's probably not going to be...

I was sort of excited to pour, you know?

MING: ...any different.

That's okay.

I wanted to pour something.

MING: Oh, I actually like that.

That's kind of a nice...

I just helped you make a new drink.

MING: That's a nice look.

MING: There you go.

Oh, I like that.

There we go.

Look at that.

I didn't want to say anything.

(Ming laughs) MING: All right, then we're going to take a couple of lemon twists.

So, life's good for you?

Very good, thank you, Now that I'm here.

MING: How many bowls of ramen have you made in your life?

Over a million.

MING: Really?

Yeah.

MING: Wow.

Made a lot.

MING: I've eaten over a million.

Cheers to you.

(laughing): Can't tell.

L'chaim, yeah.

MING: L'chaim-- it's Chinese.

L'chaim.

MING: What do you think?

That's pretty darn good.

MING: Pretty darn good?

Yeah, man.

MING: Ready to make some ramen?

And I'm getting my, my vitamins.

MING (laughing): You're getting your vitamins, too.

Come on, let's make some ramen.

Ivan Orkin.

MING: Ivan, I'm so psyched.

He's making his restaurant Tokyo Shoyu-- and there's your timer.

There's my timer, man.

MING: One minute, ten seconds.

There you go.

MING: Should I broth for you?

Please do.

MING: All right.

So, this is-- Ivan so nicely brought it.

Normally, I use a fancy basket to shake it and go crazy, but I figure you guys don't have one, so why should I have one?

Yeah?

MING: Good point.

But it's nice to get the water out.

MING: So tell me about your broth there.

So this-- he brought this from New York, from your restaurant, right?

So what is all in your broth here?

My broth is dashi... MING: Right.

...Which is katsuo bushi, which is a kind of bonito that's dried and smoked and shaved.

MING: Right.

And lots of other fishy things.

MING: Right.

And chicken broth made from whole chickens.

MING: Is that enough broth for you?

That's perfect.

MING: Okay.

All right, so we're just gonna-- we're going to eyeball this, because normally we just pour the sexy basket full of noodles like the guides do on, on the ramen TV shows.

MING: Yes, those ramen TV shows.

Yeah.

(Ming laughs) Yeah, you gotta love the ramen TV shows in Tokyo.

All right, so here we have some noodles and, and broth.

MING: And there's your...

Right?

MING: Your luscious pork belly.

Right, we have this luscious pork belly.

Right?

And we'll-- we can talk about how to make this at home, but I live in New York, so even if I can't make it, I stop in Chinatown and I get some.

MING: I love Ivan's story.

If you don't know it-- went to U.C.

Boulder, decided to study Japanese-- out of the blue, right?

Or did you always love...

I always-- well, I worked in a Japanese restaurant when I was... MING: When you were a kid, right?

Right, so here's my, this is my fishing line trick so that your yolk doesn't stick to your knife and you get that beautiful... MING: Look at that sauce.

I'm really stressed out about these eggs.

MING: I love that.

They have to be perfect, it's my favorite part... MING: And how long are those eggs usually...

These are six minutes and ten seconds.

MING: Look at that, perfect.

Right, and then we're just going to garnish with our scallions on top, which is cut with this crazy slicing machine that I bought from Japan.

MING: And you rinse them?

And-- yep, we soak them in icy water.

Et voilà.

MING (sighing): God, I love this.

I love this job.

All right.

And then we can do a quick slurping lesson, which you don't need.

MING: No.

But they might need.

MING: Please, teach them.

I could, I could tell him he needs one.

Just to tease him.

MING: Which just means you never, like, bite the noodles.

You slurp it.

No, look, I say to people, "Would you eat a piece of steak and chew it and spit it back on the plate?"

No, right?

MING: No, you would not.

No, you would not, so.

MING: So, you just slurp away.

Right, you just slurp.

(slurping) MING: Oishii.

There you go.

MING: It is not impolite to slurp.

It is not impolite to drink it this way.

If you want to get even with your mother, eat ramen at home and slurp, because you'd be right.

MING: Oh, my God.

This restaurant-quality is exactly that.

I love it when the chef brings your restaurant to me.

And the pork belly?

Man, look at that.

MING: Oh, God.

Oishii.

But because we know this takes three days, and not everybody has three days or is even inclined to spend three days cooking... MING: No.

I kind of futzed the recipe.

MING: Awesome.

Right?

So you can do it in, like, 30, 40 minutes, and you can also have ramen at home and feel good about it.

MING: Awesome.

And you're still not, like, opening a box, you know?

You're making it with your hands.

MING: I love it-- all right.

Well, we're going to finish eating this, and then we're going to set up to make ramen at home.

Let's do it.

MING: Coming up next.

(slurping) I always love eating your ramen.

Dude, it's so good.

And we were lucky enough-- the whole family, we went to his original in Tokyo.

Best ramen ever.

Your garlic mazeman?

Unbelievable.

So thank you for bringing your restaurant here.

Thank you.

MING: Well, let's talk about how we do this at home.

Right.

MING: So, what can I do for you?

Well, we can, you know, we're gonna try to take this three-day process, we're gonna crunch it down to 30 minutes.

We're going to make a sofrito... MING: Right.

Which is used in many cuisines.

MING: Yep.

And I have adopted it for my own.

MING: For your own.

So we're going to take some veggies... MING: So I'll mince all these?

You're gonna mince those up.

MING: Okay.

We're going to start to warm some oil.

MING: And that's canola oil?

Right, this is canola oil.

Any kind of vegetable oil works.

Right, at the same time, we have a flavoring agent called a, a tare, MING: A tare.

A tare.

MING: And that's-- that's the base of all the ramens you make.

That's the base of all the ramens I make, and depending on the type, it can be a salt-flavored one or a miso-flavored one, there's all different kinds.

But that's usually what it means when they talk about different types of ramen.

It's not usually-- the soup doesn't change, but the... MING: It's the tare.

The tare changes, right?

And it has alcohol in it, so we're going to kick the temp up a little bit, you know?

And, uh... MING: So, that was mirin, sake, shoyu, and oil.

Right.

Right, at the same time, we're going to start-- so, you know, this whole thing is based on crazy soup recipes... MING: Right.

...that take forever and ever and ever.

MING: Right.

We don't have forever and ever, so we're going to use some canned or whatever type of best-quality low-sodium chicken.

MING: Okay.

And dashi I use.

MING: Right.

The home dashi, which you get online.

MING: Right.

It's made from powder.

And if you live in a place or you're adventurous and want to search for it, the katsuo bushi flakes... MING: Right.

You can make pretty tasty dashi from that, too.

MING: So, dashi is the Japanese mother of stock, usually made from bonito and kombu, which is kelp.

Right.

MING: But, like Ivan just said, for the home cook, you can buy the powder, and it's pretty good.

Right, yes.

MING: It's pretty good.

And if you're going to do one thing really well, find some dashi, because it really pays off in spades.

MING: Got it.

I think it's really worth it.

Okay, and right now we have the, the chef here cutting up veggies for the sofrito.

MING: All right, is that right, garlic, ginger?

Wow, that's fast.

MING: Good?

I try.

And this goes...

This goes right into the oily pan right there, the clear... MING: Right, behind.

So, a couple of tablespoons of garlic and ginger.

Right.

MING: All right, beautiful.

And how about these scallions, chef?

The scallions are for later.

MING: Okay, but, just thin-- thin rings?

Thin rings are fine, yep.

MING: Okay.

I love this.

I love it, that we can show the home cook how they make, not quite your quality in a restaurant, but pretty darn good for the home cook, right?

You know what?

I wish everybody would just cook.

You don't have to spend a week making something.

You know, instead of opening a box.

MING: I don't think anyone has a week to make... Nobody has a week to do any of this stuff, do they?

MING: No, not, not particularly.

Myself included.

Take this stuff, and... MING: And-- and I love the fact, again, for the home cook, this is a store-bought roasted chicken, right?

Yeah, yep.

MING: Because, again, it takes a long time to, to roast your own chicken.

And I'll even add in that any leftover meat that you enjoy works in the ramen, so it doesn't have to be chicken.

It can be pork, it can be beef.

It doesn't matter-- if you like it.

MING: So, how long do you cook this for?

About 30 minutes.

MING: 30 minutes and same...

Same for...?

This, we want it to come up to a, a simmer.

MING: Okay.

And we're just waiting for it.

MING: All right.

Just going to cook off that alcohol.

We're going to combine these two.

MING: Okay.

And, one last thing to talk about are our two-- where's our fats?

MING: Right here.

Right?

So, another thing that makes ramen is not a low-fat animal.

If you want low fat, then hold off-- don't eat ramen and have it when you're able to eat fat.

We have chicken and pork fat here, that we did, like, just rendered off any standard recipe.

MING: Right.

So, if you're cooking a chicken, save some, some of the fat.

MING: Save the fat.

And then just use it.

You could use bacon fat, you could-- it doesn't have to be, you know, this crazy thing to do.

MING: And by the way, fat is fat is fat, meaning a tablespoon of pork fat has the same calories as a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Exactly, oh, that's so... MING: Fat is fat is fat.

People think, "Oh, it's extra virgin olive oil."

Yes, it may be better for your HDL, right?

But fat is fat is fat, so don't kid yourself.

And calories are calories are calories.

MING: Just walk an extra mile.

All right, we're gonna get this going, 30 minutes, and then we're gonna put together Tokyo shoyu home ramen.

Right.

MING: Stick around.

All right, so it's been 30 minutes, right?

Yep.

MING: It's looking beautiful, it smells so good.

Right?

MING: All right, so, instant ramen.

So we've got instant ramen, or if you have a great market that sells fresh noodles... MING: Fresh noodles.

Asian place, whatever.

Please try those, too, or make them yourself.

It's actually quite doable.

But this-- anybody can get.

MING: Yes.

All right, so these go for about three minutes... MING: And I've read the package, three minutes exactly.

You know, and if you take a couple of chopsticks or something just to break them up a little bit, because they, they stay in those blocks.

So just keep half an eye on them.

MING: Yep.

All right.

MING: Awesome.

And then, while we're waiting for those guys to cook, we're going to strain out our aromatics.

MING: Oh, so you just, you just want the fat.

Right, but you know what?

You can-- because we do it so quickly, I was a little afraid that it would, that they might not be tender enough and it might be unpleasant.

MING: Right.

I cook it so long, they're very soft, right?

So then, we have our tare mix, and we're just going to put everything together in here, okay?

MING: And that's, that could do, like, what, 20 orders, or ten orders?

Yeah, it's tons.

MING: It's a lot, right?

We got plenty, we got plenty.

So we're going to garnish a bowl.

We have our, our soup cooking.

MING: Okay.

Now, instead of doing the fancy pork belly that takes, you know, three, four hours... MING: Right.

We have a store-bought rotisserie chicken, but I encourage you to not feel hemmed in.

Any kind of leftover meat you had, it, it can work-- if you enjoyed it... MING: Beef, shrimp, calamari... Yeah.

MING: Leftover salmon.

You know, you really... MING: Portobello mushrooms.

Anything.

This is fun.

MING: All right.

You're supposed to have fun.

MING: Here we go, store-bought, for you.

Only the best for you, Ivan.

Right, so we just... Only the best, man.

Boy, am I lucky.

(Ming laughs) Right, so we just... MING: I love this, though, because people are intimidated, and, look if I wanted to make ramen to your quality at home, it would take forever, right?

It doesn't matter who you are.

Yeah, well, it's not, it's not if you're-- it's not about talent.

MING: Yeah.

It's about time.

Cooking takes-- the best cooking takes time, you know, unless you got really good tomatoes, right?

(Ming laughs) MING: I mean, you are one of the first I've ever had this dried tomato, right?

Oven-dried, in a ramen, that's, that was not...

The only one.

MING: The only one, right?

No one in Tokyo was doing it.

Well, you know, I was a Western chef, and I said to my wife, "I want an oven."

MING: Right.

And she said, "You're an idiot.

They don't have ovens in ramen shops."

And I said, "Well, I want one."

So I got one, and then I had to figure out what to do with it, so I...

So I roasted... MING (laughing): So you weren't an idiot.

Well, part of it is not being an idiot, because otherwise, your wife reminds you for the rest of your life.

(Ming laughs) But, uh... MING: Oh, my wife would never say that to me.

No, not your wife, she's the best.

MING (laughs): Exactly.

All right, let me check on your noodles.

Right, so we have some of this.

You check on those noodles.

MING: Okay.

All right, on three minutes, good to go?

Yep, yep, let's do it, baby.

MING: Okay.

All right.

MING: And you got your broth there.

Got my broth here.

MING: All right, I'll dump this here.

Set up our bowls.

MING: I love it.

Oh, good, I get a facial, too.

No, it's, good for you.

MING: It's very good for me.

Okay.

MING: Boom, baby.

Go right around you, gonna take this tare and we're going to add it into this bowl just so we can mix it around properly.

It's hard to get it to emulsify a little bit, all right.

All right, so we'll put those in, I'll give you a set of tongs.

MING: Yep.

And I'm gonna go over here, a bit of the flavoring in there.

You're going to add our noodles in.

(knife clatters) Whoo!

MING: Good catch.

Ha!

(Ming chuckles) You learn not to do that in cooking school.

MING (laughing): Yeah, don't catch your knife.

You didn't learn very well.

No.

It was a long time ago.

MING: It was a long time ago.

All right, so we have some of this luscious store-bought chicken.

All right.

MING: Looks good to me, man.

And we're going to take our bowl-- our eggs again, and we're going to take our, our fishing line here... MING: Fishing line.

Or dental floss, or any fine... Yeah, any kind of... MING: I love that.

Any kind of stuff you've got.

All right, so one more... MING: So, six-minute egg, right?

Six-minute.

MING: And the color's from what?

It's from a little bit of soy sauce and mirin and sake and sugar, very light.

Not-- I like the egg to taste like an egg, so I don't add tons.

MING: Right.

And then just very, very simply, and some scallion, you know, scallion.

It's so nice, it's a little sharp, but it's fresh-tasting.

MING: Right.

And it, it's a nice counterbalance to all the fat, and there you go.

We sort of-- look at that, we did... MING: We did two... Look what we did.

We did a bowl of ramen in 30 minutes.

MING: All right, we got mine-- here you go, sir.

Thank you.

MING: Got lots of chopsticks.

All righty.

MING: It's such an honor, I get ramen twice from Ivan Orkin.

All right, well, let's see.

MING: Let's see how we did for the home.

(slurping) MING: Wow.

Oishii.

Yeah.

MING: That's... that's really good, I think, compared to the instant ramen I ate as a kid.

(slurping) Mmm.

I mean, honestly, it's not quite as good as your restaurant one, but it's pretty darn good, man.

And if you make it yourself, it always tastes better.

MING: Yeah, 100%, but compared to the instant ramen I ate?

Ten times better.

For me, it's all about the egg.

Yeah.

MING: If you have a perfectly cooked egg like that.

The egg's the best part.

(slurping) You have an egg like this, you win.

MING: Mmm, mmm, mmm.

Wait, let's check, check out our store-bought chicken.

Oh, my God.

You see, and it's got, it's got all the stuff soaked in there.

MING: I'm sweating, it's so good, that is so good, dude.

Ivan Orkin, you're the man-- thank you.

Nice, well, thank you.

MING: Stick around, though, I'm going to do a vegetarian version of ramen.

Awesome, can't wait.

MING: Check it out.

♪ ♪ It's been a great day for me, Ivan.

It sure has, me, too.

MING: Two ramens from you.

Right.

MING: Arigato gozaimashita.

Thank you so much.

All right, I'm going to try to make a ramen as tasty as yours, but we're going to be vegetarian with veg stock, a lot of shiitakes-- which, of course, dried ones, you know, they bring umami.

A little kombu salad with that, and tofu instead of your egg.

And we're actually gonna make noodles-- gluten-free, this one is-- with daikon, carrots, and cucumbers.

Nice.

MING: All right?

So I'm gonna start on the stock.

If you could just peel the daikon first, then I'm going to spiralize it, all right?

Gotcha.

MING: So for the stock, quite simple, we're going to take a head of garlic-- halved.

Into a pot.

We'll take onion.

So, when you make stock, as you know, it doesn't really matter, the shape of the mirepoix.

Mirepoix, of course, is carrots, celery, and onions.

Anyone that's in the industry knows that.

In here.

Then we're going to take... some ginger, a couple of large slices of ginger.

Boom.

Then carrots.

Like that.

Some celery.

I'm gonna shove this... MING: I'll show you how this works.

That's about right.

MING: Ah, it's just... Oh, I got it, man.

MING: Okay.

All right.

MING: Boom.

Let it go to town.

So then, celery.

Dried mushrooms, shiitakes.

All right.

Couple of bay leaves, little black peppercorn.

Then store-bought-- you have no issues with store-bought, right?

Nope.

MING: Store-bought veggie stock.

You could use water.

It would be good veggie stock.

Starting with veggie stock, kind of like a double chicken stock.

You make chicken stock out of... You make a double stock using chicken stock.

Well, here, we're making a veggie stock starting with a veggie broth to start.

(spiralizer stops) So it's going to be extra unctuous.

Like how that turns off all by itself?

Yes, chef.

MING: In case you have to go, like, switch a channel.

So, this, you go at least an hour, two hours, preferably, on a very slow simmer, which we just have right here.

All right?

So then we have our veggie stock after two hours, and this we can strain into a pot.

So now we have an unctuous veggie stock.

(spiralizer runs briefly) All right.

There we go.

All right.

MING: Beautiful.

How're we coming, how's that spiralizer coming?

It's pretty cool, man, I have to say.

MING: All right, cool.

So yeah, he's-- he's building the... the "noodles" in there.

Now, what I'm going to do-- and I know you know what this is.

This is kombu, guys.

This is kelp that's been dried.

So what you do is, you put them into a bowl, add boiling water, and in about an hour, it ends up like this-- really soft and pliable.

And this is going to be kind of a veg garnish.

So, I'm going to roll it up like this.

And do a really fine julienne of kombu.

Do you like kombu?

Obviously.

I love kombu, yeah.

MING: I love it, eating it this way.

I like salted kombu, it's my favorite.

MING: Yeah, totally, it's so good.

It's so good for you.

I mean, I think if you eat kombu and seaweed, I don't think you'll ever die, right?

I mean, it's so good for you.

You know something, I don't know.

MING: I don't... (both laugh) I'm, I'm all ears.

MING: All right, so this we're going to take... and into here.

A little bit of tamari.

A little bit of sesame oil.

And a little bit of rice vinegar.

All right, so now we have this.

Check this out.

So, this you can do a half an hour in advance, right?

I would let, let all this great flavor soak in.

And then some toasted sesame seeds in it, as well.

And then we'll garnish with more sesame seeds.

All right, how's it... how's it coming over there, pasta boy?

Got a lot of extra veggies.

MING: Yes, yes, we do.

So I'm just gonna clean up here a little bit.

MING: Now, silken tofu, which I love.

Do a couple of slices like this.

Boom, baby.

You ever make tofu from scratch?

I have, yeah, it's really easy, too.

MING: Yeah, my dad-- my dad used to make it with me.

It's delicious.

MING: All right, so now we can get going.

We take our broth.

Nice and hot.

And we just let the broth cook these raw veg.

Like this.

Nice job on the noodles.

All right.

Fancy machine.

MING: Do one here.

All right.

I love how those shiitakes really come through, right?

Thank you.

We'll take one piece of tofu, and we'll submerge it so it heats up a little bit.

Like that.

Take another piece.

Like this.

What do you think?

Looks great.

MING: Not bad.

Just a dollop of tamari on the tofu.

Tofu is kind of bland, but so good for you.

Yeah, but it takes on the flavor of whatever it's participating in, so... MING: Completely true.

Now, kombu salad.

Like that.

Last but not least, a little bit more sesame seeds.

Nice.

MING: That's it.

There you go.

MING: Shall we eat?

Yeah, yeah.

MING: But wait, you know what?

Let's pour you some Cava.

Okay, man.

MING: So, the same Cava we just used in the beginning of our cooking escapade, for the cocktail.

We had it open, so why not?

I think sparkling wine goes with everything.

Sure does.

MING: Doesn't matter what you're eating.

There's no such thing as bad bubbles.

All right.

Good ones are even better.

MING (chuckling): Good ones are even better.

All right.

MING: My friend.

Cheers to you.

Cheers.

MING: Kanpai.

Okay.

Time to eat?

Yeah, man.

MING: Love it.

Something I'm really good at: eating.

So this one's going to be hard to slurp, because they're veggie noodles.

Ain't no slurping going on.

MING: What do you think of that broth?

There you go.

It's very shiitake.

MING: Shiitake, right?

(slurping) Tell me what you think about that kombu.

(slurping) Mmm.

MING: Right?

Yeah.

MING: For... a very vegetarian, gluten-free version of a ramen, it's not a bad version.

No, it's a lot of fun, and whatever vegetables you have in the house, you know, it doesn't-- there's so many ways you can play with this.

MING: Whooo!

It's hot here.

So, point being was, anyone can make ramen.

Anyone.

MING: You can make it top-notch, world-class, like Ivan does at Ivan Ramen or Slurp Shop; you can make it at home, using instant; you can make it gluten-free with vegetables.

Yeah.

MING: My friend.

Awesome, thanks, man.

MING: You're the best.

Always great to have you here.

Love to be here.

MING: Cheers, I'm so happy to have you.

And for all you out there, so happy you got to see three different ramens.

Healthy, delicious, and even more delicious.

As always, peace and good eating.

Kanpai, kanpai.