A Japanese adaptation of a Chinese wheat noodle soup is the star of a food festival being held near College More, in Sector V, this winter.
Asia! Asia! Asia! is hosting Ramen Maniaaa, with a variety of offerings of a bowl of noodles, broth and toppings, which is what Ramen essentially is. The restaurant had opened in March 2021 with a Southeast Asian cuisine-inspired buffet. The a la carte menu was introduced around four months back.
It was a single item on that a la carte menu that has germinated in the festival. "The sizzling stone bowls section in our menu had Spicy Katsu Ramen. It was one of our best-moving dishes. Also winters and noodle soups are a great combination. That inspired us to hold a full-fledged ramen festival. We plan to span it through winter till February. The best reviewed ramen dishes would find place in the permanent menu,” said Abhimanyu Maheshwari, founder and CEO of Zing Restaurants of which Asia! Asia! Asia! is a part.
Ramen, he pointed out, is staple food in various parts of South East Asia. “The streetfood culture is a huge in Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing as well as Singapore. Singapore is such a planned city, but they have not done away with the streetfood hawkers. Instead they have been organised them so beautifully. Our thukpa is also just a variant of the same dish; basically it is just a noodle soup,” said the owner of the eatery which describes its offerings as “street-inspired dining”.
The 10 ramen dishes on the festival menu are a mix of South East Asian classics and in-house creations.
The Tonkotsu Ramen bowl is a traditional dish from Japan. It is a creamy pork broth, served with bokchoy, eggs, noodles, pork and nori and unique spices, also known as togarashi spices.
Chatuchak Market Hawker Ramen
A Japanese adaptation of a Chinese wheat noodle soup is the star of a food festival being held near College More, in Sector V, this winter.
Asia! Asia! Asia! is hosting Ramen Maniaaa, with a variety of offerings of a bowl of noodles, broth and toppings, which is what Ramen essentially is. The restaurant had opened in March 2021 with a Southeast Asian cuisine-inspired buffet. The a la carte menu was introduced around four months back.
It was a single item on that a la carte menu that has germinated in the festival. "The sizzling stone bowls section in our menu had Spicy Katsu Ramen. It was one of our best-moving dishes. Also winters and noodle soups are a great combination. That inspired us to hold a full-fledged ramen festival. We plan to span it through winter till February. The best reviewed ramen dishes would find place in the permanent menu,” said Abhimanyu Maheshwari, founder and CEO of Zing Restaurants of which Asia! Asia! Asia! is a part.
Ramen, he pointed out, is staple food in various parts of South East Asia. “The streetfood culture is a huge in Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing as well as Singapore. Singapore is such a planned city, but they have not done away with the streetfood hawkers. Instead they have been organised them so beautifully. Our thukpa is also just a variant of the same dish; basically it is just a noodle soup,” said the owner of the eatery which describes its offerings as “street-inspired dining”.
The 10 ramen dishes on the festival menu are a mix of South East Asian classics and in-house creations.
The Tonkotsu Ramen bowl is a traditional dish from Japan. It is a creamy pork broth, served with bokchoy, eggs, noodles, pork and nori and unique spices, also known as togarashi spices.
FOREST MUSHROOM & PEPPER RAMEN
The Chatuchak Market Hawker Ramen bowl is another result of experiments. “We have added panko fried prawns to the famous tomyum soup of Bangkok, along with some noodles. The tastemaker in this dish is a Thai spice mix. This also comes with the customary eggs and cherry tomatoes,” he said.
Mushroom lovers can opt for Forest Mushroom and Pepper Ramen in which grilled shitake mushroom is cooked in mushroom and roasted pepper broth, with sautéed corn, bok choy and cherry tomatoes creating the architecture of the bowl that looks like an Instagrammer's delight.
Finally, there is the sweet and spicy Gochujang Ramen bowl, in which panko fried prawns are served in a broth of the celebrated Korean fermented red chili gravy.
“Our main intention is to introduce our eaters to the ramen culture. These bowls are composite meals, comfort food in winter, complete in itself. We realised that making this too Japanese would result in alienating our customers, so we have tried to keep it as simple as possible,” said Maheswari.