If you have got a knack for Japanese food and soupy food items, we are sure that you are a fan of ramen. Ramen is one of the most popular food recipes out there, but many people are concerned about the high price of ramen. In case you like ramen but are worried about the price, we are sharing everything you must know about it!
Why Is Ramen So Expensive?
Ramen is one of the most expensive Japanese food items out there, while it still remains a casual meal in Japan. In Japan, the prices of ramen range from 600 yen to 1200 yen for one bowl, depending on which ingredients you are selecting. In addition, if you add beer, a side dish, and extra toppings, the price of one bowl of ramen goes up to 2000 yen, which seems too much for the bowl that only has stock and noodles. So, what could be the reason behind this price tag?
1. Ramen Noodles
Ramen noodle is one of the primary ingredients for this recipe, but authentic ramen noodles are hard to find in western countries. This means that every restaurant in the west serving ramen will mean that they are importing these noodles from Japan, which obviously increases the process. This is because importing ramen noodles come with high delivery charges, and some restaurants also have to pay extra charges and customs fees. So, depending on how expensive a restaurant got the ramen noodles will directly influence how much you will be paying for one bowl of ramen.
2. Stock
In addition to ramen noodles, if you have ever eaten ramen, you would know that it has a rich stock that takes time to cook up. This is because it takes an entire day to sauté the ingredients and then reduce the soup into concentrated stock. For this reason, if you are going for an authentic price of ramen with the well-made stock, you will have to pay higher – to summarize, it looks like they are charging for the efforts associated with making stock.
When it comes down to making the stock, the broth has to be boiled with big bones, and then the mushrooms and scallion radish have to be slowly boiled to create the thick and rich soup base.
3. Ingredients
Ramen is a Japanese specialty, which means it needs special ingredients to achieve the most authentic flavors. To begin with, if you are making a pork-flavored ramen bowl, there will be a need for pork bones and roast pork which can be extremely expensive at times. In addition, the ramen is made with handmade and freshly made miso paste, which obviously takes time and effort, which obviously adds to the final price of the ramen.
Keep in mind that miso paste has various special ingredients, which are expensive. In addition to the expensive ingredients, these ingredients are hard to source, so it’s quite hard to get your hands on these ingredients. Ramen also needs soy sauce and fat, which aren’t very expensive, but the previously-mentioned ingredients are surely expensive. Last but not least, it needs kombu, dried niboshi, and katsuobushi, which are everyday ingredients but are specialty ingredients in the US.
4. Cooking Process
It might seem simple to make ramen, but lots of effort go into making ramen. To begin with, the soup base needed for seasoning has to be separately boiled. In addition, when it is refined with seasonings, garlic, and lard, everything has to be cooked separately for making the complete soup. In addition, when the noodles are pulled, they have to be cooked in the fixed soup again as it’s essential for maintaining the texture and flavor.
Secondly, the soup base has char siu, which is one piece of meat, and the chefs have to be extremely careful about cooking them because the meatloaf should stay in one piece and still has a tender texture.
The Bottom Line
Ramen is expensive, but it’s mostly the case in western countries as the prices are still affordable in Japan. Having said that, the prices will only come down if ramen achieves full ubiquity rather than being niche food. In simpler words, the competition has to come down for the prices to drop.