I was introduced to ramen about a year and half ago when I went to lunch with a couple of coworkers. It was something that I had wanted to try for a while but had been hesitant to try because I didn’t know what to order. The coworker recommended the “Real TanTan” bowl at the restaurant and I loved it. I have since been to 5 or 6 other Ramen restaurants and none of them have had a TanTan bowl so I always end up returning to that original restaurant to get it.
I did some research and discovered that the bowl that I like is a version of the TanTanMen recipe. I found an semi-easy looking recipe on YouTube and decided to try it out. There is a link to the recipe at the bottom of the page.
I went to my local WinCo and was able to find most of the ingredients but not the Tsuyu Soup base, Toban Djin chili bean paste, and bok choy. I substituted Soy Sauce for the Tsuyu and a sweet chili sauce (that I already had) for the Toban Djin. My wife does not handle spicy very well so I also used less of the chili oil than the recipe called for.
I got all of the ingredients together and started cooking.
I fried up the ground pork with vegetable oil, minced garlic, ginger paste, sweet chili paste, oyster sauce, and rice wine.
The soup base is water, soy milk, and chicken bouillon.
I blanched the bean sprouts and then cooked the ramen in the same water.
My regular soup bowls were too small so I had to break out the larger Tupperware bowls.
I then added the cooked pork and blanched bean sprouts.
The final step was to add the soup broth and green onions.
This was my first attempt at this recipe and I would call it a 70% success. I didn’t put in nearly enough chili oil and with the other 3 missing ingredients it was a little on the bland side. Overall it still had a good flavor and I enjoyed it, but I look forward to improving it for the next time.
I am going to see if I can find an asian market in the area to find the rest of the proper ingredients.
