Patience, creativity required at Umami
Ramen is the everyman’s Japanese food.
Like cheeseburgers in America, ramen in Japan is familiar, fast and inexpensive. Shops can gain cultlike followings, and everyone has a favorite. Part of the ramen market is artistic and chefdriven, the other is mass-manufactured heat-and-eat.
In the States, ramen has been around for decades but isn’t close to being considered a cooking discipline, the way sushi is. The American chef most closely associated with elevating noodle soup to a place of respect is James Beard Award Outstanding Chef David Chang, who opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York City 10 years ago.
Around metro Phoenix, there aren’t many dedicated ramen shops. One of the newest is Umami, a small dining room hidden among the brick-facade offices on Sixth Street just east of Mill Avenue in Tempe. It’s a charming space with a modern aesthetic.
Chef Jared Lupin, who has worked in several local kitchens, including Republic Ramen, won the space in March 2013 in a startup contest hosted by the building’s landlord and a public-relations company.
Umami opened that fall, and shortly thereafter made Eater’s list of the 14 hottest ramen shops in the country. But in March, a fire kept the restaurant closed two months for repairs.
Up and running again, Umami takes a build-your-own approach to ramen. Although creating your own experience is empowering, it places the burden of a good meal on the diner, who must figure out what flavors to combine for a balanced bowl. It would be helpful to see a signature combination on the menu to guide newcomers.
Ramen starts at $8, which includes noodles, cured bamboo shoots, scallions, spinach, carrots, naruto (fish cake) and nori (seaweed). But don’t count on getting out the door for less than $9.50 a bowl. Any additions — and you should add at least two — will cost you 25 cents to $2 each.
Start by choosing a soup flavor. Options are: shio (salt), shoyu (soy), miso (bean paste), paitan (pork and chicken bone) and vegan. Broths have distinctive tastes but provide a mellow base to build upon.
Then come the toppings. Think of ramen like a puzzle. The soup and noodles are the essential corner pieces, and the toppings are what fills out the picture.
Venture beyond familiar ingredients. Ignore the single-note roasted chicken ($1.50) and opt for the shredded roasted pork ($1.50) or sliced chashu pork belly ($2), which contribute fat and flavor. The broths here don’t have a lot of fat to begin with, and ramen needs it to make the soup adhere to the noodles — that’s what makes the flavor stick to your lips after slurping a bite.
The runny yolk in the soft egg ($1) is a more traditional way to add substance to the soup. Corn kernels, both plain (50 cents) and spicy togarashi (75 cents), are additional options.
Bento boxes also are on the menu, extending the make-your-own model with 13 choices ($2.50 each, four for $8 or six for $10).
The tangy squid salad is the most complex and enjoyable, with textural contrasts of squishy seafood and crunchy produce. If you’re looking for an appetizer to share, you won’t go wrong with the Japanese snack mix, a fun blend of glazed rice crackers in such flavors as soy sauce and wasabi.
The tofu hand roll of the day (rice, tofu, carrots, cucumber and seaweed) was uninteresting. As was the ho-hum garlic edamame, which had barely a hint of the garlic.
In Japan, ramen shops are not known for or necessarily judged upon customer service. At one popular spot, customers are not allowed to speak while inside the restaurant because the chef wants them to concentrate on the meal.
But this is America. And the service at Umami was subpar. With just two servers working on a weekend night, the meal was slow and disorganized.
Several minutes after taking the bento box order, one server came back to ask if we wanted the tofu or Spam hand roll of the day (the menu did not specify there was a choice, so it was up to the server to ask during the order). We decided on tofu, please. Then, 10 minutes after our initial order, the other server came over, asking if we wanted tofu or Spam in the hand roll. Still tofu, thanks for asking (again).
Perhaps something was wrong with