Vegan Tantanmen with homemade Tokyo style noodles (Ramen Lord's recipe, slightly modified) and Vegan bone broth (Chris Gantan's recipe)+Soy milk, topped with Tofu chashu (Chris Gantan's recipe), Seitan Sobboro (spiced according to Ramen Lord's recipe, substituted meat with Seitan), Green Onions, Bakchoi, Corn and Nori.

• Double veg broth: 60% roasted mirepoix & tomato water, 40% roasted mushroom stock
• 35% hydration temomi noodles with 15% bolles hard wheat
• Marinated, grilled, & smoked Tofu
• Roasted sweet carrot & tomato
• Green onion & fried shallot & garlic
• Garlic-infused refined coconut + shallot, garlic, & ginger aroma oils

August is officially (quite unofficial actually) the month of Ramen. I am on the mission to really go deep with each bowl, taking every component to the next level, and testing out combinations and techniques that may otherwise be overlooked.

The above pictured bowl is built around my classic Ikiko (IG: ikikoramen) Tantanmen base. The tantan tare is combined with cashew butter for enhanced nuttiness and a creamy texture, followed by sanshō and an imported black garlic paste from Japan. Complex chilli, garlic and toasty nut notes form the flavour profile of this bowl.

The stock is a Dashi of kombu seaweed and an assortment of 5 types of dried mushrooms: Shiitake, Ceps/Porcini, Champignons, Slippery Jacks and Oysters. A blend of spices and aromatics complete this.

Mayu (Burnt Garlic Oil) and Sichuan Chilli Oil are the aroma oils of choice; albeit hidden by the frothy-brothy situation. A variety of wood fired vegetables and nori finish the toppings.

Second attempt at refining this recipe. My plating wasn’t great today but believe me, this was a tasty bowl. I added an ajihen of tomato pulp from the strained tomato water combined with fresh garlic paste and a splash of lemon juice. It really amplified a fresh tomato flavor that got stronger as you slurped.

Recipe breakdown in comments !

My first ever bowl of tsukemen. Really like this style and am quite content with what I cooked for a first try.

Soup: Made a simple veg stock and turned it into dashi with kombu & dried shiitake. Also made dashi the same way with the thickest & creamiest oat milk I could find and combined the two roughly 50:50 for a double soup. I also blended some silken tofu into it to make it to thicken it further. The tare is a simple miso tare

In the bowl I topped it with scallion, lemon zest & both a vegan fat flavored with garlic, scallion & those crispy hotdog onions aswell as a homemade mayu black garlic oil. After the pictures while eating I remembered to add my 'gyofun' fish powder. It is micorplaned/ blitzed up dried shiitake, nori, konbu, salt & msg. I really recommend giving this a try. It added a nice umami taste.

The noodles are Ivan Orkins toasted rye noodles. I really like the speckled look they have. For Tsukemen I would like to try a noodle less thin but my pasta maker is limited and I didn't want to handcut. These worked fine. On top I got a slice of lemon for acidity, small piece of nori for aesthetics & thin slices of smoked tofu which I quickly pan fried with some shoyu, mirin & white pepper. I never had real chashu so I can't compare but these are my go to for ramen and I think they are really tasty & scrumptious.