Prairie Noodle Shop’s Ramen Pop-Up #2
December 3, 2014
A bit of a delay in this post but hey, it’s better sooner than never right?! I think that’s how the quote goes.. but anyways last last week I got the pleasure of attending Prairie Noodle Shop’s Pop-Up #2. It took place in the Get Cooking section of Macewan’s Residence building, where cooking classes are held. When I heard about the first ramen pop-up after it had happened, I knew I had to attend the second one.
Read more to see what a ramen pop-up is…
First, let me explain how these pop-ups work, or specifically, how Prairie Noodle Shop does them. They use a website called Eventbrite where you make reservations at a specific time (6, 7, 8, & 9 pm) but the thing is that you gotta be quick cause there are only 100 seats (or bowls in this case)! They inform you ahead of time when the reservations will be open. Unfortunately, I totally forgot about it until 20 minutes after the reservations were opened on the day of. By then, all the reservations were sold out. But thankfully Craig (one of the owners) understood my sadness and put me on the waiting list! And that’s how I got to experience my very first heartwarming bowl of beer can chicken ramen.
* Sizzle sizzle *
Beer can chicken was the inspiration behind this pop up’s ramen as you can taste beer-like scents in the broth. Don’t worry, the beer reminiscence isn’t overpowering though and won’t hurt your tastebuds! I am not a big beer lover but I loved the ramen 😉 The double-broth ramen is composed of chicken stock, and a mixture of dried anchovies, dried shrimp, bonito, and konbu to make up the dashi part. Of course the ramen wouldn’t be completed without tare though, which is basically the secret ingredient in ramen (shhh!). The tare is made separately from the ramen. Prairie Noodle Shop prepares their tare using three different types of toasted barely and some local Albertan honey to complete the subtle beer-like flavour. All thrown together in a big white bowl; the heavenly ramen consisted of flour noodles made locally, fresh green onions, slightly crispy kale, and of course the main ingredient – chicken. There were three different kinds of chicken in the ramen: a deep fried chicken wing, a chicken thigh marinated in the tare, and a crispy piece of baked skin. It was finished with an umeboshi egg.
Preparation for the ramen was similar to an assembly line
… and they’re ready to be devoured!
The result? A delicious, flavorful bowl of ramen! The ramen was filled with tons of umami and might’ve been one of the best ramens I’ve tried. It was a mixture of flavour, tanginess, sweetness.. you NEED to experience this. I wish I could have it again but I guess I gotta wait for the next ramen pop-up, which is suppose to happen sometime next year in the spring. You can keep up to date with their pop-ups through their twitter (@yegnoodles) and also mine too (@stephtruong). Hopefully I’ll see you at the next ramen pop-up! And who knows, maybe the success of these pop-ups will convince them to open up a ramen restaurant. Us foodies can only hope..
