Remember when I went to Taiyou no Men in April? Well, if you don’t, just to refresh your memory, I went to the restaurant that Endo ate at for his gourmet foodie report and had their famous tomato cheese ramen. Someone posted on Reddit with a recipe, asking if it’s close to the real thing. Today, I tested it out.

Original recipe from Tadaimatte was pretty good with the general flavors, but I altered it a little bit as per my own preferences and what I thought was closer to the Taiyou no Men ramen.

Serves 4

Ingredients

3-4 portions of thin egg noodles or angel hair pasta. In this recipe, I used dried chuka soba (Chinese noodles), but it was a bit too thick. Don’t use the cheap Top Ramen noodles.



1 tbsp olive oil for cooking the chicken, 1 tsp olive oil for the soup



½ tbsp of butter

2 large (28 oz) can crushed or diced tomatoes



4 cloves garlic, minced



Handful of spinach



3 cups water (you may use chicken broth instead if you prefer. If you use chicken broth, ignore the chicken bouillon and consomme soup cubes.)



1 chicken bouillon cube

2 consomme soup cubes (from Ajinomoto) (if you don’t have consomme soup cubes, then replace with chicken bouillon cubes)

1 tsp dashi granules/powder (optional)

3 chicken thighs or drumstick

½ large yellow onion, diced

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp basil

Salt & pepper (this depends on what soup stock you’re using, so taste as you go)

Toppings

8 tbsp fresh grated parmesan or mozzarella or some similar cheese (I personally used pepper jack because I’m not a fan of parmesan)



Chili oil, to taste (optional)



Red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)



Salt & pepper, to taste (optional)



Green onions (optional)

Instructions

Sautee chicken in a pan with olive oil until one side is nice and brown and cooked. Add diced onions and minced garlic and cook until the onions are nice and golden.

In a stock pot, boil the water or chicken stock. If you went with water, add dashi and add the chicken bouillon cube and consomme cubes and let boil. In the pan, add the canned tomato contents until it simmers.

In another pot, boil water to cook the noodles and let noodles cook for however much time is needed for it to be al dente.

Add the chicken and tomato mixture to the soup. Add olive oil, butter, parsley, and basil, as well as salt and pepper to taste. Add spinach and let boil for a moment.

Drain the noodles and serve in bowl. If using mozzarella or a non-parmesan cheese, put on top of noodles and serve soup on top of cheese to ensure that it gets nice and melted. If using parmesan, serve soup in bowl and then put parmesan on top. I love green onions, so I added some chopped green onions on top.

It turned out pretty delicious! The difference from the real thing to mine is definitely the depth of the soup. Ramen broth is traditionally stewed over a long period of time to get the full flavors of the stock, but I ain’t got time for that. Taiyou no Men’s soup was also thicker and more garlicky, but you can adjust accordingly if you like yours a different way.

I probably should’ve added some parmesan on top, but I didn’t have any on hand and I like pepper jack more than mozzarella.

Satisfaction.

Though it’s not quite like the Taiyou no Men tomato cheese ramen, for the overall flavor of this homemade tomato cheese ramen, I give it an 8/10!

★★★★★★★★☆☆



Try it yourself and let me know how it tastes!

—Oolong