If you worship at the shrine of ramen, get ready to kneel in front of "mountain ramen” chanting “I am not worthy.” This bowl of noodles and broth is piled topple-over high with vegetables and pork, and it may be coming to a new ramen restaurant planned on Indianapolis’ north side.

Some people just eat ramen, the cheap, noodle-brick kind you get at the supermarket. Add boiling water and a pack of salty seasoning mix. Other people are obsessed with ramen. They attend ramen school in Tokyo, spend days roaming the city for the best ramen stands and then come home to make ramen day after day until they get it exactly right.

Paul Yu is among the obsessives. He plans to put his mania on display when he opens Yujo restaurant this summer at 9431 N. Meridian St., between 93rd and 96th streets near Kona Jack’s.

Mountain ramen is one of many Japanese ramen variations, and one of several Yu may offer at 47-seat Yujo, a quick-service place where you’ll order at the counter. Opening day is scheduled in July or August, Yu said.

Here's an Instagram post showing the extreme mountain ramen that used to be served at Men Macho Ramen in Niigata, Japan.

How high Yu goes remains to be seen. He's still tweaking Yujo's menu and mountain ramen may only be a seasonal special. Whatever he decides, don’t let over-the-top mountain ramen leave the impression that Yu's all gimmick.

He'll also serve traditional Hokkaido miso, Tokyo shoyu and creamy tonkotsu ramens.

The Chinese chef grew up eating Asian noodle dishes. They're his comfort food. Yu has worked at Indy’s only ramen-dedicated restaurant, Ramen Ray, since it opened in 2016, but he’s dreamed of his own ramen shop since at least 2014.

Yu finally decided the city had room for another ramen restaurant in January 2018 when lines at Ramen Ray wrapped around the building. Crowds were there to taste the work of ramen master Sakae Ishida, who came from Sapparo, Japan, to cook for one weekend only.

Ishida’s finesse with ramen basics – broth, sauce, noodles, toppings and seasoned oil – convinced Yu to up his ramen game. He spent time at a Japanese ramen school. “Eight hours a day for a week,” he said. “You live there and wake up and start making ramen.”

Even the milk tea Yu wants to serve at Yujo has a ramen-related purpose. It “synergies great with our concept because it cleanses the palate after eating a hearty, rich bowl of soup,” he said.

Yu and team will slow-cook pork and chicken together to make clear, rich broth known as chintan and the cloudy paitan, which is boiled for hours to release bone fats and collagen that create a creamy broth.

Yu gets intense as he discusses tare in a lengthy email follow-up to our interview. Tare, he explains, is a seasoning sauce, “a very critical part of homemade ramen, like the secret ingredient. You may know tare as miso, shio (salt), and shoyu (soy sauce). Also, key ingredients that are natural in umami are added: dried mushrooms, kelp, dried tuna and mackerel. This creates ‘umami synergy’ that will develop the richness exponentially.”

It sounded like a lot of ramen science, which Yu confirmed to be true. “Tare was a critical part of the learning experience at ramen school,” he said.

Yujo’s menu will also list simpler snacks such as bite-size Japanese fried chicken called “karaage” and pan-fried dumplings called “gyoza.” Bubble tea brewed to order will include Japanese genmaicha, a brown rice green tea, and hojicha, a charcoal-toasted green tea.

Yes, Yu has been to tea school, too.

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at 317-444-6264.