Simply Ramen

 I recently received this lovely book, Simply Ramen, a Complete Course in Preparing Ramen Meals at Home by Amy Kimoto-Kahn to review.   I confess I have never had ramen, although I know a lot of people who have and who rave about it.  I was very excited to get this book!

I have to say that it is one of the most extensive books on the subject I have ever seen with a variety of chapters taking you from the very basics of Ramen Soup bases and Noodles to a variety of toppings, different varieties and sides!

There is Chicken Ramen, Pork Ramen, Beef, Seafood, Spicy, Vegetable Ramen.   Also Cold Ramen and Specialty Ramen.  And then the sides . . .

I have always been fond of those dry packets of Ramen noodles.  This goes above and beyond those into a magical slurpy delicious world of Ramen goodness.  One look at the gorgeous photography and I wanted to slurp up this book too. Everything looks so delicious.  The pages are filled with fabulous sounding ramen recipes extensively researched directly from the masters in Tokyo, Japan. I had no idea there were so many variations of ramen.

The stunning photos, along with Amy’s mouth watering recipes, will make you want to take your chopsticks out and eat it page by page. The recipes are broken down into steps easy enough for a home cook to conquer as she walks you through the noodles, the soup bases, and then about 70 mouth watering toppings!  I think even I can conquer this, and master this skill myself.

Sprinkled throughout the book are delightful stories about Amy’s life, Japanese culture, and the history of Ramen so you feel that this is not just a cookbook, but a stroll into a whole new world and culture.  This is one of the things I loved most about it.

She makes it all seem very uncomplicated and do-able with recipes broken down into simple steps for building amazing broths and complex flavor combinations.   This book makes is very clear how very versatile and delicious Ramen is.

Athough recent health problems have actually kept me from cooking a recipe from this book I can promise you that I will be doing so in very short order, but I did not want to let another day pass without telling you about it.  This book rocks.  With uncomplicated and mouthwatering sounding recipes, it is a book which  I know I will go to time and time again.  I highly recommend.

 Simply Ramen, A Complete Course In Preparing Ramen Meals at Home
by Amy Kimoto-Kahn
Published by Race Point Publishing
Hard Cover, Colour, 176 pages
ISBN 978-1-63106-144-8
$22.99 US/ £14.99 UK/ $27.99 CAN

About the author -  Amy Kimoto-Kahn is a yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese-American, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She is a graduate of the Miyajima Ramen School in Osaka, Japan, and has taught a popular series of Asianinspired cooking classes for Williams-Sonoma.  She shares her Japanese-American homestyle recipes for the entire family on her blog, easypeasyjapaneasy.com

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