Oodles of Noodles

Ramen. No mystery. “It’s soup with noodles in it, topped with stuff,” David Chang tells us. In 2003, this Korean-American chef opened Momofuku Noodle Bar, a modest spot with a counter, backless stools and a very shaky start in Manhattan’s East Village, and now Chang’s company oversees various restaurants around the world with waiters, wine lists, reservations and a reverent press.

It started, though, with ramen noodles. A beguiling dish. And, it is interesting to note that at least two new spots, a restaurant in Salisbury, Below the Salt, and the Asian Kitchen takeout in Millerton’s Fresh Market have opened, recently, making their own versions of this dish — one basic and one luxe.

Asian Kitchen works a little like Subway, the sandwich restaurant: you take your pick of vegetables and seasonings such as sliced peppers and cilantro laid out in a clean, orderly array under good light, and the the menu starts with noodle soups bathed in stock, dashi, soy sauce and salt.  Add chicken, beef or shrimp, along with scallions and onions and you have a pretty good takeout. The fellows there are very agreeable, separating the noodles from the hot soup to keep the ramen toothsome if you are taking the dish home. Also, keeping an eye on some of its customers, Asian Kitchen offers gluten free soy sauce. Really.

Below the Salt, a new restaurant on Main St. in Salisbury is serving a number of Asian dishes, among them, Pork Ramen. Chef/owner Noah Sexton, elegantly turned out in chef’s whites and a beard harkening back to 19th century philosophers, says “I just liked Asian salty and sweet.” He may have started life as a trial lawyer, but once he understood that a lawyer’s greatest achievement affecting the most people was rewriting the tax code, he headed for the kitchen. And now, four restaurants later, this menu runs from a prix fixe with chicken liver mouse and hangar steak with roasted marrow, to pork ramen with shoyu broth, bok choy, slices of pork belly and hard boiled egg. Well, a pretty special hard boiled egg.

The recipe starts with a broth of bones and vegetables, ramen alkaline noodles from the Sun Noodle company, along with slices of pork belly. Here’s my version with a special nod to chef Sexton.

I make stock. lots of it. My dog eats chicken. I get the bones. Boil them with water, onion, peppercorns, some greens like carrot tops and  parsley and any vegetables that seem right to you. Cook gently, salt  lightly and skim until it’s right. Finally, taste and pour in a jot of sake or gin and a little soy sauce. Now lots of recipes call for hard-boiled eggs halved and floating atop the soup. But Sexton adds a special touch: boil eggs for 7 minutes (the yolks will be unctuous and the whites like soft gelatin), chill in ice water, then peel and halve the eggs and marinate with a mix of soy sauce and sake. Then add two halves to the broth, along with some greens, slices of pork, Asian noodles and you have what much of the world takes as divine food. “The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook” by Gloria Bley Miller is a great help to people just starting to make Asian dishes.

The Asian Kitchen is open Tuesday through Sunday and their phone number is 518-592-1421. Below the Salt opens for dinner Thursday through Sunday. Call 860-596-1127 for information and reservations.