Readers of The Bitten Word cooked every recipe in the September 2013 Bon Appetit magazine. Here's their take on Shoyu Ramen.
Judi: I'm celebrating the end of my ramen adventure with a glass of wine the size of my face. My friends are gone, the ramen gobbled up and the pile of dishes required for Day 3 of Bon Appetit's "Project" are finally clean and put away. Actually, it wasn't that bad -- I went to my regular supermarket and an asian market for the ingredients and found all but one (sorry menma), the first handful of steps were easy enough. The only gulp moment was realizing my pot was too small for the broth (my own stupidity. Really, use a stock pot for this. They mean it.) and I'll be honest, it was hard to use all that meat for the stock and then discard it, it felt wasteful. But the instructions were perfect, the dish was balanced and flavorful without any extra fussing or tweaking required. One bowl was incredibly filling. My friends seemed to enjoy it. I will most likely make it again because, really, how else am I going to use up the bag of bonito flakes that are now in my pantry?
Katie: An excuse for a trip to H Mart + delicious = a win. It was definitely a long and sometimes messy process (my pork shoulder didn't roll up quite as elegantly as the Bon Appetit photographer's), but fun and manageable spread out over three days. Not sure I'd do it again - ultimately serving just soup (even fancy soup) for a dinner party feels a little wrong, but it was fun for a very casual group. And really delicious.
Alex: I wanted to like this dish. I really did. The stock itself was beautiful, light and earthy. Until the introduction of the tare. Even with the low-sodium soy sauce, the stock went from light and pleasant to salt city. After all the work that went in to it, it was incredibly disappointing to have it essentially ruined by something at the very end. If I were to make again (which I wouldn't), I'd halve the soy sauce. Major disappointment!
Becky: I've never actually had a good Ramen so I was excited to make this and it was "Amazing" will definitely make again, took some to work and it got "Rave" Reviews so this ones a keeper.
The Hedonist: It's a long process, but very easy and the results are worth it. I love how the multi-layered flavors and textures come through distinctly, especially the earthy dashi. The toughest part was reading the labels at the Asian market to figure out if you got the right thing.
Rachel: This dish is worth the few days and many steps. I found the recipe easy to follow and I had tons of broth. I can't wait to make real ramen for those cold winter nights coming up. I substituted corn for the bamboo shoots. My only recommendation would be to up the salt content when the broth is simmering. I also added roasted pork belly to the final product, because everything is a little better with some pork belly :)
Get the Shoyu Ramen recipe at Bon Appétit