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>> ANTHONY BOURDAIN: Coming up, noodles.

Specifically, the beloved ramen noodle.

>> DAVID CHANG: That is insane.

These noodles are insane.

>> BOURDAIN: Dave Chang travels to Japan for a bowl of tsukemen ramen... >> CHANG: Oh, my God.

>> BOURDAIN: ...explores the history of ramen, and its various regional interpretations.

Harold McGee brings the science.

Chang transforms what we think of as traditional ramen into something else.

>> CHANG: Italians will be rolling in their graves, even the ones that are alive.

We invented pasta, I don't know why Italians never adopted chopsticks.

There you have cacio e pepe.

>> BOURDAIN: Enter the Mind of a Chef.

♪ In Japan, there is rice, there is fish, and there is noodle.

And the noodle that rules over all others is ramen.

It is without a doubt the most popular dish in all of Japan.

But ramen is much more than just a meal, it's an institution.

A way of life.

And similar to barbecue in America, the styles vary region by region.

In Yokohama, where ramen first appeared in Japan, the soup is fatty and salty.

In Hakodate, the broth is pork and chicken based.

In Sapporo, it's miso based.

In Kitakata, the noodles are flat.

But no matter the regional style, ramen is always being tinkered with.

Chefs around the country are constantly experimenting with new flavors and techniques.

Chang's favorite out of all of them is tsukemen, a style that first appeared in Tokyo in 1954.

Chang and his pal, food writer Peter Meehan, travel to Japan to visit the ramen shop where the tsukemen-style ramen debuted and a legend was born.

>> CHANG: In 1951, a Japanese gentleman named Kazuo Yamagishi opened up a ramen shop called Taishoken.

And I doubt that he had any idea, you know, 60 years later it would be a legendary ramen shop and change food as we know it.

When Yamagishi originally opened up his shop in Nakano, it was like 12, 13 seats, in this sort of crappy building and if you didn't get there at 10:30 in the morning, you had to wait at least an hour.

He was there all the time, he was the first guy to put this massive towel around his head, sort of this mix between like cook and WWF wrestler.

He was awesome.

Even though the original one's closed, it's still a legendary shop, it's still an institution.

Yamagishi is in his late 70s, and he can't do what he used to do, but it still means so much to him to have everything taste right.

So every day, even though he's retired, his morning ritual is come to the restaurant before the service starts, sit down, drink his tea.

After he gets his tea, he goes into the kitchen to taste the ramen broth.

>> (speaking Japanese) >> CHANG: And he's like, "Oh, it needs some more fish powder, and some vegetables, some spring onions and like it's ready to go."

When that's done, he sits outside like Marlin Brando in The Godfather and greets everybody all day long like the don.

It's awesome.

So of course I had to bring Peter Meehan here to experience the master.

And this one.

>> So this is the spot you used to come to?

>> CHANG: This is a different location within the same... >> Neighborhood.

>> CHANG: ...neighborhood.

The old place, it's around the corner, it was like a mecca.

>> Right.

>> CHANG: And the line would be like 200, 300-person queue.

Many things in Japanese cuisine elevate something that was very humble and not taken seriously and take it to another level.

Yamagishi created what is known as tsukemen.

Tsukemen is chilled noodles in dipping broth.

And that broth could be really the ramen soup but something that's very highly seasoned.

He merged together soba and ramen.

That alone made him, you know, the legend that he is today.

But the biggest thing about Taishoken is the size of the portions.

I order a regular size.

Meehan gets the amore size of ramen, amore in Japanese means large.

It's like supersize me.

And they're not (bleep) around.

Meehan had been talking a lot of trash that he can crush this bowl of ramen.

>> You've been telling me for like three weeks about how big this bowl of noodles is.

>> CHANG: No, many years actually.

I wanted to see Meehan be uncomfortable.

Don't let me down.

>> It's got more of like a kind of a bone flavor.

>> CHANG: Stop talking.

>> I haven't even like gotten down to level on this bowl.

>> CHANG: Are you left handed?

You're doing it all wrong.

>> Fair enough, it works better.

(slurping) I keep eating and they're keeping the same amount of noodles in the bowl.

>> CHANG: It was a pathetic attempt, he was like "Oh, my stomach hurts."

You hanging in there?

The average Japanese person can crush this bowl of ramen.

Even smaller than average Japanese people.

Look at the ladies behind you.

They crushed theirs.

Game on, dude.

I've done it.

Have no mercy.

Cobra Kai.

One thing about Japanese culture in general, typically ramen culture is you finish your food.

You want a fork?

I was embarrassed just as an American.

>> It can't happen.

>> CHANG: Is that what you're gonna tell your daughter when she grows up?

Quit?

Be a quitter?

>> I want to live to see her grow up.

>> CHANG: I was sad to see that Peter Meehan couldn't pull the trigger.

Taishoken one, Meehan zero.

>> BOURDAIN: There's one very important ingredient in ramen noodles that make them different from other noodles: alkaline.

>> So we might start with the question "What is alkalinity?"

if we're going to be talking about alkaline noodles.

And alkalinity is the opposite of acidity.

Alkaline ingredients are the unacids in cooking, and they have to do with the nature of water.

Well, it turns out that most foods have a lot of water in them and so the nature of that water and the balance between the hydrogen ions and the hydroxide ions makes a big difference to the way the other components of the food behave.

The carbohydrates, the proteins, the fats are all very sensitive to their chemical environment.

When you add alkaline ingredients to a noodle, though, you change the chemical environment for the flour.

The color changes, the noodles get yellow, the texture changes.

And this is not that well understood, actually, but somehow the interaction of the gluten proteins is changed in such a way that the noodles become much firmer.

And there's the effect on flavor.

The flavor of alkaline noodles is really distinctive, the flavor is the aspect of food that we know the least about.

So one of the great things that alkaline salts do in a noodle dough is to make the noodle much stiffer and therefore it holds up better in the soup.

You know if you take an ordinary noodle and you put it in hot liquid, eventually it's going to dissolve because the proteins are just going to fall apart into the liquid itself.

So that's probably a big part of the reason why alkaline noodles have found a special place in soups.

>> (speaking Japanese): >> CHANG: These are yellow alkaline noodles.

I prefer this noodle because you can cook it at a higher temperature.

The faster you can cook a noodle without it breaking apart, the better texture you're gonna have.

If I cook these noodles and I put it in the soup, it still tastes like soup.

But if I put it in a concentrated version of soup, it's like dipping it into barbecue sauce or something, it just cooks the noodles and it's well-seasoned.

What we have here is a ramen broth that was up to this rivet right here and we reduced it all the way down.

I added a little bit of chili flakes, a dash of vinegar.

This bottle, that's what we use to season our ramen broth.

We call it tare, chicken infused soy sauce.

We're taking the noodles and we're putting it in the ice bath.

We're trying to stop the cooking process, so it's not gonna turn to mush.

In Japan they really like their white pepper in their ramen, I don't like white pepper all that much.

I don't even know why I just added it, that's just me being brainwashed.

Here we have some pickled Asian pear, bamboo shoots, pickled shiitake, pork shoulder, pickled cucumber, and some scallions.

Chilled-bath egg at like 60, 61 Celsius.

This is totally non-traditional in terms of Japanese ramen, which is the funniest thing, too, because when new ramen's created in Japan they're like, "Oh, that's great, it's a new style, but if it's done outside of Japan, it's not authentic, therefore, it's not ramen."

I guess it's the same way when Canada wins their World Series or something it's, like, it doesn't really count.

>> BOURDAIN: Noodles are only half the equation to an exceptional bowl of ramen.

Just as much love and attention to detail is given to the broth.

>> CHANG: Momofuku ramen broth starts just like a dashi.

The foundation is kombu, which is simmered for 45 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius.

While the kombu cooks, pork neck bones get roasted in a hot oven.

The kombu comes out, some destined for other uses, and dried shiitakes go in.

After the mushrooms have simmered for an hour, they're not thrown out but removed from the soup and pickled in soy sauce.

Darkly roasted pork bones, chicken legs and backs fill up the pot.

A huge helping of bacon ends from Allan Benton's smokehouse in Tennessee gives the broth its distinctive smokiness.

A day's worth of scallion trimmings come next.

Onions and carrots are added, along with water to cover.

The fond, those brown bits left on the roasting pan, get scraped in, too.

Then the kettle is closed and the broth is left to simmer.

After 12 hours, and after straining out all that goodness, the broth is full-flavored, full-bodied and ready to use.

>> BOURDAIN: There is one kind of ramen that has transcended all others across the globe as few other food items have.

Invented in 1954 by Momofuku Ando with a goal of feeding a war ravaged country, instant ramen has since become a staple in pantries and college dorms around the word.

It's cheap, and tasty.

As of 2008, consumption of instant ramen reached 94 billion packages per year.

One of the many things that make instant ramen this popular: it's versatility.

Though one doubts that this is what Mr. Ando had in mind.

>> CHANG: I think I was around eight years old, I'd come home from school and instead of having Hot Pockets and stuff, I had ramen.

I didn't know it was bad for you to consume as a kid.

I thought it was healthy.

So what I did was, I first did something like this as a kid.

It's pretty tasty.

And this is delicious.

This is pork stock, basically freeze-dried vegetables, packed with MSG.

There's no way it's not delicious.

If I don't look bloated already, I'm certainly gonna look bloated tomorrow, just... not 'cause of the MSG, because of the salt content.

But this is where things got really interesting.

I might've had like Capri Sun in my left hand, and I would sprinkle the seasoning packet just like so.

And then I would go like this.

That's pretty much what I would have as an after school snack.

And if you don't know how to boil water, this is what you gotta eat.

I mean if you put like Kraft macaroni and cheese cheese powder, put it on top, it's pretty much eating like a Dorito.

I've been told now, since I've come out of the closet with this, that I was not the first to discover this.

There have been others to make this breakthrough.

(laughter) The beautiful thing about this, what Momofuku Ando did when he created instant ramen, was he discovered a way to stop the cooking process.

So this is a fully cooked noodle.

And what he did was he basically deep fried it, and it's just gonna soak up water.

So instead of cooking in it water and it's gonna soak up water, why don't we make cheese water?

We're gonna do cacio e pepe, which is probably one of my favorite pastas 'cause of its simplicity.

We have boiling water, we're gonna add butter, a healthy dose of olive oil, cracked black pepper.

I'm not trying to piss off Italians.

This is not in any way, shape or form Italian approved.

We're gonna add some cheese-- pecorino romano.

So what we're trying to do is hope that by the time this absorbs the liquid, it's gonna be done.

We still wanna keep this al dente, or as close to al dente as an instant ramen can possibly be.

So here we go, let's cross our fingers.

Just trying to cook off all the excess liquid.

I'm gonna pour a little of the liquid out because I think I have too much.

Obviously, Italians will be rolling in their graves, even the ones that are alive.

We invented pasta.

I don't know why the Italians never adopted chopsticks.

And there you have cacio e pepe.

This is as authentic as you get.

I can't even say it with a straight face.

I'm definitely not gonna get a visa now.

I like instant ramen, I never eat it anymore because my doctor will be really mad at me at my cholesterol, my sodium level.

These are all bad things.

But what we're gonna do is from this we're gonna make a Parisian-style gnocchi out of it.

Gnocchi is traditionally potato, but because of all the modified starch in this wheat, it actually make a superior type of gnocchi.

I'm dead serious about that.

I have poured some milk and what we're gonna do is heat it and put it to a point where it absorbs the water that has been extracted from it, so it is now edible again.

I'm gonna process this.

These are four egg yolks.

Pick that up at Jamba Juice.

So what we now have is gloppy, gloppy consistency.

We're just putting this in the pastry bag.

When that mixture cools down you get this.

So over boiling water, we're squeezing out the end and cutting out with anything that gets you a straight edge.

As this comes out of the water, we're just gonna roll it in some olive oil.

We're adding some unsalted butter into a black steel pan and we're gonna roll it in butter so it gets a little color.

I worked for a guy once and he was like "Make it G.B.D.-- golden brown and delicious."

A little lemon juice, gonna add some parsley, tarragon, and chives.

I'm not gonna add too much salt 'cause we're gonna douse this in parmesano reggiano.

And that's the dish.

We've seemed to offend the Italians and the French now, but that's America.

I feel like George W. Bush.

>> BOURDAIN: Tokyo train station, one of the busiest stations in the entire world.

Tucked away in one of its many corridors is this shop, Rokurinsha, serving tsukemen on a whole other level.

>> CHANG: One of the things I love most about ramen shops is the fact that most of them now are automated, and this is pretty in writing what they've done at Rokurinsha is they only serve one thing, tsukemen.

And not only just one thing, they put photos up.

>> I know the photos help me.

>> CHANG: All right, what's even more cool about this since we're in the train station... >> Subway card, you can buy ramen.

>> CHANG: This is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

>> Boom.

>> CHANG: All right.

>> Let's see this.

>> CHANG: Let's do this.

Some of the best restaurants in the world are located in the basement of train stations and subway stations.

I mean, if you try to convince somebody and be like, "Hey, can you open up a restaurant in the basement, you know, back alley corner of Grand Central... >> Right.

>> CHANG: They're gonna be like, "No, that's a terrible idea."

And here we have what people are saying is some of the best ramen in Tokyo right now.

I think what has made this place so popular is that they only serve tsukemen, and they're the first ramen store to ever create a noodle specifically designed for tsukemen.

Like Italian pastas are designed specifically for... >> To carry different sauces.

>> CHANG: To carry different sauces, and it's no different than what the Japanese have done with the ramen noodle.

It's fascinating that in this food culture, it's like they took so much pride usually, no matter what cuisine you're making, if you're not getting the great product, you can't make food.

>> Make great food.

>> CHANG: That's why the great product and the great technique and care turns into that crazy queue.

Oh, my God.

>> Oh man.

>> CHANG: That is insane.

These noodles are insane.

>> Yeah.

>> CHANG: This broth is insane.

(slurping) >> It's the perfect temperature.

>> CHANG: The noodles are insanely good.

>> Totally chewy.

This broth is like... >> CHANG: It's crack.

>> I would wait in line in a train station for this.

This is, like, far and away the best... definitely the best bowl of tsukemen I've ever had, but this is like probably the best ramen I've ever had.

>> CHANG: I've had a lot of ramen in my day, this is (bleep) really delicious.

The line's so long they have another queue.

They have a line for the line, all these people have jobs.

They walked out of their desks to eat.

"Where you've been three hours?"

"Oh, very easy, boss.

I've been eating the best bowl of ramen I've ever had."

"You missed an important meeting."

"But you missed an important... very, very important bite of food."