The first bowl of ramen (#StephensRamenShop) we made was over 3 years ago on our condo balcony. We used store bought somen and it was a solid bowl. After a few more weekends of spending 8 hours on the broth, each bowl was better and better as Stephen tweaked his tonkotsu broth. We tried different brands of noodles and none quite matched the texture and quality of our favourite ramen shops in the city. After spending so many hours on the broth (and toppings), it seemed only appropriate we start perfecting our noodle as well. Stephen has tweaked the hydration of his dough, we’ve added some vitamin b12 for colour and tried different days of aging them. Now, Stephen can crank out a batch in just 30 minutes and we often have extra noodles in the fridge. Fresh noodles make a great quick meal with any kind of broth, from simple miso to curry to just chicken bouillon. The noddles cook in under a minute, depending on the thickness cut, be sure to test a strand to determine your preference.

Yum

Ramen Noodles

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 minute

Ingredients

• 300g all purpose flour
• 10g high gluten flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 110g warm water
• 10g lye water
• A dash of b12, crushed

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all purpose flour, high gluten flour and salt.
2. Add lye water to warm water and dissolve b12 into the liquid.
3. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with chopstick until the dough is shaggy. Let sit for 5 minutes.
4. Knead dough together into a ball, 3-5 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Split dough into 4 portions and roll out using a pasta roller to desired thickness. We go until the second last notch on our roller. Then cut desired thickness.
Tips:
6. Noodles best if aged overnight in the fridge and lasts for 3-5 days refrigerated.
7. Cook for <1 minute.

0.1

Sun’s Kitchen is a small food court booth on the second floor of Pacific Mall and specializes in hand pulled noodles. The chef pulls each bowl to order and the loud banging of dough attracts many spectators. When I first started my search for hand pulled noodles in Toronto, Sun’s Kitchen was one of the only results. Many Chinese restaurants had them on their menu, but few were specialized noodle shops. I had high hopes of Sun’s Kitchen.

Being a food court, there were no service elements. Pictures of menu items were displayed around the booth making it easy to order. Once you placed your order, your receipt is returned with an order number and you wait for it be called. Self serve hot sauce, chilli oil and soy sauce is provided with a stack of take-out cups. For my fresh bowl of noodles, it was about a 5 minute wait. Seating is available and I’ve never seen all of the seats taken during any of my visits.

I ordered the classic, spicy Dan Dan Mian. We’ll start with the highlights. The noodles were a good price at $6 and the soup was amazing. Strong, rich peanut flavour, opaque and creamy. I also liked the texture and chewiness of the noodles. As for the lowlights, toppings were minimal, just chopped green onion and a handful of peanuts. I’m not sure if I visited on an off day but the width of the noodles was also inconsistent. I watched the chef pull them and noticed a few strands broke with each pull. This resulted in varying thickness of noodles that was very obvious. Based on other pictures online, this shouldn’t have been an issue.

As is, if I needed lunch at Pacific Mall, Sun’s Kitchen would be top choice. If I was craving hand-pulled noodles, I might go elsewhere.