Authentic Japanese ramen experience in Belgium
"It's so difficult to get good quality noodles in Europe, and they're never fresh. They're always frozen, and are either very expensive varieties imported from Japan, or of poor quality"
For the majority of Yamato noodle machine customers, the starting point of their search for procuring their own means of noodle production is a dissatisfaction with availability (or rather lack of it) of noodle products to use for their dishes. In many cases there are simply no feasible options to buy noodles from suppliers owing to the poor quality (sometimes due to long freezing) or prohibitively high price of noodles available on the market.
The story of Zuru Zuru Ramen – an authentic ramen shop in Belgium’s Gent, and its owner Nick Hofman is no exception.
____________________
“Zuru Zuru Ramen” owner:
“Hi, I’m Nick Hofman, a ramen fanatic and a Chef of Zuru Zuru Ramen.
I was tired of having to visit neighboring countries to find authentic ramen to eat just as I had in Japan. Eventually l went to Japan, and learned the art of making ramen myself. After that, I used my skills to train in several renowned ramen restaurants. A couple of years later, I brought the art of ramen making home, introducing my own but authentic and original recipes to elevate ramen in Belgium to a higher level. “
“Zuru Zuru Ramen” owner:
“Zuru Zuru Ramen is a small but real Japanese ramen restaurant. I want my customers to feel the Japanese experience in every single way. We’re talking about the feeling, touch, smell and flavors all together. The essence of Zuru Zuru Ramen: Quality and Authenticity.
Our specialty is Tonkotsu Sapporo spicy miso ramen. It is based on the original recipe which took more than two years to create and refine. It hits like a bomb, a very spicy one, and is available in lots of different levels!
Very unexpectedly our Vegan ramen is also going very well – it is even acclaimed to be one of the best not only in Belgium but among the neighboring countries as well.”
However to achieve such level of authenticity and quality Zuru Zuru Ramen first had to solve one of the biggest issues all ramen shops are facing — noodles.
“Zuru Zuru Ramen” owner:
“It’s so difficult to get good quality noodles in Europe, and they’re never fresh. They’re always frozen, and either very expensive varieties imported from Japan, or a cheap produce of poor quality. The long importing distributing chain doesn’t stroke with my vision, and is not sustainable at all. All fresh noodles from Europe are more like pasta than Japanese noodles, and thus change the authentic feeling and flavor of the dish completely.
Because I have known about Yamato since the time I was working as a ramen chef, I contacted them for information on a noodle machine, and they arranged an online demo for me where I could see the machine’s capabilities and ask any the questions I had.
By deciding to purchase the machine I made a calculated investment towards the future. The delivery time was several months, but considering it was shipped directly from Japan, it’s not that bad”
As for the other benefits of being able to produce ramen noodles in-house “Zuru Zuru Ramen” owner adds:
“I always wanted to make my own noodles fully customized to best fit my broth and ramen recipes. The machine I got from Yamato allows me to not only do that but also to create limited craft noodle options as well. Experimenting with sizes, colors, textures and flavors was not possible before. In short, the experience and quality for my customers went up by a huge leap.”