Umami Bomb Noodle Recipe

The current incarnation of Umami Bomb Noodles is a riff on some ideas I gleaned from Instagram and TikTok, though now mostly my own. The name comes from an idea from Ivan Orkin (the ramen guru featured in Season 3 of Netflix’s Chef’s Table). In describing why he added tomato to his ramen (and I am loosely paraphrasing here), good ramen is umami on top of umami and then more umami. The ingredients below (if you are careful with the soy sauce) are just a pile of umami-rich flavors. 

Serves 1, though you can certainly double or triple this, though I prefer to make one at a time.

Ingredients

(see photos below, most are from H-Mart, a gigantic Asian grocery)

6-8 ounces of Fresh Green Tea Noodles (though you can use any fresh or dried Asian noodles )

2 tbsp Shallot Sauce

2-3 fresh Scallions, choppedup

2 tbsp neutral high-heat oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

Tahini/sesame paste (Falafel King’s is so creamy)

Soy sauce (I use black garlic shoyu as it packs a re-donk-u-lous amount of umami)

1-2 soy-cured egg yolks

Note: I do not measure for this recipe, just eyeballing amounts. The overall goal is to keep it from being too oily and/or too salty. It can easily become one or the other or both depending on your soy sauce, how much oil you include with the shallot sauce, how much oil the noodes soak up, and more. Like all cooking, it may take a few tries to get it right.

Note #2: this is not a spicy dish. I find spicy ingredients become dominant and overtake other more subtle flavors, not to mention things like chili crunch (which I LOVE that Momofuku product) add even more salt and oil.

Recipe:

A few hours before you cook (up to 24), separate the yolks and cover them with regular soy sauce (you could use the black garlic shoyu, but regular is fine and cheaper). The longer the yolks cure, they become more jelly-like and result in more of an “on top” addition than melted into the dish.

Boil some water, add noodles and cook till done (the fresh noodles take about 5 minutes). Drain and set aside while you make the sauce (the fresh starchy noodles tend to get sticky quickly so move along, or mix with a touch of the oil). 

In a wok (I use my Frok all the time, but any frypan works), heat the oil and sesame oil on a medium-high. Saute the fresh scallions for a few minutes. Add the Shallot Sauce and mix well (the shallots tend to dissolve). Reduce the heat to medium and add the tahini and mix very well, now not letting it get too hot (remember, you are making a sauce). Add some soy sauce. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and add the cooked noodles coat the sauce all over the noodles. Saute for another few minutes until well-coated and hot.

Place in a noodle bowl (I prefer steep-walled bowls for noodles), and add the yolk(s) on top, and enjoy immediately.