Omnivore - Notes from the Atlanta Ramen Festival

Slurping on noodles, for a worthy cause

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  • Brad Kaplan
  • Clockwise from upper left: bowls of ramen from Chai Pani, Mibo Ramen, the Lawrence, Makan, St. Cecilia, Kimball House, Victory Sandwich Bar, and Alma Cocina

Pumpkins aren’t the only fall food group that inspires festivals (and/or, um, riots). Call me crazy, but when October hits, my thoughts turn not to pumpkin spice lattes, but to warm bowls of ramen. So what better way to spend an early autumn evening than slurping on eight bowls of ramen from eight different restaurants, all in one place? The inaugural Atlanta Ramen Festival, held at Makan restaurant in Decatur, offered just that on Monday night. Not only was it a great start to ramen season, but the proceeds from $25 all-you-can-eat tickets went straight to the Atlanta restaurant community’s favorite charity, the Giving Kitchen. Double bonus.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one smitten with the idea of binging on noodles and broth for a good cause, since tickets sold out over the weekend based on good word of mouth. Makan general manager, Michael Lo, said demand was high. In fact, the turnout and interest from local chefs was so high that Lo hopes to come back bigger and better next year, with a larger venue, more ramen choices, and more room for the soup-obsessed hordes.

It’s always nice to see chefs and the community coming together to support a cause, and this year’s event was boosted by the fact that the oodles of noodles needed to fill the bowls were donated by Sun Noodles, the noodle maker of choice for ramen shops all over the country. The eight chefs on hand manned stations around the restaurant, cooking noodles to order and assembling bowls full of flavor. With such a diverse group of chefs participating - from restaurants like Alma Cocina, Chai Pani, Kimball House, and St. Cecilia - traditional ramen took a back seat to unusual twists, by way of Italy, India, the American Southwest, and more.

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The two most out-there bowls of ramen at the event came from Chai Pani, who made an Indian sambar ramen, and Alma Cocina, who went with beef check machaca in a guajillo chile broth. Even Mihoko Obunai, one of Atlanta’s most ramen-obsessed chefs, opted for something out of the ordinary, putting together a bowl of “miso cheese butter corn” ramen that seemed equal parts Sichuan Dan Dan noodle and Italian Bolognese.

Diners were tasked with awarding ticket stubs to their favorite ramen, and the votes seemed well dispersed among the eight options. My personal favorite was a surprise - chef Mark Nanna of the Lawrence put together a bowl that took traditional shoyu ramen elements in a slightly funky direction, replacing the pork with lamb belly, getting a good dose of spice from some sriracha-like heat, and balancing things out with sharp pickled ginger. His rich and highly slurpable broth was made from pork, chicken and lamb.

A close second was also surprising in the ingredients employed - a plump pat of butter dropped into the broth and a healthy sprinkling of grated parmesan on top. This was Obunai’s contribution - the “miso cheese butter corn” mentioned above. This bowl bridged from China through Japan then back to Italy with equal aplomb, with Sichuan peppercorn, fermented black bean, kernels of corn, plenty of crumbly ground pork, and of course a mess of noodles bringing it all together in harmony. Once again, Obunai showed that she can work ramen magic, and I hope her currently traveling Mibo Ramen finds a more permanent home very soon.

As for the crowd winner? I don’t know. (Correction: Instagram tells me it was chef Craig Richards and team from St. Cecilia who won, but I caught them spooning rendered guanciale directly into their bowls of ramen, which is surely some kind of penalty for direct injection of porcine goodness) I had to stumble home in a ramen-induced haze before the evening wrapped up, happy knowing that my noodle slurping supported a full belly and a worthy cause. I’m already thinking ahead to next year, hopeful that a 2nd annual ramen festival will obliterate any and all talk of pumpkin spiced this and that. One can dream.