IS $20 TONKOTSU RAMEN WORTH IT?! | Fung Bros

What do you look for in a good ramen bowl? My favorite ramen in general is miso spicy. Miso? Miso spicy? Yeah. Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome to a special episode of Fungro's Food. This is the beginning of a little Tokyo series that we're going to be doing around LA. Right now, I am standing in front of one of the most advanced ramen spots in all of America. It's a chain from Japan. It just came over straight from Fukuoka, Japan. And they are killing it right now. I'm going to be showing you guys what a $20 bowl of ramen looks like, why it looks like that, the options they give you, and I'm going to be trying the hottest level of their God Fire Ramen. This is Hakata Yokosha. Yo, what's going on everybody? I'm in the back of the kitchen with Shioshi here. We are making a chashu here. Wow, look at that big piece. Yeah, this big piece. And this is pork belly. This is pork butt. Pork butt? Yeah. The traditional tonkotsu soup from Fukuoka. So that heavy broth that everybody loves, that came from Fukuoka? That came from Kyushu. That came from Fukuoka, Hakata. Something that I want to tell you guys is that a lot of Japanese chains from Japan that have expanded overseas, places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, they're coming to LA now. And actually a little Tokyo. If you guys have been here and have noticed that over the past like five years, there's been a lot more Japanese chains coming over. This spot actually feels a lot like Tokyo. When I was eating at the bar the other day, it really feels like Tokyo. If you want the Tokyo experience of being like a ramen slurper, go sit at the bar. Right off the bat, I got the chicken karaage, aka Japanese fried chicken. This is not your usual piece of karaage. Just focus on it. They keep that in the entire thigh. Like usually, karaage pieces are a lot smaller, but they kept it as a whole piece. So what's funny is that you actually buy these by the piece. You can buy one piece and then you can buy three piece. Chop this up. Let me try this real quick. Is leaving the karaage in the big pieces any better? I gotta tell you, there is something to say because the big pieces allow it to be juicier. So when you cut it up, there might be more juices inside. I don't know. I like it. So what was your first experience with ramen? Eating at home. I think that's the top march on instant ramen. Cup of noodles. So right here, we got the tonkatsu black. And the reason why it's black is because black garlic is actually slightly burnt garlic in oil. And basically sprinkle it all over the tonkatsu. Reason why I like Hakata Kosho right now is because they give you a lot of the garnishes right at the table. Some ramen spots give you the garlic that you can fresh press. And then you have this one, the spicy pickles right here. And then of course, you got your classic red ginger right here. One other thing you cannot forget is this chili vinegar. It's like pickled chilies, essentially. I have never seen ramen that is plated like this with the chashu hanging over the sides. And I had to ask Shoshi, what is up with the draping it on the sides? And to be honest, he was like, yo, it's just to look cool. This is the extra toppings. You have the flappy chashu. You have the egg right here. You have all the beautifully placed, you know, garnishes. You have the mushrooms. You got the bamboo here. Of course, green onions, my first love. And then you have bean sprouts right here. Not gonna lie, the toppings were $7. You can get the noodles cooked however you want. It's kind of like how someone asked you, like, how to cook your steak. The most popular way to get your noodles here is hard. Mmm, yo. It actually has some of that, like, black sesame flavor that you get with, like, your shaved ice. I'm feeling the firmness. It gives you a lot to chew. Like, you don't really want your noodles, like, just disintegrating in your mouth, you know? And I think another benefit of maybe having the hard noodles is, like, the longer it sits in the bowl, the noodles are always gonna get soft. So that when you start off with hard noodles, that means by the end of it, they'll still be kind of firm. Yo, let's check out this egg. And I love the thin Japanese chopsticks, the really pointy ones, because they're easy to cut stuff with. This is actually bringing me back because a year ago from today, we were in Tokyo. And in Tokyo, like, we ate a lot of amazing food. But one thing we did not get was actually, like, a really good bowl of ramen. So I'm just glad that this chain is over here right now, because basically, you're kind of getting, like, this chance to experience a really authentic bowl of ramen without having to go that far. So the chashu, as you can see, is cut very thin, and they do not grill it. It wasn't super, super fatty, because I think all the fattiness is actually in the broth. As the chef mentioned, basically, he has one big pot that he's transferring a lot of the thickness to this other pot that's actually what's being served. I was just corrected. I've been saying tonkotsu wrong this entire day. I have made a huge mistake. Tonkotsu is actually the fried chicken and pork cutlet. Forgive me, I've been wrong ever since I started saying the word tonkotsu. Tonkotsu. Here we've got the mentaiko broth, the cod roe. So that's why mentaiko is like the fish eggs. Let's try this out. Got a little bit of a kick there. Okay. Growing up, I would say, really, the only ramen I ever ate with our family was instant ramen. The Seattle area didn't have that many ramen spots. If you guys are familiar with the ramen craze that hit America maybe, like, several years ago, basically, it hit New York first with Ippudo. This is, like, $20 bowls of ramen. What level of ramen are you eating? $20. There's, like, a $15 bowl of ramen. $12, $13. It's about $15 a bowl. $12 to $15. Same. After I got the extra toppings, those bowls came out to almost $20 each. Is it worth it? I would say definitely if you get the extra toppings. Because you're getting a lot of food. But between the broth being extra thick, and then also there being flaps of chashu laying over the side, tons of sprouts, tons of bamboo, I would say it's worth it. But right now, guys, let's get into the hottest bowl of ramen that they have here. This is called the God Fire. This is level 4. Here's what I'm predicting. Japanese spices, they don't have, like, the mala numbing spice that, like, Chinese have, so it's probably not going to linger around in my mouth. It's probably going to be spicier than a lot of Korean dishes I've had. Because it's still using chili powder. I think I'm going to be able to take it. Let me just drink the broth by itself. Yeah, it hit the back of the mouth. It's a little spicy. Not going to drink water yet. It's doable. It's doable. That was just one. It's like when you eat something spicy, you don't know how spicy it is until you start talking again. All right, I got to eat some noodles. I'm going to try it out. If you are not into spicy food, this is going to hurt you, for sure. I would say this is not the most enjoyable level for me. I would say I would take it down another notch to really fully, like, enjoy my spicy ramen. If you need a wake-up call, if you're on a lunch break, and you're feeling a little sluggish, and you just need something to get you sweating, get your heart racing, I would say this would be a pretty good— And what's another, like, Asian food that you could see the jump that ramen made from really cheap to fancy? Hot pot. The type of meat, the cut of the meat, because I feel like a lot of more cheaper hot pot places, they have, like, fattier meat that's not as good. I'd say maybe curry. Like, a lot of, like, instant curries are now getting more well-known with, like, Japanese places or, like, Indian places. You would be interested in a $20 curry? I think it depends on what they put in it. If they're putting, like, wild-caught salmon or something in it, maybe, or, like, wagyu, like, beef, maybe. If it's just potatoes and carrots, maybe I can just make it at home. Udon noodles would be really cool to see, because I love, like, tempura udon, and, like, a lot of times they can get super cheap ones. But, like, if someone kind of gourmeted it up or, like, really took the time, I would be down to try that. Udon or maybe pho. Right now, I think pho is kind of cheap. A lot of people are going to hate me for saying that. You would get a $20 bowl of pho? Yeah, if it was, like, delicious enough. It kind of made me think about how the rise of ramen does correlate with the rise of Asians in America and how we're being more accepted and we're being more represented and people are more accepting of our authentic cultures now. It's like how sushi in America is kind of fancy, and sushi in Japan is actually still kind of fancy, but ramen in Japan is more of, like, a working man's food. Like, you can get quick bowls of ramen that come out in, like, one minute from when you order it. High-end ramen is one of the markers and is a symbol that should give you hope for Asians in general. That's a statement. Here we got the chashu rice bowl. This is, like, the same chashu that they use for their ramen, except just cut up and in a dry style. Let me try this. A little splash, splish-splash. A little bit of chili vinaigrette. I haven't used that yet. Boom. I like eating this style because, actually, in a way, it's not even as heavy as tonkatsu. Rice bowl is solid if you're not trying to do too much. Try this out. If you guys are coming here during lunchtime, what they actually do is they give you free noodles. That is, like, a very Asian philosophy that they would offer free extra noodles for you just to make sure you got full. Also, I do think that's to build goodwill in the community, too, because they're like, yo, this is a spot that you want to come to for lunch and get refueled at. Last but not least, we got, like, everybody's favorite Japanese appetizer, the gyozas, a.k.a. the potstickers, the jowzes, gorteas. I only say Chinese because, in Japanese culture, there is still a lot of the Chinese influence still left over. They're still using a lot of Chinese characters, and they're pretty open about the things that have come from China. You know, ramen chef's gonna tell you that maybe ramen, not the one that you know today, but the original one did come from China. Here at Hakata Ekosha, they have, like, dragons everywhere. They have a lot of red coloring. I'm looking at Chinese characters right now. So it's funny because they serve the gyozas flipped over so you can see the crust on the bottom, and you can even see these little starchy connection bridges. There's a little flour that's left over that ends up frying, and then that's what kind of looks like that it connects all the gyozas together. So naturally, I see this, and I'm like, oh, you got to flip them over because that's how you eat dumplings, because that's what I'm used to. What kind of sauce is this, though? Whoo! Yo, that was the single strongest bite today. Is that in the goth fire? I think this is what they put in the goth fire ramen. Oh, that's spicy. That is, yo, low-key, spiciest Japanese sauce I've actually ever had in that little bit. Oh my god. That yuzu chili paste is hot! Here's the thing I like about gyozas is that the skin is really thin, and they're really easy to eat. Obviously, I love Chinese dumplings, too. They have a thicker skin, the more meat, the more soupy inside. But these definitely remind me more of the Taiwanese-style guotie that are like kind of open on the ends if you guys have had them. But the thing is, gyozas kind of all, to me, have a more unified taste than, for example, Chinese dumplings do. I think Chinese dumplings, they taste so different depending on who's making them, depending on the region. But when you eat gyozas, they generally all look the same. They're kind of this size, thin skin, grilled on the bottom, similar filling. But actually, at some of the cheaper Japanese spots, you will get them frozen. Like, I've actually recognized those gyozas from like the frozen packs at like the really cheap spots because it's not like something that people would put a lot of stress into. This is like just an appetizer. They do a good job here. Here are my major takeaways from eating here at Hakata Yokosha. Just on a food level, I'm just so glad to see that there are actually like really high-end options for ramen now. This is coming from the city that the tonkotsu broth comes from, so it's pretty authentic. And definitely, I would say, if you are hesitant at all about spending $20 on ramen, think about the other things that you spend $20 on. I mean, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to spend this on ramen. But at the same time, if you do spend it on ramen, there are other elevated versions of other foods that are also worth $20. I would actually go ahead and say ramen being originating as a comfort food, that elevated comfort food now is like the hot thing in the food scene right now. Growing up, I wasn't actually that much into Japanese culture. Like, I was into sushi a lot, but I wasn't consuming all different types of Japanese food growing up. And I think that there is a sense that sometimes when you're Asian, there's those internal beefs that you have with each other, you know, the regional battles too, where pretty much you don't want to like another country's cuisine more than your own. You got to have your hometown pride. And it's not that I love Japanese food more than Chinese food per se, but definitely, when you look into history and you find that actually a lot of the popular Japanese stuff that everybody likes originated somewhere from China, for example, for me, that makes me feel a lot better. It just makes me feel more connected to Japanese food after learning about the history. And that's something that, you know, a lot of people don't really think about. And that's something that, you know, I didn't really think too much about until I did this video. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video of the best $20 bowl of ramen you can get out here. In the comments below, let me know what are some other foods that you could see being elevated like ramen did. You know how ramen went from a $0.50 pack to a $10 bowl to now $15 and then $20. People are serving $50 burgers, so anything is possible. But in the comments below, let me know what you guys think. And definitely subscribe to our channel if you guys haven't already. Give this video a big thumbs up. And until next time, I'm out. Peace! Yo, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for watching that video. Basically, we are going to be releasing a lot more content that we always wanted to give you guys. We never really had a good way of doing it. And that's why I want to tell you guys that we are starting YouTube memberships. So basically, if you subscribe to the membership channel, you are going to get tons of exclusive content. You're going to get exclusive photos, exclusive videos. We're going to be doing NBA talks, comments on comments. 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