I don’t want to sound like a toddler who’s going through their possessive stage, but when I saw my friends posting their Kasey Ramen photos on Instagram, I did say, “MINE.”
After a whole week of monitoring its Instagram page, I placed my order less than a minute after it dropped its Wednesday pre-order link, and was ready to pick up my ramen kit on Sunday. It was raining outside when I arrived at District Cafe, Kasey’s downtown pickup location, but I already saw a small lineup at the booth.
While it rotates the ramen menu every week, the one I registered for was the Mazesoba, a dry mixed noodle dish with chashu. Each order comes with a serving of ramen, wrapped in a food-safe plastic bag, an ingredient kit in a takeout container, and a freshly printed sheet of instructions.
“Do we need to cook the ramen by ourselves?” asked my friend.
While I didn’t doubt my cooking skills, I started to feel that the team must have been really confident about their kits to give the best taste experience. And it turned out that they should be.
The pre-cooked chashu and pork soboro only needed a quick heat up to let out the astonishing aroma. It took us exactly 90 seconds to cook the noodles, as per the instruction sheet. When we mixed up the warm noodles and pork pieces with green onions and shoyu tare, I’d already lost my patience to take a photo —- The shiny golden brown side of the chashu was just so appealing. I dug in the tender ramen noodles soaked with just the right amount of aroma oil, and urged myself from swallowing the ajitama (marinated boiled egg) in one bite.
And the best part of it was I could praise myself for being an amazing chef, sort of.
Apart from ordering its weekly prepared ramen kits, you can also keep up with Kasey Ramen on Instagram for their pre-scheduled pop-up events. Since the end of 2020, Kasey Ramen’s menu has featured about 15 types of ramen, including fan favorites Black Garlic Tonkotsu, Tantanmen and Shoyu ramen.
