alt Hacker NewsThat impressed me too, but I brush it off to hunger and other biases.
> chāshū ramen.
Chashu is just name for pork theh put in soup. Main charecterization is type of broth - tonkotsu is the hardest to pull off as it requires 8 hours of boiling bones (but I’ve seen ready made broth to buy so I suspect most shops use that). Miso one is pretty trivial to make at home. I guess not many know this but one type of tare (condiment you put in ramen) is literally charred garlic (30 minutes in oil or so, then blend it). Once you learn this you’ll always spot it (typically in tonkotsu).
As for western shops I agree they are mostly meh, some very much so. Even decent ones you are more of a buying Japanese ramen experience than the food itself lol (I succumb to it myself).
I think the boiling is closer to 18 hours. I do a pretty good one in about 5 in my instant pot, though.
Another big problem with getting a "ramen" in a random western restaurant is noodles. If they don't make them themselves, the dry shelf stable stuff is just not good (at least what I can find in my EU country). As I was slowly upping my ramen game at home, the single biggest difference in quality was when I started making my own noodles.
I suppose if a shop markets itself as a ramen shop, you have a chance of getting a decent bowl. Most of the "asian" or even "japanese" restaurants in my city are places where they add cream to tonkotsu to make it white...