- I love chashu.
It's gonna be difficult for you.
Chashu is pork.
How do you make it?
It's like nice, thick, fatty, meat.
- You don't sound confident in my abilities.
(Rie laughs)
- Hey, what's up everybody.
It's your girl, Merle.
You may know this about me, I am truly obsessed with ramen.
And my friend Rie's a little bit,
a little bit skeptical about how good vegan ramen could be.
So I'm gonna change that.
I'm gonna take her to find the best vegan ramen
you can get in LA.
And then we're gonna come back to the studio
and we're gonna make our own delicious vegan ramen.
And finally, she has to choose which one she likes the best.
So let's go get Rie.
Rie. - Yes.
- I'm so happy, I have you here today.
- Me too!
- Honestly, just nice to hang out after so much time.
- Yeah, I think the last time I saw you was in the office,
so it's been almost two years.
- Everybody knows you because you're an icon.
But also you've got your amazing show, "Make it Fancy",
and you're a long time Tasty Producer.
- [Rie] Yes, as long as you. - [Merle] Yes!
- We kind of start at the same timing, right?
- You're kind of an anomaly when it comes to Tasty Producers
because you actually went to culinary school.
- Yes, I went to the French Culinary Institute.
- Have you dibble-dabbled at all in any plant based cooking?
Slash what's your thoughts on the whole vegan thing?
- I don't have any discrimination
toward any kind of cuisine as long as it's delicious.
So it doesn't need to have meat at all.
And also Japanese cooking, we don't use a lot of meat.
As long as it's good, I eat anything.
- That's a good motto to have.
Rie. - Yes.
- You're a big fan of ramen.
- Yes, I am. - Me too.
So I would love it if you could paint me,
like Bob Ross, paint me a picture of your dream ramen.
- I had a privilege to go Japan with (indistinct).
I ate a lot of different ramens
and we also went to ramen shop that we didn't film.
The restaurant name is Afuri.
They have very light broths ramen.
As for ramen topping, I like jammy egg, I like chashu.
- So today, I'm gonna be taking you to
a ramen place that I like a lot.
And it's called go Gokoku.
They have this really awesome Beyond Meat ramen.
- Beyond Meat is a burger patty?
- Yes.
Have you had it?
- I don't think so.
- Oh. - Oh wow.
- Exciting.
We're gonna head to the ramen shop.
We're gonna see what you think.
I'm very excited for you to try it.
- Yes, me too.
- And I'm also excited to eat some ramen
cause as we all know-
- Yeah.
- There is never too much ramen in my life.
(chillstep music)
Would you mind telling us a little bit
about how you went about starting go Gokoku?
- Gokoku started formed by extension family.
They start off the Gokoku, they named this one.
I take her Gokoku cause of my grandma.
She was vegan but she's passed away right now.
So when we take over,
take over the name, take over the place.
We are making our own improvement.
So we added more vegan sushi, added more vegan ramen.
My food is heavily influenced by Japanese, Chinese food,
and any Asian culture, I love it.
And I like to think there's no borders with food culture.
Most of the traditional ramen there's eggs inside.
But we order some special factory noodle.
There's a no-eggs noodle.
For the both part, we have fresh fruit, fresh vegetable
which we blend together to mixture to the ramen broth.
- I've never even heard of that.
That's so cool.
- And the other part is the Chinese herbs.
We are cooking 24 hour.
Actually, we put in the pot every day.
And for the vegetable part, fresh vegetable
like bok choy, broccoli,
and vegan Beyond Meat, we marinate and add our own flavor.
It was my dream, open a restaurant
cause I'm passionate on cooking.
And especially the vegan stuff.
In our culture food is love.
- I am so excited to eat right now.
I cannot wait to try all these things.
- I can't wait, allow you guys to try everything.
Let's eat.
- Let's do it.
Oh Rachel!
Ah!
- [Rie] This looks incredible.
It just looks like a regular ramen to me.
- [Merle] It does!
I wanna like wash my face in it, you know what I mean?
- [Rie] Yeah, it smells so good!
- Oh my Lord.
So there's corn, there's the wood ear mushroom,
and there's bok choy.
The Beyond Meat looks pretty convincing.
- Can we eat?
- Mm, it's so good!
- Wow, how can this not be...
(indistinct) vegan.
- Without doubt the best vegan ramen I've ever had.
This is sensational.
- This is is so good.
This kind taste like a spicy miso ramen I like.
It's very creamy and also very,
how do you say, it's very filling.
- It's very hearty.
- And she said they had fruits, right?
Do you taste any fruit?
- I don't taste any fruit but I guess that must be
how they incorporate a hint of sweetness.
So that's really cool.
- Yeah.
If I go to ramen place, somebody give it to me.
I wouldn't believe this is vegan ramen.
- Wow.
- I think this is regular ramen all the time.
- That's a big deal.
Cause remember when we were in the car
and you asked me how?
- It's gonna be difficult for you.
- Well, I didn't do this that's the first thing.
But she did!
Yeah, the flavor of it is fantastic.
Cause Beyond Meat's good already
but the seasoning she used here is-
- Yeah. - Spot on.
- Yeah.
- I'm not gonna talk anymore.
Can I just eat this whole thing?
- I loved it.
If I lived around here, I would come here all the time.
It's like very nostalgic to me too.
That's taste like Japanese ramen.
- I feel like that was one of the concerns.
You were curious if there a way to replicate that feeling
but to hear that it's nostalgic is even better.
- Yeah. - That's great.
- Yeah I don't know how she does it.
I have a misconception about vegan ramen
can be boring but she flipped my bias.
- Not everybody has a delicious vegan ramen shop
around the corner.
So I'm going to take you back to the studio
and we're gonna make our own homemade vegan ramen
so everyone can have great vegan ramen.
- Yay, I can make a home too.
- Yes! - Yay!
So we're back in the studio.
- Yeah. - Boohoo.
And now we're gonna make our own vegan ramen.
- Okay.
- Do you believe in the powers of me
to make a really good comparable vegan ramen?
- Hundred percent.
- Even though the one we have is just so good?
- It was so good, I still dream about it.
- I'm not phased.
I'm not scared.
I'm not intimidated.
- Well, this is not a competition, right?
- Oh it is.
(both laughing)
I recognize the healthy competition but I need to win.
- Okay.
- You and your ramen, you're you like to have chashu pork.
- Yes. - Right?
- I love chashu.
- I have the insider information.
So I know that.
And we are going to making a vegan chashu
using king oyster mushrooms.
- Oh nice!
I love king oyster mushrooms.
It's very meaty.
So it's very satisfying.
- Yes, so we're gonna put these in this bag.
- Okay.
- And then you're gonna sprinkle some salt.
- Okay.
- To kind of dehydrate these a little bit.
They're gonna shrink up
and it's gonna pull out the moisture.
All right so I'm gonna release the air
and then I'm gonna let you do the honors
of massaging these cause that just feels fun.
And then soon enough
they're going to shrink down very nicely.
- And are we gonna keep this?
For later? - Yeah.
That's a very good question.
Since you know, it's fitful.
We wanna keep these so we can toss 'em in a saute.
Not waste them. - Okay.
- For later. - Good.
- It's been about 20 minutes.
I'm gonna go ahead
and I'm just gonna squeeze out some of the excess water
from these mushrooms, just into the bag.
- [Rie] Okay.
- While I'm squeezing the water out of this
you're going to be mixing up these ingredients,
which are going to impart some
more of a meaty flavor into our little mushroom friends.
- All right.
- So we've got some water.
We got sake.
We've got soy sauce.
Ginger, garlic, green onion.
Oh, she made a choice.
- Sugar.
- Do it, do the sugar.
And then yes, green onion, and smoked paprika.
I'm gonna pop these in there.
We're gonna bring it to a boil
and then we're gonna turn it down to a simmer
and then we're gonna let that simmer for about 20 minutes.
And we're just gonna
occasionally turn the little mushroom around.
Okay so now these have been simmering for about 20 minutes
and if you wouldn't mind,
go ahead and take the mushrooms out
and put 'em in our strainer.
And then in the meantime
if you wanna reuse your liquid that we have here
you could use to marinate, tofu, add to sautes.
- I think you can also use for broth.
- Oh, that's so true.
- So we're just gonna let these cool down
for about five minutes
and let them kind of strain, in the meantime.
Okay. - Alright.
- Now comes the interesting part.
- Okay.
- We are gonna take your little mushroom.
Gonna name mine Doby.
- Doby?
Mine is Dottie.
- They're cousins. - Yeah.
- We're gonna wanna put our hands flat on top here.
And we're kind of going to just thinly slice into this
and we just kind of wanna scrape it
so it's gonna roll out kind of like pork would.
- I've done this with real pork.
It's slippery.
- Oh it's slippery.
It's a couple different things.
I mean, look at that.
That's not too bad.
Feels like an alien creature.
- Yay!
- Hey we did it.
Doby and Dottie.
So now we got this all done.
We're gonna just slice these into three little rolls.
We're gonna kind of
fit them into each other like a puzzle piece.
First two, fit the third one on there.
Yours look amazing.
Why does yours look so amazing?
- It look like chashu.
- Okay, well we're off to a good start then.
Yay!
- You did it?
- I did it.
You did it. - Yay!
- [Merle] Boohoo. - Yay.
- Okay so let's pat these dry a little bit
cause they're kind of moist still.
And then you're gonna go ahead
and you're gonna dredge both sides
of these in our corn starch so we can fry them up.
What do you you think
are some of the easiest Japanese dishes to veganize?
- I think Japanese food is very easy to veganize.
- Okay.
- Miso soup you can use kombu dashi instead of katsuo,
which is bonito.
There is so many options.
So I'm gonna flip it.
I'm gonna just want to give a nice color.
- Oh! - Look at that!
So pretty. - Crispy!
- [Both] Whoa.
- Just look like pork!
- Right?
I kind of can't get over the look.
The look is really good. - Yeah!
This is promising.
This is really good start.
- Okay. - Alright.
- It's time to make the broth.
We're gonna start with our dry ingredients.
- Okay.
- And you can go ahead and pop those in the pan
and we'll let those heat up a little bit
for two to three minutes.
(bright jazz music)
And then we're gonna be essentially making a dashi.
I like to make dashi for myself personally,
cause kombu's high in iodine.
- Dashi is basically Japanese's broth.
Dashi's kind of like a primer when you're painting.
- Mm, okay so if miso is the leading lady,
then dashi's the support.
So go ahead, toss that water in there,
and then we have the kombu,
which is just a dried seaweed or kelp
and shiitake mushrooms that are also dried.
And once those are all in, we're gonna bring 'em to a boil.
Then we're gonna reduce that to a simmer
and we're gonna let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
Alright. - Alright.
- So, I'm gonna have you mix up
a nice little miso mixture.
We've got some miso paste.
We've got some chili bean paste,
toasted sesame oil, and soy sauce, and water.
While you're mixing that
I will start to remove some of these solids.
We're just gonna let this simmer for about five minutes.
And in the meantime, you know what time it is?
- [Rie] Trivia time!
- [Merle] Trivia time!
How much meat per year
would you guess the average American eats in pounds?
- One year is 365 days.
200 pounds.
- Very close, actually.
It's 250 pounds.
- I think I got it then.
- Oh my God.
Rie's like, "Actually I was right."
- Yeah, I was right.
- I'll give it to you because I like you Rie,
but you were close enough. - Yay!
That's why demand is important.
People have to be lookin' for vegan options more often,
which is what I'm here to do.
- I think there's a misconception
that vegan food is less flavorful.
But there is so many great food
and Gokoku ramen was amazing.
- [Merle] Yes.
- So I think people should experiment and explore more.
- So now we've taken this off the heat
and we're gonna add in our soy milk.
We don't don't wanna add it
while it's simmering cause then it'll curdle.
So we've got bok choy, radish, bamboo, corn, green onions,
sesame, nori sheets.
We got some vegan butter
and of course don't forget our beautiful concoction,
our mushroom chashu.
- Chashu-room.
- So I guess we go ahead
and have a little bit of fun and assemble shall we?
- All right!
(upbeat jazz)
- [Merle] It looks gorgeous!
- [Rie] Yes!
- Well Rie...
- Yes.
- What a journey. - Yes.
- We worked for this.
- Yes, it looks great.
- We say (speaking in Japanese) before we eat.
(Merle speaking in Japanese) - Yeah!
(both speaking in Japanese)
- Oh baby.
- Spicy!
- Is it?
Yeah, I didn't hold back on that chili oil and I'm glad.
- [Rie] It's delicious though.
- It's really good right?
- Yeah.
Chashu, it's pork.
So it's (indistinct), it's soft.
But this one this mushroom has a different texture to it.
- Yeah.
- But very satisfying.
Wow, wow, wow.
- Okay, we've got our three ramens here.
This is your favorite ramen from Afuri.
- [Rie] This is not vegan.
- This is not vegan.
This is your 10 though.
This is like the gold standard you hold ramen to.
This is the ramen we tried from Gokoku, delicious.
- [Rie] Yes.
- And then this is the ramen that you and I made together
here in the studio.
So you're gonna talk about what you liked
and didn't like of each one
and then give them each a rating.
- Am I gonna eat it?
- That's probably a good idea.
Just to jog the old memory.
- Mm.
Smokey pork, yum.
- I can tell it's lighter.
Just by looking at it.
These two are both of bit creamier.
I'm curious to see how this impacts
what you think of both of these.
- Mm it's packed with flavor.
- But is it better than ours?
(tense music)
- Mm...
It's spicy!
- Oh yeah.
- That's good though.
- I'm scared.
- So this one is very rich
but I don't feel so heavy after I'm eating this.
I love what we made.
(both laughing)
It has different kind of toppings and it's very exciting.
The chashu we made it's look like meat
but it's still kind of like mushroom.
- Okay, so it's not fooling you.
- Yeah, having said that,
this is 10 out of 10.
- No!
- I feel like this one is my new favorite.
- [Merle] Okay.
- [Rie] This is close.
- How close?
How close?
- 9.8.
- It's really close.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You round it up.
- Yeah, round it up it's 10.
- But I respect that.
This is damn good ramen.
This has been so much fun.
You know what you have to do?
You have to let me know
who you want on the show next
and what you would like me to make.
Alright, so should we just go eat some ramen?
- Alright.
- I'm gonna take this one.
- Okay.
- Yeah, I know where your heart lies.
I know where your heart lies.
(upbeat chillstep music)