It was a strange time for New Wave Ramen over lockdown, much like the rest of the city’s bars, restaurants and street food vendors.
In an effort to continue to provide the city with their outstanding restaurant-quality ramen bowls, they often embarked on delivering ‘at home’ kits, so that people could re-create their favourite bowls but using New Wave’s exceptional ingredients.
Coming out of those 3 months indoors though, New Wave have a new venture and a new location – right in the heart of the Northern Quarter. Yep, they’ve managed to secure themselves a space in Mackie Mayor and they opened up this week.
New Wave Ramen aim to strike a balance between tradition and creativity – delving deep “into the science and craft of ramen, exploring ways to create better tastes and textures.”
And they do this in a variety of ways, most noticeably by obsessively experimenting to create the perfect noodles that go best with their bowls. They’ve managed to perfect the craft, using the best flours available – blending dark and white flours to balance out flavours perfectly.
Careful attention is taken with water, salts, hydration, humidity and temperature – creating some of the tastiest and most unique noodles on the market. Noodles like their ‘Hakata’ – one of the most popular styles in Western noodle shops and one that is perfect inside a Tonkotsu.
New Wave’s Hakata uses CROISSANT FLOUR, mixed for longer than most noodles to give it a strong “toothsome bite” and picking up the fatty soup and oils “like capillaries – trapping the goodness between them as you slurp“.
As you’d expect, there are almost infinite ways in which to create and prepare all of the elements of a Ramen Bowl, from the noodles, to the broth, to the vegetables and even the egg that sits proudly on top.
Again, New Wave Ramen take this VERY seriously, and after extensive experimentation and research they’ve discovered the perfect way to prepare the egg for their bowls. They call them FUDGY EGGS and they are cured for 3 days before serving.
They’re cured in a blend of usukuchi (Japanese light soy sauce), apple vinegar and golden castor sugar – creating a brine that ensures that the yolk remains soft and ‘fudgy’ and ultimately – bloody delicious.
There’s a clear passion with everything that they do and it’s great to see that New Wave have finally got themselves a permanent place in which to serve up their delights.
I know that there’s a LOT of competition for Ramen in the city centre, and indeed the Northern Quarter itself, but I implore you to give New Wave a try – you won’t be disappointed.
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