Ramen Wagaya

Ramen Wagaya is the finished product of @ramen.pr0ject — they've since changed their handle to @ramen.wagaya11e. It was the documentation of a couple's (Lise and Tsubasa) journey to make a perfect bowl of ramen in Paris. They spent time figuring out the right equipment, which led them to Tsubame-Sanjo, an area famous for old school metalworking and really good kitchenware, where they attended knifework classes and had strainers custom made for their European pots.

As ramen is highly dependent on the mineral content (or hardness) of its water and Paris's water is notoriously hard due to the limestone-filled Paris Basin, they had to test various flours for the noodles. But the broth is where the water matters most. According to Tsubasa, the mineral content in hard water muddles clear, delicate broths but rich kotteri broths are not impacted. Luckily for him, it's the ramen he prefers.

The specialty bowl is the gyokai: smoked fish oil over their kotteri base. When they tested the same recipe in Japan, the soft water made the fish flavor so strong it overwhelmed the bowl.