VanFoodies.com

In Vancouver, there’s no shortage of ramen restaurants. Two of my favourite places are Marutama (for its creamy chicken broth) and Ramen Danbo (for its tasty ramen at a surprisingly reasonable price). While the focus is often on the noodles (especially house made fresh noodles) and chasu, the ramen egg (Ajitsuke Tamago 味付け玉子) is equally important in a bowl of ramen. The marinated egg has this jammy, custard-like yolk that should go on everything. I can’t believe it took a pandemic for me to discover the home-made version. And it’s sooo easy to make, too. Most recipes online call for Japanese sake but we made it with Chinese cooking wine and I thought it worked very well.

Ingredients

• 6 Eggs
• 1/2 cup Soy
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Mirin
• 1/4 cup Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine
• 2 tablespoon Sugar

Instructions

1. Soft boil the egg (put the eggs in boiling water then boil for 6-6.5 mins)

2. Immediately put the eggs in an ice water bath. Peel after the eggs are cooled.

3. Mix everything together, make sure the sugar is dissolved. 

4. Add eggs into mixture. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Rotate the eggs in between to ensure colour distributes evenly.

We took one egg out after 15 hours but thought it could use some more colours and marinating, so we marinated the rest for as long as 24 hours.

The results? Absolutely beautiful marinated soft-boiled egg yolk and just perfect amount of marinate and seasoning. We could taste the fragrance of Shaoxing wine in the egg, as well as the sweetness and umami from mirin.

How should you enjoy the ramen eggs?

First of all, definitely put it on ramen. In fact, it could go on any type of noodle bowls. We made Taiwanese beef noodles the other day and topped it with a ramen egg.

Next, rice bowls! We made an unagi bento box and we couldn’t help but threw on a perfectly marinated ramen egg on it.

Of course, you can just have it on its own as a snack. How about cut it into wedges and add them to your avocado toast? The possibilities are endless!

And if you are hesitant about including alcohol in your marinate to make ramen eggs for your kids, you can take it out. It’ll probably miss the floral note of Japanese sake or fragrant of Shaoxing, but the basis of the flavour profile remains.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. This is so easy I know I will be making this over and over again.