Lots of the ramen shops I’ve visited use the “five elements” of ramen – broth, tare (sauce), aroma oil, noodles and topping – as a foundation to build upon in their own characterful way. Often these creative ramens were a kind of edible biography, be it Matsudai’s “chippy lane mazesoba” in Cardiff or the Sichuan flourishes at Maneki in Worcester.
This recipe uses pork as the basis for a riff on a kind of Anglo-Japanese breakfast. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference pork Cumberland sausages are great to turn into pork mince as they’re already loaded with seasoning and flavour, and the fatty richness is a good foil for the aromatics, sweetness and vinegar elsewhere.
