Here’s my story of food (read ramen). I had my first bowl of ramen at Wagamama, 5 years ago. The naive, innocent, easy-to-please version of me back then was blown away. Fast forward to today, after having tasted many a bowls in Japan itself, my palate has been enlightened and educated and is a lot harder to please.
Over the last year or so, I’ve seen ramen spots popping up all across Dubai. From Tom & Serg through Wokyo and now to Daikan, Yui , Maxzi and many others, ramen is most definitely the hottest trend and everyone wants a sip of the good stuff.
Enter Neha of A Story of Food, who is so badass that this 5’2 single-mom of two boys is singlehandedly giving all the giants a run for their money. She is not operating out of a restaurant, not relying on dozens of covers a day to break even, nope, she’s just cooking from her heart, out of her home kitchen, and serving up 8 bowls a night to genuine food enthusiasts, and the waiting list is larger than life. Sometimes, she’ll have a pop-up in collaboration with a restaurant, which, by the way, is the quickest way for a restaurant to fully book-out in record time.
Her ramen is deeper, richer, and more delicious than any other I’ve had in Dubai, but it’s not just the ramen that’s a breath of fresh air, it’s the whole experience that makes you feel like you’re a part of something very special. I first scored 2 spots for M and I for her pop-up at Maisan a few months ago, and Neha and I soon became close friends because it wasn’t long before we realized we’re basically the same person, with nearly identical likes, dislikes, and an invincible love all things Japan. Cue my second bowl of her ramen, this time a one-on-one meal with a new friend, at her home, over lots of conversation that made us realize we want each other in our lives forever.
she also has two of the cutest dogs. This one is Sparky, and he has the biggest case of food fomo and the sweetest face you’ll ever see.
Before I tell you about my meals with A Story Of Food, let me give you a crash course on some main categories of ramen broth, although the combinations and types are virtually endless. Think of ramen being as diverse and personalized as a plate of curry, or even a pizza.
Broths can broadly be classified based on their heaviness in how clear or fatty they are, the soup base ingredients, and finally the seasonings.
To quote Serious Eats, “Heaviness is classified as either kotteri (rich) or assari (light). Kotteri broths will be thick, sticky, and usually opaque, packed with emulsified fats, minerals, and proteins from long-boiled bones. Opaque white bone broths are also known by their transliterated Chinese name, paitan. Assari broths are clear and thin, usually flavored with more vegetables, fish, or bones cooked relatively briefly at a light simmer so as not to cloud the broth” .
The soup base contains the main ingredients that are simmered for hours on end, to give the broth it’s characteristic depth, and is what most sets one bowl apart from another. This is where the quality and quantity of ingredients used come into play. This soup base usually comprised of bones and aromatics, but lighter (and perhaps vegan) broths can be made using seaweed or kelp. Dashi is a standard in Neha’s bowls, and adds irreplaceable depth to her broths.
Last but not the least, the seasoning is the source of saltiness in the broth. This can be shio (sea salt), shoyu (soy sauce) or miso (fermented bean paste). The quality and type of seasoning used can make a world of difference. Then, there are oils and other seasonings that you can often find drizzled onto the very top of your bowl, which at A Story Of Food is a stunning chili oil.
To quote Serious Eats again, “While in general, shio tends to be used to season ramen on the assari end of the scale and miso for the kotteri with shoyu somewhere in the middle, exceptions abound, and it’s not uncommon to find rich bone broths flavored with plain salt or lighter seafood broths paired with miso.”
Amuse Bouche
The bowl we had this afternoon with A Story Of Food was a lovingly-prepared bowl of shio paitan broth that was clear but deep from how long and slow it was cooked, with not even a single drop of shoyu in it. It is made from scratch so much so that even the katsuoboshi is manually sliced, with a special/traditional kind of mandolin that 1004 Gourmet sourced for her!
The chicken dumplings we had as an appetizer
The meal started off with my most favorite amuse bouche till date: a thin slice of salmon folded in a shiso leaf, lightly fried, and served with a drizzle of honey. Next, we had homemade, handmade chicken dumplings with a sauce I wanted to lick off the plate. the piece de resistance was most certainly the ramen, it’s perfect 6-minute egg, and and the chicken chasu. Dessert was the most refreshing scoop of yuzu sorbet by Canvas Gelato.
And if you think the broth is a labor of love, wait till you bite into the alkaline noodles, which, put succinctly, make for more slippery and elastic noodles. When made fresh, they need only a few seconds in boiling water before they’re ready to hit the broth!
It’s a good time to call Dubai home, as I look around and see that in the post-apocalyptic world of cutthroat influencers, we are now witnessing the rise of a very supportive environment in which food entrepreneurs are seeing the light of day and thriving, with Neha at the reins.
How can you score a coveted seat at her table? The reservation system is quite simple: you follow her on Instagram, set an alarm for 11 a.m, every Friday and try your luck. She makes about 35 bowls a week, and you can consider yourself lucky if you get to slurp down one.
