ISSUE ONE: RAMEN

Issue one’s theme is Ramen—fitting, as Dave Chang has carved out a worldwide reputation as a
devoted proponent of the stuff. Lucky Peach #1 is chockablock with ramen recipes, but it also raises
questions about the notion of authenticity and broadens the culinary possibilities of instant ramen.

FROM “THINGS WERE EATEN,” PETER MEEHAN

AND DAVE CHANG’S TRAVELOGUE:

Chang pretends like he doesn’t know any Japa-

nese, but that is not entirely true. He was able to
navigate the vending machine system (there was
some English) and ordered himself a miso tsuke-
men, and abura ramen for me. He lost so bad.
Mine was a decent-sized bowl of thick,
chewy noodles—the very picture of yellow
alkaline noodles. They were an eye-opener for me,
because people would kill themselves for these
noodles in New York—so firm, so chewy. I need
to resist the temptation to use words like “better
than any ramen noodle I’ve ever had before” and
just hone in on their thickness, their chewiness,
and how well suited they were to the treatment
they got. They were topped with julienne nori,
a pile of fatty shredded-ish pork, sliced scallions
(which look firmer and more resolutely round and
tubular than the scallions in the states) and a gen-
erous plop of chili-dried scallop-sugar condiment.
The kicker? No broth! It was just “abura”—a
bunch of pork fat on it. It was a version of abura
ramen that I don’t think he had seen before, and I
JAPAN JOURNAL certainly hadn’t. It was so solid from this bullshit
by David Chang & Peter Meehan place in the middle of nowhere. I tried Dave’s and
Illustrations by Lindsay Mound
the shit was anemic. He went back to the vend-
ing machine and ordered a second abura and we
crushed it.
4Lucky
| Lucky
PeachPeach
| 4
Then he pulled some Japanese out of his ass
and asked for a carafe of the unseasoned broth.
“He thought I was just some stupid foreigner.
PETER MEEHAN AND DAVE CHANG DOCUMENT THEIR TRAVELS Didn’t see that coming.” We agreed that they
Chang, Meehan, and the Zero Point Zero crew flew all over the world to produce videos for the companion Lucky probably still thought we were stupid foreign-
Peach iPad app. In issue one, they’ll document their trip from Tennessee to San Sebastián to Tokyo.
ers, but that’s a hard point to argue: we are.
 ASSORTED ART FROM ISSUE ONE

HOW TO MAKE RAMEN-FLAVORED POTATO CHIPS BY GABRIELE STABILE AND MARK IBOLD

A COMIC BY MATT VOLZ RAMEN HEROES BY MIKE HOUSTON

CHOPSTICK HUMOR BY DAVID REES

 SAMPLE RECIPE LAYOUTS

WD-50-STYLE EGGS BENEDICT

Freeze your ham. Slice it as thin
EGGS BENEDICT, WD-50 STYLE as possible, preferably on a meat
slicer. Arrange those super-thin
DEHYDRATED
Uressin ctaquatum sunt volorrum acestio reprepu dipsuntest as el imi, culleni hiliquam faccate mper- ham slices on Silpat lined baking
CANADIAN BACON
atiis est fugia sunte num facipsum evelitatio et et et audam reratio veliani hictibusae nitio eatque sheets and pop them in a low
minvel illaut ut que nobitatem qui qui cus is audantiundis eaquae volutae quassim porrovidiae ad oven until they’re dehydrated
and crisp.

Wylie replaces traditional poached Cooked yolks can be stored

eggs with poached eggs of a differ-
See page TK for info on
sourcing the best ham ent kind. He fills a plastic sheath
in the world. with egg yolks, and then cooks it
in a water bath heated with a water
circulator for 19 minutes at 70 C.
Arranges egg fudge in a ring on
in the refrigerator and then
the plate, then smush and drag
warmed as needed. He cuts
the back half of each cylinder to
three inch-long cylinders of GELLED EGG
trace that invisible circle that the
egg “fudge” (egg yolk with
eggs are sitting on.
the texture of fudge).
FRIED
HOLLANDAISE

DEHYDRATED Chives and black salt. Because ENGLISH

If good enough were good Gellant gum MUFFIN
powder they make it look and taste more
enough Wylie would leave it BREADING
STABILIZED, Benny-like, and because Wylie
SHEATHED &
alone. Instead he figured out
FROZEN, FRIED likes chives on his eggs Benedict.
WATER-BATHED how to fry hollandaise.

Wylie doesn’t serve bread at his FRIED HOLLANDAISE TO

restaurants, so why would he FINISH
POACHED EGG
You’ll be stabilizing the hollandaise with cornstarch and a gel-
serve English muffins? Instead
lant gum. So you make the sauce, shear in the stabilizers, and
he gets in a case of Thomas’s
add some bloomed gelatin (so it can be tidily shaped and fried).
HOLLANDAISE every week, breaks them up into
Then chill the sauce in a quarter sheet pan. Once cool, cut the
crumbs, dries those crumbs out
gel into half-inch cubes. Bread in a flour, egg wash, then Eng-
in a low oven for a few hours,
CANADIAN lish muffin crumbs. Freeze the breaded nuggets. When ready
then grinds the result again into
BACON for service, fry the hollandaise in TK degree oil, straight out of
finer breadcrumbs. The English
the freezer for just a minute or so—just enough to brown them,
muffin breadcrumbs coat the
warm them through, and get the hollandaise oozy.
fried hollandaise.

ENGLISH PULVERIZED
MUFFIN & TOASTED “It’s not gonna look like the eggs Benedict of your childhood, but if you close your eyes
and have a bite, I want you to go right back to where you were. I don’t wanna
TRADITIONAL EGGS BENEDICT mess with anybody’s actual memory of eggs Benedict.”

INSTANT RAMEN CACIO E PEPE INGREDIENTS WHEREAS

In most recipes you’ll first

3 cups water cook the pasta, then dress
3 tbsp butter it with black pepper, oil,
and cheese.
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups grated pecorino romano
+ freshly ground black
pepper
IN THIS RECIPE
2 packages of instant
ramen noodles (reserve the You’ll first combine the
seasoning packets for water, butter, oil, cheese,
another use). and a generous addition of
black pepper in a medium
saucepot. Bring it to a boil
on the stove.

Not unlike you see this guy doing

Keep an eye out for Zio Pepe’s

T his is an instant ramen version of cacio

e pepe, which is probably my favorite
Italian pasta, because of its simplicity. I
going to be terrible. But the principle is
sound: make a liquid that tastes like cacio
e pepe sauce; add a block of cooked dried
Authentic Italian-style Instant Ramen
at your local supermarket!

mean, there are ways to make it un-simple,
the way you see it done at some Italian
restaurants where a waiter brings out a
hollowed-out wheel of cheese, and dresses
the pasta inside of it…but that routine
always seemed silly to me. The genius of
this dish is its flavor: sheep cheese and lots
of black pepper and a little bit of water or
fat to bring them together.
Dan and Dan—the cooks who helped
with prep and recipe development for
the taping of the show—thought it was
noodles that will soak that liquid in as it
rehydrates. Why wouldn’t it taste good?
The Japanese have ramens packaged
with Italian seasonings—it seems like after
Japanese-style places, there are more Italian
places in Tokyo than anything else—so it’s
not that weird of a concept either. The
result is an insult to traditional Italian
cooking, I’m sure, but it’s the apogee of
dorm room cooking, another way to stretch
that dollar. And that’s what I’ve always
aspired to.
Flip the noodles occasionally, or
use a spoon to baste them with the
liquid in the pan. After 3 and half
to 4 minutes—the moment they’ve
loosened and rehydrated and start
to look tasty—split them between Stir, reduce the heat so the
two serving bowls. (I’d use chop- mixture simmers quickly
sticks for that.) Grind a bunch more and steadily, then add the
black pepper over each bowl and go noodle bricks.
to town. Eat fast—the dish does not
improve with age.