Miso Chashu Ramen @ Marukin Ramen, Shanghai

Ramen is a love that grew out of another. My story with ramen began two summers ago when I was head over heels with a boy who loves to eat ramen. We wrote to each other and had planned to eat ramen the next time we meet, but alas the day never came.

Hungry and heartbroken, I ate my ramen alone at the end of the summer at Ippudo, New York. I can't say my Akamaru Modern ramen replaced my joy of summer love, but I will say it was pretty damn good.

Eating ramen became my form of mourning. I wallowed in one ramen house after the other - each time imagining a sophisticated critique the boy would have said about a particular recipe, slurping my ramen in quiet ceremony and seeing the boy's contented reflection at the bottom of each bowl. The whole ritual was as pathetic then as it sounds today, yet painfully delicious.

Two years into it, it's customary for me to eat ramen in every city that I visit, not excluding here in Shanghai. (Spoiler: Mist Hong Kong is next up on my ramen hit list.)

Marukin Ramen is located on the ground floor of IFC Shanghai along with many other Japanese restaurants. The place was small and cramped with a kitchen across the back wall, an open entrance and a front cashier where you order and pay your meal.

Food came fast. Everyone dived into their bowls without reservation. There was no sound of people talking, just a strange choir of noodle slurping.

Marukin is famous for its chicken-based broth. Going there, I admit I was a bit skeptical since I'm a pork-base kind of girl and can only appreciate a ramen with dense broth and complex flavors. I opted for the Miso Chashu Ramen for miso's textural semblance to pork-bone soup.

The broth came a lot milkier than expected and, conversely, the usually overpowering miso was unrecognizably subtle. A festival of beautiful flavors was present in the soup: shallot, grilled seaweed, garlic oil, chicken and everything nice. The noodles were light, smooth and crunchy.

I couldn't have eaten ramen faster in my life. At some point though, I noticed a man in business attire watched me with an expression bordering between astonishment and disgust. I poised myself from my barbaric eating, only to say to him: "Xiansheng, I can't think of a sadder tragedy than a cold ramen. Please don't let me stop you from eating." The man suppressed a smile and dutifully dug into his bowl.

I ate with gusto from early on, ladling spoonfuls of soup into my mouth without respite. My belly straining, I soldiered on.

Marukin Ramen
IFC Mall
8 Central Avenue, Lujiazui
Shanghai