The soy chocolate cake at Oji Ramen tickles one’s curiosity as much as the palate. The spongy, dark brown-almost-black triangular slice collapses on the plate, showing off its gooey layers oozing caramel sauce and shimmering golden bits of caramel — the kind that could be called decadent. As one admires the beauty of it, Subin Raj N, the restaurant manager, throws the curveball. It is a normal vanilla sponge that is soaked in soy sauce. And that explains the savoury or umami aftertaste. The best part? It is not too sweet. One learns it is a common thing in East Asian cuisines, especially in Japanese and Korean. This is one of the popular desserts at the Japanese speciality restaurant Oji Ramen, which opened its doors in March. It is located in a verdant and lush space at The Croft, Kacheripady. With summer showers upping the humidity, lines of evaporated water trickle down the glass walls, giving the vegetation outside a frosted look. The 26-seater is located in a rectangular space, with an open kitchen where you can watch the chefs at work dishing out ramen or karaage. This is Oji Ramen’s second outlet after the first one in Chennai.
The interiors of Oji ramen
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A member of the kitchen staff operates the pasta/noodle maker as he feeds it noodle dough, which becomes noodle strands. These are cooked for a precise one minute and 39 seconds. “We don’t do takeaways for that reason... the noodles are best had hot, here. If you keep it, the texture will change. Same goes for some of our other fare because almost all of it is made in-house,” Subin informs. A few seats are arranged in such a way that they look into the kitchen, like those ramen joints we have seen in Japan.Japanese cuisine is not new to the city which has had its share of sushi, ramen, and karaage at Asian specialty restaurant chains like Little Soi and Nasi and Mee. And closer to authentic varieties at the neighbouring Tony’s Kitchen, possibly the first to serve us authentic ramen with inhouse made noodles and broth.
