Chocolate Ramen, a Valentine's Day Curiosity
Valentine’s Day and chocolate go together like, well, anything else and chocolate. The idea that chocolate makes everything better, however, is being put to the test by a Tokyo ramen chain, Mensho, which has j ust introduced chocolate ramen as a special Valentine’s Day treat.
Chocolate plus ramen: two delicious foods together for the first time. What’s not to like? Plenty, as it happens.
Despite the sound of it, the dish, which is being served at only one branch of the Mensho chain, does not feature noodles made of chocolate. Instead, ramen noodles swim in a flavorful black soy broth with “solid chunks of chocolate floating in the soup stock,” RocketNews24 reports.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Sorry, but that just sounds gross.” And that pretty much sums up the initial impression of the intrepid RocketNews24 reporter who conducted a recent taste test.
“We picked up a mouthful of noodles, took a bite, and were immediately greeted by the flavor of ... garlic?!?” RocketNews24’s Casey Baseel wrote, noting that garlic oil was in the broth as well. After experimenting with picking the chocolate chunks up with chopsticks and eating them straight up, Baseel decided the best course of action was to stir the chocolate into the broth.
Mixing the chocolate and garlic flavors created a “pleasant sweetness” and a “sharp,” “clean” aftertaste, he charitably concluded. And, he wrote, it “rewards you with a dessert beverage after you’ve finished all the noodles."
Ew. In any event, it’s surely safer to bypass the chocolate ramen and treat your sweetie to a box of bonbons on Feb. 14.