Ramen in this heat? Trust Margarita Forés
Weather apps had warned of excessive heat (41 degrees Celsius) in Bonifacio Global City (BGC). So why was I so excited to down a bowl of piping hot ramen for lunch?“Some people think, ‘Why ramen during summer?’ No, no, no. The ramen actually brings your body temperature down precisely because you’re adding the heat,” renowned chef Margarita Forés told Lifestyle on Tuesday when the first set of Batchoy Ramen and RR Soft Shell Crab Bun were served at Ramen Ron in BGC.
A study in 2012 actually backs this, showing how ingesting hot food during hot days can cool you down. Some Asian countries also believe in the benefits of “fighting fire with fire” when it comes to food and climate, hence the penchant for having hot soups in summer and soft-serve ice cream in winter.
Gushing over her favorite batchoy, Forés calls it the essence of what a Negrense snack should be. She would often buy batches of it to take home for herself and her son, Ramen Ron owner Amado Forés, who also confessed to enjoying eating batchoy in hot weather.
Eureka moment
But there’s another reason this lunch was special: “For Mother’s Day, Mama came into the kitchen,” Amado said.
After being on his own, making his own mistakes and establishing himself in the industry (Amado said he first wanted a spell where he was really doing things on his own), “I think I can have fun with her naman,” said the young restaurateur.Even though the idea of combining batchoy and ramen came as a eureka moment for mother and son while dining at a Filipino restaurant, it took a bit of convincing for the purist Ramen Ron chef Hiroyuki Tamura to get on board.
“There was a lot of himas-himas,” said Forés, “a lot of really convincing him to see how he would accept a ramen that comes from him with the influences of the batchoy. We had to make him ligaw.”
It just made sense, Amado said about combining the two noodle dishes from the Philippines and Japan. While very similar, the compositions and the ratio of the main components—the broth, the noodles and the toppings—are the biggest differences. “And that’s I think where the push-and-pull between them happened.”
Amado laughingly said Tamura-san is no longer as rigid as before “when he kicked my mom out for bringing Diet Coke into his ramen shop.”
He added, “We know what to touch, what we can give our opinion to. But we also know what to respect, which is why our partnership with him works so well.”
Amado said they put the batchoy into the ramen rather than the other way around.
Japanese sensibility
Tamura-san still had his nonnegotiables, though. “I think the clearness of the broth and at the same time the earthiness need to be at a certain level,” said Forés. “Up to the end, he really didn’t want to put liver, but that’s for me the best part of the batchoy. So he agreed to two slices. Okay lang, that’s fine with me.”
In the end, she said the collaboration taught them a lot about Japanese sensibility and what’s acceptable to be able to keep the product still pure and still the way it should be.
This resulted in a refined version of batchoy: a clean-tasting broth that’s somehow equally hearty. The egg adds a creaminess to the dish while the bits of chicharon give every bite a fun crunch or chewiness, depending on how soaked you let them be.
Like any ramen, it is best eaten as soon as it’s served—but even more so because of the generous marrow, which you must scrape off the bone and mix into the soup. Don’t forget to ask for a paper bib so you can slurp away safely if you’re a messy eater like me.
In fact, you might still need the covering for when you bite into the juicy soft-shell crab bun. Every fluffy bite, punctuated with a crunch, is dripping with flavor. The tartness of the achara using Japanese vinegar keeps you coming back for more.
“Amado knows that (taba ng talangka) is my favorite ingredient in the world. So he told me, ‘Mom, can you do something with it?’ And when I did, everything just went so well together,” Forés said.
“Everything that Amado and I have done together, it kind of fattens my heart a lot because it’s wonderful to work with him,” she added.
They also learned a lot from Tamura-san during the process.
“Amado and I respect purists and respect what Tamura does,” Forés said. “For me to be able to present batchoy with the Japanese sensibility, I think that’s so important. It adds finesse to the dish; it adds refinement. But at the same time, the essence of the dish is still there. And for Tamura to have guided us, to be able to do the way he would accept and put his name on it, it was very important for us.”
“It’s such a fun collaboration. Tamura-san would not be here today smiling and serving it if it was not something he was proud of,” Amado added. INQOnly 20 sets of the “batchoy” ramen and soft shell crab bun will be available daily until June 9 (no reservations), for dine-in at Ramen Ron Rockwell and BGC.
