New Yorkers line up for Ramen Burger
Aug 16, 2013, 6:57 PM | Updated: 6:57 pm
NEW YORK — Waffle tacos. Cronuts. The stranger the carb combination and mix of cuisines, the bigger sensation it will be. Enter: the Ramen Burger.
Keizo Shimamoto, 35, blogs about ramen, works as a part-time chef at a ramen shop in NYC, has traveled all over Japan eating ramen, and now, he is making burgers with ramen in a once-a-week pop-up shop, drawing hundreds of fellow ramen lovers.
Shimamoto cooks up a beef burger patty, tops it with scallions and arugula, drizzles his secret shoyu sauce over the top and smashes it between two congealed Sun Noodle ramen noodle patties.
“It’s just so good. The juices from the burger and the secret sauce, that shoyu flavor, come into your mouth, while your tongue separates the noodles,” Shimamoto said. “It’s a different experience from any other burger.”
The chef told the Daily Beast his concoction is an American twist on a Japanese dish that places a chasu pork filling between less-congealed ramen patties.
Last week, he debuted the burger at a Smorgasburg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. People began lining up at 9 a.m. for the 11 a.m. opening, and, offering only 100 sandwiches to a line of hundreds, the demand for Shimamoto’s burgers far exceeded the supply. Saturday, he will whip up 300 for hungry New Yorkers.