The ramen croquette is here to satisfy all our guilty pleasure hunger food cravings at once.
In Japan, sushi is cuisine. Matcha green tea is culture. And ramen? Ramen is grub.
Warm, flavorful, and filling, ramen checks off just about every important item on the checklist for hearty comfort food. But there is one small thing keeping it from maximum grub-ness: it’s not deep-fried.
But here with a solution to that dilemma is Japan’s casual restaurant chain Katsuya, which knows a thing or two about fried fare, seeing as how it’s a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) specialist. The newest addition to the Katsuya menu, with a December 9 debut, is ramen croquettes!
Such a revolution in face-stuffing could only come about with the combined powers of two visionaries, and so Katsuya partnered with ramen chain Korakuen. Like all croquettes, the ramen croquettes are made with potato, but in this case mixed with ramen toppings like negi green onions, with everything marinated in Korakuen’s secret-recipe ramen broth before frying to make them extra-flavorful.
▼ Between these and McDonald’s Japan’s anime-endorsed gratin croquette sandwiches, we’re seeing a lot of croquettes in our upcoming meal plans.
The ramen croquettes come as part of a set meal that also includes a pork cutlet, white rice, and tonjiru, a kind of miso soup made with extra pork and vegetables that’s especially popular in the winter. The whole thing is just 690 yen (US$6.40), meaning that trying out Katsuya’s innovation in a relatively inexpensive roll of the dice, but let’s be honest: there’s really very little risk here, because it’s hard to imagine deep-fried ramen being anything but immensely delicious.
Related: Katsuya location finder
Source, images: Press release
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where his absolute favorite ramen restaurant in all of Japan happens to be just down the street from his apartment.