Reading this article had made me want to try this Ramen soup. Sadly, I don’t think there is any restaurant or a kiosk that serves this type of Asian specialty.

 To my excitement, Mike and I had an Asian restaurant to try. I know it’s been there for almost a year, but I didn’t get the chance to try it. Jaï. (give the man some love on his facebook page)

 Jaï is located at the beginning of Hamra Street. It’s not practically a restaurant; it has only one table, as they work mainly for takeaways and home deliveries. What’s wonderful is sharing this only table with people you might meet there. This happened in front of us. The 2 groups of 4 left with a wide smile on their faces.
After a talk with the chef and owner about the type of business he’s running and about the food, its freshness, quality and flavors, he helped us choose some good items from the generous menu.

We ordered vegetables spring rolls and Tokyo chicken salad to start with. The spring rolls were crunchy with hot vegetables filling served with an amazing dipping sauce with a pleasant pungent sourness. I swear I could have started drinking it by the cup. the salad was crisp and fresh topped with warm grilled chicken with a delicious dressing poured all over.

We also had beef sweet and sour stir-fry and a chicken platter that I can’t find its name nor have I taken a photo of it. It was too delicious to let Mike take the bigger portion. I loved the rich tastes that keep your taste buds busy identifying the flavors and indulging in a wonderful coherent mix. Although I usually distance myself from meat dishes, I was caught red-handed fishing the remaining pieces of meat and vegetable of the stir-fry from the deep sauce. Egg noodles from the chicken platter were cooked to perfection, tossed with chicken and topped with a sliced omelet.

I concluded the meal with a gingery dessert: deep-fried ginger flavored dough balls, coated with powdered sugar, toasted slivered almonds and served with ginger infused cream.

 CookIn5m2 is not a restaurant reviews blog and the policy here states that no post shall go recipe-less. I am only sharing my appreciation of the restaurant’s work and recipes. It would be safest to say that I did not get a discount, invitation, been asked to review or received any special treatment. We had our food in plastic containers (only because there was no place on the one and only table inside, and the man thought we were taking the food with us) on a high table on the sidewalk, standing.

Next to Jaï, I noticed a poster announcing that Bardo, a restaurant and pub, now serves Ramen. I have to try it sometime later. But coincidentally, I noticed a Sapporo ramen soup with chicken a few days ago on the menu at Sushi Wa – Achrafieh. Mike and I tried it but I can’t judge well since it is my first. All we can say, it tasted good.

Long before the above incidents, almost at the beginning of this year, we had grilled and fried pork steak for lunch and ended up with lots of leftovers. I decided that night to go into the kitchen, grab my phone, look a recipe up and make me some Ramen for dinner.

I can’t say it was delicious, but it was consumed. I ate the whole plate, and gave a larger plate to my sister to share with my other sister and cousin. It was GONE.

Even though I ate it all, it felt like every ingredient was by itself and there was no harmony to bring the flavors of the dish together. Maybe next time, now that I have tasted ONE restaurant ramen soup.

Pork Ramen Soup

Try it at your own risk.

Ingredients

• 1 onion (thickly chopped)
• 1 green pepper (large chops)
• A couple of pork steaks (mine were left over fried steaks) lengthwise sliced
• 1 large shredded carrot
• 1 soft-boiled egg
• Parsley or coriander and spring onions
• Noodles (I used rice but I guess should have used egg noodles)
• 2 cups stock

Procedure

• Heat some oil in a pot and fry/heat the pork steak and set aside
• Add more oil if the pan is dry and sauté the onion and pepper
• Pour stock over and bring to a boil. Reduce and leave for 10 min
• 2 minutes before its done drop the carrots and noodles
• Transfer to a bowl, add pork slices, spring onions, coriander or parsley, egg and lemon juice

  

If you’ve got a better (tried and tested) recipe and/or a restaurant that serves ramen in Beirut, please mention it.