Preparing a Japanese ramen egg

I remember that my wife, son and I were at a Japanese restaurant called Ippudo at the Pavillion in Kuala Lumpur just last August and we enjoyed the ramen there.

The soup was delicious but the most remarkable memory was of the whole egg that accompanied the dish. When bitten open, the yolk was still runny and it simply oozed out into the soup.

Since then, I have been wondering how the restaurant had managed to cook their eggs.

Apparently, these eggs are quite common in ramen dishes and it is possible to search through the Internet and find out how to make them. I'm saying this because I've tried it out over the weekend. And found that the technique is actually very simple indeed.

The recommendation was to use large eggs that weigh about 60 grammes each. And the ones I managed to buy from my regular supplier at the local market weighed exactly that!

The secret was to bring water to a boil and then place these eggs to simmer in the boiling water for six-and-a-half minutes. If the eggs came out straight from the refrigerator, boil them for seven minutes.

While they boiled, I prepared a bowl of ice water because after the 6½ or seven minutes were up, the eggs were to be transferred into the ice bath to stop the cooking process. The eggs were kept there for another six minutes or so before they were de-shelled carefully. The cooked albumin should be firm, yet soft when pressed gently. Then, when I was ready to eat, just cut the egg into halves and ta-dah....my own ramen egg.

Quod est demonstrandum (QED).