Kokutei Semi-Instant Kumamoto Tonkotsu 熊本ラーメン黒亭

Kokutei (黒亭) is one of the most famous ramen shops in Kumamoto, representing the typical Kumamoto style tonkotsu ramen. I wrote a review about Kokutei and even made a short video about their Kumamoto tonkotsu. At the time, it was one of my favorite stops of my tour through the ramen shops of Kyushu, especially due to the richness and the balance between the tonkotsu and the garlic.

Content

This big instant ramen pack comes with 4 servings including:

Semi-instant thin Kumamoto style noodles. Not as dry as instant noodles, not as wet as fresh noodles.
Soup base package
Black garlic oil package
2 slices or nori dried seaweed

Preparation

Boil 270ml of water in pot or kettle and mix in bowl with soup base. Mix well.

Meanwhile boil noodles for 1 minute and 30 seconds in rolling boil water.
Drain noodles and add to piping hot bowl of soup
Add black garlic oil all around the top

Personally, I would even reduce the water to 250ml and go 10-15 seconds shorter on the boiling time of the noodles.

Review

As with the other semi-instant tonkotsu pack by Ikkousha, the instant tonkotsu from Kyushu is simply some of the best instant ramen out there. The soup based creates a creamy and rich experience, which almost brings you all the way to the real ramen shop experience. Especially the black garlic oil covers the potential disadvantages of the instant mix over the real freshly made ramen broth in shops. This makes me realize why so many shops abroad go crazy with toppings, extra oils and sauces: It’s to hide the usage of pre-mix soup.

And damn! It’s working really well. Compared to the bowl I had in the real shop, there’s some funk and creaminess missing. Also the experience of a super piping hot ramen bowl. But I think those can be corrected on my end. Instead of mixing the soup base in the bowl, I should mix it in a pot and get it rolling boil hot before adding to a bowl, which has been pre-heated either with steam or boiling water. I could also hit the soup with a stick blender to increase the creaminess.

For toppings, I can recommend adding something that gives crunch and freshness. Green onion is an ideal companion, but watered red onion cubes (cubed and then put in cold water) would also work well.

Overall, easy recommendation. Great stuff.