Next on our “trip” through the Ramen Lab At Home box is Ani Ramen. If we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, I would say that maybe going to Ani Ramen House is the only good reason to visit New Jersey… but since we are, put it on your list of places to go after you are vaccinated (or if you live in New Jersey, I guess then you are in luck this time)! In addition to Ani Ramen House’s philanthropic efforts during the pandemic, they have a really satiating and delicious bowl of spicy miso ramen.

SLURP. SIP. REPEAT.

First off the instructions for this spicy miso ramen were the same as Ivan Ramen. Same boil in a bag ramen that has the meat inside of the broth bag. The noodles for this bowl, which you cook separately, had a longer cook time though - 2.5 minutes. I know - really time consuming. This left you enough time to pay attention while snacking on your toppings at the same time. Perfecto.

The spicy miso broth was very satisfying. It had deep flavors while also being light. It is chicken broth based miso, so it wasn’t too fatty. It had a miso taste without being too salty. After some research, we found that this miso is made from 4 different kinds of miso and bean pastes so it seems to be a “secret recipe”. There was definitely use of chili oil, but it was not too greasy. Very goldilocks! One thing we will say is that this spicy miso was… not spicy. It was more that it had some spice, rather than actually being spicy. The term that we thought best described it was “white person spicy”. With that being said, we both ate the whole bowl and drank the broth, but if you are looking for spicy, you might want to add in some more chili oil in your own bowls.

The pack came with pork. It was very meaty, but mostly too tough. Definitely not melt in your mouth, but it tastes really good! We both wished it had a little more seasoning and are thinking next time we will cook the broth / meat bag for longer than it says on the packaging to let the meat get more time in the broth while it is cooking, help the meat not be as tough, and to make the broth hotter (I like really hot soup).

To absolutely no one’s surprise, our favorite part were the noodles. If this were our regular rating system we would easily have given this a 5/5. They were really really perfect. Great texture. Fantastic chew. Thick. Perfection. I could really eat these noodles in every ramen for the rest of time and be satisfied!

When it came to the toppings that we added, we were a little lazy… We didn’t feel like putting as much effort in, so we did some foraging. We cut up some green onion, added some bamboo shoots, canned corn, and re-hydrated some kikurage mushrooms. Presto. Ramen. The team at Ani adds cabbage, scallions, and chives to their bowls, so we were pretty close.

If you live in New Jersey and are near one of their many locations, we recommend you go pick some up! While you are doing that, you can also donate a bowl of ramen or a bun to a good cause! All of the proceeds go toward fighting hunger for families in need.