The ramen burger is a prime beef burger stuffed between two buns made of fried ramen, and topped with “secret” shoyu sauce, flavor-infused arugula and scallions.
The burger, created by ramen enthusiast Keizo Shimamoto, 35, was launched at Brooklyn’s Smorgasburg food fair less than two weeks ago. Shimamoto told FoxNews.com that he was inspired to make the burger from a traditional Japanese dish that uses pork instead of beef.
When asked to comment about sudden food sensations like the cronut he said, “I think there is a reason why these are happening in the media capitals. The trends that happen outside of the media capitals aren’t a national phenomena.”
He added: “I wanted do something with beef. I grew up loving ramen, and I grew up loving burgers,” He said that he only uses fresh ramen noodles from supplier Sun Noodle in New Jersey, not that instant stuff you buy in the supermarket.
He continued, “I cook the noddles and form the bun, and then when we put the burger together, we lightly pan fry it.”
He says he’s perfected the technique for keeping the ramen together; but this is a trade secret he’s keeping close to the vest.
Shimamoto isn’t your typical chef who appeared on the food scene. He’s not classically trained and doesn’t own a restaurant
Two months ago, Shimamoto moved to New York to try his hand at selling his burger; it was an instant success.
Shimamoto launched the Shoyu Ramen Burger at the Brooklyn Smorgasburg food festival on August 3. He quickly sold out of his 150 burgers at $8 apiece.
The following weekend he returned. Very quickly long-cronut-wait-like line formed.
Some 500 people waited in the rain to get a taste of the new ramen burger, but only 350 customers got lucky. .
