Well the last few days have been… Interesting. Both myself and the husband are still being cautious. I’m still working from home, he is for about half the week. We’re still dining out, but in line with rules, it’s usually just the two of us. And whereas before all this I’d be out most nights of the week, now it’s more like once a week. Given I train in the gym 6 times a week, it feels like I’m mitigating mine (and other peoples’) risk, by keeping our visits relatively low.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m cooking from scratch every night. Hell even a food blogger needs time off from the kitchen. Or at least times when we need something super easy. So whilst we might only be dining out once a week, we’re also ordering in once a week too.
Sometimes, this is just a straightforward takeaway. Last week it was fish and chips. The week before it was jerk chicken and curried goat. We can still explore food styles from our sofa. This week it was a compromise between a takeaway and cooking myself, because I ordered the Shoryu Ramen DIY kit.
The kit is available from a couple of places (links via their website, or you can order from the Japan Centre website) and comes in price wise at around £20 for two. Given we can easily blow the same amount in a takeaway (and plenty more than that in a meal out) it felt pretty comfortable price wise. And for the quality, as you’ll see, I’d happily do it again.
Delivery was pretty swift. I placed the order four days before delivery, and notifications were emailed through at every step of the way. And as I’m working from home anyway, delivery was easy peasy. That said, it arrives well packaged, with plenty of cool blocks, so even if it was left in a safe place, it’ll be fine for hours. Ours was, sitting boxed up in the kitchen for most of the day, waiting for dinner time!
So, what do you get? We ordered the Gansu Ramen – there are veggie and vegan options, gluten free too, so there’s something for everyone. We got the rich creamy tonkotsu broth, fresh ramen noodles, char siu pork, beni shoga red ginger, spring onion, and my favourite, kikurage mushrooms.
As I mentioned before, quality wise, everything is what we’ve come to expect from Shoryu. The broth is just what you’d expect in the restaurant, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself ‘checking’ it regularly. You know, to be sure it’s OK.
And how hard is it to do? It takes about ten minutes. No really. And mostly, you’re just heating things up – slicing the spring onion for garnish, searing the pork in a pan, warming through the noodles and broth. We added boiled eggs (those you’ll need to add yourself) everything else was included. It’s so quick, you can set your eggs going, and before they’re done, peeled and sliced in half, everything else is finished too.
Overall? Price wise, delivery wise, slurping wise, we were really impressed and would happily order it again.
Might even get the husband to do it next time too, so I can put my feet up!