by Andrew Morrison | Ramen is the next cool thing. Eateries specializing in the Japanese noodle soup are popping up all around North America, but Vancouver has more than every other Canadian city put together. The only American cities that could compete would be New York, Los Angeles and the mighty San Francisco. But Vancouver is usually the first stop for Japanese chains looking to expand into the North American market. We’re the guinea pigs, the test balloons. Plus we’re extra special because quite a few of our ramen houses do more than just the traditional four styles (tonkatsu, shio, miso, shoyu). We’ve seen some crazy ones out there! We have our favourite haunts (Motomachi Shokudo, Benkei, Santouka, to name just a few), but we’re especially fond of the soup that came at us from left field last year at Harvest Community Foods. Located on Chinatown’s southern edge, happily just down the street from the Scout office, they offer a few types, but the one that loves us the most is made with local pork shoulder, candied bacon, egg, and radish. Their ingredients are always fresh and come from closer to home than most, and the broth doesn’t skimp on fatty, porcine, marrowy flavour (see top photo).

THE NEXT COOL THING