Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

truly he is our generation's Osbert Sitwell

Oh Christ this intro

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/dec/05/david-mamet-anarchist-broadway

*facepalm*

That's Mark Lawson-level.

musta took brass balls to write that

I was just going to mention Mark Lawson. His tortuous Front Row intros often beggar belief ... but I kind of admire them.

Ramen: the cult Japanese dish that's big in Britain too

The tasty noodle broth offers a punk rock twist on comfort food – and it's increasingly popular in the UK

Oh yeah, that was a good one.

while establishments such as Wagamama, Glasgow and Cardiff's Ichiban restaurants and Birmingham's Woktastic have been offering bowls of ramen-style noodle soups for years, finally, the proper stuff has arrived

It's true that something only can truly be said to have 'arrived' once it reaches London - the (urgh) provinces don't count.

Fish and chips: the cult British dish that's big in Japan too

The tasty fish supper offers a punk rock twist on tempura – and it's increasingly popular in Japan

It's true that something only can truly be said to have 'arrived' once it reaches London - the (urgh) provinces don't count

Wagamama's is in London, plus the point being made is surely that the named establishments don't serve "proper" ramen (whatever that may be). No idea whether this is true or not but the writer's point has nothing to do with London vs. provinces.

Being a cutting edge ultra-hip guy I have been to two of the capital's newest Ramen wonderestaurants and tbh they are head and shoulders above yr regular wagamama fare.

which ones? interested

maybe take it to the london restaurants thread

yh the stuff at yr fancy new ramen places is very different from the "ramen-style noodle soups" you get even in uk japanese restaurants like, e.g., london's Taro. I've never been to an ichiban but from their website they seem to use the same stock for ramen and udon and soba, which very heavily implies they're not doing "proper" ramen.

i mean, yes the idea of ramen as "cult" in japan is ludicrous, and london-centricity is eternally annoying, but we haven't had shops before that have really paid attention to making ramen they way you'd get it in a ramen-ya.

Was the headline "Let's get to ramen" ?

I was just going to mention Mark Lawson. His tortuous Front Row intros often beggar belief ... but I kind of admire them.

Know what you mean, he's like the McGonagall of militantly middlebrow arts journalism.

those ramen places are good, whatever language the guardian coats it in. tonkotsu all the way.

wagamama and ichiban are both woeful.

Fish and chips: the cult British dish that's big in Japan too

The tasty fish supper offers a punk rock twist on tempura – and it's increasingly popular in Japan

ha ha

describing fish and chips as a "cult British dish" just seems so wrong.

...

lol c#

fish and chips is more probably more 'cult' in the uk than ramen is in japan

"cult" seems to be used to describe anything/everything.

our local "cult" cinema club showed Die Hard last week

It was on cult telly last night

real heads no the score about forgotten classics of modern cinema

Ramen is obviously not inherently "cult" in Japan but the ultra-high-end stuff arguably might be.

yeah but that's like describing wine as cult because some people spend hundreds on rare burgundies even if 90% of the time it's just cheap intoxicant

i think this is clearly the lesser of two evils compared to the use of 'punk rock' as an adjective in food writing

agree that's terrible tho it didn't seem as surprising or unusual

xp True on both counts. I guess if they're talking specifically about high-end stuff like Tonkatsu it makes a certain sense though.

I guess you get ramen that's explicitly "gourmet" and sold at higher prices, e.g. tonkotsu made with kagoshima kurobuta, or kaisen ramen w/ lobster or whatever in it, but that still doesn't feel 'cult'. just... luxury. 'A bowl of ramen made with the most ridiculously expensive ingredients' is the kind of thing that celebrities get for winning some kind of silly game on a variety show (one variation on the game: 'guess the price of this dish')? Does not read "cult" to me.

ps tonkatsu is pork 'cutlets' (i.e. breaded/fried), tonkotsu is pork-bone broth.

Like, you could argue for the existence of a coffee cult, centring on those places in tokyo that use amazing lab-equipment-lookin glass monstrosities to produce coffee or the perfect brewing and drinking temperature. But to the best of my knowledge there isn't that sort of culture around ramen -- there's just the usual sense of places that are better than others, places that are more expensive, places that are more 'authentic', places that are more experimental, etc etc etc.

* coffee at the perfect, etc

It's not necessarily luxury, it's more a veneration of expert method, i think. There are star ramen chefs in Japan that aren't necessarily the most expensive and might just use regular ingredients but still have people travelling hundreds of miles to eat at their restaurants. I get the impression that Tonkotsu is being talked about as a UK variation on that theme.

That style of ramen is arguably "cult" in Japan and more justifiably described as "cult" in the US and UK. If you get an entire Lucky Peach edition dedicated to hunting down niche "ramen gods" it indicates it carries that kind of cache.

greatest offender in the use of "punk" to describe food & drink are surely Brewdog. the beer is great but this is the label for their "Punk IPA":

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dPvDDO8DKjo/SQCcfARAAaI/AAAAAAAAB-o/uLTq2LC7EcQ/s400/punk+ipa4.JPG

This beer, handcrafted on a busy Camden corner one Saturday afternoon, will seek you out and fight you if you so much as conform.

you non-punk-wock sheeple will never understand our bonkers crazy revolutionary beer!

- Bob Marley

It's the phrase "this rebellious little beer" that reveals the Innocent Smoothie twee kid behind the snarling punk posturing. Bobby Gillespie IPA more like.

i am so ashamed of all brewdog's marketing, logos, social media campaigns, and even the design of their bars.

this is hard because i fucking love their beer and think their success is an absolutely brilliant thing. maybe the dumb marketing is why they're so big - they do support other smaller breweries too.

xpost that's exactly it, i've always thought it's the reverse innocent smoothie. proof if you ever needed it that "anti-spin" and "spin" are two sides of the same coin.

i rip the labels off when i drink it in case someone thinks i identify as a punk.

#nonemorepunk

What blows my mind about Punk IPA has always been its aggressiveness. It's a taste that's existed in my brain since before I can remember, like the Mario theme or the Crossfire commercial. What's so spectacular about this beer is that it's not a lowest common denominator which almost no beer even begins to touch (besides Sunny Day Real Estate). The reason no one touches it is because we just don't care if you like it or not.

They are a load of wacky student* dicks with a dreadful brand, a couple of genuinely nice beers, a few so-so beers and a load of irritating stunt shit. But their wacky marketing is definitely a part of their success, people lap that shit up.

*In spirit if not literally.

yeah I love the beer too, but the stripped warehouse look of the bars and general insufferable posturing is all very tedious. Correct re. Innocent comparison, I was trying to think of how to make the link between the off-putting marketing strategies of both companies.

I might put out a Darkwave IPA where the packaging is just covered with memorably insane DJ Martian quotes.

With Brew Dog you get the feeling they should know better, as they call out a lot of the lazy misogynist small breweries on their own pump clips, but then they have their own brand which is almost as lame and lazy in a different way. They seem to have a certain generic punk rocker look for their bar staff, with fake Brewdog transfer tattoos etc. I think their beer is nearly OK as well, not as interesting as they would lead you to believe.

Mearly OK that should read.