Reddit reviews Momofuku: A Cookbook

Of course! Mine is mostly from Momofuku

2 Large pieces of konbu (or other seaweed if you can't find konbu)
2 cups dried shiitake mushrooms, (you can use fresh if you want, but they're stupid-expensive where I am)
1 Large chicken, whole.
5 pounds marrow bones (I use pork neck bone)
1lb bacon (one package)
2 bunches of scallions (green onions)
Mirin or Sake, Tare or teriyaki sauce to taste.

Rinse all ingredients before putting them in the stock pot. All ingredients can be eaten in any number of ways after they've given their flavor to the broth.

1. Take 6 cups of water and bring the water to a simmer (right before boiling) somewhere between 180-200ºF.
   
2. Simmer seaweed for 10 minutes then remove
   
3. Simmer mushrooms for 30 minutes then remove
   
4. Pre-heat your oven to 400
   
5. Skim off all the scum you see from the top from this point on.
   
6. Put the marrow bones in the oven
   
7. Add the whole chicken to the pot, yes, the whole thing, remove water if you HAVE to but try not to waste too much.
   
8. After 30 minutes flip your marrow bones over to roast the other side.
   
9. The chicken and the bones should be simmering/roasting for an hour now, take the bones out of the oven and remove the chicken (save your chicken for a topping or just eat it while you wait for your ramen).
   
10. Simmer the pork bones and the bacon, remove bacon after 45 minutes, remove bones after 7 hours. (you can cut down on this time if you're trying to rush the recipe, but at least 3 hours)
    
11. add your scallions 45 minutes before you take your bones out.
    
12. Remove everything and you have your broth, it freezes REALLY well.
    
13. Add mirin and teriyaki to taste.
    
    Toppings:
    Flavor eggs:
    Boil some eggs, peel the eggs, then put them in a ziplock bag.
    Add teriyaki, peanut sauce, and a little mirin and shake that sucker. Leave in the fridge overnight.
    
    Spicy Pork:
    I buy the shredded pork in the package for this.
    Heat some oil in wok.
    Add the pork, let the oil cook it.
    Add whatever spicy sauce you want to it, I use a schezwan stir-fry sauce.
    
    If you have the pork, an egg, some chicken, extra seaweed and a mushroom or 3 you've gotyourself some ramen, get the broth piping hot and let everything cook in the broth before eating. (I use fresh noodles because they cook faster)

Hooray! I love cookbooks!

• Forest Feast is great for those veggies & entertaining
  
  
• A subscription to Cook's Illustrated
  
  
• A solid cookbook - Smitten Kitchen
  
  
• Anything by Yotam Ottolenghi but I particularly LOVE Plenty.
  
  
• The god of pastry Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery
  
  
• David Chang's momofuku, his pastry chef Christina Tosi's milk bar,or a subscription to his magazine Lucky Peach
  
  I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
  Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.

Real ramen is nothing like those instant ramen packets. Fresh meats and vegetables, insane broths, and fresh noodles make it a completely different dish.

I was on a ramen kick awhile back and bought the Momofuku cookbook. AWESOME recipes. I spent hours making some of those broths in the book, went to several asian markets to find the right noodles, and spent a lot of time learning different techniques. It was a ton of fun, and now my kids are crazy about ramen. Even if you don't plan on making it yourself, the cookbook is a great read. It's basically more of a story about how the author got into ramen and opened his first restaurant, interlaced with recipes and other instructional stuff.

Edit: Here's the link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474393414&sr=8-1&keywords=momofuku

Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.

For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).

Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.

Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.

And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!

Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.

Just a some that likes cooking alot here. Maybe pick one of these bad boys up and start playing.

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355

http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-2&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-3&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-4&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Pressure-Cooking-Sous-Vide/dp/1579653510/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-6&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373677797&sr=1-9&keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks

http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373678139&sr=8-1&keywords=ratio

It's all about the broth, which means it's all about simmering a bunch of stuff in a giant pot for a very long time. Momofuku's ramen is not my favorite but the recipe in the Momofuku cookbook is very detailed. Good place to start.

I think there are a few books that would help. I don't know of any specific titles but I know there are some fairly famous books that basically talk about flavors and which flavors go with what. They are quite specific and thorough. It'd be worth learning more about that if you try things on your own a lot.

I think something else that really helps is understanding the science behind cooking. Places like The Food Lab are great for that. Check out Kenji's other posts on that site as well, mostly from the Burger lab. He covers a lot of the science and always writes about the full journey. What his goals were, what he tried, what did/didn't work and why. Very useful.

Finally, if you can grill, bake and fry, you might try and play around with the 'new' forms of cooking that are popular. Read up on Sous Vide (The Food Lab has a great article with a beer cooler hack) and Molecular Gastronomy. For MG, this is a great source as well as this and on that blog for a fun read check out this

If you want some good cookbooks with a challenge look for anything by Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, David Chang and a few others. I'd say start with Keller's Ad Hoc. The recipes are things you are familiar with but often quite complex. Check out this for an example. I don't have it myself, but I've heard for lovers of asian food, this is the best book out there.

Great British Chefs, Challenging Recipes

Momofuku Milkbar

Thomas Keller recipes

I saw a recipe in David Chang's book (Momofuku) that I'm going to try:

Ginger scallion noodles.

There's a free preview with the recipe on the book's Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X