Ramen shops in Logan Square – NBC Chicago

Ramen is one of Japan’s best-known exports, but that bowl of noodles, broth and toppings is more complicated than its appears.

Two ramen shops in Logan Square are taking two very distinctive approaches, yet both are laser focused on every component going into the bowl. Steve Dolinsky joining us tonight with the story.

There is a lot of pork bone broth in the ramen world. But two excellent shops are making do using beef and chicken, and both are obsessive about making their noodles in-house.

There’s plenty of unapologetic slurping throughout the night at Monster Ramen, a year-and-a-half old ramen shop in Logan Square. It’s a dream come true for Katie Dong, who grew up in China on beef noodle soup, but perfected her ramen technique at Japanese shops. The focus here is on beef stock.

“It’s more velvety and it’s actually lighter than pork bone stock,” said Dong.

The stock is made in just a couple of hours in a custom pressure cooker. There’s also…