As sushi took off as a stylish and trendy cuisine in this side of the world, many Japanese restaurants began to flood into big and small cities of Americas and Europe. Then, other Asian cuisines became popular as well. Vienna, along with other major cities, has many Asian restaurants. However, not all restaurants, of course, do not live up to expectations or give too many modifications to the original dishes or overly priced. What’s the solution then?

About three weeks ago, I found a Korean grocery store (also sells other Asian products), and just last week, I found a Japanese grocery store by TU, within a walking distance from Deausch Akademie actually. One of the things I liked a lot about those places sell fresh homemade tofu. Many Korean dishes use tofu, so I grew up eating it a lot. But tofus sold here are not the freshest and are extremely overly priced.

Anyway, so this week, I decided to use this opportunity to make some homemade Japanese ramen. You will be surprised how easy it is actually. I got ingredients from the Japanese and Korean grocery store (you can get all from one of them, but I had already had some ingredients from the Korean supermarket). Then, some vegetables from Billa. One of the most important part of the dish is Chashu, which is slow cooked pork belly in soy sauce and ginger.

Another perk of living in a city is all the small grocers! The other day, I took a walk around my neighborhood and found this butcher. Considering they sell rather fresh meat, I initially thought it’d be pricey. Surprisingly, it was super affordable probably because they don’t have any middlemen. Being in a city, you can afford fresh ingredients and support small business owners like the butcher around the corner of my apartment. And if you have the will, you can skip on those overly priced Asian restaurants!