Hello, beautiful…
You may have heard of the sacrilege, the abomination that is the cronut. It is the unholy union of a donut and a croissant, and it has so infected the hearts and minds of New Yorkers that there are waiting lists to get one. I don’t think I have to tell you of the unspeakable evil that lurks in that pastry.
However, there is a new kid on the trendy food block! New York chef Keizo Shimamoto has taken a dish available at many Japanese chain restaurants and tweaked it to work for a US palate. While Japanese ramen burgers contain a lovingly prepared pattty of fried ramen noodles between two hamburger buns for a carbohydrate horse tranquilizer, Shimamoto knew to use the noodles themselves as the buns, and (for the love of god) leave the meat patty because, of course, we Americans need our beef.
What resulted from the low-run specialty items were cronut levels of pilgrimage, as seen below. It was so popular, Shimamoto intends to make them again. Yes, I have considered the possibility that Shimamoto knew the manufactured scarcity of a limited edition food would fabricate demand. And yes, I have considered the fact that he is using the very cronut zeitgeist to leverage it! But I believe in my heart of hearts that while the cronut is a decadent vulgarity, simultaneously undermining both the butteriness of the croissant and the untempered sweetness of the donut, the ramen burger maintains the perfect balance of starch and meat, making it a substantive and innovative food for a glorious multculti gastronomical future.
Cast your allegiance now! The ramen burger is the frankenfood of the people!