Dirty Mazemen
Chef Nhat Nguyen’s tori broth gets a hit of Crystal hot sauce and the Cajun holy trinity at Union Ramen.
Photos: Rae Serra
Growing up in New Orleans, Nhat Nguyen would pick up heaping plates of dirty rice and boudin at the gas station. “You can find them everywhere down here,” he says. “I love those flavors.” Now as the chef and co-owner of Union Ramen, he transposes the taste memories of his hometown into Japanese dishes. “I want to show a traditional Japanese flavor of ramen, but also incorporate something that brings the two together.”
When Union Ramen opened in February of 2020, the menu was anchored by Nguyen’s 20-hour tori broth. “I chose tori because of the thickness of the broth,” he says. “In New Orleans, it’s always hot and humid, so I wanted something lighter, that’s not too rich.” But one month after opening for business, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Nguyen to adapt the ramen section of the menu for delivery.
He decided that a mazemen ramen with a demi-glace-like sauce meant for mixing would hold up well in a to-go box. So inspired by his favorite gas station meal, Nguyen developed a recipe for Dirty Mazemen, a brothless ramen bowl bolstered by a rich, Cajun-seasoned beef and tasso sauce with pickled holy trinity.
“It’s a soulful, street food kinda dish, with a little fusion here and there,” says Nguyen. “Since we opened, [the Dirty Mazemen] has been one of our hot sellers. It connects to what our customers are used to eating.” Here’s the method behind the essential components of Nguyen’s Dirty Mazemen: the broth-turned-mazemen sauce and the ground beef and tasso that gets spooned over the ramen noodles.
Chef Nhat Nguyen of Union Ramen
MAZEMAN RAMEN
Mazemen Sauce
Nguyen’s sauce begins with his master tori broth, the base of most of his ramen dishes. The light, chicken-based stock is fortified with soy sauce, mirin, and sake, before spending 24 hours slowly simmering to concentrate the flavor until it’s thick and unctuous. He stirs in some trinity (onions, celery, and green bell peppers) that have been pickled in apple cider vinegar and Crystal hot sauce for that classic New Orleans touch. “[The pickles] elevate the bowl,” Nguyen says. “They give it a different dimension. It makes the dish more vibrant.”
Dirty Beef and Tasso
Using the fat from rendered tasso, Nguyen cooks down ground beef with his house-made Cajun seasoning. He adds more trinity (unpickled, this time) and deglazes the mixture with mirin. It gets simmered for 10 to 15 minutes, letting the mirin and seasonings impart a spicy-and-sweet flavor onto the beef and tasso. “The beef is very Cajun, it’s what makes this dish ‘dirty.’ The Cajun seasoning and the tasso gives it a very New Orleans feel.” Nguyen drops ramen noodles over a base of the warm mazemen sauce, then tops it all with toasted nori, charred sweet peppers, a poached egg, and the “dirty” beef and tasso. Nguyen tells guests to mix all the components together, fusing the Japanese and Cajun elements for a slurpable, craveable, and cohesive dish.
