A Celebrated Ramen Chef From Japan Opens Ramen Ochi in the San Gabriel Valley | Eater LA
"After an eight-month stint at Westfield Century City, Japanese-born chef Yuichi Ochi — a winner of over 31 ramen awards — reopened on July 15 in Rowland Heights in the San Gabriel Valley’s former Ajisen Ramen space. Diners can choose karaage, gyoza and four distinct broths: a chicken, pork, and beef nikutama (in Japan referred to as “three-beasts broth,” with a thick, gravy-like consistency) that requires the chef to supervise for 10 hours and is served with noodles that blend domestic and imported wheat with tapioca flour without using eggs; this nikutama can be served as a full broth bowl or dry. Three other broths are prepared on-site: a savory nitoryu broth made with tonkotsu and seafood; a slightly sweet sanjyu that relies on a long simmer of soy sauce (shoyu); and a creamy gyokai tonkotsu broth that leans into pork and fish notes. Chef Ochi also uses soft filtered water in his kitchens, which he says better extracts the umami from bones and the noodle texture. Menu highlights include pork belly/chashu bowls, ground pork-and-chive–stuffed gyoza, and traditional Japanese fried chicken (karaage). He brought personal effects to the restaurant — 200-year-old armor and his grandmother’s hand-painted obi kimono made in 1940 — both placed next to the entrance. The decision to close the Westfield Century City location was made to find a spot that could best serve the public outside of a food court; the new restaurant occupies the top floor of a corner shopping mall at Fullerton and Colima Roads. Ochi is the grandson of Ochi Katsuhisa, founder of Ochi Corpin (1965); he joined the company in 2010, managed eight restaurant locations while studying ramen and other cultural dishes, became the company’s lead in 2016, won 2015 honors at Japan’s largest ramen festival, Dai Tsukemen Haku, and has received numerous gyoza festival nods." - Mona Holmes
