If your perception of ramen ends with those bricks of dried noodles and flavor packets that sustained you through college, you probably need to reorient yourself — so to speak.
The best way to do that is to try some real ramen soup served at select Japanese restaurants and made with wonderful chewy noodles, lovingly tended broths, and artful toppings chosen for their colors as much as for their flavors.
Rent the movie “Tampopo” and you’ll see.
Or you can stop in at restaurants like Cocoro (668 N. Wells St.; 312-943-2220), where they serve ramen five ways. We liked the slightly firm noodles in the shoyu ramen ($7) in a full-flavored broth and topped with tender roast pork, a hard boiled egg, pickled bamboo shoots and green onions. We also enjoyed the earthy miso yasai ramen ($7.50), topped with plenty of vegetables. The big wooden renge spoon made the experience even more fun.
We filled up on the shoyu ramen ($7.95) at Tampopo (5665 N. Lincoln Ave., 773-561-2277), where the tasty toppings include spinach, seaweed, fish cake slices, nice chasu pork and a boiled egg, but the broth is less impressive. Finally we stopped at the Suragaji booth in the food court of Mitsuwa Mall (100 E. Algonquin Rd., Arlington Heights), where they offer three preparations of shoyu alone. We opted for wafu ramen ($5.29), featuring okay noodles (but no match for Cocoro’s), dryish pork, a non-soyish broth but plenty of seaweed.