The Ultimate Yaki Ramen (Fukuoka-Style Stir-Fried Ramen)

Soak the dried wood ear mushrooms in water to rehydrate them (hot water rehydrates them faster).

Cut the cabbage finely. Since the noodles are thin, keeping the ingredients small helps them blend together.

Cut the pork belly into bite-sized pieces. If you do not want to dirty your cutting board, you can cut it on top of the package.

Slice the rehydrated wood ear mushrooms into thin strips so they blend with the noodles.

Peel and grate the garlic. At the same time, start bringing water to a boil for cooking the noodles.

While waiting for the water to boil, put 2 tablespoons of lard in a frying pan and heat it, season the pork belly with salt and pepper, and stir-fry until nicely browned.

Add plenty of cabbage and stir-fry, then add plenty of wood ear mushrooms and stir-fry together.

Turn off the heat once, add 2 and 2/3 teaspoons of chuka-aji, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, and coat the ingredients. Then add the grated garlic.

Boil the noodles in the boiling water. Using 70g per serving as a guide, twist them as you put them in to boil them neatly. The package says 3 minutes, but for yaki ramen boil for 2 minutes (1 and a half minutes if you prefer them very firm).

While the noodles are boiling, return the frying pan to the heat and cook off the acidity of the ingredients.

Add the boiled noodles to the frying pan, pour in 2 tablespoons of soy milk and 1 teaspoon of water, and toss to coat. Add about 8 shakes of pepper and stir-fry over slightly high heat so the noodles take on the liquid.

Serve on a plate and top with a generous (heaping) amount of red pickled ginger to finish.