“Meals priced at $500 are bound to be great, but our goal is to create an amazing dining experience for just $8.” So says Osamu Tomita, named Japan’s greatest ramen chef four years running, who operates out of a hole-in-the-wall in Chiba. He’s happy to reveal his painstaking recipe, characterized by a heavy broth that takes days to make, and he generally acts as our guide in this delightful look at the history of a meal that is “rooted in Japan’s postwar sadness” but was refined into some sort of popular carrier wave for the nation’s soul. What is most striking about Ramen Heads is the intensity, passion, and dedication lent to something that—unlike, say, high art—is ardently meant to be enjoyed by everyone.

Georgia Straight, July 2017