Noodle soups like ramen and pho might just be the ultimate thing to eat. In the right hands, these are broths so alchemically delicious they have the power to transform anything that bathes in them – meat, fish, veg, eggs – into flavour-packed masterpieces, and Instagram sensations-inwaiting.
London has been noodle-mad for a good few years now; what started as a bit of a foodie novelty trend has become a fully fledged revolution, with acknowledged souperstars jealously guarding their recipe secrets as they simmer their broths under cover of darkness for 12, 18, even 24 hours.
Now Time Out and Deliveroo are bringing together a collection of noodle-soup masters (all of which are exclusively available through Deliveroo) to fight it out. The Battle of the Broth will establish, once and for all, who is the soup king of London. This is basically the Large Hadron Collider of umami, and the perfect thing to eat as Christmas creeps up: put some chilli in your chilly!
Over two hours, you’ll get to sample bowls from all the contenders, then vote for your favourite. There will be beers from the ace Fourpure Brewing Co to keep everyone refreshed and tunes to keep it all jumping. It will be fun, furious and it’ll feature some of the best noodle soup in town. People, this is the Souper Bowl!
‘If you don’t make your own noodles, you’re just a soup shop,’ say Tonkotsu, trash-talking their opponents right from the weigh-in. To be fair, their noodles are superb, and will have been cooked for exactly 32 seconds. With a broth game to match, they’re ones to watch
CT take their authentic Vietnamese pho broth super-seriously, flying in spices from Vietnam every week, and using fresh hand-cut noodles. There’s no shortage of flavour here. But what will the punters think?
Where would we be without pho? And Pho. It’s a London favourite and the saviour of many a dull lunchtime. Hold tight for its spicy beef brisket soup in 12-hour broth with homemade chilli shrimp paste.
Kentish Town’s RR puts a distinctive Filippino spin on Japanese ramen. With a 20-hour broth, this is one serious flavour punch, as well as a culinary mash-up that is totally London in a bowl.