10 JULY 16-22, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Ramen, Refi ned INSIDE AN APARTMENT “RAMAKASE” POP-UP DINNER. BY ANTONY BRUNO The word “obsession” wouldn’t fairly describe David Wang’s approach to ramen, because it’s even more than that. The chef can talk about the popular Japa- nese noodle dish at length, in detail, with palpable reverence. For instance: “There are three different kinds of soupless ramen in Japan,” he explains while preparing a type of soupless ramen. “Well, arguably four. So there’s maze soba, which is mixed noodles, kind of like Korean bibimbap, like bibimmyeon. There’s another version called abra soba, which is an oiled noodle, very similar to Chinese-style, like you po mian. The third kind is hiyashi chuka — cold noodles with a more citrusy ponzu-type of sauce. The fourth style, that’s tsukemen,” referring to cold buckwheat noodles dipped in sauce. He’s rattling off terms and references in a free-fl owing manner, from memory, all while dervishly running fresh dough through a ramen-cutting machine, heating up stock in a pot for the next course, pan-crisping chicken skin, and pulling out handmade ce- ramic bowls from the counter below to serve. This all takes place in the kitchen of Wang’s tiny one-bedroom RiNo apartment, where, since May, he’s hosted his Little Kitsune ra- men pop-up dinner series: a fi ve- course tasting menu designed to destroy everything you thought you knew about ramen, leaving you with a new appreciation for the dish. “There are all these miscon- ceptions and preconceived no- tions of what ramen is,” says Wang. “The more I saw that, the more I wanted to defend it.” In Japan, someone who dedi- cates their entire life to the perfec- tion of a single task can, as a result, feel a kind of responsibility to it — they are often called “shokunin.” It takes more than obsession to earn that title, however, so the better word is “devotion.” Beginner’s Mind The fi rst course of the Wang’s tasting menu is dubbed “shoshin” — Japanese for “beginner’s mind” — which appropriately sets the tone for the evening by not being a ramen dish at all. It’s a slice of Japanese milk bread seared in duck fat and layered with confi t scallops, egg yolk caramel and a cured ham from Jinhua, China. “This allows me to really play around, to experiment, to try ideas that have been bounc- ing around my head,” he says. “Finally, I have an avenue to try some of these dishes and ap- proach things with a beginner’s mind, allowing my guests to also approach this dinner with a beginner’s mind, to be accept- ing of something different.” But Wang is no beginner in the kitchen. Originally from Southern California, he gradu- ated from the Culinary Insti- tute of America and moved to Aspen to work with chef Will Nolan at the Viceroy in Snow- mass. Eventually, he wound up running the kitchen at Meat & Cheese as head chef for three years before pivoting to work- ing as a private chef for the ski town’s well-heeled clientele. He first started experi- menting with making ramen simply because he liked it and couldn’t fi nd it anywhere else in the small town. “I was, like, one of 10 Asians there,” he says. “There was nothing else around. No- body else was doing it, so I wanted to do it.” And thus his side hustle began. Wang established the Umami Underground, a private ramen supper club series hosted on his apartment’s rooftop. Entrance required finding Wang around town to purchase a ramen-logo token from him directly, in classic guerrilla-marketing style. “They were total strangers, asking for ramen coins because they had heard about it,” he says. “People would be tapping me on the shoulder, saying, ‘Hey, man, you got coins?’ like it was a drug deal.” Umami Underground eventually outgrew the rooftop and moved into local restaurants during off hours as a pop-up called Ramen Monster, where he ladled out as many as 250 bowls of ramen a night. But after the pandemic, he grew tired of the insular mono- culture of Aspen and moved to Denver in October 2025, seek- ing a greater connection with an Asian-American community with hopes of opening a ramen restaurant of his own. Beauty in Imperfection The second course of the dinner is the soupless ramen mentioned earlier, the noodles for which Wang has been hand-massaging for several minutes to tighten the gluten and make them both chewy and fi rm in preparation for service. The theme for this dish is “wabi sabi” — a Japanese term for the concept of “beauty in im- perfection.” Unlike the precisely plated dishes found in other tasting-menu establishments, this dish is a mess of noodles piled high with toppings like Chinese chives, dried seaweed (“nori”), ground spiced meat, scallions, pea- nuts and a beautifully soy-cured egg yolk. The point, he says, is to mix it all up and let the fl avors and textures blend together. When the noodles are gone, he adds a little rice to help you mop up the remaining sauce and other ingredients. Besides being absolutely delicious, the dish is a striking metaphor for Wang’s Third Culture philosophies as a cook. “Third Culture is the idea of where you’re from, where you’ve lived, and then this new culture that you’ve created,” he says. “To me, that is a more appropriate defi nition of my cooking versus just calling it ‘Asian fusion.’ Real fusion is actually adapting knowledge from where you’re from, where you’ve lived, what you’re doing, what you’ve learned, and then combining it intentionally.” Pause Course three is called “ma,” which in Japa- nese means “space,” or “pause.” But here it is presented as the intermezzo of the dining experience. It features a cucumber-ginger granita with a ginger-garlic dressing and a surprisingly bracing kick from wasabi sprouts. Basically, a palette cleanser to pre- pare diners for the next noodle course. Over the years, Wang has taken several career breaks to visit Japan, where he’s trained with some of the nation’s greatest ramen chefs. The most recent was a stage (internship) at Ramen Feel, the now-closed, world-famous ramen shop in Tokyo run by chef Daisuke Watanabe, who was the only independent disciple of the legendary chef Iida Shoten au- thorized to strike out on his own. He previously attended the Rajuku Ramen School in Tokyo, run by veteran chef Takeshi Koitani, whose logo is the Japanese symbol for a land mine. “His whole philosophy is that he wants unassuming-looking CAFE FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS Chef David Wang plating his ramen, which between the broth and noodles took nearly a week to prepare. ANTONY BRUNO continued on page 11 The second course at Little Kitsune celebrates the “beauty of imperfection.” ANTONY BRUNO
