If you have read my blog (and if you haven’t I’m telling you now), you know that one my gripes about ramen joints is their tendency to eschew house-made noodles in favor of factory-made. A few years back, the New York Times’ Pete Wells listed his top 10 ramen destinations in New York, and nine of them outsourced their noodles – to Sun Noodles’ New Jersey plant.
Sun Noodle has Hawaii, New York and Southern California markets covered, now they are going for the Texas market. (Northern California tends to favor Yamachan ramen noodles from the more local Nippon Trends.)
Thanks for the post. This seems to have been missed by the foodie media locally except for the Ramen in Common group.
I’d read about Sun on Serious Eats and found their ramen kits at H Mart to try; I’m a relative newcomer to ramen and was glad to have samples to try and compare.
I knew Ramen Tatsuya claims to use custom made Sun noodles. One other place displays their ramen producing machine in-house but others may claim to use noodles made fresh daily without specifying they’re made in house.
Maybe the presence of the factory will bring about some changes.
