Food Spotlight: Oxtail Kare Kare
Ramo Ramen’s famous oxtail kare kare ramen bowl, based on traditional Filipino street food!
Today, we wanted to highlight one of the dishes that Ramo Ramen is most famous for, the one which first put us on the map: the delicious oxtail kare kare! This soup also contains our richest, creamiest broth—the perfect, heartily filling answer to a cold winter’s night that is guaranteed to warm your stomach and soul alike.
Our oxtail kare kare is heavily inspired by traditional Filipino street food. In the Philippines, kare kare is a classic stew. The definition of comfort food, it is usually made with oxtail (the culinary name for the tail of cattle), although beef, pork hocks, tripe, or meaty vegetables such as eggplant, long beans, banana heart, and pechay are also commonly used ingredients. Flavoured with ground peanuts, it has a nutty, umami taste.
Our take on kare kare within a ramen context translates into a rich peanut beef broth that is topped with pulled oxtail, niitamago (egg), pea shoots, spring onions, shiitake mushrooms, and nori (seaweed). This dish consistently proves to be a massive hit amongst our customers. The blogger Halal Girl About Town, in her review of Ramo Ramen, has even written the following about the oxtail kare kare:
“My favourite dish out of their entire menu and the ramen you MUST order. An incredibly creamy broth made using peanuts and the marrow from slow-cooked oxtail bones, and topped with oxtail meat, noodles, and all the trimmings. The soup itself was rich and had a fantastic meaty flavour that was released from the bones—very moreish. The oxtail meat had been shredded and possessed a mouth-melting texture, and don’t get me started on those gooey runny eggs.”
You’ll also have the opportunity to sample the oxtail kare kare this Saturday (December 15th) at the Battle of the Broths, a competition between six London-based ramen and pho vendors hosted by Timeout London and Deliveroo. You can buy your tickets and get all the details here—trust us, for all ramen aficionados, it will undoubtedly be the best event of the year!
And as always, stop into our restaurant, located in Kentish Town (at 157 Kentish Town Road). We’re open from 12 pm to 10:30 pm every day, so try a big bowl for yourself this winter!