Feels boring. How do you prepare your bowls to be more visually pleasing?
Shiro miso, buttercorn tantanmen, tonkotsu.
by kerl_kerber
11 Comments
JonnyOgrodnik
That looks great to me. I normally just do noodles, which is actually boring.
Rggity
Needs to be cleaner overall. Eggs are messy, noodles aren’t straight, and utensils can be set better. The charger and board seem forced and off center. If they are must haves then they should be optimized and utensils set maybe on the board instead of the charger. Spoon should come with a small bowl to catch drips when set down if chopsticks come with a rest imo.
Substantially-Ranged
Dude! That looks AMAZING!
whahaaa
these are pleasing to me
lordlavapop42
It feels off because you have same colors on opposite sides and not enough color or texture.
It splits your view and makes it feel off, compared to the next two photos the eggs catch your attention immediately with no other white items to compete with.
Most of the food looks flat or smooth. You can add blackened garlic or garlic chips. Torch the meat for more color.
Always add something red at all. Just a little goes a long way, could be oil or pickles or paste or something
BirthdayHatsforAll
Do a ramen noodle fold!
sean_incali
Take the santoku out.
cuernosasian
Spend more money
Angelface3106486
Looks good but I’d say the eggs needed more cooking for me.😜
Crimson_Dragon01
Looks good to me. I have zero plating skills. The eggs should be clean though. Maybe they’re a little too soft?
RedditEduUndergrad2
‘Plating’ is really an art in itself but if you’re looking to make ramen bowls that are a bit more “Photo Ready”, you can try some of the following ideas.
– Once you put the noodles in the bowl with the soup, rearrange the noodles and ‘fold’ them neatly so that they are all aligned in the same direction. This will serve as the ‘foundation’ for the other toppings and will go a long, long way to creating a cleaner look.
– Similarly, some toppings can also be placed ‘cleanly’ using their natural shapes. Like if you have longer menma, place them aligned neatly parallel to the noodle foundation you created, Beni-shoga same or alternatively, create a small mound that rests on top of the noodles instead of on the side swimming in the soup. If you can get some Japanese negi, you can cut very thin, thread like long strips out of the white end that you can place gently on top in an orderly pile.
– Be conscious about balance. In the first picture, you have three chashu and then the nori off to the left. It might perhaps be cleaner if the nori were a bit more spread out and aligned along with the chashu. As another idea, in the last picture, instead of having the menma, egg, kurage and beni shoga along the side, maybe try pile up cleanly in mounds and put in the center.
– Your toppings are essentially spread out across the bowl along the edge and ‘flat’. Depending on the ingredients, it’s ok to ‘go vertical’ and pile some toppings on top of another and then build the rest around that. Think about how a fancy French dish might be served. Rarely would you see the food around the edges of the plate. In most cases it will be in the center with the side items in support of the center. As an idea, in the first picture, you can rest the naruto on the edge of the chashu in the middle and then the egg on the naruto. Or you can put the chashu in the middle with the naruto and egg resting on the chashu on the side and the negi on top of the chashu. Or if you had your noodles lined up nicely, creating a ‘bed of noodles’, you can pile up a large amount of negi on there, rest the chasu on the negi etc. For the tantanmen, I would put the meat in the center or would have it share the center of the bowl with the corn and negi. You can leave the greens where it is or folded neatly and resting on the center ‘mound’ you’ve created.
– Be aware that toppings will change the flavor of the soup. More toppings, more changes in flavor. Some soups might require more of a particular type of topping (eg: negi) vs other types of soup. I take it this is why you’ve put your toppings off to the side? As an idea, if you spent a lot of time making the soup and you want them to savor the ‘pure’ flavor fist, and especially if it’s a delicate flavor, maybe some toppings can be offered on the side on a different plate/bowl and added in later by the person eating it as necessary.
– Eggs don’t always need to be cut open. It’s ok to serve the egg ’round’. A cut, soft boiled egg will impart it’s flavor into the soup so in some cases you might actually want the egg whole.
– Plating is something you just have to play around with until you get an aesthetic that you like. It helps to look at a lot of pictures of good bowls of ramen too.
11 Comments
That looks great to me. I normally just do noodles, which is actually boring.
Needs to be cleaner overall. Eggs are messy, noodles aren’t straight, and utensils can be set better. The charger and board seem forced and off center. If they are must haves then they should be optimized and utensils set maybe on the board instead of the charger. Spoon should come with a small bowl to catch drips when set down if chopsticks come with a rest imo.
Dude! That looks AMAZING!
these are pleasing to me
It feels off because you have same colors on opposite sides and not enough color or texture.
It splits your view and makes it feel off, compared to the next two photos the eggs catch your attention immediately with no other white items to compete with.
Most of the food looks flat or smooth. You can add blackened garlic or garlic chips. Torch the meat for more color.
Always add something red at all. Just a little goes a long way, could be oil or pickles or paste or something
Do a ramen noodle fold!
Take the santoku out.
Spend more money
Looks good but I’d say the eggs needed more cooking for me.😜
Looks good to me. I have zero plating skills. The eggs should be clean though. Maybe they’re a little too soft?
‘Plating’ is really an art in itself but if you’re looking to make ramen bowls that are a bit more “Photo Ready”, you can try some of the following ideas.
– Once you put the noodles in the bowl with the soup, rearrange the noodles and ‘fold’ them neatly so that they are all aligned in the same direction. This will serve as the ‘foundation’ for the other toppings and will go a long, long way to creating a cleaner look.
– Similarly, some toppings can also be placed ‘cleanly’ using their natural shapes. Like if you have longer menma, place them aligned neatly parallel to the noodle foundation you created, Beni-shoga same or alternatively, create a small mound that rests on top of the noodles instead of on the side swimming in the soup. If you can get some Japanese negi, you can cut very thin, thread like long strips out of the white end that you can place gently on top in an orderly pile.
– Be conscious about balance. In the first picture, you have three chashu and then the nori off to the left. It might perhaps be cleaner if the nori were a bit more spread out and aligned along with the chashu. As another idea, in the last picture, instead of having the menma, egg, kurage and beni shoga along the side, maybe try pile up cleanly in mounds and put in the center.
– Your toppings are essentially spread out across the bowl along the edge and ‘flat’. Depending on the ingredients, it’s ok to ‘go vertical’ and pile some toppings on top of another and then build the rest around that. Think about how a fancy French dish might be served. Rarely would you see the food around the edges of the plate. In most cases it will be in the center with the side items in support of the center. As an idea, in the first picture, you can rest the naruto on the edge of the chashu in the middle and then the egg on the naruto. Or you can put the chashu in the middle with the naruto and egg resting on the chashu on the side and the negi on top of the chashu. Or if you had your noodles lined up nicely, creating a ‘bed of noodles’, you can pile up a large amount of negi on there, rest the chasu on the negi etc. For the tantanmen, I would put the meat in the center or would have it share the center of the bowl with the corn and negi. You can leave the greens where it is or folded neatly and resting on the center ‘mound’ you’ve created.
– Be aware that toppings will change the flavor of the soup. More toppings, more changes in flavor. Some soups might require more of a particular type of topping (eg: negi) vs other types of soup. I take it this is why you’ve put your toppings off to the side? As an idea, if you spent a lot of time making the soup and you want them to savor the ‘pure’ flavor fist, and especially if it’s a delicate flavor, maybe some toppings can be offered on the side on a different plate/bowl and added in later by the person eating it as necessary.
– Eggs don’t always need to be cut open. It’s ok to serve the egg ’round’. A cut, soft boiled egg will impart it’s flavor into the soup so in some cases you might actually want the egg whole.
– Plating is something you just have to play around with until you get an aesthetic that you like. It helps to look at a lot of pictures of good bowls of ramen too.