SETH: Very curious about this mountain of bones.

What are you making today?

PAYESONE: We're making our signature Tokyo Tonkotsu today.

Tonkotsu literally means pork bones in Japanese.

So we got 50 pounds of pork femur bones.

SETH: These are what's going to go into the broth?

PAYESONE: Yes.

SETH: And so lots of pork bones and a hammer.

PAYESONE: Oh, yeah.

By hammering all these bones, all the marrow's going to expose so that we can get every flavor out of it.

SETH: So this broth is going to be really thick with all that... PAYESONE: Very thick.

SETH: Marrow and gelatin, all right.

PAYESONE: Well, first of all, I got something for you to upgrade your eye protection sir.

I got some goggles just in case.

SETH: Just in case.

PAYESONE: Just in case.

SETH: I guess I am new at this.

PAYESONE: I'm going to show you how we break bones here real quick.

SETH: Okay.

PAYESONE: Here, we're going to take a whole femur bone and we're going to look for the skinniest part of the bone.

And we're going to hammer it down.

Ready?

SETH: I'm ready.

PAYESONE: All right.

SETH: All right.

PAYESONE: There we go.

SETH: Well, that woke me right up.

PAYESONE: Good morning.

SETH: Good morning, indeed.

PAYESONE: By hammering, we have these marrows just exposed like that.

And we're going to gently hit the fattest part a little bit like that so that it can get tenderized.

So you want to give it a shot?

Let's be aggressive.

SETH: All right.

Should we do gloves for this?

PAYESONE: Yeah, so that you have a nice grip.

SETH: All right, here we go.

Going to channel my inner Dexter on this one.

PAYESONE: Here.

SETH: Today on, "This Old House."

PAYESONE: There you go.

SETH: Woo!

PAYESONE: Yeah, turn it.

SETH: Flip it?

PAYESONE: Flip it.

There you go.

Nice.

Yeah.

Awesome.

SETH: Okay, that was too much fun.

Let's do another one.

Oop.

PAYESONE: Woo!

Perfect.

SETH: And how many bones do you need to make the broth?

PAYESONE: We're actually going to need all 50 pounds right over here.

So, I'm glad you're here to help me and I'm very glad that I have another hammer set down.

SETH: All right, let's do this.

PAYESONE: Let's do it, Seth.

(hammering) (ticking) SETH: Woo.

All right.

I got the heart racing a little bit.

PAYESONE: That was a lot.

Thank you so much for helping me through the process.

Seth, why don't you pick those bones up and follow me back in the kitchen?

SETH: All right, let's see if I can get 50 pounds here.

PAYESONE: You got it.

You got it Seth.

SETH: Here we go.

Really making me work today, chef.

PAYESONE: Oh, yeah.

So Seth, we're going to be making our tonkotsu broth.

Why don't you go up and... SETH: Dump.

PAYESONE: Dump these bones in.

SETH: All right, here we go.

So what goes into this broth besides the pork bone?

PAYESONE: So just water and bones.

It's a very, like, basic way.

A lot of places do add vegetables to get extra flavor to it, but we like to stick to the most simplest form.

SETH: And how long does the broth need to cook for?

PAYESONE: It needs to cook for at least three days, sometimes four days.

SETH: My goodness.

Ramen is not an easy process.

PAYESONE: It's not easy.

That's the best part of it.

We're going to start cooking.

So Seth, I already have a tonkotsu that's already been made.

So why don't we create a bowl of ramen?

SETH: Sounds great to me.

PAYESONE: Follow me.

SETH: All right.

And that's the finished tonkotsu right there?

PAYESONE: Yes, sir.

SETH: That is so creamy and rich looking.

So how do you begin to put a bowl of ramen together?

PAYESONE: So first we start off from these fresh homemade noodles.

SETH: Got to have the noodles, obviously.

And what makes ramen noodles so unique?

PAYESONE: It's pretty similar to pasta, but the one unique ingredient that goes in is called kansui.

It brings out springy bounciness to the texture, and it gives that great aroma.

We're going to drop these noodles into boiling water.

While those are boiling, we're going to plate the rest of the elements into one bowl.

Here's our first element, soup.

We're going to add aroma oil.

SETH: And that's one of the five elements.

PAYESONE: One of the five elements.

So here's our third element.

These are tare made out of soy sauce, and I have a secret weapon today.

We're going to be blending with this immersion blender to give... SETH: Got it.

PAYESONE: The frothiness.

SETH: I need the safety goggles.

That's going to incorporate some air into the... PAYESONE: Yes.

It's going to emulsify all the fat.

And we're going to be ladling this into our bowl, just like that.

SETH: The broth by itself smells good, but now that you've added that oil and that soy sauce.

PAYESONE: So ramen's really all about the five key elements.

There's three in here already, but without each of them, it's not going to balance perfectly.

It's going to be a boring soup with boring noodles inside.

SETH: Boring's no good for me.

PAYESONE: I think the noodles are about to be ready.

Let me go grab those.

SETH: Okay.

PAYESONE: All right, just going to give it a nice fold so that all the topping can float on top of it instead of sinking down.

We're going to put our pork belly chashu.

And this gets marinated and simmered for a five to six hours.

SETH: And then the real fun starts.

PAYESONE: Real fun starts.

I'm going to be torching this pork belly on top of the bowl, render that fat down.

SETH: Wow.

Wow.

PAYESONE: Look at that fat.

We're going to top with our ajitama, our seasoned egg, and our seasoned bamboo shoots, scallion grass on top, piece of nori.

And here's our signature Tokyo Tonkotsu.

SETH: Beautiful.

All right, this looks so good.

I was so fascinated by the whole broth making process.

I'm going to start with just a little bit of the broth.

PAYESONE: Yeah, please.

SETH: That is just dreamlike, the richness of it, the creaminess of it.

The marrow gives it such a full body and the tare gives it that saltiness, but it's not overpowering.

That is really something special.

PAYESONE: Thank you so much.

SETH: And now I got, of course, go in for some of these noodles.

Well, yeah, it has that freshness, that springiness, and I see that you guys also have some tonkotsu, but different toppings.

PAYESONE: We have almost like 15 different toppings on the menu.

And some customer orders spice bomb on the side, or they like to add some extra kick to the bowl.

SETH: All right, well, spice bomb sounds good to me.

Is that what I'm looking at right here?

PAYESONE: Yeah.

SETH: All right.

So just be a little careful with this?

PAYESONE: Yeah, I recommend a little by little.

We have a lot of customers play around with their... You got the kick?

SETH: I got the kick.

PAYESONE: But yeah, a lot of our regulars like to play around with our toppings.

And every time I get an order, it almost looks like a little essay but on a ticket.

But it's very fun creating a bowl for that one specific person.