Use regular dashi ingredients you can buy at the supermarket. The packet in the back in the photo is a "dashi package" that contains a convenient mixture of thick shards of mackerel, bonito and so on.

These are pork knuckles and back fat. You can get them at a supermarket or from a butcher. You may even be able to get the back fat for free.

Make the soup: The day before, combine the ● ingredients and leave to soak overnight. Put this in the refrigerator in the summer.

Tie up the chicken breast pieces with kitchen twine. Cut up the ○ vegetables. You can leave the peel and skins on.

Wash the knuckles well under running water. Take off the bloody bits. Put in a plastic bag, break in half using a hammer, and put in a large deep pot with lots of water.

A 7 to 10 liter capacity pot is the best. A pasta pot for instance, works well.

Bring to a boil over high heat. When it comes to a boil, a lot of scum will come to the surface, so skim off diligently.

When there is no more scum coming out, put in the rolled chicken and all the vegetables. Simmer over medium heat for about 2 hours.

Stir it up from the bottom with a wooden spatula occasionally.

Make the char siu: Combine the ☆ ingredients in another pot. Take the simmered chicken rolls out after 2 hours and put into the pot with the ☆ ingredients. Cover with a small lid that sits on top of the contents of the pot (drop lid or otoshibuta) and simmer for an hour. Turn the rolls over occasionally.

When the chicken rolls have soaked the flavors and become a dark brown color, cool down a bit, put into an airtight bag with the sauce and chill in the refrigerator. If you close the bag while submerging the chicken in the liquid, you can eliminate all the air.

Make the soy sauce based sauce: Take out the dashi stock, konbu seaweed and shiitake mushrooms rested overnight from Step 3 into a small pan. Add a handful of dried sardines, and leave to soak for about 30 minutes.

Heat over low. When it comes to a boil, add the thickly cut bonito flakes and simmer over the lowest heat possible for 15 minutes.

Add 400 ml of soy sauce and the salt. Bring back up to a boil, add the thinly shaved bonito flakes and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the rest of the soy sauce, bring back to a boil, turn off the heat and leave to rest for a while.

Strain through a paper towel lined sieve. Strain the char siu sauce from Step 10 too. Leave to rest in the refrigerator. The soy sauce based sauce is done.

Let's go back to the soup. After it's simmered for 2 hours, add the back fat and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Add all of the Step 3 ingredients. If it won't all fit, you can add it in later when the soup has simmered and reduced. Simmer for 2 more hours over low heat.

Skim off any scum that rises to the surface diligently.

Make the marinated boiled eggs: The eggs should be at room temperature. Bring plenty of water to a boil, add the eggs carefully, and boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave for 2 minutes. Take the eggs out into cold water, and peel under water.

Combine the ▲ ingredients. Marinate the eggs for at least 3 hours, up to 2 days. The ones in the photo were marinated overnight.

Make the noodles: See Helpful Hints. Combine the △ ingredients in a large bowl. Beat the eggs, and melt the butter (by microwaving it for 3 to 4 30-second intervals).

Make a well in the middle of the flour, and add the beaten egg and butter. Cover with flour, and scoop up with both hands from the bottom of the bowl to distribute the egg mixture evenly.

It will still be crumbly as shown here. Keep scooping up from the bottom and rubbing the flour together, until it turns crumbly and flaky.

When it looks crumbly and flaky like this, press while putting your weight on it to bring it together into a ball of dough. It will still be a bit crumbly, but that's fine.

Wrap the dough in a moistened and tightly wrung out cloth. Put the wrapped dough in a plastic bag, and leave to rest for 2 to 3 hours.

Roll about a fist-sized portion of the dough through a pasta machine, adjusting the setting from 1 → 2 → 3.

When the dough has been rolled out to about 2.2 mm (setting 3), fold it up from both sides, and roll again from setting 1 → 2 → 3. Repeat once more.

Roll the dough to about 1 mm (setting 6), and slice to 2 mm thick. If you dust it with flour and squeeze it with your hands on a cutting board, you will have crinkly noodles (on the left side in the photo).

Put piles of noodles (120 to 150 g) on a plastic container lined with parchment paper, and store in the refrigerator.

Prepare the toppings: Chop the leek, soak in a bowl of cold water and drain. To make the fish powder, pass thickly cut and thinly shaved bonito flakes through a mill.

Take the softly boiled back fat out of the soup pot, and strain through a rough-mesh sieve. The chicken char siu falls apart easily, so slice it thickly.

Prepare the toppings, soy sauce based sauce and back fat.

Finish and serve the ramen: Bring the soup to a boil. Boil a kettle full of water to warm up the ramen bowls.

Bring plenty of water to a boil in a large pot. boil the noodles for 5 minutes.

When you start boiling the noodles, put hot water in the serving bowls to warm them up.

2 minutes before the noodles are done, throw out the hot water in the bowls and add 40 ml of the soy sauce based sauce and a little back fat to each.

Add 360-400 ml of soup to each bowl while straining it through a sieve. It's handy to measure out the capacity of your ladle beforehand.

Add the drained noodles. Pick up the noodles with cooking chopsticks, lift and lay it flat on the bowl.

Add toppings, put the fish powder on the edge of the bowl, add nori seaweed and serve!

To serve on the side: Another popular ramen restaurant dish, char siu don (rice bowl)! Just top plain rice with char siu meat, chopped leek, soy sauce based sauce and ra-yu chili sesame oil.