The Magic of Ramen – Saitou’s movie

video on Youku

Finally I can present to you Saitou’s movie: The Magic of Ramen. After hours of editing it is finally done!
Thank you Theo for showing us around in your windmill. Thank you Lazy Penguin for helping me shoot and giving me feedback during the process. And thank you Saitou for letting me film and make this awesome video!

A little background information

Why did you make this movie?
I love to eat ramen/noodles. When I discovered Yokohama Ramen Saito and ate his ramen, I was so delighted with the taste that I wanted to share his story.

Why did Saitou come to the Netherlands to start his ramen restaurant?
I didn’t put his whole story in the video, so I will share it here in text. 

Saitou grew up in a noodle loving family. When he was a youngster he had three part-time jobs, all in a noodle restaurant. He wanted to do something with noodles in the future and he really wanted to go abroad. When Saitou got a job in Japan he was a sales person for a noodle factory. He didn’t make the noodles, but ate it four times per day and sold it to clients. After working in the sales for a long time, he decided to go abroad. He chose the Netherlands, because they have good relationship with Japan and that made it easier to get a working permit.

Now in the Netherlands he makes his own ramen. He uses the flour from the windmill “De Vrijheid” across his restaurant. The ramen-making process from the video is usually done in the late evening. Saitou doesn’t need to put any chemicals in his ramen to keep them fresh, since he doesn’t need to ship/transfer them. Saitou loves ramen very much. So much, that he hopes he will die while making ramen. Then he can drop his body in the soup and become ramen…
(This is a joke guys, don’t take it seriously.)

But, he is very serious about his love for ramen. His life goal is to bring ramen to Europe, so that every country (or city) in Europe has a ramen restaurant with their own special taste. Just like all the types of ramen in Japan. I really would like to see that happen. That’s why I am contributing to that goal by sharing his story.

Start your own noodle restaurant

Also for people who are interested in starting a noodle restaurant; Saitou is very willing to share his noodle-making skills (the dough part, not the soup.). He is planning a “Making Japanese Noodle”-workshop soon. When it will be and where? I don’t know. But he will share the information on his website and his Facebook. So follow him there.

coming soon ramen workshop

Let me know

So what did you think about the movie? What did you like and what did you dislike? I would love to hear your opinion and thoughts. Let’s have a conversation!

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