It had to be done. For Science! (Patreon)

Genuine Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise on Annie Chun's Shoyu Ramen. By Shetira Anwae, Certified Cat Girl.

I've heard the claim that cat girls are made of mayonnaise. My response to that ludicrous claim is... um... no comment. All I can really say is that we do find mayo quite irresistible. It's like milk, but for putting on sandwiches. And apparently on a certain cheetah's favorite ramen too.

Based on what I've been told, mayo on ramen should be done with genuine Japanese Kewpie brand mayonnaise. It's made with only egg yolk, rather than with whole eggs. This gives it a distinctly eggy flavor that sets it well apart from American mayo brands. If you want to repeat this experiment with the latter, your mileage may significantly vary.

Given that a very popular topping for ramen is hard boiled egg, adding Kewpie mayo kind of makes sense, flavor wise. Going into it, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I definitely didn't expect it to be bad. Different, but not bad.

The mayo didn't stay on top of the ramen long enough for me to get a nice, well framed picture. It did separate a bit while mixing it in, though this had no noticeable effect on the flavor. As to that, let's call it... 'interesting'.

To be honest, if someone offered me this sort of mayo ramen without telling me it was mayo in ramen, I'd just assume it was some kind of creamy noodle soup. It was pleasant, though the eggy flavor was a bit strong. Admittedly, I may have added a bit too much mayo, so there's that. Overall, the mayo seemed to complement the flavor of the ramen broth quite nicely.

As much as I do like my mayo, I'm not sure I'd repeat this experiment with expensive ramen again. While it did make the flavor experience different, I'm not really sure I'd call it enough of an improvement over the base flavor to justify it. That said, most references I've seen to mayo ramen make use of cheap ramen, where there's quite a bit more room for improvement. But that's an experiment for next week.