Trend We Love: ramen, ramen everywhere

Hello, Asian street food, goodbye rustic Italian. Ramen has supplanted spaghetti as the noodle of the moment. Below, our definitive ramen chronology:

• In April, just before the onslaught of new noodle shops from Japan and Vancouver, local chain Kenzo launched a fourth location.
• Kinton, the ramen shop from Guu owner James Kim, opened in May with a Japanese-by-way-of-Vancouver chef and immediate lineups.
• In September, the tiny Sansotei opened on Dundas west—to immediate lineups.
• Momofuku Noodle Bar opened its Toronto location in October. Even David Chang was surprised by the lineups.
• About a month later, Japanese chain Santouka arrived on Dundas East. The queues have yet to subside.
• Soon thereafter came Ramen Raijin, the city’s largest ramen shop, from the owner of Vancouver’s popular Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo.
• Then the owners of Yours Truly opened A-OK Foods, where they make their noodles in-house.
• Ryoji Ramen and Izakaya, a chain from Okinawa, touched down on College Street earlier this year.
• Although not really a noodle shop, Vancouver’s Kingyo opened in Cabbagetown and took the best ramen title with its pork tantan.
• Then came our list of the city’s ten best bowls.
• The trend-savvy organizers behing the Food Truck Eats events hopped on the ramen bandwagon for the sold-out Slurp Noodlefest last month at The Great Hall (a sequel is planned for April 20).
• Finally, a trio of Torontonians is developing an app to help explain the components of ramen to young children. No, really.