if you've just had your wisdom teeth out or have a cold, you should head to Momi Ramen. That's what I recently did, and how I learned that authentic Japanese ramen bowls have curative properties that are seriously overlooked by the medical community at large.

Momi Ramen is a tiny restaurant in Brickell, tucked away on a side-street behind the popular Rosinella Italian Trattoria. If you're skeptical of paying more than thirty-five cents for your ramen, let Momi change your mind. The noodles are made fresh every single day and the pork comes from a giant slab from visible in the open kitchen behind a glass pane.

Ramen is so popular and nuanced in Japan that there are television shows and magazines dedicated to these noodle-soups. The noodle originated in China, but it's the Japanese who have popularized it and expanded on the traditional concept of wheat flour noodles in a fresh bone stock. It should be noted that vegetarians can't eat at Momi. At least not the ones who take their animal-product aversion seriously and won't eat a broth made with animal. I can vouch for this because I asked if there was a vegetarian broth and the answer from my waiter was no it's all pork broth. For those who are a little wishy-washy with their vegetarianism, there's a mushroom bowl that was incredibly delicious.

There are less than fifteen items on the menu. More than half of those are variations on the ramen bowl with just an ingredient or so different. If you're a pork lover, you'll love this. The bowl is a huge single sized serving, that could easily be shared between two people with a side or two. Like the mustard greens, a wilty variety of collard greens, that is relatively plain in taste but a nice green side in place of a traditional salad. They too come in a dish with broth. So if you're table is full of broth-y bowls and big spoons, you're probably ordering right.

Personally, my favorite part of the bowl was the soft boiled egg. As an egg enthusiast and fan of an egg, boiled, poached, fried or scrambled, the runny yolk but smooth cooked outside provided a nice break from the soup and an indulgent little surprise. I also really liked the spicy flakes that were on the table in funny, bubbly little red containers. They were totally spicy and a nice break from the sriracha that's become so overwhelmingly prevalent at Asian restaurants.

Before you go, you should know one more thing. Momi Ramen is super Japanese. The service feels different from a typical American restaurant. Out questions like, "What's a mustard green?" where responded to with a shrug and "A green." The questions about the animal-based broth where answered in a kind of curt semi-answer. All in all, I kind of enjoyed the unusual vibe and credited it to being, "authentic." Which is, admittedly a very Western and probably wrong reaction, but it was the only way that I can understand what was up in there.

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5 SW 11th Street.

momi ramen is sick