Two Kinds of "TKU (Tamago Kake Udon)" Made with Frozen Udon and Ajinomoto: The Ultimate Soy Sauce Version and the Scallion-Salt Version

Ryuji says Ajinomoto goes extremely well with eggs. They go so far as to say that people who don't put Ajinomoto in tamago kake gohan "don't understand the true deliciousness of tamago kake gohan." However, since they have covered tamago kake gohan many times on their channel, this time they chose udon as another egg dish.

There is also an explanation about the name. Ajinomoto apparently wants to call it "TKU (tamago kake udon)," but Ryuji initially balks, jokingly saying it's "a little lame." On the other hand, kamatama udon is originally a dish in which raw egg is tossed with kamaage udon served straight from the pot, so this method using frozen udon is not strictly kamatama. Ryuji admits that it is therefore more accurate to call it TKU. Still, most people call udon with raw egg in it kamatama, so they say they'll call it kamatama, sorting it out while grumbling, "It's a hassle, huh." Both names are used interchangeably throughout the video.

The two versions are one made with soy sauce and one made with salt.

In the chat before cooking, Ryuji touches on their filming style. They are aware that many viewers dislike the noisy presentation, and lately they have also been doing "makanai videos," in which they stand in the kitchen and cook naturally while being filmed from the side, and those have been well received. However, longtime viewers apparently find those lacking, so they explain that they do this noisy style once in a while. According to Ryuji, the quieter makanai videos are the easier ones, because "I'm an introvert." They laugh as they say they're forcing their energy up because this is a sponsored video.

According to Ryuji, the basic idea of coating udon with egg can't really be changed. So eating it at its best depends on how you work the toppings and the soy sauce, in other words the seasoning.

The toppings for the Ultimate TKU are ginger, nori, green onions, and tenkasu (tempura bits). The tenkasu adds texture, and Ryuji uses Ajinomoto's tenkasu. The green onions provide aroma and texture, and the shredded nori provides aroma.

Ginger is what Ryuji emphasizes most. Grating fresh ginger "really transforms it," they say; about 3 g is enough, it can be grated with the skin on, and an amount you can pinch with your fingers will do. Tube ginger is fine too, but that limits the flavor quite a bit, and they say "grated ginger is 100 times better." Many people probably usually skip it, but udon shops' bukkake udon usually comes with ginger on the side, because ginger is really important — that's the reasoning.

The only thing that takes real effort is the dashi soy sauce, and this is "super important," they say. Ryuji believes udon tastes better with a little dashi in it.

First, combine 1 tsp mirin and 1 tsp sake. This adds sweetness and umami. Then add bonito powder. If you don't have bonito powder, you can heat bonito flakes in the microwave and crush them by hand into a fine powder (the recipe in the description says to heat 2 g for 40 seconds).

Microwave this uncovered. In the video, Ryuji says "about 20 seconds," then corrects to say about 30 seconds is better, and shows the mixture after 30 seconds of heating. The purpose of heating is to cook off the alcohol so it doesn't interfere with the taste of the udon. You can also cook it off in a pot, but with only a teaspoon each of sake and mirin, it would quickly reduce and dry up, so Ryuji explains the microwave is better.

The soy sauce goes in after the alcohol has been cooked off. Heating it along with the soy sauce would drive off the soy sauce's aroma. Add 3 shakes of Ajinomoto and 1 tbsp soy sauce, and you have "the ultimate kamatama udon sauce."

When a staff member asks, "Isn't bonito alone enough?", Ryuji answers that bonito alone doesn't provide enough umami. Ajinomoto's umami brings out the umami of the egg and the udon; if you try eating it with just bonito powder and soy sauce, you'll see that it's overwhelmingly better with Ajinomoto, they say.

They further point out that many udon shops use not just bonito dashi but a combined dashi of bonito and kombu. That's why Ajinomoto, standing in for the umami of kombu, is needed — that is Ryuji's explanation. Some people who eat kamatama udon also want to taste the dashi, so they frame it as important to make a bonito-forward dashi soy sauce using the umami of bonito and Ajinomoto.

Frozen udon is used. Ryuji says frozen is chewier, easier, and tastier.

The key here is to take the udon out of the bag, put it in the bowl you will ultimately eat from, cover the whole bowl with plastic wrap, and heat it in the microwave. In the video it is heated for about 5 minutes (the description says 600 W for 5 minutes). This heats not only the udon but also the bowl, and that heat sets the egg. Because "the egg is cooked by a special method," they ask that you use a heat-resistant ceramic bowl rather than plastic. They add that ramen bowls are usually ceramic and heat-resistant.

The recipe assumes 200 g of udon. There are also 180 g products, which are fine, but adding all the sauce may make it too salty, so they ask that you adjust the amount of soy sauce. If you don't have a microwave, Ryuji explains, you can warm the bowl with boiling water and boil the udon.

When the heating is done and the bowl is still piping hot, first add only the egg white, setting the yolk aside. Ryuji stresses, "This is super important, so be sure to do it."

Mixing in the egg white while it's hot sets it with the heat of the bowl and the udon. This makes it much easier to eat even for people who dislike the slimy texture of raw egg, and the egg flavor becomes richer, they say. They explain that this is why the egg, noodles, and bowl were heated together.

Then add the toppings: a pinch of green onions, 2–3 g of grated ginger, shredded nori, and a handful of tenkasu if you like. Place the yolk in the center, mix well the bonito powder that has sunk to the bottom, then pour the sauce over, and the "ultimate, most delicious in the world" TKU is complete.

The second dish is a salt-flavored TKU. The ingredients are green onion and crushed Korean seaweed. If you don't have Korean seaweed, shredded nori is plenty, and you can also crush regular Korean seaweed by hand, they say.

While mincing a naganegi (Japanese long onion), Ryuji asks the staff whether they know why the packaged pre-cut green onions used in the first dish aren't being used. The answer is that packaged green onions have been soaked in water, so they have no flavor. When the staff taste the two side by side, the packaged onions have lost both their pungency and flavor, while the freshly chopped naganegi gets the reaction "totally different." When you want to emphasize the flavor of the onion, you just use naganegi, and learning things like this is part of what Buzz Recipe is about, Ryuji says.

Salt and green onion go well together, so a sauce is made for this one too. Salt alone would lack punch, so oil is added. The amounts are 2 tsp sesame oil, a little over 1/3 tsp salt, and 4 shakes of Ajinomoto. For those who want a bit more punch, about 5 shakes of garlic powder is good, they say. Pepper can be added to taste.

When a staff member asks, "You grated fresh ginger for the first dish, so isn't fresh garlic better here?", Ryuji answers that fresh garlic is too strong and would blow away the flavors of the onion and egg, so garlic powder is just right.

For people bothered by the onion's pungency, the mixed sauce is microwaved uncovered for 20–30 seconds. Heating calms the pungency and makes the onion slightly wilted. That is the sign the pungency is gone, they say.

Adding bonito flakes or kombu-type umami to this sauce would dilute the goodness of both the onion and salt and the egg, so they wouldn't stand out. That's why Ryuji asks that you make it with these exact amounts. Eating it with salt is also incredibly good and works as a snack with drinks; they recommend it so that you can experience how well eggs and Ajinomoto go together.

As with the first dish, the udon is covered and heated in its bowl, but here a guideline for the time is added. 4 and a half to 5 minutes is standard, and heating for about 5 minutes sets the egg white quite firmly. For people who want to keep some of the egg white's silky texture, about 4 to 4 and a half minutes is best, they say.

Adding only the egg white while hot and mixing sets it to a half-cooked state that clings to the noodles. Ryuji shows how firm it gets when mixed and indicates, "This much is good." After that, instead of soy sauce, the scallion-salt sauce is poured on and the yolk placed on top. Scattering Korean seaweed adds aroma, and if you want even more punch, sprinkle on black pepper. Showing off the plating, Ryuji says "this looks like it'd do well on TikTok," and finishes it as the scallion-salt TKU that "I think is the most delicious in the world."

When eating, break the yolk and mix the whole thing vigorously. Ryuji says udon shops don't serve it this way, and shop udon isn't this piping hot; this is a recipe that's delicious precisely because it's made at home.

After one bite, Ryuji says it ultimately comes down to umami, and the 3 shakes of Ajinomoto are really effective. The egg is set to some degree and its flavor is very rich, the frozen udon has amazing chewiness, and the crunch of the tenkasu is the best, they say.

Two staff members also taste it, reacting with "totally different" and "so delicious." In an exchange about whether setting the egg white is the same idea as with tamago kake gohan, Ryuji states their pet theory that egg white tastes better when it's slightly cooked. A staff member remarks, "Just adding a little ginger makes it totally different," and Ryuji agrees that the ginger is the key point. There were also positive comments about the crunch of the tenkasu.

After eating the scallion-salt TKU, Ryuji makes a show of being impressed: Ajinomoto's umami is amazing — can such a simple seasoning really produce this much umami? They even say that chain udon shops nationwide should do this, wondering why they don't. They also praise how the egg isn't slimy but is completely coating the noodles.

The staff are surprised by how strong the aroma is, saying "I've never had this" and "you don't find this type in shops." Ryuji asks whether the egg has become sort of like an onsen egg, and explains the intent behind the steps again. Normally, warmed udon is transferred to a bowl, so the egg turns slippery and runny, but if you heat it in the bowl and let the bowl's heat slightly set the egg white, that doesn't happen. This is the "ultimate hack" for TKU, they say.

When the conversation turns to which one they prefer, the staff seemed to lean toward the scallion-salt version. Ryuji calls on viewers to make both, since both are easy to try, and let them know which one they liked.

Toward the end, Ryuji talks about Ajinomoto itself. Its strength is that it adds only umami without adding any extra aroma, they say. Quite a few of the channel's viewers refuse to buy Ajinomoto, of all things, and they say they have no idea at all why people are so stubborn about it. Some people buy chicken bouillon but won't buy Ajinomoto, yet chicken bouillon also contains Ajinomoto, they point out.

Then, while acknowledging that this is a promotional sponsorship, they recommend that it's worth buying Ajinomoto to try. The reason given is that it has no expiration date. As long as the crystals don't clump from moisture or the like, its quality doesn't deteriorate, and just like salt and sugar, once you buy it, you win as long as you use it up before you die, Ryuji says.

Because of this property, Ryuji says they keep salt and Ajinomoto in their emergency supplies. Soy sauce has an expiration date, but salt and Ajinomoto don't, so you can leave them in there and use them indefinitely. Even if you're served bland rice porridge at an evacuation site, you can make it delicious with salt and Ajinomoto — that's the reasoning. Ryuji further offers their own theory that the reason people found after being lost for days first say "please give me salt" is that they become sodium deficient, and since Ajinomoto also contains sodium, it can help prevent deficiency in situations where food is scarce. They wrap up by saying they think salt and Ajinomoto should definitely be kept in emergency supplies.

Finally, Ryuji adds that they actually study things like this more than you'd expect, since they also make the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's disaster preparedness manual.