Fat-Burning Malatang with Shirataki Instead of Glass Noodles: Ryuji on How to Cut the Oil and Still Get Close to Restaurant Flavor

At the start, Ryuji explains the idea behind the series. You make a big batch of soup packed with vegetables and replace your usual meals with it, with the aim of losing weight. Ryuji makes a point of saying, "We call it fat-burning soup, but it's not something that actually burns fat," and describes it instead as a soup that helps you burn fat. The name was not Ryuji's invention; it is a name that has been popular for a long time. Ryuji says they use it because it would be rude not to adopt the name of something that is popular.

Ryuji looks back, saying that while they have been making weight-loss dishes lately, they had been slacking off on updating the fat-burning soup series. Malatang was chosen as this episode's theme because Ryuji thinks a lot of people misunderstand it.

According to Ryuji, everyone eats malatang thinking it is healthy, but it is actually a fattening dish. The first reason is the oil. The red stuff floating on the surface of the soup is oil, and oil makes you fat, Ryuji explains.

The second is the glass noodles. Malatang shops offer a wide variety of glass noodles, and some shops put them in from the start. The co-host agrees that there is a sense that it is not really malatang without glass noodles. Ryuji calls glass noodles "a lump of carbs." They soak up the broth and swell, so they make you feel full, but they are high in calories to begin with. Putting them in and calling it a "diet meal" is a problem, Ryuji says. Ryuji also says that recipes using huge amounts of glass noodles being promoted as weight-loss dishes on TikTok and elsewhere leave them feeling "uneasy," and, as someone who has published books on losing weight, declares that they will make a malatang that really helps you lose weight.

While grating garlic, Ryuji shares their thoughts on diet meals. To lose weight, you have to make easy dishes. When Ryuji asks the co-host why, the answer comes back: "Because otherwise you won't keep it up." Some people work hard at making labor-intensive diet meals, but Ryuji asks them to stop because it is inefficient. A complicated diet meal ends after three days, and people make it once and feel satisfied. You can't lose weight by making something once; you lose weight because you keep at it, Ryuji argues.

The conversation also turns to Ryuji's own figure. Ryuji says that every time someone says "You've gotten fat," they eat diet meals, and stresses that they eat this kind of food even when the camera isn't rolling. Ryuji also says that people who claim they got fat making Ryuji's recipes are only choosing the high-calorie dishes. It is a "cry from the heart": it is not that Ryuji's food makes you fat, but that the people choosing are to blame.

First comes the foundation of the soup. Use 15 g each of garlic and ginger. The garlic is what matters; the ginger is more of an "if you have it" ingredient. Mincing is fine, but grating brings out more aroma even with a smaller amount, and it is easier than mincing. Everything is cooked in a single large frying pan.

Oil is something you want to avoid in diet meals, but a little is used here and only here. The amount is about 2 teaspoons. Ryuji usually uses rice bran oil but used canola oil this time because it was on hand. Ryuji explains that rice bran oil and canola oil have the same calories, so neither one is better for weight loss. Too much oil makes you fat, so sauté with a small amount.

Add doubanjiang to this. Ryuji says you can "add as much doubanjiang as you like," and after adding 1 tablespoon, added about half that amount again. The reason for sautéing it first is that it brings out the aroma and softens the heat a little, Ryuji says.

After sautéing, add water. The plan was 500 cc at first, but it was increased to about 700 cc. Water alone would be too spicy, so soy milk is added to make it mellow. During filming, the staff were coughing from the fumes of the doubanjiang, and the co-host recalled that everyone had also been coughing during a previous mapo tofu shoot. Ryuji says no more oil will be added from here on, and the dish will be finished with just the small amount used at the start. Otherwise, you won't lose weight.

According to Ryuji, malatang is traditionally a pork-stock soup, but chicken stock is perfectly fine. All it needs is some kind of soup flavor, so this time 1½ tablespoons of chicken stock powder go in for a lighter finish.

When the co-host asks whether malatang is soy milk–based, Ryuji explains: the cloudy white soup originally comes from pork bones, and the idea is the same as Ryuji's usual use of soy milk in things like tonkotsu ramen. Making an authentic stock at home is difficult, so soy milk stands in. Some specialty shops do add soy milk, but most make a stock like superior stock (shang tang), Ryuji says.

Next, add 2 teaspoons each of oyster sauce and soy sauce. Ryuji explains this is to make up for the umami that is lacking because of the small amount of oil. These two add depth, Ryuji says. The seasoning is done at this stage because Ryuji wants to establish the flavor base first; the ingredients are simmered at the end.

Add 1 teaspoon of Sichuan pepper. Shaking it straight from the holes in the container makes it hard to tell how much you're adding, so it was measured with a measuring spoon. It is still delicious without Sichuan pepper, with a hot-pot-like flavor, but having it makes it more authentic. If you want more numbing, feel free to add more. Five-spice powder would bring it even closer to the real thing, but it was left out this time to keep things simple. It's plenty tasty without it, Ryuji says.

That completes the malatang soup. Ryuji stresses that as long as you have this soup, the rest is the same as at a regular malatang shop: just simmer your ingredients, and you can make malatang at home. It makes 2–3 servings, and if you're eating alone it will last about 3 days, Ryuji says.

Ryuji says it is hard to make meat work for weight loss. Pork is fatty, so it is difficult to use in diet meals. Instead, add 2 pinches of salt to 200 g of ground chicken thigh, knead, and form it into meatballs. As Ryuji has said many times before, kneading with just salt is the tastiest way. Adding egg gives a fluffy texture, but it makes the meatballs feel like they have filler, so egg is left out. With just salt, the flavor of the meat comes through and the texture becomes springy. You can make them with chicken breast too.

Roll the meatballs by hand and drop them into the pan one by one. Ryuji says chicken thigh is what keeps the calories down. If you don't want to make meatballs, use sliced chicken breast. Partway through, the co-host wondered aloud whether ground chicken thigh has the skin ground in with it. Ryuji answered, "No idea," but added that if you want to lose weight, it is better to remove the skin.

For greens, komatsuna is used. Bok choy works too and looks more like what you'd get at a shop, but bok choy is a bit pricey. Ryuji calls komatsuna a "super excellent ingredient" whose price doesn't go up. About 200 g is a guideline; this time it was the leftovers from an earlier use, so about 150 g. Add the stems first and the leaves at the end. If they go in from the beginning, they turn limp.

You want a texture like glass noodles, but glass noodles are not used. Instead, shirataki is used, which Ryuji calls "my identity." Rinsing it under hot tap water is enough. It has almost no calories; even eating all of it comes to just over ten-some kilocalories, Ryuji says. It is long, so cut it crosswise. Shirataki is cheap and doesn't get soggy even when simmered, so Ryuji praises it as a noodle substitute: "There's no better ingredient." The co-host said putting in shirataki made them feel like they were making dandan noodles. Keep the shirataki submerged in the soup.

For mushrooms, oyster mushrooms are used. Shimeji or king oyster mushrooms are fine too; tear them into small pieces before adding. According to Ryuji, oyster mushrooms used to be hard to find in supermarkets, but over the past year they have started selling well, to the point that they once disappeared from the shelves for a while. Ryuji says it seems to be because Ryuji and "Bakase" promoted them too much. Judging from the subtitles, Bakase appears to be a character who shows up in sponsored mushroom-related videos. Ryuji is a fan of Bakase, and when Bakase didn't appear in another sponsored video, many viewers spoke up about it, Ryuji says.

Add 5–6 g of dried wood ear mushrooms as is, without rehydrating. Since it's a soup, they rehydrate as they simmer. Don't put in effort you don't need to—that's Ryuji's philosophy. If you want to eat right away, rehydrate them in hot water beforehand.

Use 1 bag of bean sprouts. Their crunch is tasty too, but in this malatang they are better softened, so they go in early. The komatsuna leaves were added at the end. Once the bean sprouts are in, all the ingredients are there, and once the wood ear has rehydrated, it's done.

For anyone who wants a bit more protein, Ryuji recommends adding fish cakes, such as chikuwa, satsuma-age, hanpen, and kamaboko. Fish cakes are made from fish meat, so they are surprisingly low in calories, Ryuji explains.

Here the co-host called the red-and-white fish cake found in shop malatang "Circus." Ryuji laughed, "That's not a word you use for food," but according to the co-host, that is what people call it on X (formerly Twitter). It is actually something like kamaboko, and the name apparently makes sense to people who love eating malatang.

After tasting, Ryuji judged that the soy milk had toned down the heat quite a bit. If you want to add more heat later, add ichimi chili pepper or doubanjiang afterward. To make the flavor a little stronger, more oyster sauce and soy sauce were added, ending up at 1 tablespoon each. Ryuji adds, "Make it however you like."

Ryuji likes strong flavors, so salt was added to finish. Because telling viewers to add salt draws complaints, Ryuji says you don't have to add it, then argues that salt has no calories, so no matter how much you add, it won't make you fat. Some people think salty food makes you fat, but that is wrong; what makes you fat is oil, Ryuji says. When the co-host says they've heard that the combination of fat and sugar is the most fattening, Ryuji agrees. Saying that all the delicious things in the world are that combination, Ryuji gives examples like gyudon, fried rice, and the things Japanese people often eat from convenience stores. The co-host also mentioned ramen.

Once the ingredients are in, simmer until the scum settles down. Ryuji explains that if you leave the scum alone, it disappears. At first the color was off because of the scum from the vegetables, and there was a lot of foam bubbling up, but as it simmered, the foam disappeared and it looked better. Doing it this way also transfers the flavor of the vegetables into the soup, Ryuji says.

Ryuji repeated, "Absolutely don't skim" the scum from vegetables and meat, because skimming makes it taste worse. Ryuji wavered a little, saying that with pork it might be better to skim, but since this is a cloudy white soup, there's no need. According to Ryuji, Japanese people used to drink only clear soups, so they skimmed the scum. With miso soup and the like, too, people basically prefer clear soups. In Indian cooking, on the other hand, the scum isn't skimmed, and you'll get scolded if you do, Ryuji says.

Finally, add 2 dried red chilies (takanotsume). Even 2 won't make it spicy; they are for appearance. Drizzling a little chili oil at the end makes the red stand out and gives it a proper malatang look. It raises the fat a little, so if you are very concerned about fat, you can leave it out. Ryuji says they don't worry about this much.

Looking at the finished dish, Ryuji proudly declared, "No matter how you look at it, that's malatang from a malatang shop." The two servings were plated differently. The co-host loves meat, especially chicken meatballs, so Ryuji put extra meatballs in the co-host's bowl. Being considerate of others doubles the deliciousness, Ryuji says. Ryuji wanted to eat vegetables, so their own bowl had hardly any meatballs.

The co-host's first words were "This really packs a punch." The co-host admitted that before filming they had been "kind of underestimating it" and hadn't expected it to be this delicious. The chicken meatball fat-burning soup they filmed previously had been quite a hit, and the co-host rated this one about the same. As for the shirataki, the co-host said they were actually glad it was in there, and Ryuji responded that the shirataki adds satisfaction. The co-host wondered whether regular malatang could just be like this, and Ryuji answered, "I think so too."

The heat is very strong. The co-host ate while wiping away sweat and said it was among the spiciest things they had eaten recently. Ryuji explains that if you don't handle spice well, reduce the doubanjiang and add miso in its place, by the same amount. That said, Ryuji thinks this level of heat will hit the spot for people who love extremely spicy food and is addictive. Diets don't last unless the food is delicious—that has been Ryuji's point from the beginning.

Ryuji also touched on how expensive malatang is at shops. Ryuji was surprised at the prices after looking them up. This recipe is basically vegetables, and the meat is chicken, so Ryuji estimates it can be made for about a third of the cost of eating out. Ryuji understands the demand for it as a lunch for office workers who can't cook at home, but says that at home, making this is enough. At the same time, Ryuji acknowledges the fun of choosing your own ingredients.

While eating, the two also pointed out improvements. Vegetables shrink when simmered, so more could have gone in. Adding more bok choy, daikon, and mushrooms would be good too. Considering an amount that would be satisfying as a single meal, a bit more would be fine, they said. The co-host wanted to add baby corn, but Ryuji pointed out that it's expensive. Ryuji also recommends satsuma-age instead of hanpen. It is fried, but satsuma-age is fine, Ryuji says. Ryuji added that since it makes a lot, you can make a half batch.

Ryuji mentioned that a single-serving malatang video made earlier has gradually picked up views over time and now has about 450,000. It didn't take off at first, but it seems to be turning up in searches. While malatang is booming, Ryuji again expressed doubt about how everyone assumes it is a healthy dish. The co-host agreed that the trend of calling glass noodles healthy should stop. Ryuji also brought up posts like "super slimming glass noodle soup," pointing out that real glass noodle soup doesn't contain that massive amount of glass noodles. Ryuji then said that if you want to lose weight, you'd be better off watching Ryuji's channel.

Joking that it would no longer be a diet, they added rice to finish. It's better to add the rice while the soup is hot, so the soup was reheated. The rice was a small portion—about 80 g, according to Ryuji. Ryuji's view is that cutting carbs too much is not good either. The co-host also said that it seems you should have about 100 g a day. For people who work remotely and eat lunch at home, Ryuji recommends having it with rice.

After adding rice, their reactions were "Delicious" and "Rice is the best." Ryuji summed it up: stoic people can skip the rice and use it as a meal-replacement diet, and people like Ryuji can add a little rice and enjoy it. Reheating made it spicier, and the co-host said that at this level they could probably handle Shin Ramyun, but Ryuji replied that Shin Ramyun is a bit spicier. The co-host found it so spicy they could only eat at a slow pace.

On the difference between people who can and can't handle spice, Ryuji explained, "Spiciness is a sense of pain." People who are sensitive to pain don't do well with spicy food, and that is why many men can't handle spicy food, Ryuji says. Many women love spicy food because it is said that they have become more resistant to pain for things like childbirth, Ryuji says. However, Ryuji makes clear that this is a personal theory. Ryuji is relatively tolerant of pain for a man, which is why spicy food doesn't bother Ryuji.

Hair removal also came up as an example. Some men can't keep up with hair removal because it hurts, and some apparently use anesthesia for beard hair removal. When Ryuji went for hair removal once and was asked "Are you okay?", Ryuji answered it was fine and was told that was unusual.

After finishing the bowls, the co-host compared this malatang with the previous chicken meatball soup, saying both were good and tasted completely different, so they wanted to make both. Ryuji said that fat-burning recipes get boring if they're always the same, so you can never have too many. Finally, Ryuji recommended making it as a malatang with less oil than a shop's version, with or without rice, and closed out the episode drenched in sweat.