Ryuji Tries Goemon's Much-Talked-About Summer Vegetable Pasta and Remakes It at Home

Ryuji introduced Goemon as "my favorite pasta chain," saying they think it's the best-tasting of the pasta chains. In terms of popularity, too, Ryuji's understanding is that Goemon ranks first among chain pasta restaurants. The goal that day was a summer-only menu item that had been talked about on X. As Ryuji remembered it, the menu listed words like "Sangenton pork," "greedy," "summer vegetables," and "butter soy sauce." A-ko had seen an X post saying it was "crazy addictive" and was curious what it tasted like.

A-ko ordered the summer vegetable pasta, and Ryuji chose a half-and-half. Ryuji's plate appears to have been a combination of carbonara and Genovese. Judging by appearance, they said the portion of noodles looked like more than 100g.

After one bite of the summer vegetable pasta, both reacted with "What is this flavor?" Despite being called butter soy sauce, it tasted bland to them, and Ryuji wondered aloud, "Isn't this supposed to be butter?" A-ko also said, "I think I'd like the soy sauce to be a bit sharper." Feeling that "something was missing," Ryuji asked the restaurant for salt and sprinkled a little on. Rather than suddenly becoming delicious, they said, it felt like what had been missing was filled in. At this point, Ryuji concluded the issue was the salt concentration.

As for the flavor composition, Ryuji's analysis was that there was almost no butter flavor, not much soy sauce either, and overall it tasted mostly of dashi. In their words, it was "a dashi peperoncino with a little soy sauce in it," topped with vegetables and an onsen egg. As for the restaurant's butter, since it didn't have much aroma, Ryuji guessed it wasn't real butter but a compound butter like margarine.

They also touched on the other dishes. The carbonara was the kind made with cream, and according to Ryuji, all chain-restaurant carbonaras are cream-based. Ryuji said the Genovese was good but let slip, "I feel like it used to be better."

Even back home, A-ko's assessment remained harsh. They said the summer vegetable pasta scored quite low in their book, and they couldn't understand why it had gotten so much buzz. The 1,300-yen price also seemed to bother them; it was their first time at Goemon, and they felt it was "expensive." Ryuji candidly admitted they also understood the feeling that if you're paying 1,300 yen, you might as well make it at home.

On the other hand, Ryuji mentioned several times that the taste might differ by location. They cited their own experience that the roadside location in Chiba they used to frequent was delicious. When A-ko looked it up later, they found several posts on X saying "it used to taste better." Mindful that Goemon has many fans, Ryuji joked, "I think this video's going to get flamed." A-ko admitted, "I've said nothing but bad things," but still insisted it wasn't good. Ryuji's position was that honest opinions are fine.

Since the restaurant's pasta came topped with an onsen egg, the first step was to prepare that. Ryuji used a rice cooker. Pour boiling water into the rice cooker, submerge the eggs, and leave them on keep-warm mode for about 20 minutes. The convenience is that you just leave it alone. Ryuji also cautioned that if you leave them too long without cooling them, they'll turn into boiled eggs.

A-ko's method is different: put the eggs in a pot of boiling water, turn off the heat, cover, and leave for 12 minutes. The conversation turned to how everyone really has their own way of making onsen eggs. Ryuji also mentioned that it's rare for them to use onsen eggs in their videos.

They also recreated the tofu soup that came with the pasta. It tastes like chawanmushi, and both Ryuji and A-ko had found it delicious. A-ko mentioned that someone on X had written that this soup was the best thing there. According to Ryuji, the soup is "basically just dashi," and if you make it taste of dashi, you get this flavor.

The method: put 150g of finely cut silken tofu into 500cc of water and season with kombu dashi and Hondashi. The kombu dashi started at 1 teaspoon, but after tasting, Ryuji added "a little more," bringing it to about 1⅓ teaspoons. The Hondashi is 1 teaspoon. Soy sauce is kept to 1 teaspoon, just enough for color. The key point is not to add too much, since more soy sauce would make it taste of soy sauce. Finally, add 3 pinches of salt and it's done.

The green bits in the restaurant's soup were mitsuba, so chopped mitsuba goes into the bowl first and then the soup is poured over it. Ryuji said it's best to add the mitsuba at the very end. They also said that with mitsuba in it, it tastes "exactly like chawanmushi."

The pasta ingredients are bell pepper, eggplant, okra, cabbage, thinly sliced bacon, and garlic. The restaurant's garlic wasn't strong, but this time Ryuji used about 7g per serving—14g for two servings. Since it didn't seem browned either, they decided to sauté it normally. Ryuji said Ajinomoto olive oil, with its neutral flavor, is best, and used 2 tablespoons. The oil and garlic are cooked over very low heat while the vegetables are cut.

The okra is cut on the diagonal, just like at the restaurant. The eggplant at the restaurant was cut unusually long, which A-ko found hard to eat. Ryuji also thought that cut "looks nice but doesn't taste good," and went with ordinary slices instead. The bell pepper was diced at the restaurant, but Ryuji changed it to thin strips, saying that's easier to eat with pasta.

According to Ryuji, the must-haves are okra and eggplant. The bell pepper is for color and looks, so it can be left out. The cabbage is roughly chopped. Each vegetable is about 30g per serving, or 60g each for two servings. Ryuji described the dish as "what happens if I make a greedy summer vegetable pasta."

As for the bacon, Ryuji said that since it's a vegetable pasta you don't need much, but also that "the more you add, the better it gets," and used one pack (4 slices). They added that summer is nearly over and the restaurant's limited-time item may have already ended, but you can still eat it with this recreation.

The bacon and eggplant are sautéed first. Ryuji said there's no need to soak the eggplant to remove bitterness. The restaurant's eggplant hadn't been treated either, but Ryuji suspected it was probably frozen. When A-ko asked whether the pinch of salt sprinkled on the eggplant was to keep it from soaking up oil, Ryuji answered, "It's just seasoning. No deep meaning." The eggplant is the only vegetable that has to be cooked to be edible; the others can be eaten raw. The reason is that raw eggplant is squeaky and unpleasant. After that, the okra, cabbage, and bell pepper are added.

Seasoning starts with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Since the restaurant's pasta didn't taste strongly of soy sauce, Ryuji figured the base was dashi. Guessing it was the same kind of dashi used in the soup, they added ½ teaspoon of Hondashi and ½ teaspoon of kombu dashi. They also said they thought it was kombu, since the bonito flavor wasn't strong.

For liquid, plain hot water is used instead of pasta cooking water, because the cooking water would make it too salty. The amount is a little less than one small ladle, though Ryuji added one more spoonful partway through. The point of adding liquid isn't to make it soupy, but because without about this much, the pasta dries out. The thickness released by the okra helps bring the sauce together, which is given as the reason for including okra. The goal is "a flavor where the dashi isn't too strong and the soy sauce isn't too strong either," and a final pinch of salt is added.

Making the sauce first is easier, so it isn't done simultaneously with the pasta. The vegetables shouldn't be cooked until limp, so once they're cooked to a certain point, they're taken off the heat. At this stage, the cabbage still has a crisp texture and the okra isn't fully cooked through. The butter is kept from being too strong, used just enough for aroma.

The restaurant's pasta was neither thin nor thick—about 1.7 to 1.8mm by Ryuji's estimate. This time they used 1.8mm pasta, boiled in water with a 1% salt concentration. Cooking time was 9 minutes instead of the stated 11. Ryuji said that lately they've been finding thicker pasta tastier.

The pasta goes into the sauce, the heat is turned on, and 10g of butter (5g per serving) is added. In terms of aroma, Ryuji said adding butter this way is best. The finished dish has almost no liquid left, with the okra's thickness coating everything. The eggplant is soft and has soaked up the dashi. It was plated, topped with an onsen egg, and served with the tofu soup with mitsuba. Ryuji named it "Goemon-respect Greedy Sangenton Pork and Summer Vegetable Spaghetti."

While the pasta boiled, Ryuji talked about their philosophy of cooking. It started with the comment that lately they don't like thin pasta. Ryuji explained that they themselves actually love thin pasta, but went thicker because A-ko doesn't like it. Their cooking is about "making what tastes best to that person," not cooking for themselves. So the flavor changes completely depending on who it's for, they said.

From there, Ryuji addressed the criticism that "my food is too strongly seasoned." They countered that people who say that don't know them well, and that they also have lightly seasoned dishes. Basically, they like recreating restaurant flavors, and restaurant food is salty. So it may not suit people who only eat home cooking, they said. However, Goemon's pasta wasn't salty, so this time they made it a little saltier than Goemon's.

In Ryuji's view, the greatest strength in cooking is being able to adapt to the other person's tastes. Restaurants don't adjust the seasoning for each individual, so they can't compete with cooking for yourself, where you decide your own preferred salt level. The reason a mother's cooking tastes good, too, is that over many years she has adjusted the flavors to her family's palates, asking every day whether it tastes good, they said. A-ko responded by calling that "a mother's hard work."

At one point, A-ko pointed out that Ryuji had something on their mouth. That was because a past comment had asked, "Why doesn't the staff tell him?" Ryuji replied that they don't mind having something on their mouth. They said they're not an idol but just an ordinary middle-aged guy, and they dislike being told about their appearance. They also said that although they think they've become famous as a cooking researcher, their self-esteem hasn't gone up at all.

Following Goemon's lead, they ate the finished pasta with chopsticks. Ryuji called it "insanely good," praising it as a Japanese-style soy sauce-butter flavor with good saltiness. A-ko responded, "I'm relieved." Points raised included the bell pepper adding an accent, getting lots of vegetables, and the vegetables staying crisp since the heat was turned off partway.

A-ko said, "It's similar but not similar—this one tastes better." Ryuji stressed that this was because they made it to suit A-ko's taste, not because Goemon's pasta isn't good. They then tied it back to the earlier discussion: that's why they say home cooking tastes best.

The tofu soup matched the restaurant's down to the aroma, and A-ko agreed, "It really tasted like this." Ryuji reflected that mitsuba is the key to getting that chawanmushi quality. For a change of flavor, they recommended yuzu kosho. Since you eat with chopsticks, it's easy to dab on yuzu kosho—a way of eating you can't do at the restaurant, they said. A-ko had started wanting some heat as they ate, so they said yuzu kosho was just right. A-ko also remarked that it's not the flavor you'd imagine from the name "butter soy sauce," and is surprisingly light. Ryuji said it's great eaten together with the soup, and praised the decision to pair this soup with it as brilliant.

Tasting with drinks in hand, Ryuji said it also goes well with wine. Goemon offers wine by the glass, and Ryuji had once seen customers drinking wine with their pasta and thought, "People drink without any snacks?" But with this pasta, maybe it works, they reconsidered.

Ryuji went on to praise Goemon's product development for creating a pasta that holds together so well despite having so many substantial vegetable ingredients. They said they would never have thought of a dish like this themselves and found it instructive. They also recalled that the half-and-half was 80g of each, for a total of 160g, which was a real struggle even for them.

They also showed that no liquid was left on the plate after eating. According to Ryuji, this is because the okra's thickness combines with the oil and clings to the noodles. They said this pasta is the second-best pasta they've made recently. Number one is the butter penne, which A-ko loves so much they call it "the top of the top." A-ko listed its advantages—no restaurant has anything similar, penne doesn't get soggy and tastes good even cold so it works as a drinking snack, and it doesn't make a mess around your mouth—and urged Ryuji to publish the recipe. Ryuji replied that they intend to.

A-ko said their reactions on staff-meal episodes are so different from other episodes that they call them "the winning episodes." Ryuji explained that for staff meals, they make what A-ko thinks is delicious. A different staff member would say "I don't like butter," so this dish wouldn't have been made at all.

Ryuji said that from the cook's perspective, picky people might actually be more rewarding to cook for. Rather than hearing "delicious" about everything, getting a "that's not it" look lets you figure out what to do next time. They also said they like suggesting flavor changes and having people try different tastes. Saying that to someone who doesn't like cooking might be harsh, but since they love cooking, it isn't rude to them, Ryuji said. A-ko replied that, in part, they read the person and are honest precisely because it's Ryuji.

Finally, Ryuji talked about how to take criticism. In the restaurant business, customers who didn't like the food leave without saying anything and never come back. So they were told again and again that having people tell you about the taste is something to be grateful for. During their time as a hotel employee, it was drilled into them never to resent complaints. People who complain want improvement, and there's still a chance they'll stick with you. There are monster complainers, but some feedback is reasonable, so as a rule you listen to what you're told. That's what Ryuji says they were taught.

They said that when someone writes "it wasn't good" in the comments, it still gets under their skin. Even so, they try to think about why it failed and improve. Ryuji's view is that their recipes aren't always perfect, and if they became arrogant, their growth would stop and they'd run out of new recipes and ideas. That's why they reply to dissenting opinions in the comments. They also said the harsh comments and tweets they've received over the years have motivated them to study so they won't get those comments. On the other hand, hearing "it was really delicious" gives them confidence and makes them happy. Ryuji closed the video by asking viewers to write their opinions, however small.