Slip off your shoes and step inside the Arai household, where the kitchen smells of savory katsuobushi and simmering miso broths.

Taro Arai's parents live in this Orangevale home, and though Arai of the Mikuni restaurant empire is perhaps the best-known sushi chef in Sacramento, this is also a family of ramen aficionados.

Ramen toppings crowd a countertop: Heaps of slow-cooked chashu (barbecue) pork, bean sprouts, kamaboko fish cake, hard-boiled egg, green onions, pickled garlic, boiled spinach and much more. Arai's mother, Komichi Arai, tends to pots of shio and shoyu broths – keep reading for more on those exotic-sounding ingredients – that will soon be slurped down with freshly boiled noodles and toppings.

Forget any ideas of plain ol' Top Ramen, Cup O' Noodles or other instant soups with dehydrated noodles and MSG-laden "flavor packs." With a few simple broths, and a little effort to get ingredients mise en place, you can whip together a slurp-worthy bowl of ramen that'll satisfy on a chilly day.

Granted, these aren't the complex ramens that you'll find at Shoki Ramen House or Akebono. Ramen borders on an obsession for many – see the movies "Tampopo" and "The Ramen Girl" for evidence – with endless variations of broths and toppings.

Still, building a better ramen in the kitchen isn't tough to do, with a little taste of the sea and plenty of steamy, savory flavors with noodles in a bowl.

"Ramen, if you do it right, it can be so many different things," Arai said. "The price is (good) and you get full right away. Have that and some pot stickers, and you're done."

Cook the noodles just right

Before we get to broths, let's start with the heart of ramen: noodles. The small dehydrated bricks of noodles that we know so well were developed in the 1950s, following a surplus of imported U.S. flour in Japan. Those curly ramen noodles have origins in Chinese cuisine.

Instant noodles can easily be boiled and gussied up with fresh toppings, but for a fresher approach, try the ramen noodles kept in the refrigerated section of Asian stores. Arai recommends Yamachan noodles, which are coated in egg white powder and cost about $3 for two servings. Sun Noodle also makes a solid option for ramen noodles, which costs about $4 for two servings.

A serving of refrigerated noodles shouldn't take much more than a couple of minutes of boiling time, and should be stirred well with a chopstick while boiling. For dehydrated noodles, Arai's mother recommends giving them a rinse in cold water after they've boiled to eliminate excess starch.

No matter which noodle route you go, the goal is for the noodle to attain what the Japanese call koshi. That means the noodles are cooked just right, not gummy from overboiling or too firm in the middle, a kind of noodle nirvana.

"That's the freshness of the noodle," said Arai, who at one time contemplated opening a noodle house with his mother. "If the noodle has no firmness and the noodle stretches, it's no good. You lose the 'koshi.' "

Go for basic but real broth

If noodles are the heart of ramen, the broth is the soul. But let's chuck the "flavor packets" in the trash and boil up some basic broths instead.

The standard Japanese ramen broths include shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), tonkotsu (pork) and miso. Different regions of Japan specialize in certain broths. In Arai's native Amakusa, an island city in Japan's southwest, it's all about tonkotsu ramen. The northern island of Hokkaido is known for rich miso ramens and seafood toppings – and you'll find local interpretations of these ramens on 18th and Broadway at Hokkaido Noodle House.

But first, it's time to make dashi. This seafood stock uses kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (shaved pieces of the bonito fish), and is the backbone of Japanese cooking. Unlike French soup stocks, dashi requires only three ingredients (water, kombu, katsuobushi), and a batch can be created in about 20 minutes. The ingredients are found easily at Asian markets, and the quick simmering process extracts plenty of prized umami flavor for your sumptuous broths.

"Dashi will bring a big complement for any sauce or dish you make," Arai said. "A lot of restaurants use MSG to get that extra umami, but my mom never liked MSG from the start."

A quick and easy shio broth doesn't take much more than dashi, chicken stock and seasonings of salt, Japanese white pepper and mirin (Japanese rice wine for cooking). Sauté some sweet corn and bean sprouts in a little butter, and it'll add a tasty and rich touch to shio ramen.

Shoyu ramens are based on soy sauce, with the broth typically infused with ginger, garlic, a little sake and chicken broth. All kinds of variations exist, and if you're really in a pinch, Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu soup base would work, though cooks with food allergies or dietary restrictions should note that this product contains monosodium glutamate.

For a quick miso ramen base, add four cups of dashi to three tablespoons of miso paste and simmer. Add that broth to freshly boiled ramen noodles, complete with the toppings of your choice and you've got a simple yet satisfying bowl of ramen. For a spicy kick, add chili oil to taste.

When it comes to miso broths, Arai's mother prefers a combination of two-thirds white miso and one-third red miso.

"The red has the sourness, while the white is sweeter," said Komichi Arai. "In the summers, we'd add more red miso to make it more refreshing."

Some pho inspiration

The smell of ramen soup is like a siren song. Suddenly, Taro Arai's three children emerge from various parts of the house, going straight for bowls and spoons.

Arai starts this "ramen party" with a spin on Vietnamese soup he calls "pho-men" that is based on his mom's shio broth. He slices and dices a few ingredients, while talking to himself in a happy singsong voice.

"I love lemon," he said. "I love jalapeño pepper. I love cilantro."

Then the ingredients are added to a piping bowl of shio broth and noodles, with a dollop of Sriracha hot sauce for heat. Arai calls this his "lazy meal," especially when craving a little Vietnamese pho.

Soon, the room grows quiet, save for a lot of slurping. That's how the Japanese express their pleasure when eating soups – and by the sound of it, everyone's sure relishing this tangy and spicy ramen.

Then comes a more traditional shio ramen, with boiled egg, bean sprouts, spinach, sesame seeds and plenty of green onion. A fragrant pork-based tonkotsu ramen mixes its savory broth with the earthy Japanese mustard greens known as takana and cloves of pickled garlic.

From there, the ramens take all kinds of variations: Shoyu "spider-men" ramen with baby octopus, a miso "raw men" topped with the kind of spicy tuna you'd find at a sushi bar, more miso ramen with hearty chashu pork and kamaboko fish cake.

"I just enjoy the varieties of it," Arai said. "You can sit down with friends and have a quick bite. It's so homey, and it's a part of our culture."

Slurp!

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