Your bubby was wrong: there is something better than matzo ball soup.
Ramen restaurateur Josh Kaplan has updated the beloved Jewish comfort food at his Japanese noodle joint Dassara, serving a hearty noodle soup loaded with matzo balls, deli meats, and traditional Japanese accoutrements.
Jewish-Japanese cuisine might not sound like the likeliest of combinations, but in a city where cuisines are constantly being combined and reinvented, it was only a matter of time before matzo balls and ramen noodles sat side by side in a bowl.
The soup includes locally smoked deli meat right alongside Japanese ramen toppings like bamboo shoots and Togarashi.
“We keep it comfortably Japanese while inserting our ideas and viewpoints,” said Kaplan, who runs the noodle shop with co-owners Justin DeSpirito and Lana Yang.
And matzo ball ramen may just be the beginning.
Who knows what else Japanese-Jewish fusion will bring to the streets of Brooklyn — just how far away is a bagel with lox from bagel sushi?
Dassara [271 Smith St. between Degraw and Sackett streets in Carroll Gardens, (718) 643-0781].
