As anyone who's seen the movie Tampopo knows, properly cooked ramen involves more than just dropping the dried noodle square into two cups of water and adding the flavor packet three minutes later. The noodle house is religiously revered in Japan, and noodle chefs take care to make sure their final product is the Zen equivalent of a cup of tea. Japanese native Keiji Oshima, who has a string of successful noodle houses in Tokyo, left his country when a friend, Todd Imamura, asked him to come to Colorado and open a ramen house. Imamura is now co-owner and manager of Oshima Ramen, Oshima's the cook, and together the buddies are doing their best to educate Colorado to just how top ramen can be. And so at Oshima you'll find beautiful, clear, deeply flavored broths teeming with fresh vegetables and carefully sliced meats, all adding more flavor to already potent brews that have simmered for hours. Three base types -- shoyu, tonkotsu and miso -- are available, and each comes in a bowl big enough to feed a small family. The eatery is so clean and well-lit it sparkles, and there are few shows as entertaining as a noodle chef doing his thing.