Where do you live? Here in Minneapolis, where ramen is becoming trendy, many places have vegan alternatives. That said, getting a really good umami flavor and

Where do you live? Here in Minneapolis, where ramen is becoming trendy, many places have vegan alternatives. That said, getting a really good umami flavor and rich texture in a vegan broth is hard - not impossible, but much harder than with meat. And frankly, most vegetarians are lousy cooks who don't pay attention to good textures and flavors, and most meat eaters are lazy cooks who don't learn how to get richness without meat doing the heavy lifting for them. For vegetarian/vegan, a kombu-based broth can get that richness, but it'll take a lot of patience to make (this is also true of bone-based meat broth).