With vegetables, sometimes simple is better. In the case of the broccoli dish at Ramen Hood, a vegan ramen stall at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles, simple means frying broccoli florets, dousing them with a pungent sauce and putting them in a bowl — then watching as the dish sells out, again and again, even if you change your restaurant.

Let us backtrack. When chef Ilan Hall’s restaurant the Gorbals was still open, in the nearby Alexandria Hotel, he was looking for a vegetable dish that was “outside the box,” as Hall puts it.

He’d been grilling broccoli stems, kind of like shaved asparagus, and had all these extra florets. One day he threw them in the fryer. Then he made a sauce of malt vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and chili flakes, which he spooned over the results, with some scallions. Ta-da.

“It was a little bit of a joke,” said Hall, describing the initial impulse as a riff on a David Chang recipe. “But then it sold out.”

Hall closed the Gorbals, then opened Ramen Hood with executive chef Rahul Khopkar, where the dish not only returned, but is one of the most popular on the menu there, too.

Take a bite of the broccoli — crisp as tempura, the edges caramelized yet still the essence of the bright vegetable, loaded with the zingy sauce — and you’ll see why people keep ordering it. If you’re at the ramen counter, you’ll probably order another one. If you’re at home you can just double the recipe. You’re welcome.

Fried Broccoli

Adapted from a recipe by Ramen Hood in Los Angeles

• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 pound broccoli, cut into florets (save stems for another use)
• About 1/4 cup Malt Vinegar Sauce (recipe follows)
• Thinly sliced green onion, for garnish

Fill a large pot with enough oil to come up about 4 inches and heat the oil until it reaches 375 degrees. Fry broccoli, in small batches, until pieces are light brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Drain well, and repeat until all the broccoli is fried.

Place broccoli in a bowl and sprinkle with sauce, tossing to coat. Drain and place on a platter, garnishing with green onion. Serve immediately. Serves 2 to 4.

Malt Vinegar Sauce

• 1/2 cup malt vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes, or more to taste

In a small saucepan, combine ingredients and bring to boil over high heat, stirring once or twice. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Makes about 3/4 cup sauce, more than needed for the recipe above; the sauce will keep up to 2 weeks, refrigerated.

Nutritional information unavailable.