SLURPY WITHOUT THE BRAIN FREEZE:

Suck it up and slurp : It's only polite, no matter what you've learned (REBEKAH DENN, 3/11/08, Seattle P-I)

Your mother was wrong, and so were the etiquette handbooks. Do slurp your soup. Please!

At least, slurp when eating ramen soup at Boom Noodle, where staffers have imported so many aspects of the staple Japanese lunch -- except for the noisy, fast, vigorous way it's meant to be eaten.

They have even planted slurping friends in the restaurant to "make lots of noise and let people know it's completely acceptable," said executive chef Jonathan Hunt, who toured Japan to absorb the flavors and styles of the food before Boom (1121 East Pike St.) opened in January. Owners Steve Rosen and James Allard (also of Blue C Sushi) produced "slurp goggles" as a gag gift to encourage open season on the spraying that takes place when noodles and broth fly.

But it's hard for an American audience to overcome early training in table manners, even knowing that in many Asian cultures slurping is considered the practical, preferred, even polite way to eat the ubiquitous soup.

In Japan, ramen is "like soul food, like a street food," said Boom head chef Satoru Sugitani, a native of Tokyo. More ramen shops crowd together on the average corner there than coffee shops compete on Seattle streets. Sugitani's mother makes it daily at home.

"All the people love noodles," he said, more so than the sushi or tempura or other foods typically seen here as "Japanese."