The swoosh, the backwards arc then the thrust forward. We hear the splash of cooking water hit the kitchen floor. This is how the noodles are drained.
This is the sound of ramen being made.
In Japan, everybody loves ramen. While sushi bars and sashimi restaurants may have taken the rest of the world by storm, these aren’t where the average Japanese dines on a daily basis. Salarymen and students head to their favourite ramen-ya (ramen restaurant) for quick sustenance after work and classes.
Ramen arrived in Japan by way of China. Rairai-ken, a Chinese restaurant in Asakusa, Tokyo was the earliest to serve a Guangdong-style noodle dish with vegetables, meat and soup in 1910.
There’s a ramen for every palate – be it Tokyo’s curly noodles and soup flavoured with shoyu (soy sauce) or the milky tonkotsu (pork bone) broth of Hakata, its straight noodles garnished with crushed garlic and beni shoga (pickled ginger).
Such is the popularity of ramen that major cities like Sapporo and Kyoto have not one but several ramen streets. In these Ramen Yokochos, competing restaurants jostle for the attention of diners who get to vote out the ones they don’t like!
Miso Ramen
Affordable and nutritious, ramen became popular after World War II when there was a food shortage. Ramen stalls opened up everywhere in what was later the city of Sapporo. Where better to start our ramen journey than here, the true birthplace of modern-day ramen?
Ginparou is perhaps the best place to try the famous butter-and-corn ramen (bata-kon ramen) unique to the city. Traditionally, Sapporo ramen uses miso (fermented soybean paste) in its soup.
Shoyu Ramen
Why not double your delight at Yoroiya, where its exquisite shoyu ramen is elevated further with the use of double-yolk eggs for their ajitama (seasoned soft boiled eggs)?
Tsukemen
Tsukemen is the art of dipping noodles into a reduced, concentrated and very flavourful ramen broth. On this note, Fuunji is acclaimed as one of the best tsukemen shops, not only in Tokyo, but the whole of Japan.