Liam's Tabehoudai

Autumn Newsletter 2011



A Few Good Men
Come and contemplate the world of ramen and learn where to find my favourite ramen vendor. That's right folks. It's another edition of my amazing e-zine dedicated to Japanese food. If you like a good nosh up (and who wouldn't given the myriad of tasty delights on offer here in Japan) then this is the article for you. Don't bother with the other bits and pieces in this newsletter. Just spend some quality time with me!
*The Anatomy Of Ramen*

Ramen: a dish of noodles (the ‘men’ of ramen means noodle) served in soup and eaten by slurping the noodles with the help of chopsticks. The soup is often a pork based broth (chicken and seafood stocks are also used) and is often served with slices of meat, vegetables (bean sprouts and spring onion are common), seaweed and boiled eggs: all of which are presented in the single ramen bowl. Strictly speaking, ramen is a Chinese dish but it has been extremely popular in Japan for decades. The Japanese chef: obsessive in nature, would probably imagine that they perfected the dish. In fact, ramen could be considered Japan’s most dynamic dish: In a figurative sense, ramen seems to be constantly experimented with and reinvented. Every region in Japan holds claim to a speciality ramen; the most renowned being the city of Sapporo and its miso based ramen, perhaps followed by Hakata and its milky pork bone based ramen. Tokyo goes for a much lighter soy sauce based ramen. Early rising restaurateurs have even tried to change the image of ramen as an evening meal and late-night alcohol buffer by enticing punters in for Asa-raa, or morning ramen. In a literal sense, the dish is never at rest: the water and fat of the broth forms a heterogeneous and ceaselessly moving mixture which occasionally reveals its sunken treasures: slices of roast pork, bamboo shoots or perhaps the pink and white swirl of fish sausage. *Even eating ramen is an exercise.* Mastering the slurping technique is essential if one doesn’t wish to spatter oneself and the white shirts of the neighbouring Japanese diners, with pork broth. Keeping the mouth wide-open as one slurps, allows both the noodles and adherent soup to enter the mouth cleanly. Be warned, this “open mouthed” method does result in a clearly audible slurp. If, however, one is embarrassed by the idea of issuing vulgar noises and tries to stymie the sound by pursing ones lips around the noodles (the “closed mouth” or “spaghetti” method) the result will be soup that is stripped from the noodles and expressed on one’s clothes. This may explain why slurping is not considered rude in Japan. Ramen falls into four basic categories depending on the distinguishing ingredient of the soup: *Tonkotsu* (pork bone): opaque, milky in colour and slightly creamy in taste. *Miso*: the most robust in flavour, the miso gives it a cloudy appearance. Ramen restaurants are found everywhere across Japan. I would hazard a guess that the ramen shop is the most common single category of restaurant in Japan. And with one estimate quoting a staggering 300,000 restaurants in Tokyo alone, that is a hell of a lot of ramen noodles slithering their way into the mouths of .the Japanese. Needless to say, with that many establishments, finding the best ones is no easy task. Combined with the fact that without the late night drunken salaryman most ramen shops would probably go out of business, we have a clientele which is not the most discerning; rather akin to the rapacious takeaway kebab eater in the UK. This often means that ramen “connoisseurs” are not a reliable bunch. And without price as a way of discriminating (ramen rarely costs more than Ą1000/Ł7.50) a truly good ramen restaurant recommendation is a rare thing.

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum

A great place to sample a large range of ramen is at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum: a collection of ramen restaurants rather than a true museum. One gets to choose a ramen prepared by one of the many celebrated chefs that work in this mock-up of 1950s Tokyo which showcases ramen styles from all round the country. But for my favourite ramen joint we’ll have to travel to the northern part of Tokyo and learn about the mysterious fifth ramen. This restaurant is found in Asakusa and is called Taishoukan, although ‘restaurant’ is probably not the best word.

Taishoukan and its owner. Best recognised by the sign with the red ‘24’

Upon entry the establishment looks more like a living room, with a widescreen TV blaring and friends and family of the owner drinking and gossiping at the tables. There is no English menu but this will not be a problem as there is really only one thing worth ordering and that is their speciality ramen called tsukemen. This type of ramen is often made with a more substantial pork broth and the distinguishing feature is the noodles which are served cold and separate from the soup. This has the advantage of allowing the chef to cook the noodles to the perfect consistency without then having them soften further in the hot soup. To eat, simply lift some noodles into the broth and slurp away.

Tsukenmen at Taishoukan

What really sets this dish apart from the run-of-the-mill ramen is the sublime pork stock: hearty, flavourful and quite meaty. Most of the flavour is derived from the tender and fatty belly pork which can be found in the soup. No doubt, this dish contains a fair few calories. And that could probably be said of most ramen (it is no coincidence that enthusiasts are often a rotund lot). But a more diet-friendly version is obtained by simple not drinking all the soup. If it can be resisted. Click on this link for a google map of the location of Taishoukan in the Asakusa district of Tokyo