Ramen

Mmmmm... Ramen!

Slurp slurp slurp. Its winter and cold enough for monkeys to jump into hot springs. Although jumping into hot springs is a fine way to get warm, Japan's snow monkeys are probably fairly envious that they cannot partake in one of the favorite winter habits of their rival species, hot noodles in a ramen shop.

Ramen noodles are thin egg noodles, served in a large bowl of a hot broth flavored with miso, salt (shio), soy sauce (shoyu), and pork (tonkotsu). The quality of the broth is basically the key to the success of any ramen business, whether it be a restaurant, road-side stall or yataiya. And any ramen purveyor worth his salt will tend to try to keep the recipes a secret, sometimes even from the employees.

Of the traditional flavors, it is salt (shio-ramen) that is the big seller. It is basically a chicken broth similar to Chinese maotan. Pork (tonkotsu) is a thicker broth made by boiling crushed pork bones for many hours, it is similar to Chinese baitan. Increasingly popular is the shoyu flavor, which is similar to shio but may be made with a stock using katsuobushi, kelp, and niboshi. These are the basics.

Once a ramen shop has worked out what broths will bring fame and fortune, there is then the not so small matter of toppings. This determines the final flavor, and also the all important presentation. The garnishes traditionally included items such as roast pork (chashu), bean sprouts (moyashi), corn, and in recent years an increasing range of exotic or sometimes bizarre combinations. A ramen artist prepared to suffer for his art will mix them together like a cocktail bartender to create a new and unique flavor - always treading the fine line between success and failure, adding or mixing such things as butter, various peppers, sake, garlic, and much else.

Ramen is high in carbohydrates, but not so high in nutrition. It is very popular with working men & students and others who are either short of time for cooking or short of cash (or more usually, both). It is also mega popular as a soaking/sobering up dish amongst revellers after a night of drinking. At some stage during studies at Yamasa you are going to eat ramen. Either in a local shop, or instant ramen (a Japanese invention). It is the considered opinion of Declan that it isn't possible to pass Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test without ramen - you need time and energy to do it successfully.

There are a couple of excellent ramen shops in Okazaki City that we can recommend.