I’m basically a shy guy and even in America I would rarely go to a restaurant alone but now I’m here in Japan and I don’t really have any friends that I hangout with after work. I need some conversation because I need to practice my Japanese but of course not speaking well makes it even harder for me to decide to do something which requires me to be outgoing.
So, I finally worked up the courage to go to the local ramen shop. It’s just around the corner from my apartment.
Here it is at night, the normal time I’d be there. In fact I can usually only go on a Monday or Wednesday after Japanese class because that’s the only time I get home before they close. That’s usually around 10pm.
So the first thing I found out is that you don’t order from the employee’s You go over to this vending machine, put money in and buy tickets. This is actually a fairly common setup especially for places in train stations. For example the first 3 buttons are for different kinds of ramen noodles. They are kind of like pasta where you can get angel hair pasta or spagetti or spagatini etc. The basic noodles at this store cost between 600 and 700 yen.
Then your order extras like charshu (BBQ pork) 250 yen. Tamago (a hard boiled egg) 100 yen. Nori (seaweed) 100 yen. etc. I can easily spend 1200 yen for a bowl of soup. It better be pretty good. The machine gives you one ticket for each item. When you’re finished you hand all the tickets to one of the people behind the counter. You don’t even have to talk! That was the whole point of me going here. Oh well. It was super delicious so I’ve gone back about 5 ot 6 times already. I tried all 3 kinds of noodles. I like the thicker ones the best.
There are these HUGE pots where they make the broth. Every 30 mintues or so somebody has to strain the broth from on pot to the other. Then they strain a little more and through out the ingredients. I don’t know how long that stuff’s been cooking but it a really large pot.
Behind the bowls you can see all the extras as well as a place with a bunch of small baskets sitting in hot water. That’s where they heat your ramen noodles.
Here’s the menu. Below the menu are two flat boxes full of fresh ramen noodles.
And here is one of the girls that works there. I’ve been there 5 or 6 times and everytime different people were working there.
Here’s all the fixins you can add after you get your ramen. They are: some kind of hot red stuff, ground ginger, black pepper, ground garlic and of course shoyu (soy sauce).
So I found out from my friend Natsuko that although the Japanese like ramen they do not consider it to be a healthy food which I strange because I always thought in America we thought it was healthy. Maybe it’s all relative. Compared to American fast food it’s got to be better for you.
And here’s my ramen! Oishisoo!*
Maybe if I keep going I’ll make a new friend. Hopefully it will be that girl in the picture.
* Japanese Lesson: Oshisoo is pronounced oi-sh-soo which means "looks delicious". Oishiisoo, which is pronounced oi-shee-soo, means "I heard it’s delicious."
Hi Greg,
Dan Mahoney from Ohio here. I enjoyed your Ramen noodle page, it’s one of the best I’ve found regarding ramen! I started searching the web looking for Ramen after seeing the movie ‘Tampopo’ about the widow Tampopo learning to start a ramen shop. Very interesting movie, I saw it three times. Anyway, since then I’ve been craving ramen!
Anyway, really a good page about ramen, very good work!
Cheers from the USA
Dan
I think the reason that the Japanese would think of ramen as not being all that healthy is because they, unlike mainstream Americans, know that too much carbohydrates are what makes you fat. Americans think anything fat free must be good for you.
I had a friend who when to Japan as a student for a while also. She thought she could slim down a bit while she was there by skipping meat dishes and main courses and eating mostly rice. The locals thought she was odd and warned her that it would make her fat. She thought she knew better and ended up coming home ten pounds heavier.
By the way, I sure would love my posts to have a title. Is it cause I'm a mac that I don't get the option?
I saw a three hour special program called, "Sushi, Donburi, Ramen!"
on a Japanese-American TV station in Hawaii. I watched every minute of it, drueling, and whining, "I want that!"
Anyways, they featured each food from the title, respectively, for one hour of the program. It was sort of like a game show too, these two men, one dressed in white the other dressed in red, would try to get a panel of judges to vote for their "side". For example: During the sushi portion of the show, the guy in white was trying to persuade the judges that exotic fish sushi is the best. While the guy in red tried to persuade them that "mountain" sushi made from mountain vegetables is the better choice. White team also tried to convince the judges that yellowtail was better than the red team's choice of tuna.
Well, when they got to the ramen hour, I was dying!!!! First they spoke about a group of people in Japan who call themselves the "ramen-freaks". I could relate. These guys loved ramen almost to the point of perversion.
Then they gave them the opportunity to team up with their favorite ramen shop owners, and design the ultimate dream ramen!
It all seemed so exciting, they were adding things like apples and peanut butter along with whole lobsters and crabs!!! Then they brought in the "fantasy-ramens" for tasting by the judges. How exciting!
Well, that's all I wanted to say.
By the way, I love this site.
Gregg, regarding your comment about the relative "healthiness" of ramen…
I don't know about restaurant ramen, but the packaged ramen that most of us eat in America is incredibly bad for you. That's because what most people assume is a dried noodle (like pasta) is really a fried noodle (traditionally in palm oil, which along other tropical oils is the worst you can eat). I've got a package in front of me. They say a serving is 1/2 a block; I'm going to ignore that because who eats half a package of ramen?
Here's the tally:
14 grams of fat! In saturated fat you're getting 36% of your daily allowance right there!
1,560mg of Sodium! (from the seasoning packet) that's 66% of your daily allowance. No wonder I'm thirsty the rest of the day after eating this stuff.
And then there's absolutely nothing of nutritional value in these noodles, except they're forced to use enriched flour so you'll get some trace amount of vitamins.
But I still like 'em. I'm gonna go boil some water….
I must admit i love most noodles, preferable chinese chow mein. Not healthy but delicious all the same!
Packet ramen is usually fat i agree. But now in the UK here you get fat free ones which are dried rather than fried. Traditional ramen which is fresh is also not fried so that is good for you too.
You can also go for the soba noodle or udon option if you want less fat. Though usually i find its what you add to it that makes it unhealthy… ie throw that sachet of oil away! And all that tempura that you have along with the noodles.. lol
Fat Free Ramen, hmmm, sounds pretty un-appetizing
Yes, fresh ramen noodles do not have fat. It's the soup used for traditional ramen that is all fat. Note: this has nothing to do with instant ramen that comes in styrofoam or cardboard bowls. I'm talking about real ramen you get at a ramen restaurant or a ramen cart.
Damn! it's good though.
Maybe because UDON and SOBA have no fat is the reason I don't really like them
Tempura on the other hand, well, in the states I was never a huge fan but recently I've been getting addicted to the kinds sold here because there is a ton of variety. Lots of patty style like a patty of small shimp or a patty of scallops and potatoes. All kinds. YUM!
i´m about to open a ramen restaurant in linz, austria. i love ramen above all kinds of food, ever since i got the taste in wagamama, london. i would love to hear more about ingredients/toppings… what can they be apart from the usual stuff… write to oliver_horn@gmx.at
i personally have dreams of opening up a ramen shop.. however, i don’t know how to start since i know nothing of how to make the real dishes, nor do i know anyone, personally, who could help me. to top it all off, my japanese is.. pretty lacking. if there is anyone who could direct me to some help in this matter, i would be very thankful if they did so.
on the subject of ramen being healthy? it’s not the noodles that are good for you, it’s the stuff you put in it. from what i know, noodles are used much in the way that rice and shoyu are: filler/packaging. it’s like pickling things and then people eventually liking pickles. they’re just ways of storing or stretching the effectiveness of more perishable things like fish and vegetables.
ta,
danae >^..^<
I plan to go to Tokyo soon, and I had a quick question(s).
Are most Japanese resteraunts in little alley streets over in tokyo? Every time i watch a Japanese film it seems that people like to eat in these little tiny places in these very narrow alley like streets.
I also hear that there are no American style Japanese resteraunts that serve everything. All these resteraunts focus on one particular type of Japanese food….like your ramen shop for example. Do they only serve ramen? Not even Soba or Udon? That’s interesting.
Tokyo fascinates me lol. I’m so damn curious.
There are both kinds of small hidden and non hidden restaurants. I would say most restaurants are out in the open although quite a few have signs only in Japanese so if they are on the 4th floor of some building you’d probably not know to look unless you can read the kanji.
There are both restaurants that serve basically one thing and ones that serve a little of each. A cheap izakaya generally serves a little of each. They are huge chains here in Japan. Try Watami (和民) or Shirokiya (白木屋). You can find one or more around nearly every large station in Japan. Generally though the more specialized a restaurant is the more delicious.
Hi. I liked your page about the ramen. I was wondering if you or anyone reading this could help me out. I got back from Tokyo about a month ago and I realize that for the rest of my life I will regret not getting the name of the ramen dish I had that one fateful night…
It was very orange and kind of spicy. cloudy but not white. It had ground pork bits in it and green onion on top (i know that’s, like, all of them). No large chunks of anything, just the ground pork.
It was quite possibly one of the most delicious bowls of food I have ever eaten and I didn’t think to get the name at the time.
HELP. I just need some names and I’ll search for recipes from there. I doubt I will ever get it exact but close would be good enough until I can save money to go back.
I think you are looking for Tantanmen.
Most Tantanmen has a scoop of ground pork on top. The soup is usually spicy and not clear.
My favorites are Wan-zhu-ji and Koumen
im 11 and i love ramen. whenever i go to japan i always eat t. my favorite place to get it is in a place in the center of tokyo. cool site and awesome pick
I loved you ramen page. I’m savin up to go to Japan…but it’ll have to be in a year or two (i’m only 17 and my mum would not let me lol) My best fiend and i plan to go together when we’re 19. I love japan and i love learning new things about Japan =] I’m currently teaching myself basic japanese (tokyo dialect) but i’m enrolling in a class in the summer (cant wait). I hope you write more and more about your experiences, and hve many happy memories there =] God bless =]
Iman
I could eat ramen everyday. And yes, it’s the oily soup that’s fatty, but unfortunately, soup is the best part!!! Ramen culture is what you call, “oku ga fukai”, right? Literally means, “deep”/”not superficial” – my point is, I don’t know about folks who wants to open up ramen restaurants around the world, without having any knowledge of the history and culture of Japan, not to mention any REAL skills…