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A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

239 points by jasonmp85 11y ago

thewhizkid 11y ago
Missing my favorite! "Tori pai tan" from Kagari in Tokyo. Literally "white chicken soup." http://i.imgur.com/e4vS59N.jpg http://i.imgur.com/e4vS59N.jpg
- sdrothrock 11y ago
  I can't tell from the picture on my phone -- is that a clear chicken soup or a fatty chicken soup? Daikichi in Yushima, Tokyo also has a very good (clear) chicken soup -- it's not uncommon to see people lining up before it even opens.
jpatokal 11y ago
While this is a pretty epic listing (well done!), it's still not even close to complete. My personal pet peeve omission is Okinawa soba, which despite the name is very much in the ramen family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba And if the god of ramen is Hakata-style tonkotsu, its temple is Ichiran: http://blog.gaijinpot.com/ichiran-ramen-without-word/ http://blog.gaijinpot.com/ichiran-ramen-without-word/ And while it's a tourist trap, Yokohama's Ramen Museum is still a good way to sample many of these: http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/ http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/
- sdrothrock 11y ago
  I was also surprised to see no mention of Sano-style ramen, which spread a lot and was/is fairly popular. Though, to be fair, it's hard to make a comprehensive guide of even major regional styles of ramen without writing a small book!
- actcutemonster 11y ago
  There's also the momofuku instant ramen museum in Ikeda, (Osaka) where you can design and create your own instant cup ramen. Loads of tourists and local families with kids, but worth visiting if you have 2 hours to kill.
- shostack 11y ago
  THANK YOU! Went to Japan on my honeymoon and totally forgot the name of one of my favorite ramen meals--Ichiran! Truly amazing ramen. I'd also add the sesame ramen I had at Fujiyama Go Go in Kanazawa was amazing (yes, I know they are a chain).
siliconc0w 11y ago
There used to be a chain in LA called "Chin-ma-ya" that served a variety called "tantanmen" that I haven't found elsewhere. Both the torrance and little tokyo location closed and now I only have vague memories of their terrible looping music to satiate me. You can get tankotsu anywhere but only they had the delicious tantanmen with the golden fried shrimp and the curry-side-dish-thingy. I barely appreciated them when they were here and now I crave what I cannot have.
- sdrothrock 11y ago
  For what it's worth, I live in Japan and even though tantanmen is common here, I've never had it with fried shrimp or a curry side dish, so it's very likely a special thing for that particular chain.
- greggman 11y ago
  > You can get tankotsu anywhere First it's tonkotsu(豚骨). not trying to be snarky. Just passing on info. But second, at least in my experience, all tonkotsu in LA sucks except Tsujita. And even Tsujita sucks unless you get their tsukemen or as they call them "dipping noodles". Or course everything in food is subjective. I like extremely rich flavorful noodles. Some people like light flavors. As for tantanmen, apparently real tantanmen (if you can call any food real) is the Chinese kind where there's a thick oily spice sauce at the bottom of the bowl and you have to stir it up. In other words there's no soup. In Japan there's another style of tantanmen which is has a soup broth. As usual there's a wide variety from light to heavy. The light stuff is not for me but the heavy stuff is AMAZING!!!! http://i.imgur.com/NzBzAdN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/NzBzAdN.jpg This is from a chain called 万豚記 (wan-zhu-ji) (memory of ten thousand pigs). It's owned by a corporation that has a zillion restaurants in Japan. http://kiwa-group.co.jp/brand_search.php http://kiwa-group.co.jp/brand_search.php many of them carry this style of heavy tantanmen which I love
  - amyjess 11y ago
    > As for tantanmen, apparently real tantanmen (if you can call any food real) is the Chinese kind where there's a thick oily spice sauce at the bottom of the bowl and you have to stir it up. In other words there's no soup. Oh, yes. The Chinese word is dandanmian, though, and most English-language menus will write it as "dan dan noodles" (and I've seen it written as "dong dong noodles", too). Where I live (Dallas suburbs), there's one really amazing authentic Sichuan place -- Royal Sichuan -- which serves actual, authentic dandanmian, and it's some of the best food I've ever had in my life. I can't get enough of it.
mrdmnd 11y ago
This is a great write-up. I had the fortune of visiting a national Ramen festival in Japan (and the privilege of being on national Japanese television as the novel white-person!) and I really enjoyed sampling the various regional varieties all in one place. There's an astounding degree of variation that I wouldn't have predicted, a priori.
contingencies 11y ago
Historical and geographical context of Japanese ramen from a Chinese cultural perspective: ra part is derived from 拉 (Mandarin la) which means pulled and refers to the process of making the noodles, the men part is derived from 麺 (Mandarin mian) which is the traditional Chinese character for noodles (面 is the simplified form). In modern China, this 麺/面 normally describes long-form wheat noodles however other types of wheat noodles (such as knife-cut noodles), egg noodles, various bean noodles and rice noodles are also popular and some of them are described with the same character. However, many are produced using alternate methods such as squashing through a press or manually slicing a large, pancake-like, thin, often doubled-over piece of noodle material in to noodle-like strands, or by cutting chunks off a block of dough. China has a lot of noodle traditions, probably (logically for its size and population) far more than Japan. Personally I'm a fan of 米干 or mi gan which is a Tai-style broad flat fresh rice noodle normally prepared in the southwest and 刀削面 (dao xue mian) or knife-cut noodles which hail from north-western China. Modern mainland China's instant noodle tradition, probably partly re-inspired by Japan's (possibly via Hong Kong) is known as 方便面 (fangbian mian) or 'convenience noodles'. A Taiwanese academic take on this whole thing would be interesting. Note that the Wikipedia page for Ramen[1] is laughable in claiming the origin of ramen is unclear. It's clearly Chinese. Interestingly however, it claims the Japanese only began to use the term ramen after the 1950s, ie. after they invaded China, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam (all but Korea being huge noodle consumers). Previously the Japanese used other terms which directly attributed the tradition to China. While there is apparently no clear evidence, one could reliably assume that Buddhist monks and other travelers around the Nara period[2] would have brought knowledge of Chinese and Central Asian foodstuffs back to Japan from post Silk Road China. As a postscript to be fair (borrowing happens in many directions!), so-called Chinese baozi (包子) or steamed buns are actually Turkic in origin, as attributed by surviving Yuan Dynasty cookbooks (see also Jewish, Polish, Russian, Tibetan traditions). The same sources include an early recipe for baklavah which has since died out in China... probably in the anti-foreign repression following the Mongol Yuan Dynasty at the dawn of the Ming, which incidentally was when Zhenghe sailed his great Chinese fleet to Southeast Asia and Africa. Also, some people claim Italy's noodle tradition is a post-Marco Polo thing (who, some credible evidence attests, was actually from the now Croatian island of Dubrovnik, under the sway of the piratical Venetian empire but not 'Italian' per-se). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen#History [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanto_Rikush%C5%AB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanto_Rikush%C5%AB
amitlan 11y ago
I love Ippudo's spiciest on the menu, here in Tokyo. Supposed to be Hakata-style. Like to top it with gyoza.
fmax30 11y ago
I really want to try ramen, but i don't like meat. Is there any Vegetarian friendly ramen?
- WaxProlix 11y ago
  It's pretty rare, and most so in the more traditional places. Even if there's no meat in the ramen, the broth is generally pork (occasionally chicken) based.
  - robin_reala 11y ago
    If you look out a miso broth then you’re probably OK. My wife has fish and shellfish allergies, but a surprising number of places were OK with that. The scary one for her is my favourite: kitsune udon. What looks like a block of fried tofu traditionally has bonito flakes mixed in before cooking.
  - patio11 11y ago
    Funny story time: in my late and unlamented career as a translator, I was attached to a pair of US artists visiting Gifu's international arts and crafts fair. Both were vegans and expressed a desire to have vegan ramen. I explained this to the ramen shop proprietor. He came out with a bowl of ramen with chashu (pork) on top of it. When I pointed out that pork does in fact count as a meat product, he plucked it off with chopsticks. I then said "Excuse me, I don't mean to be a bother about this, but I can't help but notice that you poured the broth from a pan marked Pig. Is there, I don't know, pork in the broth?" "Oh you read Japanese!" "Yep, literacy is a handy quality in a translator." "Do your guests read Japanese?" "No." "Then as far as they know it's hearty vegetable broth now isn't it!"
    - douche 11y ago
      Haha, the real question is, did they notice the difference? Or did they just say, "Damn, that was the best vegetable broth I've ever had!"
      - 11y ago
smegel 11y ago
I remember being in Fukuoka and visiting the so called "ramen stadium" at the top of some shopping complex. More varieties than you could poke a stick at, and all purchasable via ticket machine only. I ended up getting some random thing that had pork, and what appeared to be quail eggs in a black broth. I can see why they like their ramen.
- nulltype 11y ago
  There's a similar one in Kyoto at the JR Rail station that is very nice with 8 styles of ramen, all in different little sit down restaurants with ticket machines: http://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-ramen-koji http://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-ramen-koji
  - Keats 11y ago
    I remember going to both and getting lost in the sea of choices. A bit like the food courts in Singapore/HK. Fukuoka also has food stalls with plenty of good ramen if someone is heading there
archagon 11y ago
I'm a bit saddened that we don't seem to have too many of these kinds of "multiple ingredient, endless variation" style foods here in the US. Most regional fare (pizza, BBQ) is comparatively simple. Or is it just me?
- chipsy 11y ago
  The US has lots of sandwich variants. Sometimes we use dipping sauces or soup sides, sometimes the ingredients are unusual, there are various styles of bread, toasted vs. untoasted, etc. This is a food genre that is shared with Europe and the Commonwealth, of course, but original variants abound here.
  - archagon 11y ago
    True, I was just thinking about that! But on the other hand, it's hard to compare a sandwich — something that usually takes no more than an hour of cooking, total — with ramen, whose broth can take several days to make, and whose flavorants alone have rich traditions and endless varieties. EDIT: But I suppose it becomes a lot more true if you factor in the bread, and include things like bagels.
    - mmanfrin 11y ago
      I think you're looking at the other side of the fence with too rosy of glasses. Is not bread for those sandwiches labor intensive? The fillings too -- all sorts of roasts and vegetables and pickles and meats that can each take a while to make. Why is it that 'broth' is allowed to add to the time of Ramen when these things arent allowed to add to the time of a sandwich? Not to mention BBQ is something that does take a lot of time -- 2, 4, 8, 24 hours of BBQing, even multiple days if you sous vide it.
      - archagon 11y ago
        Yes, you're right. I thought of Katz's right after I posted that! As for BBQ, I am not saying that it's an unworthy food in any way. It's just that ramen seems to have a lot more variations on account of all the different combinations of ingredients. (Broth, base, fillings, noodles.) Same with pasta in Italy. That's what I mean by "simple". (Though, yes, I suppose there are a whole lot of sauces and rubs, too.)
xerophyte12932 11y ago
Is there any type of Ramen that doesn't use Pork?? I wouldn't want to miss out on Ramen just because i dont eat Pork.
- greggman 11y ago
  There's many kinds of ramen. Pork is one of the most common. There's chicken ramen. There's salt ramen. There's soy sauce ramen. There's miso ramen. And there's every combination. Soy+Miso+Chicken, Chicken+Pork, Pork+Sardine+Miso, Salt+Shrimp+Pork, Tomato, Cheese :P You will find it hard to know for sure if there's no pork though because even if it's labeled salt-ramen if you look at the details it might say made with pork as well.
  - Mifuyuu 11y ago
    You forgot the seafood based combinations! They have pure seafood bases too, though. My Japanese friend brought me to a shop in Tokyo that apparently specialised in a 100% seafood base/stock. It was light compared to the meat-based stock but equally good.
  - jpatokal 11y ago
    While it's not uncommon to mix in chicken, fish etc, virtually all ramen stock is pork based though. There are porkless variants, but you'd have to look pretty hard to find them.
- crimsonalucard 11y ago
  Not eating pork guarantees you'll be missing out on Ramen just like how you're missing out on bacon. You can always go for imitation bacon or non-pork based Ramen but the experience is different.
- amyjess 11y ago
  Shoyu ramen is often based on chicken stock. If they serve it with pork as a topping, you can probably ask them to leave it off.
twoy 11y ago
I like ramen, but I am careful about frequency of eating ramen. It is known among Japanese that extreme ramen freaks have short life. We Japanese maybe tend to be salt addicted. So careful people eat soup moderately.
- mahouse 11y ago
  It is about the salt only, or is there something else? I'm curious because ramen sounds like something that should be healthy.
  - 6t6t6 11y ago
    https://www.google.es/search?q=naritake+ramen&tbm=isch https://www.google.es/search?q=naritake+ramen&tbm=isch The layer of oil floating over the stock, the corn, the pork and the butter topping doesn't help neither. If you want healthy noodles, you can try Soba instead. https://www.google.es/search?q=soba&tbm=isch https://www.google.es/search?q=soba&tbm=isch
  - oska 11y ago
    2014 study [1], press release [2], and interpretive article [3]: Instant noodle intake and dietary patterns are associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors in Korea [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24966409 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24966409 [2] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121642.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121642.ht... [3] http://www.care2.com/causes/did-you-know-instant-ramen-noodles-were-this-bad-for-you.html http://www.care2.com/causes/did-you-know-instant-ramen-noodl...
    - justincormack 11y ago
      Instant ramen is potentially rather different from freshly prepared ramen though, eg in terms of salt content, additives etc.
  - oh_sigh 11y ago
    It may just be people who eat ramen all the time are more typically stressed out, don't care about health, etc.
actcutemonster 11y ago
What about instant ramen? While it's not entirely a fair comparison to freshly made ones, the Japs have certainly pioneered and mastered the skill of churning out instant ramen that has "fresh" pork/seafood in it. Personally, I prefer the dry soba to the soupy ones.
- TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
  > the Japs In the United States, "Jap" is an ethnic slur. You might want to use another word.
  - actcutemonster 11y ago
    Wasn't aware of that, my bad. In Singapore (where I'm from) it doesn't have any negative connotation.
  - tosseraccount 11y ago
    But it's okay to call the English "Brits".
    - Figs 11y ago
      It's a legacy from WWII. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap
    - beachstartup 11y ago
      try calling one a lobsterback and see what happens. different groups have different insults. welcome to reality.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    only in the usa because of war propaganda shame :( it's pretty common and non offensive elsewhere. not sure about uk... but other English speaking counties and latin countries use the term just fine
TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
http://youtu.be/RosUc9UVuos http://youtu.be/RosUc9UVuos
ExcitedByNoise 11y ago
I didn't see it mentioned, but if you're not subscribed to the Lucky Peach, it's a really great publication. I happened upon Issue 1 (the Ramen issue) in a grocery store a few years ago and I've subscribed ever since.
crimsonalucard 11y ago
Funny how this is related to hacking. I guess a lot of devs love this stuff.
- norman784 11y ago
  Yeah, everybody likes food. And oriental food are better IMO than our fast food (more vegetables and less fat)
  - amyjess 11y ago
    Ramen is, like, pure carbs, though.
- ludamad 11y ago
  Hacker news frequently features arbitrary web content that is well designed or such. You could argue for a loose relation

239 points by jasonmp85 11y ago

Missing my favorite! "Tori pai tan" from Kagari in Tokyo. Literally "white chicken soup." http://i.imgur.com/e4vS59N.jpg http://i.imgur.com/e4vS59N.jpg

sdrothrock 11y ago
I can't tell from the picture on my phone -- is that a clear chicken soup or a fatty chicken soup? Daikichi in Yushima, Tokyo also has a very good (clear) chicken soup -- it's not uncommon to see people lining up before it even opens.

jpatokal 11y ago

While this is a pretty epic listing (well done!), it's still not even close to complete. My personal pet peeve omission is Okinawa soba, which despite the name is very much in the ramen family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba And if the god of ramen is Hakata-style tonkotsu, its temple is Ichiran: http://blog.gaijinpot.com/ichiran-ramen-without-word/ http://blog.gaijinpot.com/ichiran-ramen-without-word/ And while it's a tourist trap, Yokohama's Ramen Museum is still a good way to sample many of these: http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/ http://www.raumen.co.jp/english/

sdrothrock 11y ago
I was also surprised to see no mention of Sano-style ramen, which spread a lot and was/is fairly popular. Though, to be fair, it's hard to make a comprehensive guide of even major regional styles of ramen without writing a small book!
actcutemonster 11y ago
There's also the momofuku instant ramen museum in Ikeda, (Osaka) where you can design and create your own instant cup ramen. Loads of tourists and local families with kids, but worth visiting if you have 2 hours to kill.
shostack 11y ago
THANK YOU! Went to Japan on my honeymoon and totally forgot the name of one of my favorite ramen meals--Ichiran! Truly amazing ramen. I'd also add the sesame ramen I had at Fujiyama Go Go in Kanazawa was amazing (yes, I know they are a chain).

siliconc0w 11y ago

There used to be a chain in LA called "Chin-ma-ya" that served a variety called "tantanmen" that I haven't found elsewhere. Both the torrance and little tokyo location closed and now I only have vague memories of their terrible looping music to satiate me. You can get tankotsu anywhere but only they had the delicious tantanmen with the golden fried shrimp and the curry-side-dish-thingy. I barely appreciated them when they were here and now I crave what I cannot have.

sdrothrock 11y ago
For what it's worth, I live in Japan and even though tantanmen is common here, I've never had it with fried shrimp or a curry side dish, so it's very likely a special thing for that particular chain.
greggman 11y ago
> You can get tankotsu anywhere First it's tonkotsu(豚骨). not trying to be snarky. Just passing on info. But second, at least in my experience, all tonkotsu in LA sucks except Tsujita. And even Tsujita sucks unless you get their tsukemen or as they call them "dipping noodles". Or course everything in food is subjective. I like extremely rich flavorful noodles. Some people like light flavors. As for tantanmen, apparently real tantanmen (if you can call any food real) is the Chinese kind where there's a thick oily spice sauce at the bottom of the bowl and you have to stir it up. In other words there's no soup. In Japan there's another style of tantanmen which is has a soup broth. As usual there's a wide variety from light to heavy. The light stuff is not for me but the heavy stuff is AMAZING!!!! http://i.imgur.com/NzBzAdN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/NzBzAdN.jpg This is from a chain called 万豚記 (wan-zhu-ji) (memory of ten thousand pigs). It's owned by a corporation that has a zillion restaurants in Japan. http://kiwa-group.co.jp/brand_search.php http://kiwa-group.co.jp/brand_search.php many of them carry this style of heavy tantanmen which I love
- amyjess 11y ago
  > As for tantanmen, apparently real tantanmen (if you can call any food real) is the Chinese kind where there's a thick oily spice sauce at the bottom of the bowl and you have to stir it up. In other words there's no soup. Oh, yes. The Chinese word is dandanmian, though, and most English-language menus will write it as "dan dan noodles" (and I've seen it written as "dong dong noodles", too). Where I live (Dallas suburbs), there's one really amazing authentic Sichuan place -- Royal Sichuan -- which serves actual, authentic dandanmian, and it's some of the best food I've ever had in my life. I can't get enough of it.

mrdmnd 11y ago

This is a great write-up. I had the fortune of visiting a national Ramen festival in Japan (and the privilege of being on national Japanese television as the novel white-person!) and I really enjoyed sampling the various regional varieties all in one place. There's an astounding degree of variation that I wouldn't have predicted, a priori.

contingencies 11y ago

Historical and geographical context of Japanese ramen from a Chinese cultural perspective: ra part is derived from 拉 (Mandarin la) which means pulled and refers to the process of making the noodles, the men part is derived from 麺 (Mandarin mian) which is the traditional Chinese character for noodles (面 is the simplified form). In modern China, this 麺/面 normally describes long-form wheat noodles however other types of wheat noodles (such as knife-cut noodles), egg noodles, various bean noodles and rice noodles are also popular and some of them are described with the same character. However, many are produced using alternate methods such as squashing through a press or manually slicing a large, pancake-like, thin, often doubled-over piece of noodle material in to noodle-like strands, or by cutting chunks off a block of dough. China has a lot of noodle traditions, probably (logically for its size and population) far more than Japan. Personally I'm a fan of 米干 or mi gan which is a Tai-style broad flat fresh rice noodle normally prepared in the southwest and 刀削面 (dao xue mian) or knife-cut noodles which hail from north-western China. Modern mainland China's instant noodle tradition, probably partly re-inspired by Japan's (possibly via Hong Kong) is known as 方便面 (fangbian mian) or 'convenience noodles'. A Taiwanese academic take on this whole thing would be interesting. Note that the Wikipedia page for Ramen[1] is laughable in claiming the origin of ramen is unclear. It's clearly Chinese. Interestingly however, it claims the Japanese only began to use the term ramen after the 1950s, ie. after they invaded China, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam (all but Korea being huge noodle consumers). Previously the Japanese used other terms which directly attributed the tradition to China. While there is apparently no clear evidence, one could reliably assume that Buddhist monks and other travelers around the Nara period[2] would have brought knowledge of Chinese and Central Asian foodstuffs back to Japan from post Silk Road China. As a postscript to be fair (borrowing happens in many directions!), so-called Chinese baozi (包子) or steamed buns are actually Turkic in origin, as attributed by surviving Yuan Dynasty cookbooks (see also Jewish, Polish, Russian, Tibetan traditions). The same sources include an early recipe for baklavah which has since died out in China... probably in the anti-foreign repression following the Mongol Yuan Dynasty at the dawn of the Ming, which incidentally was when Zhenghe sailed his great Chinese fleet to Southeast Asia and Africa. Also, some people claim Italy's noodle tradition is a post-Marco Polo thing (who, some credible evidence attests, was actually from the now Croatian island of Dubrovnik, under the sway of the piratical Venetian empire but not 'Italian' per-se). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen#History [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanto_Rikush%C5%AB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanto_Rikush%C5%AB

amitlan 11y ago

I love Ippudo's spiciest on the menu, here in Tokyo. Supposed to be Hakata-style. Like to top it with gyoza.

fmax30 11y ago

I really want to try ramen, but i don't like meat. Is there any Vegetarian friendly ramen?

WaxProlix 11y ago
It's pretty rare, and most so in the more traditional places. Even if there's no meat in the ramen, the broth is generally pork (occasionally chicken) based.
- robin_reala 11y ago
  If you look out a miso broth then you’re probably OK. My wife has fish and shellfish allergies, but a surprising number of places were OK with that. The scary one for her is my favourite: kitsune udon. What looks like a block of fried tofu traditionally has bonito flakes mixed in before cooking.
- patio11 11y ago
  Funny story time: in my late and unlamented career as a translator, I was attached to a pair of US artists visiting Gifu's international arts and crafts fair. Both were vegans and expressed a desire to have vegan ramen. I explained this to the ramen shop proprietor. He came out with a bowl of ramen with chashu (pork) on top of it. When I pointed out that pork does in fact count as a meat product, he plucked it off with chopsticks. I then said "Excuse me, I don't mean to be a bother about this, but I can't help but notice that you poured the broth from a pan marked Pig. Is there, I don't know, pork in the broth?" "Oh you read Japanese!" "Yep, literacy is a handy quality in a translator." "Do your guests read Japanese?" "No." "Then as far as they know it's hearty vegetable broth now isn't it!"
  - douche 11y ago
    Haha, the real question is, did they notice the difference? Or did they just say, "Damn, that was the best vegetable broth I've ever had!"
    - 11y ago

smegel 11y ago

I remember being in Fukuoka and visiting the so called "ramen stadium" at the top of some shopping complex. More varieties than you could poke a stick at, and all purchasable via ticket machine only. I ended up getting some random thing that had pork, and what appeared to be quail eggs in a black broth. I can see why they like their ramen.

nulltype 11y ago
There's a similar one in Kyoto at the JR Rail station that is very nice with 8 styles of ramen, all in different little sit down restaurants with ticket machines: http://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-ramen-koji http://www.insidekyoto.com/kyoto-ramen-koji
- Keats 11y ago
  I remember going to both and getting lost in the sea of choices. A bit like the food courts in Singapore/HK. Fukuoka also has food stalls with plenty of good ramen if someone is heading there

archagon 11y ago

I'm a bit saddened that we don't seem to have too many of these kinds of "multiple ingredient, endless variation" style foods here in the US. Most regional fare (pizza, BBQ) is comparatively simple. Or is it just me?

chipsy 11y ago
The US has lots of sandwich variants. Sometimes we use dipping sauces or soup sides, sometimes the ingredients are unusual, there are various styles of bread, toasted vs. untoasted, etc. This is a food genre that is shared with Europe and the Commonwealth, of course, but original variants abound here.
- archagon 11y ago
  True, I was just thinking about that! But on the other hand, it's hard to compare a sandwich — something that usually takes no more than an hour of cooking, total — with ramen, whose broth can take several days to make, and whose flavorants alone have rich traditions and endless varieties. EDIT: But I suppose it becomes a lot more true if you factor in the bread, and include things like bagels.
  - mmanfrin 11y ago
    I think you're looking at the other side of the fence with too rosy of glasses. Is not bread for those sandwiches labor intensive? The fillings too -- all sorts of roasts and vegetables and pickles and meats that can each take a while to make. Why is it that 'broth' is allowed to add to the time of Ramen when these things arent allowed to add to the time of a sandwich? Not to mention BBQ is something that does take a lot of time -- 2, 4, 8, 24 hours of BBQing, even multiple days if you sous vide it.
    - archagon 11y ago
      Yes, you're right. I thought of Katz's right after I posted that! As for BBQ, I am not saying that it's an unworthy food in any way. It's just that ramen seems to have a lot more variations on account of all the different combinations of ingredients. (Broth, base, fillings, noodles.) Same with pasta in Italy. That's what I mean by "simple". (Though, yes, I suppose there are a whole lot of sauces and rubs, too.)

xerophyte12932 11y ago

Is there any type of Ramen that doesn't use Pork?? I wouldn't want to miss out on Ramen just because i dont eat Pork.

greggman 11y ago
There's many kinds of ramen. Pork is one of the most common. There's chicken ramen. There's salt ramen. There's soy sauce ramen. There's miso ramen. And there's every combination. Soy+Miso+Chicken, Chicken+Pork, Pork+Sardine+Miso, Salt+Shrimp+Pork, Tomato, Cheese :P You will find it hard to know for sure if there's no pork though because even if it's labeled salt-ramen if you look at the details it might say made with pork as well.
- Mifuyuu 11y ago
  You forgot the seafood based combinations! They have pure seafood bases too, though. My Japanese friend brought me to a shop in Tokyo that apparently specialised in a 100% seafood base/stock. It was light compared to the meat-based stock but equally good.
- jpatokal 11y ago
  While it's not uncommon to mix in chicken, fish etc, virtually all ramen stock is pork based though. There are porkless variants, but you'd have to look pretty hard to find them.
crimsonalucard 11y ago
Not eating pork guarantees you'll be missing out on Ramen just like how you're missing out on bacon. You can always go for imitation bacon or non-pork based Ramen but the experience is different.
amyjess 11y ago
Shoyu ramen is often based on chicken stock. If they serve it with pork as a topping, you can probably ask them to leave it off.

twoy 11y ago

I like ramen, but I am careful about frequency of eating ramen. It is known among Japanese that extreme ramen freaks have short life. We Japanese maybe tend to be salt addicted. So careful people eat soup moderately.

mahouse 11y ago
It is about the salt only, or is there something else? I'm curious because ramen sounds like something that should be healthy.
- 6t6t6 11y ago
  https://www.google.es/search?q=naritake+ramen&tbm=isch https://www.google.es/search?q=naritake+ramen&tbm=isch The layer of oil floating over the stock, the corn, the pork and the butter topping doesn't help neither. If you want healthy noodles, you can try Soba instead. https://www.google.es/search?q=soba&tbm=isch https://www.google.es/search?q=soba&tbm=isch
- oska 11y ago
  2014 study [1], press release [2], and interpretive article [3]: Instant noodle intake and dietary patterns are associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors in Korea [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24966409 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24966409 [2] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121642.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121642.ht... [3] http://www.care2.com/causes/did-you-know-instant-ramen-noodles-were-this-bad-for-you.html http://www.care2.com/causes/did-you-know-instant-ramen-noodl...
  - justincormack 11y ago
    Instant ramen is potentially rather different from freshly prepared ramen though, eg in terms of salt content, additives etc.
- oh_sigh 11y ago
  It may just be people who eat ramen all the time are more typically stressed out, don't care about health, etc.

actcutemonster 11y ago

What about instant ramen? While it's not entirely a fair comparison to freshly made ones, the Japs have certainly pioneered and mastered the skill of churning out instant ramen that has "fresh" pork/seafood in it. Personally, I prefer the dry soba to the soupy ones.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
> the Japs In the United States, "Jap" is an ethnic slur. You might want to use another word.
- actcutemonster 11y ago
  Wasn't aware of that, my bad. In Singapore (where I'm from) it doesn't have any negative connotation.
- tosseraccount 11y ago
  But it's okay to call the English "Brits".
  - Figs 11y ago
    It's a legacy from WWII. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap
  - beachstartup 11y ago
    try calling one a lobsterback and see what happens. different groups have different insults. welcome to reality.
- gcb0 11y ago
  only in the usa because of war propaganda shame :( it's pretty common and non offensive elsewhere. not sure about uk... but other English speaking counties and latin countries use the term just fine

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

http://youtu.be/RosUc9UVuos http://youtu.be/RosUc9UVuos

ExcitedByNoise 11y ago

I didn't see it mentioned, but if you're not subscribed to the Lucky Peach, it's a really great publication. I happened upon Issue 1 (the Ramen issue) in a grocery store a few years ago and I've subscribed ever since.

crimsonalucard 11y ago

Funny how this is related to hacking. I guess a lot of devs love this stuff.

norman784 11y ago
Yeah, everybody likes food. And oriental food are better IMO than our fast food (more vegetables and less fat)
- amyjess 11y ago
  Ramen is, like, pure carbs, though.
ludamad 11y ago
Hacker news frequently features arbitrary web content that is well designed or such. You could argue for a loose relation