Tag - ramen

 
 

RAMEN

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 16, 2016
Hakata, Nagahama, Kurume: A guide to Fukuoka's best ramen styles
Fukuoka was named the world's seventh most-livable city by Monocle magazine this year for its eco- and business friendly initiatives — but its status as a ramen mecca couldn't have hurt. Within Japan, Fukuoka is known, perhaps more than anything else, for tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen, thanks in part to local ramen giants Ippudo and Ichiran. Both of these mega-chains make Hakata-style ramen: tonkotsu broth cooked at a rolling boil and served with thin, sturdy noodles. Thanks largely to the success of Ippudo and Ichiran, this basic style — named for the Hakata neighborhood where it was born — has become synonymous with tonkotsu ramen itself. Hakata ramen may loom large in Fukuoka, but other local styles still shine in its shadow.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2016
Kazami: A noodle joint that's hard to find but worth the hunt
It takes considerable confidence to open a new restaurant at the hottest time of the year, when people's appetites are at their lowest ebb. To locate it down a narrow alley hidden from sight of Ginza's passing foot traffic seems even more foolhardy. But ramen shops work according to different rules — especially when they're as excellent as Kazami.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2016
Menya Nukaji: Righteous ramen on the fringe of Shibuya
In many ways, Menya Nukaji is the archetypal artisan noodle counter. Run by a ramen enthusiast who developed his own recipes and set up with his wife, it barely seats eight people and is tucked out of sight on a quiet side street. But the word has been spreading in the two years since owner Hiroshi Nukui moved from suburban Setagaya Ward to the fringe of Shibuya, just around the corner from the Tokyu Hands department store.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2016
Kumamoto ramen chain serves up bowls for evacuees
About 1,000 people formed long lines in the cold night air Monday at a shelter in the quake-hit town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, to get a warm bowl of ramen noodles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Mar 25, 2016
Ramen Yashichi: Enjoy some of the city's best noodles without lining up
Yashichi is a notable ramen shop on two counts: it ranked 39 on review website Tabelog's top 50 ramen restaurants for 2016 and has devised a way of dealing with its popularity by eliminating long lines to get it. Rather, when you pull up to its ramshackle exterior, one of the servers will issue you with a ticket indicating a time when you should return. Waiting time is usually about an hour.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 4, 2016
Rokurinsha Haneda Airport: Exit Japan with some superlative noodles inside you
Check in, pass straight through immigration, take a left turn and look for people with their heads bent over noodle bowls. You have arrived at Rokurinsha.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KONBINI WATCH
Feb 12, 2016
Can instant vegan ramen satisfy like the meaty original?
Enjoying instant ramen might seem like a impossible situation for vegans living in Japan, considering nearly every option on convenience store shelves contains some sort of animal product.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jan 15, 2016
Kobushi: Ramen with spinach, chicken and a motorbike
One of the differences between a restaurant chain and an independently owned restaurant is that the latter tolerates — even encourages — eccentricity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Oct 23, 2015
Vegan ramen isn't just for women on a diet
In the four years since it opened, ramen chain Soranoiro has garnered widespread praise — and for good reason. In addition to its standard shoyu and shiō-based ramen, it also offers more adventurous concoctions including ramen with sudachi (Japanese citrus), umi-budō (sea grapes) or, unbelievably, white chocolate.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 16, 2015
Japanese Soba Noodles Tsuta: Don't let the name fool you, this is the best ramen in northern Tokyo
Is ramen Japanese or Chinese? That particular question is clearly a non-starter for the good folks at Japanese Soba Noodles Tsuta — whose name stakes out their position. But, to clarify things, you won't find buckwheat noodles in their bowls; what you get is arguably the finest ramen in northern Tokyo. Plenty of others rate the Sugamo shop, too, judging from the line outside. Count on a good half hour in the queue, whatever the weather — though there is shelter.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 30, 2015
Police recapture Aichi man in parents' garden in connection with theft, murder at ramen shop
Police arrested a 27-year-old man from Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, on suspicion of robbing a ramen shop and killing an employee.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE PERSISTENT VEGETARIAN
Aug 21, 2015
The best ways for vegetarians to get tied up with summer noodles
There seems to be a noodle shop almost everywhere you look in Japan. All varieties can be had at almost any hour and any cost. They may be ubiquitous, but appreciating different noodles as the seasons change from hot to cold is what makes them special.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 31, 2015
Motenashi Kuroki: Chilling with summer specials at one of Akihabara's best ramen shops
Any season is ramen season. But when the heat builds and energy levels start to sag, is it really worth trekking across town and waiting in line for noodles that will only make you sweat even more? In the case of Motenashi Kuroki, most definitely yes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 19, 2015
One of Tokyo's best ramen shops is hidden under Ginza Station
Thick, rich, creamy white soup, delicate noodles, elegant toppings of chicken breast and seasonal vegetables — Kagari serves some of the finest, most seductive ramen in the city. There's only one downside: the wait in line can sometimes take up to an hour.
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2015
Kiwamen Zukuri: Noodle-making with the kids
No time to line up for delicious ramen noodles? Tired of cup noodles? Thanks to Megatoy, now you can enjoy quality ramen — in the comfort of your own home.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Jun 12, 2015
High-quality soup stock at Kyoto's serious ramen shop
There are two ramen shops well worth visiting in the western outskirts of Kyoto. Distance-wise, they're only a five-minute walk apart, but judging by most other measures they are polar opposites.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 15, 2015
New York's famed Ramen Burger arrives in its spiritual home
Ramen Burger has come to Tokyo. Its eponymous creation has been one of the hottest new foods in the U.S. in the past couple of years, but here in Japan the arrival has been muted to the extreme, with minimal publicity and a location far from the center of the city. That's just the way the originator, New Yorker Keizo Shimamoto, likes it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2015
Noodle-maker revolutionizes ramen culture in the U.S.
At the huge, brightly lit factory in Teterboro, New Jersey, machines from Japan gently mix eggs and flour and turn them into sheets of yellow dough that are then cut into thin wavy ramen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 14, 2015
The Ramen Book
In 1972, Cup Noodles earned their fame during a live television broadcast of a siege in Nagano Prefecture — the Asama-Sanso incident — when the hostage-takers were shown slurping the hot noodles up.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KYOTO RESTAURANTS
Dec 9, 2014
Aji-Zen's noodle sets are worth getting 'sauced'
'Tis the season for Christmas analogies. On the first day of December I wound my way round downtown Kyoto, hoisting and reining in my umbrella because the weather couldn't make up its mind. At the first inn I called upon there was no room; I went to a second inn and was met with the same response. I took off for another part of town. Thankfully central Kyoto is small enough that you could throw a cat and it would land in a restaurant. At the third inn, I met with the same response: "No room." Is it because I . . . hadn't made any reservations? Yes.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree