On Ramen

I don't think I can eat Mr. Noodle anymore and I used to love that stuff, but after living in the mecca of ramen I just doubt I can go back. I've always loved noodle dishes regardless of the country of origin. There's something about noodles I just find fantastic very filling and delicious, and they go well with basically anything.

Where I live in I am but minutes away from one of the most famous ramen districts not just in Kyoto, but in all of Japan. The area, called Ichijoji, is home to at least 20 different ramen restaurants of varying sizes and varieties.

People don't mess around with ramen here, it's an artform and one that I've come to be highly appreciative of since arriving. To start with the soup bases come in a variety of flavours. The major varieties being, shio (salt), miso, shouyu (soy-sauce), and my personal favourite, tonkotsu (pork-bone). Many other varieties exist as well including a fantastic duck based ramen that I had tonight, a wild-boar based ramen that I have yet to try and while expensive, is too tempting to not try once.

Once you've got the soup taken care of you've got the noodles to take care of. Just like the broth the noodles come in a variety of lengths and widths. The wide noodles pick up more of the soup broth I find, but the slimmer noodles generally have a better natural flavour.

Then there the toppings. Most ramen usually comes with sliced pork, bamboo, and some green onion on top, but there is no required kind of topping and you'll often seen things like seaweed, hard boiled eggs, or some kind of lightly fried meat or vegetable item.

When you go to a real good ramen restaurant the balance of all these flavours as well as the subtlety of the flavours is really something magical. In the case of tonight's duck ramen the mixture of the pork and vegetables along with the garlic that was added to the duck based broth created a mosaic of flavours with no flavour really over-powering the other. They blended so well together yet you could taste each individual element.

If you're ever in Japan I implore you to try get out and try some real ramen. It's not just for poor college students anymore.