The top dish in Japan has to be the Ramen. If you aren’t familiar with ramen it's essentially egg noodle and broth soup with an element of protein accompanied by some veggies. Most of us have enjoyed ramen, however in Japan it simply has better, deeper, and more refined flavors. You can taste the years of education passed down from generations to develop the tasty broth which can have different strong points.
Shoya
One of the main flavors is shoya which is more of a sesame flavor. Shoya is light and allow the noodles to shine. Same time the wedding of the veggies and ramen egg sing together. Shoya is a little salty in nature but enhances the flavors. I would recommend this if you are into veggies in your ramen. Tasted one of our favorite shoya type ramens in Tokyo at Afuri. What they did different was use dashi which is almost like a seafood paste within the noodles. When tossed with the broth it only had a note of seafood taste but created more of a soup that developed as you ate it. The flavor of the bbq pork really stood out combined with the veggies.
Miso
Next you have miso broth which is a soy based broth. It is very similar to shoya broth because of the clearer color and light taste. Miso is a little cloudy but is great with the standard noodles and greee onions. I would recommend miso if you want something more basic. I like to add fried garlic to this one because the flavor is subtle, yet refreshing blast on umami. The miso is very good, I prefer having it with just noddles and a bit of meat. If you ever been to a Japanese restaurants stateside they serve a little bowl of miso soup with any meal. In Japan, you will find miso ramen everywhere, it is a default option. This means you can't go wrong with miso flavored ramen. I know you're here for ramen, but I strongly adivse using miso for udon. One of my best dishes in Japan was miso udon in Kyoto.
Tonkotsu
My favorite is the Tonkotsu broth… It has a heavy pork flavor and has a deep milky look. The flavor combined with BBQ pork and silky noodle turns the ramen into one hardy dish. You can feel and taste the ramen long after you eat it. What I could tell the difference between the states and the ramen in japan was the grease that developed on the top of bowl. It had just enough grease to make you taste the deep harvested broth but not too much where you felt greasy. Ichiran is a popular place to eat ramen across Japan because of the eatery style. You sit in a booth on your own and they slip your customized bowl through an private opening in front of you. I think my favorite bowl of Ramen was in Osaka at Hanamaruken because of the depths of flavor and the outrageous pork belly bites.
Komentarji