Ramen, EXPLAINED

This is ramen

A staple of Tokyo's food landscape. In this lesson, we're going to explain ramen

What it is, where it came from, and what kinds of ramen you should look out for in Tokyo

In its most basic form, ramen is a noodle soup, but it's a lot more than that

It's also a platform for experimentation and innovation, a format that has been riffed on in infinite ways

Today, there are thousands of ramen shops in this city, each putting out their own take on the format

Ramen didn't come from Japan, and it actually is a newcomer to Japanese cuisine

Note that most Japanese food is based on rice. That's mainly because rice grows well here, and traditional society was based on rice agriculture

Ramen, however, is based on a noodle that is made from wheat flour

Wheat has been present in Japan for centuries, but not in abundance

It was only after World War II, when Japan was facing a huge shortage due to the war

that the newly victorious Americans who were occupying Japan sent food aid

including massive amounts of wheat flour. Add in that Japanese soldiers were coming back to Japan after spending years occupying China

where they adopted some of the culinary traditions including gyoza, or dumplings

and chuka soba, meaning wheat noodle in broth, which eventually became known as ramen

Yes, ramen is a Chinese dish adapted by Japan. After World War II, ramen exploded and spread all throughout Japan

And the Japanese do what they often do when new cultural staples come into their country

They began to refine and elevate and innovate. Today you can find Japanese-inspired ramen in almost any major city

Let's deconstruct a bowl of ramen and see how it's made

Ramen has three main layers that you should understand to best experience it

Like any good soup, the heart and soul lies in the broth

There are four main broths within the ramen family. First, you've got shio

Shio is considered the oldest broth style. Shio just means salt in Japanese So this broth will be clear and salty without strong notes or complex flavors Often it will just be a general chicken flavor So when you see shio think clear and salty

Next we've got miso. Miso is made by fermenting soybeans to different degrees and then mashing

them into a paste that can be used for a variety of culinary and medicinal purposes. You can spot

miso by looking for this. This mesmerizing, cloudy texture is miso. It's delicious. It has a more

complex flavor than shio. The fermented elements make it more like a fermented food where the

process and duration of fermentation will affect the flavor. Next, we've got tonkotsu. Tonkotsu

literally just means pork bone in Japanese, and it looks like this. Tonkotsu looks quite a bit

different from our previous two broths. Do you see how milky white these are compared to the darker

broths? That's because tonkotsu is made by boiling pork bones for hours, which extracts the marrow

and melts the cartilage and fats, emulsifying them into a creamy, milky broth that is incredibly

rich. A tonkotsu broth often features a variety of oils that go on top of it to add different

flavored elements, like spicy or salty. The final major broth is called shoyu, which means soy sauce

Soy sauce is either added afterwards in the construction of the bowl or added to the stock pot itself as it boils vegetables or chicken bones

And it's simmered to make a broth that is the foundation of shoyu. So the main element doing all the work for the flavor is the soy sauce

Like in this case, where this chef has been boiling a pot of chicken bones

and fish carcasses and seaweed to create a very complex broth. and then when he's constructing the bowl, he adds soy sauce to give it a very strong soy sauce flavor

What you end up with is a color not unlike soy sauce itself, clear but still quite dark and brown

Okay, so these are our four major broths. We call the broth the heart and soul because it is the element that takes the most time to develop

and the broth you choose will influence the flavor of the entire bowl

You should definitely try each of the big four while you're in Tokyo. Our second layer is less about flavor and more about texture. It's the ramen noodle

Ramen noodles vary in how thick they are and how wavy they are, how firm or soft they are

They all have one special ingredient that gives them a distinct texture

It called kansui It a white powder compound that gives the noodle a bit of firm bounce when you bite into it Many ramen shops will have a level of firmness they cook their noodle to

and others will allow you to choose for yourself. Most ramen shops will use fresh noodles

which they will put into these little baskets and cook in boiling water for just a few minutes

They will aggressively shake out the boiling water so as not to dilute the flavor of the broth

before adding the noodles to your bowl. The final layer to our anatomy of ramen is the toppings

This is a moment to remember that unlike many staples of Japanese cuisine, ramen is new

It's not bound by any old traditions or aesthetic philosophies. There aren't rules governing what's appropriate to put in your bowl of ramen

So really, anything goes. Common toppings for a bowl of ramen are a slice of chashu pork

which is usually a piece of pork belly or pork shoulder that has been grilled or otherwise seared

and then sometimes simmered for a few hours to cook through. Another common topping is a flavored soft-boiled egg

This egg has been cooked in a flavorful liquid and should come out creamy on the inside

You'll also see a lot of fermented bamboo shoots or mushrooms. Sometimes there's seaweed

Sometimes there's green garnishes like scallions or onions. But like I said, anything goes, and ramen shops all around Tokyo are adding new flavors through toppings to blend with the noodles and the broth

Okay, so now you have this history of ramen and how it exploded in post-World War II Japan

And most importantly, the anatomy of a bowl of ramen. Each of these layers have many variations that can be tweaked

The result is an infinite number of variations of ramen. like this orange bowl of ramen that has a curry broth and toasted black sesame or this Italian

inspired pesto ramen that has mozzarella cheese and bacon on top in a porky tonkotsu broth may

seem weird but it was incredibly delicious some shops choose to keep their toppings simple like

this bowl that has just bamboo shoots and raw onions so now I guess the most important question

is this. How do you find and order good ramen in Tokyo? Table log is going to be a helpful resource

here. Search the site for well-reviewed spots. Another useful way to get good ramen spots is

just to search the internet. Of all the food in Tokyo, ramen tends to get a lot of attention

from online writers and bloggers who are looking to review different restaurants in the city Another option is to go to the big ramen chains in Tokyo Places like Ichiran or Ipudo started as small ramen shops

that are producing quality ramen at a large scale all around the city

But at the end of the day, just remember that there are over 3,000 ramen shops in this city

So if you find one as you're walking and wandering around, there's a good chance that you'll be happy with whatever shop you stumble into

Once you do find a shop, you will almost always find one of these at the entrance

This is an automated ordering machine and it's incredibly helpful for those of us who don't speak Japanese

Here's what you do. First, you put in your money. Make sure to have cash on hand as most of these machines don't accept a credit card

You'll want to put in around a thousand yen or ten US dollars, which is a common cost of a bowl of ramen

Next, you choose the type of ramen, which you can do in the upper half of these buttons

As a general rule, the ramen shop's signature bowl will be here in the upper left

This will almost always be a solid choice, so if you're confused at what to get, choose the upper left

As you go left to right, you'll see variations, sometimes different broths or different toppings

Oftentimes, this will be accompanied with pictures, so you can get an idea of what you're getting

So this top half is usually dedicated to picking the type of ramen you want

Next, look at the bottom half of this machine. This is the part where you order extra toppings, sides, and drinks

So you could order an extra egg or a drink or extra noodles if you're feeling really hungry

Every time you click one of these buttons, a little ticket prints out and is dispensed down here

Make sure to collect all these tickets when you're done ordering and give them to the person inside the shop

They will take it to the chef who will start making your ramen. Before you know it, your bowl of hot ramen will arrive to your table

We suggest first tasting the broth before you dive into the noodles and the topping

The broth is the heart and soul of this bowl of ramen, and tasting it by itself is a great way to really get a sense of the foundation of this bowl before you dive in

As you eat, it's important that you slurp your noodles. This is rude in some places, but in Japan, slurping noodles is customary

and it indicates that you are enjoying the meal. We hope you have a better grasp on the context surrounding ramen

and how to get in on the ramen food scene in Tokyo