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A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

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Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#21

Post by robin_reala »

WaxProlix wrote: post #15
fmax30 wrote: post #11

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

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.

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.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#22

Post by archagon »

mmanfrin wrote: post #20
archagon wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

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.)

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#23

Post by patio11 »

WaxProlix wrote: post #15
fmax30 wrote: post #11

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

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.

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!"

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#25

Post by nulltype »

smegel wrote: post #13

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.

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

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#26

Post by greggman »

siliconc0w wrote: post #4

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…

> 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

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

many of them carry this style of heavy tantanmen which I love

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#28

Post by greggman »

xerophyte12932 wrote: post #24

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.

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.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#29

Post by twoy »

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.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#30

Post by 6t6t6 »

fmax30 wrote: post #11

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

Japan is not a really easy country for vegetarian people because fish, and specially meat, consumed in tiny amounts, but they are everywhere. I would say that sometimes meat is used more as a condiment than as an ingredient. Also, in my experience, most of Japanese don't consider that things like the bonito flakes they put in the stock are "actual meat", and when you say that you don't eat meat, they actually understand that you don't eat steaks or sashimi.

Said that, there's a nice vegetarian Ramen shop in Tokyo Station:

http://ts-restaurant.jp/tantan/

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