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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

#71

Post by beat »

fmax30 wrote: post #11

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

Where do you live? Here in Minneapolis, where ramen is becoming trendy, many places have vegan alternatives.

That said, getting a really good umami flavor and rich texture in a vegan broth is hard - not impossible, but much harder than with meat. And frankly, most vegetarians are lousy cooks who don't pay attention to good textures and flavors, and most meat eaters are lazy cooks who don't learn how to get richness without meat doing the heavy lifting for them.

For vegetarian/vegan, a kombu-based broth can get that richness, but it'll take a lot of patience to make (this is also true of bone-based meat broth).

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#72

Post by pimlottc »

archagon wrote: post #14

I'm a bit saddened that we don't seem to have too many of these kinds of "multiple ingredient, endless variation" style foods here in the US. Most regional fare (pizza, BBQ) is comparatively simple. Or is it just me?

Others have argued for pizza, but I'll add that pasta in generally is like this (tons of variety both in how you sauce it and how you make the dough). Many egg dishes are great for this as well, such as quiches, omelets and frittatas, all of which are great for using up random leftovers :)

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#73

Post by shostack »

jpatokal wrote: post #3

While this is a pretty epic listing (well done!), it's still not even close to complete. My personal pet peeve omission is Okinawa soba, which despite the name is very much in the ramen family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba And if the god of ramen is Hakata-style tonkotsu, its temple is Ichiran: http://blog.gaijinpot.com/ichiran-ramen-without-word/ And while it's a tourist trap, Yokohama's Ramen Museum is…

THANK YOU! Went to Japan on my honeymoon and totally forgot the name of one of my favorite ramen meals--Ichiran!

Truly amazing ramen.

I'd also add the sesame ramen I had at Fujiyama Go Go in Kanazawa was amazing (yes, I know they are a chain).

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#74

Post by shostack »

huhtenberg wrote: post #39
twoy wrote: post #29

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.

Tablespoons of liquid chicken fat and pork belly slices are not exactly the life-extending ingredients :)

Sure--but at what point do the mental health benefits of its deliciousness outweigh the health downsides?

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#75

Post by Figs »

tosseraccount wrote: post #63
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Japs In the United States, "Jap" is an ethnic slur. You might want to use another word.

But it's okay to call the English "Brits".

It's a legacy from WWII. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#76

Post by contingencies »

jpatokal wrote: post #12
contingencies wrote: post #6

Historical and geographical context of Japanese ramen from a Chinese cultural perspective: ra part is derived from 拉 (Mandarin la ) which means pulled and refers to the process of making the noodles, the men part is derived from 麺 (Mandarin mian ) which is the traditional Chinese character for noodles (面 is the simplified form). In modern China, this 麺/面 normally describes long-form wheat noodles however other types…

Wikipedia (and you) conflate two different things here: the origin of ramen the food as we know it today, which is quite arguably Japan (although admittedly it's a fuzzy line to draw); and the origin of ramen the name, which I agree is almost certainly from Chinese 拉麺. However, Japanese ramen doesn't taste at all like Chinese 拉麺, they've become entirely different dishes. Also, you're spinning the name change as Japan…

You're right there is an etymology question (the term ramen is clearly Chinese in etymological origin, the other names clearly refer to China) and the historical origin of noodles in Japan generally. I think given the etymological evidence of all terms (ramen and pre-ramen) combined with geographic proximity it would be exceptionally hard to argue that's not China as well.

As far as putting words in to my mouth or motivations in to other people's brains when discussing history, please don't do that, it doesn't lead to constructive conversation.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#77

Post by contingencies »

davidw wrote: post #16
contingencies wrote: post #6

Historical and geographical context of Japanese ramen from a Chinese cultural perspective: ra part is derived from 拉 (Mandarin la ) which means pulled and refers to the process of making the noodles, the men part is derived from 麺 (Mandarin mian ) which is the traditional Chinese character for noodles (面 is the simplified form). In modern China, this 麺/面 normally describes long-form wheat noodles however other types…

> Also, some people claim Italy's noodle tradition is a post-Marco Polo thing (who, some credible evidence attests, was actually from the now Croatian island of Dubrovnik, under the sway of the piratical Venetian empire but not 'Italian' per-se). That whole area between Trieste and Dalmatia is a melting pot. Especially prior to WWII, there were quite a few people who were ethnically Italian there. Venice ruled the ar…

You are perfectly right to question the piratical adjective to describe the entire empire in Marco-Polo contemporary times; that was my error - recently I read a history of the Venetian seafaring which made out that basically the city grew entirely from a den of swamp-dwelling brigands and ruffians who dwelt there to escape the long arm of other mainland powers. How accurate that picture is I don't know (I assume pretty fair though, given the geography and technology of the time), but looking at the history it seems 400-500 years had passed before Marco Polo... so it's not exactly current characterization regardless!

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#78

Post by beachstartup »

tosseraccount wrote: post #63
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Japs In the United States, "Jap" is an ethnic slur. You might want to use another word.

But it's okay to call the English "Brits".

try calling one a lobsterback and see what happens.

different groups have different insults. welcome to reality.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#79

Post by jdmichal »

CocaKoala wrote: post #54
archagon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Broth, base, fillings, noodles for ramen. Sauce, rub, wood and smoke, cuts of meat for bbq.

I think people who aren't heavy BBQ fans don't fully appreciate the number of decisions that goes into a well-made BBQ. The sauces and rubs alone show a huge amount of variation that can make or break the entire thing.

Re: A Guide to the Regional Ramen of Japan

#80

Post by davvid »

greggman wrote: post #26
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, apparent…

all tonkotsu in LA sucks except Tsujita

I've been there and Silverlake Ramen was better. You can probably find more gems around Gardena/Torrance.

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