Recent Bowls

Keeping the list of ramen I’ve eaten has proven to be surprisingly difficult. This will be a quick run-through of bowls I’ve had including ones I had during my short trip to Tokyo. I should really do individual posts for the sake of readability, but it’s not like this is a ramen blog…

Teshikaga Ramen in Kita-Hiroshima

How good can food court ramen be? Well pretty damn good, in the case of Teshikaga at the Mitsui Outlet Park in Kita-Hiroshima, just to the southeast of Sapporo. The honten is way the fuck out in the town of Teshikaga on the east end of Hokkaido, but I honestly don’t see the need to go all the way out there when you can get a bowl this good here. I got the gyokai shoyu, which had a nice thick soup with the perfect amount of seafoodiness to it. Since this was a while back I can’t remember much more about it, but definitely a tasty bowl, well above food court standards.

A shop whose name I can’t remember, near Hitotsubashigakuenmae Station

I know it was an incredibly easy to remember name, but I still can’t. I landed at Haneda at 11pm and took the train for an hour to Kokubunji Station and walked half an hour to Hitotsubashigakuenmae Station on the Seibu Tamako line to crash in my friend’s dormroom, and we decided to go for a bowl. A gyokai shoyu, following the current trends. It was nothing special, but it did hit the spot after a long trek. Thick, straight noodles are good. They should do this more often in Hokkaido.

The shop was run by a nice Chinese couple (?). While the lady didn’t seem quite used to working at a ramen shop (she made me wait before making my order and paying) they were nice and the shop had a nice atmosphere because of that.

Jagura in Koenji

This is like the holy grail of ramen for me. I took two trips to Koenji when I was living in Tokyo a year ago and this shop was closed both times. Well, they said third time’s a charm, and voila it was open, beckoning me with its ghettofabulous tonkotsu stank.

I read about Jagura on Ramenate like two years ago and have been dying to try it ever since. I got the standard bowl with an egg, and here is what it looks like.

What I should have done is take the photo after I’ve worked my way into the bowl. While the bowl doesn’t look too bad in its initial form, what lies underneath the pretty arangement toppings is a thick, gravylike soup that you know is doing terrible things to your breath and arteries and yet cannot stop drinking. The noodles are nice and chewy, and the chasu and egg delicious as well.

One thing that surprised me was how empty the shop was. I guess tonkotsu is no longer the thing to get in Tokyo.

Barikote Toritsukasei Branch

I don’t need to say much about this bowl. Classic Hakata tonkotsu ramen, late at night, kick-ass ramen eating music in the background. Kaedama please.

Honda at the Tokyo Ramen Alley

I don’t know what really to say about this bowl. I remember it was good, but at the same time I don’t really remember much details. Maybe I got the wrong thing, but I just wish I had time to wait in line for Rokurinsha. If I ever go back, I’ll try their kotteri stuff. Oh the menma was quite good though.

Otaru Ramen Shodai

Here’s something relatively local. Located in Otaru, I’ve passed by this shop multiple times before but didn’t really expect much from it (partially owing to its name, meaning “first generation”) but it ended up being a surprisingly good bowl. I decided to go with my policy for visiting shops I didn’t research beforehand and ordered the first thing on the menu, the shoyu. After reading through the menu a bit, I decided I wanted to try the miso instead, but I was a bit late as the bowl was underway already. Well turns out that was a good thing, as I was soon treated with a nice and dark shoyu broth with subtle, yet at the same time deep seafood undertones, and nice chewy curly noodles (I take back my above statement about thick straight noodles). It was a light, yet at the same time, a sturdy bowl. Truly, a nothern bowl of shoyu.

And I’m finally caught up. Not that many bowls for over a month’s time, but I’m hoping to be eating more ramen as the temperature keeps dropping and dropping up here in Hokkaido…