Ramen (ラーメン rāmen?, IPA: [ɽaːmeɴ]) is a Japanese
noodle dish. It consists of
Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or (occasionally) fish-based
broth, often flavored with
soy sauce or
miso, and uses
toppings such as sliced
pork (チャーシュー chāshū?), dried
seaweed (海苔 nori?),
kamaboko,
green onions, and occasionally
corn. Almost every locality in Japan has its own variation of ramen, from the
tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen of
Kyushu to the
miso ramen of
Hokkaido.
History
Ramen is of Chinese origin;
however, it is unclear when ramen was introduced to Japan. The etymology of
ramen is a topic of debate. One theory is that
ramen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese
lamian (拉麺),
[3] meaning "hand-pulled noodles." A second theory proposes 老麺 (
laomian, "old noodles") as the original form, while another states that ramen was initially 鹵麺 (
lǔmiàn), noodles cooked in a thick, starchy sauce. A fourth theory is that the word derives from 撈麵 (
lāomiàn, "
lo mein"), which in
Cantonese 撈 means to "stir", and the name refers to the method of preparation by stirring the noodles with a sauce.
Until the 1950s, ramen was called
shina soba (支那そば, literally "Chinese
soba") but today
chūka soba (中華そば, also meaning "Chinese
soba") or just
Ramen (ラーメン) are more common, as the word "支那" (
shina, meaning "China") acquired a pejorative connotation.
[4]
By 1900, restaurants serving Chinese cuisine from
Canton and
Shanghai
offered a simple ramen dish of noodles (cut rather than hand pulled), a
few toppings, and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Many
Chinese also pulled portable food stalls, selling ramen and
gyōza dumplings to workers. By the mid 1900s, these stalls used a type of a
musical horn called a
charumera (チャルメラ, from the Portuguese
charamela) to advertise their presence, a practice some vendors still retain via a loudspeaker and a looped recording. By the early
Shōwa period, ramen had become a popular dish when eating out.
After
World War II,
cheap flour imported from the U.S. swept the Japanese market. At the
same time, millions of Japanese troops had returned from China and
continental East Asia from their posts in the
Second Sino-Japanese War.
Many of these returnees had become familiar with Chinese cuisine and
subsequently set up Chinese restaurants across Japan. Eating ramen,
while popular, was still a special occasion that required going out.
In 1958,
instant noodles were invented by
Momofuku Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese founder and chairman of
Nissin Foods, now run by his son
Koki Ando. Named the greatest Japanese
invention of the 20th century in a Japanese poll,
[5] instant ramen allowed anyone to make this dish simply by adding boiling water.
Beginning in the 1980s, ramen became a Japanese cultural icon and was
studied around the world from many perspectives. At the same time,
local varieties of ramen were hitting the national market and could even
be ordered by their regional names. A
ramen museum opened in
Yokohama in 1994.
[6]
Types
A wide variety of ramen exists in Japan, with geographical and
vendor-specific differences even in varieties that share the same name.
Ramen can be broadly categorized by its two main ingredients: noodles
and broth.
Noodles
Most noodles are made from four basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water, and
kansui, which is essentially a type of alkaline mineral water, containing
sodium carbonate and usually
potassium carbonate, as well as sometimes a small amount of
phosphoric acid. Originally,
kansui was named after the water from
Inner Mongolia's
Lake Kan which contained large amounts of these minerals and was said
to be perfect for making these noodles. Making noodles with
kansui lends them a yellowish hue as well as a firm texture. Eggs may also be substituted for
kansui. Some noodles are made with neither eggs nor
kansui and should only be used for
yakisoba.
Ramen comes in various shapes and lengths. It may be fat, thin, or even ribbon-like, as well as straight or wrinkled.
Soup
Ramen soup is generally made from stock based on chicken or pork, combined with a variety of ingredients such as
kombu (kelp),
katsuobushi (
skipjack tuna flakes),
niboshi (dried baby sardines),
beef bones,
shiitake, and
onions, and then flavored with salt,
miso, or
soy sauce. Other styles that have emerged later on include curry ramen and other flavors.
The resulting combination is generally divided into four categories
(although new and original variations often make this categorisation
less clear-cut):
- Shio ("salt") ramen is probably the oldest of the four
and is a pale, clear, yellowish broth made with plenty of salt and any
combination of chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Occasionally pork
bones are also used, but they are not boiled as long as they are for tonkotsu ramen, so the soup remains light and clear. Chāshū is sometimes swapped for lean chicken meatballs, and pickled plums and kamaboko are popular toppings as well. Noodle texture and thickness varies among shio ramen, but they are usually straight rather than curly.
- Tonkotsu (豚骨, "pork bone"; not to be confused with tonkatsu) ramen usually has a cloudy white colored broth. It is similar to the Chinese baitang
(白湯) and has a thick broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and
collagen over high heat for many hours, which suffuses the broth with a
hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk, melted
butter or gravy (depending on the shop). Most shops, but not all, blend
this pork broth with a small amount of chicken and vegetable stock
and/or soy sauce. The noodles are thin and straight, and it is often
served with beni shoga (pickled ginger). In recent years the latest trend in tonkotsu toppings is māyu (sesame oil), a blackish, aromatic oil made from either charred crushed garlic or Sesame seeds. It is a specialty of Kyushu, particularly Hakata-ku, Fukuoka (hence sometimes called "Hakata ramen").
- Shōyu ("soy sauce") ramen typically has a clear brown broth,
based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with
plenty of soy sauce added resulting in a soup that is tangy, salty, and
savory yet still fairly light on the palate. Shōyu ramen usually has
curly noodles rather than straight ones, but this is not always the
case. It is often adorned with marinated bamboo shoots or menma, green onions, kamaboko (fish cakes), nori (seaweed), boiled eggs, bean sprouts and/or black pepper;
occasionally the soup will also contain chili oil or Chinese spices,
and some shops serve sliced beef instead of the usual chāshū.
- Miso ramen is a relative newcomer, having reached national
prominence around 1965. This uniquely Japanese ramen, which was
developed in Hokkaido, features a broth that combines copious amounts of miso and is blended with oily chicken or fish broth – and sometimes with tonkotsu
or lard – to create a thick, nutty, slightly sweet and very hearty
soup. Miso ramen broth tends to have a robust, tangy flavor, so it
stands up to a variety of flavorful toppings: spicy bean paste or tōbanjan (豆瓣醤),
butter and corn, leeks, onions, bean sprouts, ground pork, cabbage,
sesame seeds, white pepper, and chopped garlic are common. The noodles
are typically thick, curly, and slightly chewy.
Seasonings commonly added to ramen are
black pepper, butter,
chili pepper, sesame seeds, and crushed garlic. Soup recipes and methods of preparation tend to be closely guarded secrets.
Some restaurants also offer a system known as
kae-dama (替え玉),
where customers who have finished their noodles can request a "refill"
(for a few hundred yen more) to be put into their remaining soup.
[7]
Regional variations
While standard versions of ramen are available throughout Japan since the
Taisho era,
the last few decades have shown a proliferation of regional variations.
Some of these which have gone on to national prominence are:
Sapporo, the capital of
Hokkaido, is especially famous for its ramen. Most people in Japan associate Sapporo with its rich
miso
ramen, which was invented there and which is ideal for Hokkaido's
harsh, snowy winters. Sapporo miso ramen is typically topped with
sweetcorn, butter, bean sprouts, finely chopped pork, and garlic, and
sometimes local seafood such as
scallop,
squid, and
crab.
Hakodate,
[8] another city of Hokkaidō, is famous for its salt flavored ramen, while
Asahikawa,
[9] in the north of the island, offers soy sauce flavored ones.
Kitakata in northern
Honshu is known for its rather thick, flat, curly noodles served in a pork-and-
niboshi
broth. The area within its former city boundaries has the highest
per-capita number of ramen establishments. Ramen has such prominence in
the region that locally, the word
soba usually refers to ramen, and not to actual
soba which is referred to as
nihon soba ("Japanese soba").
Tokyo
style ramen consists of slightly thin, curly noodles served in a
soy-flavoured chicken broth. The Tokyo style broth typically has a touch
of
dashi, as old ramen establishments in Tokyo often originate from
soba eateries. Standard toppings on top are chopped scallion,
menma, sliced pork, kamaboko, egg, nori, and spinach.
Ikebukuro,
Ogikubo and
Ebisu are three areas in Tokyo known for their ramen.
Yokohama ramen specialty is called
Ie-kei (家系). It consists of thick, straight-ish noodles served in a soy flavored pork broth similar to
tonkotsu. The standard toppings are roasted pork (
char siu), boiled spinach, sheets of nori, often with shredded
Welsh onion
(negi) and a soft or hard boiled egg. It is traditional for customers
to call the softness of the noodles, the richness of the broth and the
amount of oil they want.
Hakata ramen originates from Hakata district of
Fukuoka city in
Kyushu. It has a rich, milky, pork-bone
tonkotsu broth and rather thin, non-curly and resilient noodles. Often, distinctive toppings such as crushed
garlic,
beni shoga (pickled ginger), sesame seeds, and spicy
pickled mustard greens (karashi takana) are left on tables for customers to serve themselves. Ramen
stalls in Hakata and
Tenjin
are well-known within Japan. Recent trends have made Hakata ramen one
of the most popular types in Japan, and several chain restaurants
specializing in Hakata ramen can be found all over the country.
