MACAU DAILY TIMES 澳門每日時報More than just a bowl of noodles, ramen is an experience and a tourist attraction

SSpicy, steamy, slurpy ramen might be everyone’s favorite Japanese food.

In Tokyo, long lines circle around blocks, and an hour wait for your ramen is normal. What awaits you may just be a dip, but a hot bowl of ramen rarely hits the spot.

Often cooked right before your eyes behind filthy counters, the noodle dish here starts around 1,000 yen ($6.50), and comes in several flavors and local versions. There is salty soy-based “shoyu” or “miso” paste. Maybe it’s red hot spicy with a hint of chili. Sometimes there is no soup at all, but a sauce to dip the noodles in.

The curly noodles are lighter than the dark buckwheat ‘soba’ or ‘udon’, which are also usually flatter or thicker.

WORLDWIDE SUCCESS

Ramen has also risen in popularity in the US, South Korea and other countries. According to NielsenIQ, a sales tracker, retail sales in the United States have increased 72% since 2000. In the 52 weeks ending April 13, Americans bought more than $1.6 billion worth of windows.

Versions that go beyond the traditional soup are appearing in restaurants, says Technomic, a research and consulting firm for the restaurant industry. For example, Del Taco, a Mexican chain, recently introduced Shredded Beef Birria Ramen.

Packaged ramen that you can easily cook in hot water at home is called instant noodles; it is pre-cooked and then dried. The story of how Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen in a backyard shed in 1958, when food was still scarce, is legendary in Japan. He then founded the food giant Nissin Foods.

While convenient, instant noodles are not the same as the ramen served in restaurants.

THE EXPERIENCE

Some Japanese visit ramen shops two or three times a week. They emerge, dripping with sweat and smacking their lips.

“I’m probably a talking bowl of ramen,” says Frank Striegl as he leads a dozen American tourists through the alleys of Tokyo’s funky Shibuya district for what he calls “the ultimate ramen experience.”

The crowd is led behind a shabby doorway, sometimes up narrow stairs, to a dimly lit table where ramen is served in small bowls, practically the size of a latte cup, or about a quarter of the size of a regular ramen bowl. So guests have enough room in their bellies to try six different types of ramen, two at each spot during the tour.

One restaurant, Shinbusakiya, offers ‘Hokkaido classics’ from the northernmost main island, while another, Nagi, offers ‘Fukuoka fusion’, from the southern main island of Kyushu. It contains green ramen, similar to pasta al pesto. Syuuichi, which means “once a week,” contains curry-flavored ramen.

“Of course, it’s not just about eating delicious ramen, but also about learning how to do it,” says Striegl, a Filipino American who grew up in Tokyo. He calls ramen ‘food for people’.

“Many countries around the world have their version of ramen in a sense,” he said. “So I think that makes it a dish that is easy to understand. It’s a dish you can easily get behind.”

As tour participants enjoyed their noodles, Striegl outlined a brief history of ramen: its roots date back to the samurai era, when a shogun developed a taste for Chinese noodles and began the ramen localization journey that continues today still continues.

Katie Sell, a graduate student on Striegl’s tour, called ramen “kind of a comfort food, especially in the winter. Grab a group of friends, go eat some ramen and just enjoy it.

Kavi Patel, an engineer from New Jersey, said he was glad he included the humble ramen on his tour of Japan, along with more established attractions such as the ancient capital of Kyoto and the deer park at Nara. “I’m having a lot of fun,” he said.

ADAPTING TO CHANGE

While ramen has never been more popular in Japan, ramen places have struggled due to the pandemic, the weakening Japanese yen and the higher costs of wheat imports and energy, according to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research.

One beneficiary of the pandemic is a home delivery service for frozen, professionally prepared ramen. It’s called takumen.com and has about 500,000 subscribers in Japan.

Another Tokyo outlet, Gourmet Innovation, has signed a deal with 250 of the country’s top ramen restaurants to sell packaged versions of its soup, noodles and toppings, to be heated in boiling water and served at home.

Co-founder and director Kenichi Nomaguchi, who hopes to expand his business abroad, says ramen and animation are Japan’s most successful exports.

Why windows? Unlike pasta or curry, ramen is difficult to replicate at home, he said. Making it from scratch requires hours of cooking stock, with pork, beef or chicken, various types of fish or bonito flakes and ‘kombu’ kelp. Some broths use oysters.

LOTS OF VARIETY

In addition to the different soup stocks and flavors, onions, grated garlic, ginger or sesame oil can be added for extra punch. Toppings may include bean sprouts, roasted pork, boiled or raw eggs, seaweed, fermented bamboo shoots called “menma”, chopped green onions, cooked cabbage, snow peas or corn.

Some say a bowl of ramen isn’t complete without a slice of narutomaki, a whitefish cake with a pink spiral pattern.

Unusual varieties include coffee ramen and ramen topped with ice cream or pineapple.

Named after a legendary Tokyo restaurant, Jiro-style ramen consists of mounds of vegetable toppings, huge steak-like grilled pork, and sharp, grated garlic soaked in a fatty pork broth.

“Impact is important. So the pork has to be big so that it is really memorable,” says Kota Kobayashi, who serves Jiro-style ramen at his chain, “Ore No Ikiru Michi,” which translates to, “The way I live my life. ”

Kobayashi is a former professional baseball player for the Yokohama Bay Stars and played for the minor league Cleveland Guardians before switching to his ramen company.

“When I retired from baseball, I chose ramen as my way of life,” he said with a smile.

He can wax philosophical about ramen. One cultural difference he has noticed is that Americans tend to leave the noodles and drink all the soup, while the Japanese tend to do the opposite.

And taste is only part of what makes good ramen. You also have to provide entertainment, Kobayashi said.

In his restaurants, the chopsticks are in a box on a shelf, so new visitors ask where they are. Regular customers go straight to that box. Kobayashi shouts, “Welcome back,” making the customers feel connected even though he remembers nothing about them. YURI KAGEYAMA, TOKYO, MDT/AP

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