Chicken Miso Stew (Nabe)

(serves 3 to 4)
Miso Stew or Miso Nabe is a winter dish that is popular in Hokkaido. The concentration of protein and carbohydrates in miso and soya milk creates a stew that is hearty and robust, giving it the power to keep the cold at bay. Every region has its own unique way of cooking their miso stew and there is no definitive cooking method or set of ingredients, though the meat is usually fish, pork or chicken. If you’ve never tired a Miso Stew don’t worry, my particular way of cooking Miso Stew is suitable to Western tastes.

Ingredients

1. Chicken Legs (2, with thigh)
2. Red Miso (4T)
3. Carrot (1)
4. Onion (1)
5. Mushroom (1.5 cups)
6. Yam (1)
7. Garlic (1T, minced)
8. Mirin
9. Sake
10. Soy Sauce
11. Soya Milk (unsweetened, 3/4 Cup)
12. Maple Syrup

Preparation (the day before)

1. Debone the chicken and cut the meat into bite sized chunks. Keep the bones in the freezer for use the next day.
2. Mix in a large bowl 2T Red Miso, 2T Sake, 1T Mirin and 1T Maple Syrup until you get a paste. Stir in 1T of minced garlic.
3. Place the chicken meat in the bowl and toss well until each piece is coated with the marinade. Cover the bowl with cling film and keep it in the fridge overnight.

Preparation

1. Peel a yam and cut it into bit sized chunks. Place the yam pieces on a sheet of aluminium foil and drizzle them with 2T oil and 2T mirin. Wrap the yam up in the foil and place in a toaster oven set at 180^oC (360^oF) for twenty five minutes.
2. Put 3T of oil in a large pan (or clay pot) and heat the pan until the oil is searing hot. Keeping the fire on high, pour in the chicken together with all the marinade. Stir fry.
3. When the chicken begins to shrink, add 3/4 cup of soy milk and 3/4 of water. After a quick stir, pick out the chicken pieces and set them aside on a plate.
4. When the contents of the pan come to a boil again, put the chicken bones in the pan, as well as 1T sugar, 1T Soy Sauce and 2T of Red Miso. Turn the fire down to bring the liquid in the pan to a low simmer.
5. Peel a carrot and slice it into 1/8 inch thick oval pieces. Put the carrot slices in the pan.
6. Peel an onion and cut it into 6 equal wedges. Place the onion in the pan. Cover the pan and simmer for about 15 minutes.
7. Cut your mushrooms into appropriate size if you have chosen to use a big variety. I used Shimeji in the picture above and used them whole.
8. When the carrot is no longer crunchy, add the mushrooms, chicken and yam to the pan. Cover and simmer for a further five minutes. Remove the chicken bones before serving.

Notes

• You’ll notice I specified Red Miso above. You can also use Hatcho Miso, but preferable not any of the white, yellow or golden varieties of Miso, for the unique flavour of miso dissipates into plain saltiness with cooking. For more information on Miso, you can refer to this post about Miso.
• Nabe (pronounced nar-bay) is not the Japanese word for stew. It refers to a shared hot pot, sort of like a fondue using soup.
• If don’t have any unsweetened soya milk, you can use plain milk instead. 
• The reason you put in the carrots before the onion is carrot takes longer to soften. Don’t reverse the order of steps 5 and 6.  
• One key element of this recipe is cooking the yam and chicken separately from the stew. Both chicken and yam taste better when cooked at high temperatures. You can of course choose to just boil everything in the stew, but the result will not be as good. 
• Miso stew is best eaten with steamed rice as a staple, although you can use another type of staple, like noodles or bread. This stew is not meant to be eaten on its own.
• Instead of putting the bones in the freezer, you could also keep them in the bowl with the marinated chicken if it is big enough. A third option would be to boil the bones to create 3/4 cup of stock which you then put in the fridge. 

 

Miso-Cured Black Cod

(serves 2)
Miso-Cured Black Cod, also known as Gindara Saikyo Yaki, started out as a way to preserve fish in Japan, but has since become the default method of cooking Alaskan Black Cod. The curing process cuts through the fattiness of the black cod, and results in a decadent smokey and buttery flavour that makes Gindara appreciated by one and all, young and old. Of all the ways of preparing fish in Japan, this is perhaps the one that is most suited to Western palates.

Ingredients

1. Alaskan Black Cod (500g)
2. White Miso
3. Mirin
4. Sake
5. Minced Garlic
6. Cooked White Rice
7. Mayonnaise
8. Salt

Preparation

1. Make a solution using 2 cups of water with 1T of salt and 1t of sugar. Brine 500g of black cod in the solution for 20 minutes.
2. After rinsing the cod, wrap each piece in some paper kitchen towel and squeeze gently over the sink. Wrap the fish with fresh pieces of kitchen towel to soak up any remaining water. Leave the fish to fully dry on a metal rack for half an hour or so.
3. Mix 2 heaped T of white miso (40g) with 3T Mirin and 2T sake in a bowl until you arrive at a paste. Stir in 1t of minced garlic.
4. Slather the marinade onto the fish and then place the fish into a zip lock bag. Seal the bag with minimal air and then proceed to move the fish pieces around inside the bag. This will ensure the miso mixture comes into contact with every surface of the fish.
5. Cure the fish in the fridge, for 2 days if you desire a milder flavour, and up to a week for a more intense miso infusion.  
   
6. When you are ready to cook your black cod, allow the fish to warm to near ambient temperature.
7. Use a few T of oil to wash the curing marinade off the fish. Miso chars easily, so you should be thorough.
8. Arrange the fish on a baking tray with the skin side facing up and place the tray in a toaster oven preheated to 180^oC (360^oF) for twenty minutes.
9. Traditionally miso-cured black cod is served fish white steamed rice, a generous dollop of mayonnaise and a few slices of pickled ginger.

Notes

• Alaskan Black Cod is also called sablefish. It is technically not actually a member of the cod family, so do not substitute another type of cod. You can however cure other kinds of large oily fish with the same method. Swordfish for example would be a good alternative.    
• Brining and removing the excess water are essential as they prevent a fishy odour from developing. You are after all leaving the fish raw for several days in the fridge. Other recipes typically get you to sprinkle salt over the fish, but I find brining to be more effective, and less salty.
• Oily fish take to freezing much better than white fish, so there is no need to use fresh fish, especially if you follow steps 1 & 2.
• If you are using steak cuts (as pictured) a good idea would be to roll the fish pieces onto their side for the final 5 minutes of baking, then plate with the bottom side up. This gives the fish a good finish.
• If you are using a full oven, you can reduce the cooking time to fifteen minutes as a large oven does not lose much heat compared to a toaster oven when you put the fish in.
• You must use only white miso. It is milder and sweeter. Outside of Japan it’s probably the last type of miso you would have around at home, so if you are tempted to try this with red or yellow miso, don’t. YIt won’t end well. Even if you do use white miso it will still tend to be a bit on the salty side, it is cured fish after all. You thus have to serve it with a very plain unsalted staple, like rice.
• Miso-cured Black Cod is also great for BBQs. Just wrap individual pieces in foil and broil them over the barbie. 

 

Beef Curry Sweet Potato Korokke

(makes 12)
Korokke, the Japanese version of the croquette, are big in Japan. Unlike the original French version they contain meat and vegetables and come in all kinds of flavours. The other special thing about Japanese Korokke is they are rarely used as side dishes and are typically eaten as a street food type snack,  or even as a meal.  Beef curry is probably one of the more unique flavours and well worth trying.

Ingredients

1. Minced Beef (200g)
2. Sweet Potatoes (500g)
3. Onion (1)
4. Cream Cheese (125g)
5. Eggs (3)
6. Bread (3 slices)
7. Curry Powder
8. Corn Starch
9. Worcestershire Sauce
10. Mirin
11. Nutmeg
12. Paprika

Preparation

1. Leave three slices of bread without any wrapping in the fridge overnight.
2. Boil 500g of sweet potatoes for 25 minutes.  Use just enough water to cover the sweet potatoes and reserve the flavoured water after boiling.
3. Drain away the water into a container for later use and allow the sweet potatoes to cool in the pot. Then peel, dice and finally mash the sweet potatoes with a fork. There is no need to completely pulverize the sweet potato, you want a bit of texture.
4. Pour 1/4 cup of the reserved water into a bowl. Stir in 2T curry powder, 1T mirin, 1t worcestershire sauce, 1t nutmeg, 1t salt. Marinate 200g of minced beef in the mixture for 15 minutes.
5. Peel and dice one onion into 1cm sized pieces. In a few T of oil, pan fry the onion bits until they are limp, but before they brown too much. Add the beef and stir fry until the beef is cooked.
6. With the fire still going, make a hole in the middle of the pan and add 125g (about 4T) of cream cheese. Spoon in a few T of the reserved water and move a spatula over the cream cheese in a circular motion until it has liquified (see picture).
7. Add the mashed sweet potato and mix everything together well. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Keep the ‘filling’ in the fridge for a minimum of several hours.
8. Cut the dried bread into croutons and desiccate further in a toaster oven at 120^oC for 15 minutes. If you don’t have a toaster oven, toast before dicing the bread.
9. Place the croutons on a piece of foil and methodically crush with the jagged face of a meat mallet. There is no need to hammer; simply press down firmly on the smooth face of the mallet head (see picture). Again, there is no need to completely pulverize the bread, you want some variety in crumb size.
10. Prepare three shallow dishes, one with the bread crumbs, one with 1/4 cup of corn starch and in the third one beat 3 eggs with 1/2t of salt.
11. Warm up oil in a pot for deep frying. The temperature is right when a bread crumb thrown in creates bubbles.
12. Spoon an amount of filling equal in size to an XL egg into your hand. Shape this into a log. Roll the log first in the cornstarch to get a thick coating of starch, then quickly in the egg. Finally roll the log in the bread crumbs. Immediately deep fry. Repeat until all the mashed sweet potato is used up. As the insides are already cooked, you can adjust the heat as you like to produce a nice deep orange finish for your Korokke.
13. Roll the croquettes while cooking occasionally to ensure even cooking. When a croquette is done, place it on a bed of paper towels to absorb excess oil.
14. Serve your croquettes with a mayonnaise flavoured with paprika.

Notes

• If you leave your bread to dry in the fridge for several days, you can skip the toasting part and crush right after cutting into croutons.
• Cumin is not curry powder, it is not even the biggest component of curry powder. If you wish to mix your own, you can use the labelling on this package curry powder as a guide to the proportions of each ingredient.
• When coating the croquettes you can cover the ends by pushing the material up against the top and bottom of the log. This will reduce the handling of the croquettes and help them keep their shape.
• Yes I used sweet potato instead of potato. It is not uncommon to use something other than potato for Korokke in Japan, for instance yam, pumpkin or taro.
• If you want your Korokke to look exactly like the real McCoy you have to buy something called Panko Crumbs instead of crushing your own breadcrumbs. They are leafy crumbs which allows them to be bigger than regular crumbs.
• Steps 12-13 are best done by a two person team.
• The croquettes will continue to brown a bit after you remove them from the oil, so don’t over brown them.
• If want to make the shape perfect, you can roll your filling in cling film into (4?) long sausages. Place the sausages in the freezer for 15 minutes to harden them further before frying, but don’t completely freeze them solid. If you want it fast and easy, you can also make your croquettes in the shape of mini hamburgers.

 

What is Kaiseki Ryori?

Kaiseki Ryori is the Japanese version of Haute Cuisine, the ultimate in Japanese fine dining. If I were to summarize this type of cuisine in a few words, it would be: many courses, seasonal ingredients, no replication. Everyone who tries a Kaiseki Dinner for the first time will invariably find it to be an exquisite dining experience.

Where is it served?
You can order a Kaiseki set-meal in many up-market Japanese restaurants but these generally pale in comparison to those served in restaurants that specialize in Kaiseki Ryori specifically. It’s easy to tell if a restaurant is serving true Kaiseki Ryori, they won’t be open for business during lunch as they’ll be preparing dinner the whole day long. Kaiseki Ryori is also served in Ryokan, old-style inns dotted around hot spring areas in Japan. This rural variety of Kaiseki will typically use only traditional cooking techniques and focus on produce from nearby farm areas. For the purposes of this post, I will be referring more to the urban variety of Kaiseki Ryori, the type which can be found in major cities outside of Japan.

Meaning of Kaiseki Ryori
The meaning of Ryori is ‘cuisine, so its quite a straightforward translation, but Kaiseki is a term bit harder to explain. Loosely translated it means ‘stone in bosom’, a figurative reference to monks putting warm stones in the portion of their robes next to the stomach to ward off hunger. Why anyone would want to associate a sumptuous meal with starvation is rather perplexing, but then again many Japanese concepts are like that.

Dining Atmosphere
A quiet tranquil environment is a tradition for Kaiseki dining and in fact I have been to many restaurants where each table has its own room. Furniture and decorations are typically solemn and spares, but tasteful. I think its to do with the fact that Kaiseki Ryori at one time was associated with the formal tea ceremony. Probably for the same reason, patrons are normally served an expresso-like cup of thick green tea at the end of the meal. The restaurant may sometimes have its own Japanese garden which guests are welcome to explore.

Set Menu
A top-notch Kaiseki meal comes in many courses, usually about 8-10. You do not get to choose anything although if you tell the waiter what foods you are allergic to, some emergency alternative ingredients will be rustled up for you. Seafood is favoured and sometimes the whole meal will not contain any chicken or pork at all, as they are ‘lesser’ meats. Each of the courses is small, so it is quite like the tasting menu in fine French restaurants, except you won’t be able to order the ‘full’ portion of anything. This is a good idea. The cooks won’t be distracted by haphazard a la carte orders. Having the entire kitchen staff focused exclusively on the same few dishes for the night goes a long way to ensuring a quality meal for eveyone.

Culinary Art
Each course will typically comprise a few distinct components. For example if one of the courses is charcoal grilled beef, the meat will only be like a third of the dish. You won’t get a slab of steak with some sauce. Visual appearance is important and in each course the multiple components will be of contrasting shapes and colours. Unlike at high end Western restaurants which use a fixed set of signature tableware, for Kaiseki Ryori the plates, cups and bowls for each course will be in different colours and designs, to better match the food. Be aware, sometimes courses will be served with items which ‘complete the ‘picture’ but are actually inedible, like stones, flowers and leaves; although I particularly remember this one time in Nagasaki we were served stones which turned out to be edible giant beans glazed to look exactly like black river stones.

Pick of the Season
Only the freshest and choicest produce of the season will be used. For example, Sansai(mountain vegetables) are in season in the spring while Nasu(egg plant) is in season in autumn. In the summer Unagi(eel) is preferred, but in winter Fugu(puffer fish) is popular. Sometimes a dish item belongs to a particular season only because of the prevailing outdoor temperature, for example Oden (fish cake and tofu simmered in soy flavoured dashi) is ‘in season’ in winter because it warms you up. This focus on seasons is a nice touch but it also means the menu is not adjusted frequently, and if you revisit a restaurant too soon, chances are you will be served almost exactly the same meal.

No Duplication of Ingredients
One other feature of Kaiseki Ryori: there is no duplication in ingredients across all the courses. If even a bit of beef appears in one course, it won’t appear again in another. Fish is an exception. Different species of fish are not considered duplication, so different types of fish may be served during the dinner. High end Western elements such as caviar and truffles are slowly finding their way into the kaiseki kitchen, especially in the more urban areas, so don’t be surprised if you find some western produce being mentioned in your Kaiseki menu.

No Replication of Cooking Styles
There is also no duplication in cooking methods across all the courses. This ensures that the diner will continue to experience ‘new’ tastes and textures throughout the meal. How can this be possible for up to 10 courses you may ask? The answer is: Japanese cuisine has more cooking styles than any other. Besides being served a salad and soup there would also typically be a savoury custard. For the remaining courses there are literally dozens of Japanese cuisines to choose from, like: Sushi, Sashimi, Siero(box-steamed), Sukiyaki(soya-parboiled), Shabushabu(dashi-parboiled) and Sunomono(vinegar-simmered). Actually I’ve only named some cooking styles starting with S here. If we were to look at those starting with T, you’d have Tempura(batter deep fried), Tonkatsu(breaded deep fried), Teppanyaki(griddle fried), Teriyaki(sauce-grilled). You get the idea.

Example of Kaiseki Ryori
For reference, Here I’ll post the courses I had at a recent Kaiseki Dinner. It was quite a modern version of Kaiseki Ryori, from an esteemed restaurant called Ryu Gin:

• 1. Salad of seven seasonal vegetables in a
  special pine nut dressing
  

• 2. Hot egg custard topped with bean curd skin
  and sea urchin
  

• 3. Simmered abalone, seaweed-crusted scallop
  and slow-cooked blue lobster
  

• 4. Grade A dashi soup with charcoal grilled
  alfonsino fish and matsutake mushrooms
  

• 5. Assortment of mackerel-themed sashimi
  

• 6. Charcoal grilled tile fish served with its crispy scales
  

• 7. A3 Saga beef served sukiyaki style, with black truffle
  

• 8. Matsuba crab served with Shiitake mushroom
  rice, topped with crab miso
  

• 9. -196℃ candy pear served with +99℃ pear jam
  

• 10. Green tea fondant with pumpkin seed ice cream
  

 

Types of Ramen, Styles of Ramen

Types of Ramen: Ramen is a noodle in soup dish which originally made its way from China into Japan when the country reopened its borders during the Meiji Restoration. The dish was refined and improved to such an extent over the past century that it has all but overshadowed its original Chinese cousins on the world stage. The world of Ramen is pretty complicated and this post will systematically categorize the different styles of Ramen that are common in Japan along with their various soup flavours, broth types, accompanying meats and toppings. It doesn’t teach you how to cook Ramen, but you’ll know how to order different types of Ramen at a restaurant or recognize the various types at the supermarket.

The word ‘Ra’ means pulled (into) while ‘Men’ means noodles. That’s how the noodles were made in the old days, a single lump of dough was manually stretched and folded in half dozens of times til it formed a bunch of thin noodles. The noodles are machine made today but the dough is still made from the same basic ingredients: flour, salt, normal water and an alkaline mineral water called kansui. It is the kansui which give Ramen noodles their unique bounce and taste and it also makes them yellow even though they contain no egg. As raw ramen noodles are alkaline and have some flour dusted on them, they have to be boiled separately from the soup. If you would like to try making your own ramen noodles from spaghetti I have a recipe here.

Ramen noodles come in many different varieties but they essentially belong to one of two types, low or high alkaline. The low alkaline noodles are thin and straight. They have a stronger taste of wheat, and have a heavier texture. They also tend to get soggy faster. The high alkaline variety are a brighter yellow colour, have a lighter feel and are more springy. They also add a layer of flavour as they have a taste of their own. Wavy ramen and thick ramen noodles belong to this second category. 

There is lots of debate over which type of noodles go best with which kind of soup and many say thin soups should go with the thin noodles cause they have higher surface area etc. , but you needn’t worry too much about this, the Ramen shop will typically pair the noodles with the soup for you and you rarely get to choose. There is a tradition in some shops to allow you to add extra noodles halfway while eating (called kaedama) but I recommend against this as the soup is not really hot enough by this time. Some others allow you to add rice to the left over soup, this I think is the better idea. 

Broths
Basic ramen broth does not have too many ingredients. It is usually made from pork bones, chicken bones or a combination of the two. In certain recipes dashi, which is a consommé made from Bonito(dried salted tuna) flakes or Niboshi(dried salted anchovy) is simmered with Konbu(a kind of kelp) and blended into the meat broth to create a purer clear broth. Fresh seafood may be used occasionally in certain regional varieties, but usually not beef and probably never mutton.

Flavour Types
For Ramen, broth and flavour are distinct and separate. This is one of the unique things about Ramen. Think of it as: broth + flavouring = soup.  A Ramen is usually defined by its flavour which affects its final taste. There are 4 primary types of Ramen soup flavours: Shio, Shoyu, Miso and Tonkotsu.

• Shio (She-Oh)
  means salt and this is traditionally the way Ramen soup is flavoured. All Western broths would be considered of the Shio type. The salt doesn’t affect the appearance of the broth and therefore Shio soup tends to light coloured and clear. Shio flavoured soup will tend to be a tad saltier than the other types.
• Shoyu (Show-You)
  means soy sauce and this is next oldest flavour type. Instead of salt, a sauce made by fermenting soya beans is used to make the broth salty. This sauce is not your regular table soya sauce, but typically a special sauce with additional ingredients made according to a secret recipe. The broth for Shoyu is the only type that tends not to contain pork. Shoyu soup is also usually clear, but is dark coloured and sweeter than Shio soup.
• Miso (Me-So)
  In more recent times, Miso paste has also been used to give Ramen broth its savoury taste. If Miso is used, it is immediately obvious as the soup will be opaque. Shio or Shoyu  flavoured soups merely accent the flavour of underlying broth, while miso leaves a fuller complex taste in the mouth since it also has a strong taste of its own.
• Tonkotsu (Tong-Coats-Zoo)
  is technically not a true flavour since it is contains either salt or soy sauce. It is made from boiling ground up pork bones (ton=pig, kotsu = bones) for 12-15 hours till all the collagen has dissolved into the stock as gelatine (details here). The result is a rich whitish soup that is distinct enough to consider Tonkotsu as a separate fourth flavour of Ramen. To be clear, the use of pork bones does not automatically mean the soup is of the Tonkotsu type. If the pork bones are boiled whole for a relatively shorter period, the result is just regular pork broth.

Meat Ingredients
The most common type of meat served in Ramen is Chashu which is another type of food borrowed from China and subsequently modified over decades. It is basically a pork belly tied into a cylinder, braised and then served in slices. What the pork is braised in differs from recipe to recipe but general ingredients include soya sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. In my humble opinion, the Chashu is the hardest part to get right in a Ramen. Chashu often goes hand in hand with Shoyu Ramen since the braising liquid can form part of the ‘shoyu’. Sometimes the pork belly is braised in its original shape but also sliced. You can refer to my own oven braised Chashu recipe here.

Another item that one finds in their Ramen more often than not is Ajitama, a soya sauce seasoned boiled egg with its yolk still runny. The Chashu braising liquid also comes in handy when seasoning these eggs. Ramen can also be served with fresh seafood, Kamaboko(a bouncy fish cake with a characteristic pink swirl) or with no meat at all. Unlike for soba or udon soup noodles, slices of beef are rarely served with Ramen, although new age Wagyu Ramen has been making an appearance lately.

Toppings and Condiments
Whilst the number of possible ingredients used for Ramen broth is quite limited, a large variety of ingredients are used as toppings to differentiate one Ramen from another. The more common toppings include Nori (a type of seaweed paper), Wakame (a type of rehydrated seaweed), Menma (preserved bamboo shoots), Negi (scallion), Kikurage (black fungus), juliened leek, sesame seeds, fried garlic and pickled plum/ginger.  A lot of Ramen shops will also top off with a proprietary spicy sauce or a ball of spicy miso to give a kick to the soup. This way customers can chose how spicy they have their Ramen is.

Regional Styles
The way Ramen is cooked has more or less evolved over the past century along geographical lines. Tonkotsu is the primary flavour of Kyushu Island in the South while Miso is generally associated with Hokkaido Island in the North. The central island of Honshu is home to the Shoyu flavour. Even within these demarcations, local variations have sprung up and are known by their city or prefecture of origin. Many of these variations feature local produce that is famous nationally. The following is a list of the main varieties (that I have come across anyway) of Ramen.

Tokyo style Shoyu Ramen

• Tokyo style Ramen
  Tokyo style Ramen is the archetypical Shoyu flavoured Ramen. Many Ramen stalls originally served soba in a dashi soup and when the use of Shoyu was introduced, the practice of using dashi was retained. Today chicken stock and shoyu is mixed with dashi to produce the unique Tokyo style Ramen. Tokyo Ramen is usually served with Chashu, Kamaboko, half an Egg, and is topped with chopped leek and preserved bamboo shoots. In Yokohama, the port of Tokyo, pork is used instead of chicken for the broth resulting in the iekei sub-variation.
• Asahikawa style Ramen
  This is a less well know shoyu type Ramen that is distinguished by its use of a combination of dried fish and pork to boil the stock, to moderate the porky-ness of the stock. Like all Ramen from Hokkaido it is designed with cold weather in mind, and in this case it means the use of rendered pork lard to create an oily stock.  The choice of soy sauce as the flavour stems from the fact that in WW2 alcohol was discouraged and the local brewery had to switch to producing soy sauce. Asahikawa Ramen uses roughly the same toppings as shoyu ramen from Tokyo (see above).
• Champon from Nagasaki
  Champon is a specialty of Nagasaki which was invented by a Chinese cook as a Meiji era equivalent of affordable fast food, for the Chinese students who were studying there. It is the most Chinois of all Ramen and today Champon is served at every restaurant in Nagasaki’s Chinatown  The home of Champon is said to be the famous Shikairo in Nagasaki. Champon is practically the only ramen from Kyushu which does not use a Tonkotsu soup. Unlike all other ramen, Champon uses special noodles that are cooked in the soup itself. This ramen is served with a stir fried mix of pork, seafood and cabbage.
• Hakodate style Ramen
  As all ramen was originally Shio flavoured, Shio ramen wasn’t invented in any particular place. However, when one mentions Shio ramen, a bowl of Hakodate style Ramen comes to mind immediately. Hakodate is where the tradition of making ramen soup flavoured with salt has remained unchanged even as new flavours and styles were introduced all over Japan. Hakodate style ramen is usually made with a chicken broth that is skimmed frequently, resulting in a light golden coloured soup. Very often Hakodate Ramen comes with chicken meatballs.
• Hakata style Ramen
  Tonkotsu type ramen originated on the warmer Southern island of Kyushu where most of Japan’s pig farming is done. Hakata is a district in Fukuoka City, the biggest city on Kyushu and the style of ramen from there is universally recognized as the standard version of tonkotsu. Hakata Ramen is usually topped with Chashu, egg, scallion, sesame seeds and pickled ginger.
• Kurume style Ramen
  A close cousin of Hakata Ramen is Kurume(Koo-Roo-Mare) Ramen. This is thought of as the original way Tonkotsu was made before it was modernized into the Hakata style. Its soup is similar but even richer in pork taste (from adding pig’s head, trotters etc. to the broth). The noodles of this variety come topped with fried pig lard bits and dried seaweed.
• Kumamoto style Ramen
  Kumamoto prefecture is in the middle of Kyushu and its style of ramen is yet another variation of the Tonkotsu type. It is served with stewed pork belly, and a generous amount of fried garlic together with the oil the garlic was fried in. Toppings include pickled ginger and julienned leek.
• Kagoshima style Ramen
  Kagoshima is a port at the Southern tip of Kyush. Here the soup is lighter as it is made from a mixture of pork tonkotsu and clear chicken broth. Kagoshima is home to Kurobuta pork, which makes their chashu all the more delicious. Other types of noodles, similar to those from ‘nearby’ Okinawa or Taiwan are sometimes served in place of regular ramen noodles.
• Kitakata style Ramen
  This style of Ramen has a unique shoyu flavoured soup made from pork broth mixed with dashi made from dried anchovies. It hails from the city of Kitakata in Northern Honshu which purportedly has the highest concentration of Ramen shops in the world. Kitakata style Ramen features flat noodles and is typically served with sliced pork belly, leek and fish cake.
• Sapporo style Ramen 
  

  The Sapporo Ramen Story

  The city of Sapporo is in the Northern Island of Hokkaido and it is the bastion of Miso flavoured Ramen. The first use of miso in Ramen soup was by chef Omiya of Aji no Sanpei (the shop is still operating today) in Sapporo in 1954. Chicken or pork bones are used for the broth and when combined with red Miso paste makes for a rich soup, perfect for the cold weather up North. Traditionally, vegetables and minced pork are stir fried in a wok with miso, and the broth is added as a final step. Hokkaido is home to the big vegetable and dairy farms of Japan as well as several fishing ports. Today the inclusion of the top natural produce of Hokkaido in the toppings (butter, corn, leek, roasted scallops) and soup (seafood) in Sapporo style Ramen has become common practice.

  

  Wakayama Ramen with Pork Ribs

• Tokushima / Wakayama style Ramen
  Tokushima style Ramen is the most popular style of Ramen on Shikoku Island, the smallest of the 4 main islands. It uses a combination tonkutsu-shoyu soup which is deep brown in colour. This ramen is served with a raw egg instead of an almost-cooked one. The other special thing is it is served with baraniku, a kind of stewed pork rib. A sub-variation of the Tokushima style is Wakayama style Ramen. Wakayama is on the main island of Honshu, just across the inland sea from Tokushima which is probably why Wakayama Ramen can be described as a Tokyo style Ramen served in Tokushima soup. For instance it will be served with a boiled runny-yolk egg instead of a raw one.

Prawn Ramen

Special Ramen Soups
This next category covers some of those Ramen that are served in non-traditional soups and thus don’t fall under any of the regional styles above. One popular variety is the Ebi Ramen, where a meat stock is fortified with prawn heads, giving it it’s characteristic reddish hue. This prawn soup is unlike any other kind of ramen soup you have ever tasted. Besides the standard condiments Ebi Ramen is also topped off with some unusual ones like deep-fried shallots and sakura shrimp. One famous shop known for this type of Ramen is EbiKin; it is located just outside the (old, not sure if the market has moved yet) Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. If you would like to try making this style of ramen, I have a recipe here.

Torikotsu Ramen

The other type of nouveau ramen I really like is Torikotsu Ramen. The stock of this type of ramen is made in a way similar to Tonkotsu but using chicken instead. After a long boiling time the resulting soup is similarly milky, heavy with gelatine and strong in meat flavour. This distinguishes it from the Hakodate style soup which is also made from chicken, but is clear. Torikotsu is typically topped with things like fried shallots, cabbage, scallion and perhaps a wedge of lemon. In some cases even the accompanying Chashu can be made from chicken as well. To try this type of less-common ramen, may I suggest a small Ramen chain in the Yokohama area called Matsuichiya. If you would like to try making this style of ramen, I have a recipe here.

Dry Ramen Styles

• Tsukemen (Dipping Ramen)
  This is a form of ramen where the noodles comes dry in a plate. The stock is concentrated into a thick soup and is served separately. The idea is to bathe each mouthful of noodles in the sauce before immediately eating them, which is why Tsukemen is usually translated as Dipping Ramen. There is no traditional flavour to the soup, and this just depends on what soup the ramen shop specializes in. The are two reason certain people prefer tsukemen; firstly the flavour is quite intense (but not more salty) compared to normal ramen and secondly the noodles are sort of lukewarm instead of piping hot when you eat them, so you can eat this really fast.
• Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Ramen)
  Hiyashi Chuka translates as ‘Cold Chinese’ noodles. They are not from China per se, but were first invented by a Chinese restaurant in Japan, some say from the city of Sendai. This type of Ramen is served chilled in a sweet sauce and was traditionally served in summer as a refreshing chilled alternative to hot Ramen in the days before air-conditioning became commonplace. It fact some restaurants still only serve it only in Summer. Thus all the typical ingredients of Hiyashi Chuka, cucumber, ham, omelette and imitation crab sticks are things which taste good chilled. Hiyashi Chuka comes in two main varieties, there is the standard variety that uses a sauce based on vinegar, sugar and soy sauce. The more modern Goma variety uses a creamy sesame sauce. I have a recipe for making the Goma style Cold Ramen here.
• Abura Ramen (Oil Ramen)
  This third type of dry Ramen is not as common as the above two, but is perhaps the best style of ‘dry’ Ramen. The Abura Ramen (also called Mazesoba when it is made with soba noodles instead) is best described as a fusion of Tsukemen and Hiyashi Chuka into a style of noodles that resembles Italian Pasta. Essentially the noodles are tossed in a meaty tsukemen like sauce that is fortified with oil and vinegar. Sometimes a raw egg is added as a sauce thickener, just like you’d see in a Fettuccine Carbonara. The toppings vary, but usually include diced charshu, chopped scallion. The result is a ramen with the taste of soup, but no actual soup. Abura Ramen is served at goldilocks temperature, not chilled like Hiyashi Chuka, nor piping hot like Tsukemen.

Quality Ramen Pack

Supermarket bought Ramen
In this final section I am going to discuss home-cooked Ramen. Quality ramen from the supermarket normally comes in rectangular 2 serving packs. If they are available, they will be found in the refrigerated (not frozen) section. The packing will generally indicate the style (e.g. tonkotsu on the yellow pack) of the ramen. If its a really good product, there will be a picture of a famous Ramen chef whose recipe the product is based on. The noodles are soft, sealed seperately within and the instructions will tell you to cook them separately from the soup. The soup will come in the form of a large pouch containing a condensed soup paste. You’ll need to procure all the meat ingredients and condiments yourself separately, resulting in an authentic ramen. If you don’t have any chashu lying around the house, try pan-fried luncheon meat (please do not quote me on this) and perhaps some seasoned runny yolk boiled eggs made according to my recipe. The easiest condiments to use are perhaps Japanese dehydrated kelp, dried seaweed sheets and sesame seeds. You can pre-combine some as described here.

Soba stick ‘Ramen’

A second type of noodles is the off-the-shelf ramen-style soba stick noodles. Technically buckwheat soba noodles means this is not a true ramen but the soup pack that comes with with them is a concentrated form of a recognized ramen soup. These stick noodles also come in dual servings. The packaging will be flat and long, and typically indicate the regional style (Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Nagasaki from left to right in photo) of the soup, often with a map even. It’s not as good as the quality ramen above but on the plus side, they keep for a long time and don’t need to be refrigerated.

If your pack of noodles is the type where you just boil a hard cake of noodles in water or fill a paper cup with boiling water and add some soup powder after the fact, this isn’t ramen at all; its only regular instant noodles. If the noodles are cooked in the soup and not separately, this is a dead giveaway that you’re not making ramen. Besides being hard to the touch, the other tell-tale difference is these inferior noodles are always made with 1 serving. These instant noodles are dried by deep frying them in oil and the soup powder contains a heavy dose of MSG so this type of noodles is not too healthy. The packaging will neither give a ramen flavour nor style, but will be described by the meat (e.g. chicken, seafood) used to manufacture the soup powder.