Monday, August 25, 2008

Jyunren and Ichiya Ramen in Tachikawa

Here they are, the last 2 shops from Tachikawa's NY Ramen Square. I've spent the last couple months going there for lunch on the weekend. From Hokkaido to Kyushu, a lot of ramen styles are represented here.


純連 from Sapporo




純連 translates to "pure tribe". Sounds like some sort of Aryan Brotherhood type stuff. Good thing this is Japan, where no form of xenophobia has ever been known to exist.

Anyways, standard miso ramen. I've grown to dislike miso ramen a little but lately. It's got that salty miso flavor that is like gold when you first start eating, but by the time you slurp your last noodle, you realize it was just rolled up tinfoil spray painted with gold model paint. If you are a fan of the miso, this was the only one at NY Ramen Square, so enjoy. The soup is made with seafood and mountain vegetables, giving it a slightly more unique flavor.

いちや



This one is your standard Tokyo style ramen. The soup is a shoyu - soy sauce - base made with chicken and fish. A normal amount of abura, those floating particles af fat that help people live to be over 100. I'm convinced thats the secret. Recently I read some parts of a book where the author says to never drink water, because it dries you out. I'm getting off track, but yeah, normal shoyu stuff here.

The problem with shoyu ramen is that the really really good ones are only slightly better than the really really cheap ones. A massive bowl of shoyu ramen can be had for as little as 190 yen, that's less than 2 bucks, in some places.

There it is, all the shops at Tachikawa's NY Ramen Square. I'll go ahead and say that the 2 Kyushu shops, Nagi and Samurai, are the best. With Nagi taking a slight lead because they had some unique toppings to add to the ramen.

If you're ever in Tahcikawa on the weekend, hit me up, I'll be eating some noodles at lunch time.

No comments: