Another Ramen mall has opened.

I heard that ramen is befoming popular in NY and they have some new shos opening up. I found his funny article in The New York Times. It seems London  has been seeing a lot of ramne shops open too. Ramen is getting popular in other countries?  I think Ramen is one of most popular foods in Japan, when weekly magazines feature special articles on ramen special, they usually sell quite well and Ramen TV show special alwayds seems to get good viewer ratings.

Shin Yokohama ramen museum is the first place where some ramen shops have gathered togethere; recently a small ramen mall was opened in Tachikawa. One advantaege to dining in these kinds of places is that you have the opprtunity to sample many varieties of ramen ( if you can eat that much), and usually a good or popular shop will join the group (one shop's reputation could affect the entire maill's popularity).  From what I could tell by looking at this site, this shoyu base soup looks nice; maybe this black one is black vinegar?   It made me laugh because he is an actor, maybe he loves ramen so much that he opened a shop (like Takeshi Kitano opened curry shop? ). Before in Tachikawa, Kyoka was the most famous ramen shop before. So now we will see which place will become the most popular.

Personally I like this Chinese type noodle shop Yoshu shonin (they are different from typical Japanese ramen) , their 酸辣湯麺 sour noodle,  is very nice really. Anyway because of blogging's popularity, many ramen manias post ramen blogs and update with daily report on today's ramen. (here is another blog). They are a good source of information should one very decide to visit. but I suppose many people just enjoy "looking at pictures of ramen". Really, Japanese love ramen that much.

Comments

Hi robert
In Seatlle there are many good Japanese food shop?

Hi AB
In Japan, Miso is basically special ramen of Hokkaido, Tokyo's ramen is Soya sauce base soup.

Hi Gwen
Hmm Sooner or later ramen would be popular? I never heard someone who say I don't like ramen.

Hi huang
I like soya sauce base. Miso is heavy to me.

Hi abraxis
Yes, I hope you can enjoy Ramen in Japan soon!!

[robert]

hey abraxis, if you drive down to Sunnyvale/Mt View Area there is a pretty decent ramen house. I dont recall the name of it at present, but I bet I could find out the name if you are interested. on the miso/shoyu debate I have to say I am split. I think it depends on what kind of appetizer/beer I have. I like to have some kimchee handy too. I dont know why, but it seems to bring out the flavors of the ramen if you have a bite every once in awhile. I am grateful there are only a couple of really good ramen houses here, or I doubt I would ever have the chance to try some of the other good restaurants in this city....I would be slurping noodles all the way into debt. So once or twice a month I'll get out to enjoy it. Not frequent enough, but kind of like a dietary vacation.

[AzianBrewer]

Yes, Miso based is better than Shoyu in my book. I like my ramen simple, several slices of pork, chopped up scallion and some shredded bamboo shoot. Add a plate of gyoza along with a bottle of Kitachino Weizen (beer)and I am in heaven. By the way, is that true that Kyushu is know for a special type of ramen with spicy soup based? Or is it some kind of wicked invention here in the States or other part of Asia?

[Gwen]

Do you know >_< a lot of American people classify ANY type of instant noodle as Ramen? I tried to tell them that not all packet noodle is ramen, but they don't understand. *sigh*

[huang]

I prefer the miso based soup stock to the shoyu ones. If only there were authentic ramen specialty shops in Singapore :(

[abraxis]

MMMMMmmm! Some of my best travel food memories are from little hole in the wall ramen stands in different parts of Japan!

Glad to see NYC is learning about the greatness of ramen. In HKG, Causeway Bay is ramen central with a new Ramen Alley and lots o' ramen shops. LAX has an entire block of ramen shops in Little Tokyo.

In San Francisco, land of "diversity", we have a grand total of 5 (five) ramen shops. For the ENTIRE CITY! And they're mediocre at best! No perfect soft boiled eggs, the cha siu is too tough (cuz they use "lean" cuts for Amerika-jin tastes) and they use too much filler (bean sprouts) in the bowl.

Gosh I miss Tokyo...