Ramen Culture

The history of “Kyoto Ramen”

            What comes to your mind when you hear “Kyoto Ramen”? You may think of “Kyoto Cuisine”, you may image a light taste Ramen. But it is a minority. Actually, “Kyoto Ramen” is rich and thick soup. I introduce about Kyoto Ramen’ history. According to Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, it is said that Jo Eitei from China started Ramen stall in the area around Kyoto Station in 1938,which is the beginning of Kyoto Ramen.Jo Eitai opened up “Shin-puku-sai-kan” to the east of Kyoto Station. It continues up to today.

           Shinpukusaikan’s ramen is based pork-bone and chicken carcass. It tastes thick soy sauce. It looks dark black, but it have a pleasant aftertaste, so you will become addicted. After that, soy sauce with backfat type ramen goes around. This is the other style of Kyoto Ramen. Its ramen is called ‘Backfat ramen’. Its origin is “Masutani” established in 1945.

          ‘Tenka Ippin’ established in 1971 is hard to say soy sauce ramen. Its feature is chicken carcass soup. It represents Kyoto ramen chain store and successes to expand nationwide. 

           With regards to Kyoto ramen’s noodle, straight noodles are often seen. It is said that the presence of noodles is weak and it is too soft. It considered to go well with rice. Ichijoji (in Sakyo-ku Ward Kyoto City) is one of the hot spot for ramen in Kyoto. I introduce my favorite ramen restaurant in Ichijoji. That name is “Gokkei”.It is one of the most famous ramen restaurant. Its features are the thickest soup of Kyoto ramen. Never have I eaten such a thick and delicious ramen. However, it is not too much heavy, so you will eat up everything in a minute. That will sell out right away, and therefore I recommend you go a little early. 

           If you ever come to Japan, I recommend you eat Kyoto Ramen with sightseeing! 

Noodle harassment

            Have you ever heard the word “noodle harassment”? This has been becoming a big problem recently. When Japanese people eat noodle such as ramen and cold soba, we make slurping sounds. Why is one of Japanese culture criticized by especially foreign people?

            To cite some examples, some people think the noodle slurping sounds like a pig, the sound makes people feel like not sitting in the seat next to a person with noise, noodle slurping sounds like a toilet flushing and so on. Most Japanese noodle eaters, however, do slurp while eating noodles. Why? There are several reasons. One is that noodles are hot, so slurping noodles helps cool them. Another reason is that if we eat noodles with sounds, we can eat up faster. But the best reason I imagine is that the noodles and their soup taste better by slurping. This is because we are opening up our nasal passages and inhaling all the soup’s delicious aroma. This is the same reason why sommelier make slurp sound while tasting wine. If we ate just noodle without making sound, we would miss all those aromas and flavors. 

            As mentioned above, making slurping sounds has valid reasons. The word “noodles” is used so often in this article. You may understand Japanese people eat pasta or other noodles with sounds. I do not mean so and I have to say that noodles from other countries are not slurped usually. We Japanese adopted the way eating foreign cuisines. 

(Pedro・)