井の庄 (Inosho in Shakujikoen, #16 in Japan)

井の庄



Back to my Top 30 list, and it's a special one. This place is seriously only about 20 minutes by bicycle from me, but I'd been avoiding it. Why? Have a look.



Good lord, it looks like tomato sauce or something. Is this spaghetti ramen?



Nope, it's 辛辛魚らーめん, double spicy fish ramen. The red? That's concentrated fire. In powder form.

But spicy ramen isn't anything new, and certainly just making a comically spicy bowl wouldn't warrant a spot halfway up a Top 30 list, would it? Let's go under the spice and see what we have.

Hella fish, that's what. The soup is made from fish and spice, and the powder on top is ground up fish powder and more spice. It's good, real good... but...

It's thick as all hell. As soon as you mix in the powder, that oily fish kicks up the viscosity to used motor oil status. A few reluctant sips of the left over soup was all that could be done. As I said to Nate, I wanted to take home the extra soup and use it as a base for a curry. It totally would have worked. What's the deal, can I start pouring left over soup into tupperware containers?

Check out a TV spot featuring some spicy ramen in Tokyo. Inosho is the first one.



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